118 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



For the followins;, together with some other valuable 

 receipts and a " History of the Potatoe" we are in- 

 debted to " A Subscriber," who will please to ac- 

 cept our thanks for his Tahiable communications. 

 TO PRESERVE FRUIT WITHOUT SUGAR. 

 Reported to the. Society of Arts, {Englaiul) by 

 Thomas Sadtlington. 

 Take gooseberry boltles, or the widest neck- 

 Ril, common porter bottles ; clean them ; have 

 the fruit picked but let it not be too ripe. Fill 

 them as full as they will hold, to admit the cork 

 (o be put in ; frequently shaking the fruit while 

 filling. When done, fit the corks to each bottle, 

 and sticking them in so lightly that they may 

 be easily taken out when the fruit is scalded, 

 which may be done either in a kettle, copper or 

 sauce pan over the lire ; first putting a coarse 

 cloth at the bottom, to prevent the heat of the 

 fire from cracking the bottles. Then fill the 

 copper, or' kettle with cold water sufficiently 

 high for the bottles to be nearly up to the top 

 in it. Put them in sideways to expel the air 

 from the cavity under the bottom of the bottles. 

 Take care that the bottles do not touch the bot- 

 tom, or sides of the vessel which will endanger 

 their bursting. Increase the heat, gradually 

 160° or 170° by a brewing thermometer, which 

 will require about three fourths of an'.jour. If 

 a thermometer cannot be had, the heat may be 

 judged by the finger — the water being very 

 hot, but not so as to scald it. If too hot add a 

 little cold water, or slack the fire. When at 

 this degree of heat, it may be kept so for half 

 an hour longer, which will at all times be 

 quite enough, as a longer time, or a greater 

 heat will crack the fruit. During the time that 

 bottles are increasing in heat, a tea-kettle full 

 of water must be got ready to boil as soon as 

 the fruit is done. If one fire only is used, the 

 kettle containing the bottles must be half re- 

 moved from the fire as soon as it attains the 

 proper heat, so as to make room for boiling the 

 water in the tea-kettle. As soon as the fruit is 

 properly scalded, and the water boiling, take 

 the bottles out of the water, one at a lime and 

 fill them within an inch of the cork, with the 

 boiling water out of the tea-kettle. Cork them 

 down immediately, doing it gently, but very 

 tight, by squeezing the curk in, but you must not 

 shake them by drixing the corl;, as that will en- 

 danger bursting the bottles, with the hot ivatcr. 

 When corked, l.iy them on tlicir sides, as this 

 keeps the cork swelled, and prevents the air 

 from escaping. Let them lie till cold, and then 

 remove them to any convenient place of keep- 

 ing, always laying them on the side till used. 

 For the first month or two turn the bottles a lit- 

 tle round, once or twice a week, to preserve 

 (he fermentation which will raise a scmnonlhe 

 fruit, from forming a crust, by which attention 

 the fruit will be kept moist with the water and 

 no mould will ever take place. It will be pro- 

 per to turn the bottles a little round once or 

 twice a month afterwards. The wide mouthed 

 bottles will be best for convetiience of getting 

 iruit out lor use. When used the first liquor 

 poured olT answers for pies, tarls, puddings, &:c. in 

 place of water as iv is strongly impregnated 

 with the virtues of the fruit. The last poured 

 off, boiled up with sugar, makes a very rich 

 and agieeable syrup. 



Twenty four bottles were sent to the Society 

 containing Apricots, Gooseberries, Currants, 



Raspberries, Cherries, Plums, Orleans Plums, 

 Egg-Plums, Damsons, Siberian Crabbs, and 

 Green Gages. Apples and Pears may be done 

 for shipping, &c. The Society voted a premium 

 of five guineas for the communication. If heat 

 greater — say 190 degrees is used, the fruit is 

 reduced nearly to a pulp. 



Ninety bottles of fruit thus presi-rved, cost 

 the preserver, in London, £\, 9, 5j ; in the 

 summer ; and in the winter, making allowance 

 for breakage and other accidents, would sell at 

 a profit of nearly 200 per cent. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMEll. 



SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 1823. 



Extracts from a work lately published by William 

 CoBBETT, entitled " Cottage Economy,'''^ with occa- 

 sional remarks on some of the statements of the au- 

 thor. 



[Centinued from page 02.] 



The following directions from Mr. Cobbett's work, 

 above mentioned, relative to the choice of Malt and 

 Hops may be of use. 



" Malt varies very much in quality, indeed it must 

 with the quality of the barley. When good, it is full of 

 Hour, and in biting a grain asunder, you find it bite ea- 

 sily, and sec the shell Ihin and filled up well with flour. 

 If it bile liard and steely the malt is b.ad. There is 

 jiale malt and brown malt ; but the ditference in the 

 two arises merely from the different degrees of heat 

 cmjiloyed in their drying. The main thing to attend 

 to is the quantity of flour. If the barley was bad, 

 thill or steely, whether from unripeness or blight, or any 

 other cause, it will not malt so well ; that is to say, it 

 will not send out its roots in due time, and a part of it 

 will still be barley." 



In order to ascertain whether the barley has been 

 well malted, Mr. Cobbett directs to " take a handful of 

 the unground ma.\l, and put it into cold water. Mis it 

 about with the water a little ; that is let every grain 

 be wet all over ; and whatever part of them sink 

 not ^ood. If you have your malt ground there is not 

 that I know of, any means of detection. 



" If the barley be all uell malted there is still a va- 

 riety in the quality of the malt ; that is to saj-, a bush- 

 el of malt from fme, plump, heavy barley, will be bet- 

 ter than the same quantity from thin and light barley 

 In this case, as in the case of wheat, the xeeight is the 

 criterion of the quality. Only bear in mind that as a 

 bushel of wheat, weighing sixty-two pounds, is better 

 worth six shillings than a bushel weighing fifty-two is 

 worth /our shillings, so a bushel of malt weighing/or(^ 

 fire pounds is better worth nine shillings, than a bushel 

 weighing thirty-fire is worth six shillings. In malt 

 therefore a? in every thing else, the word eheap is a de- 

 ception, unless the quality be taken into view. 



"• There are tv/o things to be observed in hops : the 

 pcire'T of prcserring beer, and that of giving it a pleas- 

 antflaror. Hops may be strong, ::nd yet not good. — 

 'J'hcy should be bright, have no leaves orbits of branch- 

 es amongst them. The hop is the husk, or seed pod, of 

 the hop-vine, as the coM is that of the fir-tree ; and 

 the seeds themselves are deposited, like those of the fir, 

 round -a little soft stalk, enveloped by the several folds 

 of this pod, or cone. If, in the gathering, leaves of the 

 vine or hits of the branches, are mixed with the hops, 

 these not only help to make up the iceif/i?, but they 

 give a bad taste to the beer; and, indeed, if they a- 

 bound much, they spoil the beer. Great attention is, 

 therefore, necessary in this respect. '] here are, too, 

 numerous sorts of hops, varying in size, form, and qual- 

 ity, quite as much as a/</j/f-j. However, whenever they 

 are in a state to be used in brewing, the marks of 

 goodness are, an absence of brown eolur, (for that indi- 

 cates perished hops ;) a color between green and. yellow ,- 

 'A great ejuantity of the yellow faririn ; seeds not too 

 luYge or hard ; a clammy feel when rubbed between the 

 finyvrs ; and a /a-f/;iy pleasant smell. As to the off of 

 hops, they retain for twenty years, probably, theirpc?''- 

 er of pre^-trx'ingbeer ; but not of giving it a pleasant 

 flavor. I havTe^ised tbeni at ten years old, and should 

 have no fear of using them at tweaty. 1 bey lose none 



of their bitterness ; none of their power of preser' 

 beer ; but, they lose the other quality ; and, there, 

 in the making of fme ale or beer, new hops are ti 

 preferred. As to the quantity of hops, it is clear, i 

 what has been said, that that must, in some deg 

 depend upon their ^ua/i/j/; but, supposing them t 

 good in quality, a pound of hops to a bushel of ma 

 about the quantity. A good deal, however, dcpi 

 upon the length of time the beer is intended to be k 

 and upon the season of the year in which it is brei 

 Beer intended to be kept a long while should have 

 full pound, also beer brewed in warmer weather, the 

 for present use. Half the quantity may do undei 

 opposite state of circumstances. 



" The Water should be soft by all means. Tha 

 brooks, or rivers, is best. That of a pond, fed I 

 rivulet, or spring, will do very well. Rain-Watf 

 just fallen, may do; but stale rain-water, or stagi 

 pond-water, makes the beer flat and difficult to ke 

 and hard water, from wells, is very bad : it does 

 get the sweetness out of the malt nor the bitternesa 

 of the hops, like soft water ; and the wort of it 

 not ferment well, which is a certain proof of its u 

 ness for the purpose." 



i4 Superlative Turnip. — Ebenezer Hobbs, Esq 

 Weston, Mass. has raised this year, a turnip wl 

 weiglis eleven pounds and a half Vi-ithout the top. 

 is somewhat superior to the Worcester and Leict 

 turnips, and deserves of course a higher stani 

 among the vegetable prodigies of this prolific seaso 



FOREIGN. 



By late arrivals, Liverpool papers hare been red 

 ed to the 27th September. 



The Citadel and town of Pampeluna have sifr 

 dered to the French, and the garrison sent into I vi 

 A disease had broken out among the Kii-nch trooji 

 St. Sebastian. — Marshall Lanriston had nia;ched ■ 

 12,000 men to reinforce Monccy's corps in Lower i 

 alonia. — The prisoners taken at the Trocaderos ami 

 to 1100 men, who have been sent to Xercs. — A pri 

 letter from Madrid of Sept. 17th, says in a poEt!( 

 the corps of Riego had been completely ro-jted by 



French Preparations continued to be made for 



siege of Cadiz. — A letter from Valencia dated the 

 September, states that a victory had tien obia 

 .Milans over the French army, consisting of 10 

 men, commanded by Moncey in person. 'J he cng; 

 ment took place on the 28th of August, at Antafi 

 some leagues N. E. of Tarragona. It was maints 

 with extraordinary ohstiuac)' on both sides, and 

 determined by a decisive attack with the bayonei 

 long the whole line on the part of the Spanish infai 

 who broke the enemy and drove them off the iii 

 the cavalry of Milans pursuing them for several n 

 and in various directions. Milans makes the Frt 

 loss amount to near 1,700 men, of whom 170 were] 

 oners ; that of the Spaniards to something more t 

 600. An article, dated Madrid, Sept. 9th says, " 

 cial advices from St. Mary's announce that the Dep 

 Don Miguel Alava, arrived there the 4th inst. ivil 

 Hag of truce, bearing a letter from the king d >^\'M 

 the Duke D'Angouleme, and it was assertnl (hat 

 Duke will agree to no other condition but the en 

 liberation of the king" — Cadiz letters assert that 

 capture of the Trocadero had entirely changed 

 face of affairs there ; and that there were eontin 

 qilarrels between the militia and troops of the line. 



The Boston Centinel of the 5th inst. asserts that 

 negociation for a cessation of hostilities appe;iredto 

 certainly in train at Cadiz and vicinity. Informal 

 of it had been dispatched by the British Mini) 

 A'Court from Gibraltar. It had received the 

 mediate attention of the British Ministry, and the 

 swtr thereto had been despatched by Mr. Canning, 

 a King's messenger, and an officer ; and a sloop ol ' 

 had been ordered to convey the answer of the Bril 

 Court with all speed to Spain. The Courier of I 

 18lh says, " the news is of great moment." 1 

 French Ministerial papers asserted positively that I 

 Duke would not agree to any other basis than the 

 storation of the King to liberty, and the surrendfi 

 Cadiz to the royal Spaniards. This basis eslaHijli' 

 it is said the guarantee of England of other conditii 

 would be admitted. 



