VOL. XIV. NO. 16, 



AND gardp:ner's journal 



Xi$ 



[From Ihe Albnny Cultivator.] 

 PRESERVINS MEATS. 



Tlie intrinsic rahic of salted meats, whether for 

 family use or for market, depends materially upon 

 the manner in which they are preserved. An ex- 

 cess of salt renders lean meats, as beef and hatns, 

 hard, tough and iinpalatahle, besides destroying 

 much of their nutritious properties; while too 

 little Silk, or nil equi\alent of some other anti- 

 septic, will not preserve thotn in a healthful state. 

 It is as easy an<l as cheap to preserve meats well, 

 as it is to do it badly, if we are furnished with 

 good rules, and duly observe them. There are 

 no doubt many rules adapted to this end. We 

 have tried many, and have finally, for some years, 

 adopted, with perfect satisfaction, for family use, 

 the pickle which we give below, for the curing of 

 beef and hams. It is said to bo equally good for 

 pork, though we have not used it for this purpose, 

 as we lay down none but the fat part of the hog, 

 which is not injured by an excess of salt. This 

 has been denominated the 



Knickerbocker Pickle. — Take 6 galls, of water, 

 9 lbs. of salt, 3 lbs. coarse brown sugar, 1 quart 

 of molasses, 3 ounces salt petre and 1 oz. pearlash : 

 mix iind boil the whole well, taking care to skim 

 oif all the impurities which rise to the surface. 

 This constitutes the jiickle. When the meat is 

 cut it should he slightly rubbed with fine salt, and 

 suffered to lay a day or two that the salt may ex- 

 tract the blood ; it may then be packed tight in 

 the cask, and the pickle, having become cold, may 

 be turned upon and shoitld cover the meat. A fol- 

 lower, to fit the inside of the cask, should theti be 

 laid on, and a weight put on it, in order to keep 

 the meat at all times covered with pickle. The 

 sugar may be otnitted without tnaterial detriment. 

 In the spritig the jjickle must be turned off, boiled 

 with some additional salt and molasses, skimmed, 

 and when cold returned to the cask. 



For domestic use, beef and pork hams should 

 not be salted the day the anitnals are killed, but 

 kept until its fibre has becotne short and tender, 

 as these changes do not take place after it has 

 been acted upon by the salt. 



Meat that is to be dried and smoked, requires 

 less salt than that which is to remain in pickle, on 

 account of the preserving qualities of the ]iyrolig- 

 nic acid, which is supplied by the smoke of the 

 wood. The great art in smoking meat well seems 

 to consist in having the meat dried by smoke, and 

 not by heat. The hams of Westphalia, and the 

 smoked beef of Hatnburgh, which are unrivalled 

 in reputation, are managed in this way. The 

 Westphalian farmers have a closet in the garret, 

 joining the chimney, made tight, to retain smoke, 

 in which they hang their hams and bacon to dry, 

 out of the effect of the heat of the fire. Two ap- 

 ertures are made from the closet into the chirpney, 

 and a place is made for an iron stopper to be thrust 

 into the funnel of the chimney, to force the smoke 

 through the lower hole into the closet. The up- 

 per hole must not be too big, because the closet 

 must be always full of smoke, and that from wood 

 fires. 



The Hamburgh method of making their supe- 

 rior smoked beef is this: Fires of oak chips are 

 built in the cellars, from whence the smoke is con- 

 veyed by two chimnies into the fourth story, and 

 thrown into a chamber by two openings placed 

 opposite to each other. The size of the chamber 

 is proportioned to the quantity of meat to be 

 smoked, but the ceiling is not raised more than 



five feet and a half from the floor. Above this 

 chamber there is another made with boards, into 

 which the smoke passes through a hole in the ceil- 

 ing of the first, whence it escapes by openings 

 fortned in the sides, The pieces of meat are 

 hung up at the distance of a foot and a half from 

 each other, and a fire is kept up night and day for 

 a month or six weeks, according to the size of the 

 pieces. 



[From the FariTier and Gardeiier-I 

 RIBBON GRASS. 



1'laisfield, Windhamcc, Ct, 



Dear Sir : I received a letter from you, a short 

 time ago, requesting information concerning the 

 ribbon grass [Phalaris Americana]. The grass 

 you sawat Plainfield, on Mr Woodward's farm, two 

 years since, I was informed originated from the 

 ribbon grass. It was originally cultivated in the 

 garden for ornament, where it spread, to the great 

 annoyance of the vegetables. Mr W. became dis- 

 satisfied with it, dug it up, and threw it over the 

 wall into the mowing lot, where it continued to 

 grow luxuriantly. Keing determined to get rid of 

 it, lie again took it up and threw into the brook. 

 It was so tenaciotts of life, that it seized upon the 

 watery element and spread rapidly down the 

 brook, so that in a few years it extended down the 

 brook more than a mile ; its progress towards dry 

 land was more slow, but has eventually spre.-td 

 over a number of acres, converting a bog mead- 

 ow into the best of mowing, Mr Bowjii, who 

 lived on ihe fariTi, informed nie tliat he mowed it 

 twice in the season, and that it produced about 

 three tons to the acre, annually, of excellent hay, 

 which the cattle consumed with as much avidity 

 as any that was cut on the farm. 



The meadow was so miry in many places, that 

 cattle could not pass, but the grass roots formed 

 such an imjienetrable stirface, that they could cart 

 over it, in getting hay without difficulty ; and, in 

 some places, they entirely united across the brook, 

 forming a natural bridge that a person might pass 

 over. The brook is sufficiently large to 0|)erate a 

 cotton factory which has been erected about a 

 mile below. 



I have taken considerable pains to ascertain the 

 history, chaiticter and importance of the ribbon 

 grass, and come to the conclusion, that it was ori- 

 ginally an aquatic grass, and that the striped color 

 was jiroducod by being transplanted into a dry, 

 gravelly soil. I have seen it in a number of pla- 

 ces where it had been cultivated for ornament, 

 spreading beyond its boundary and outrooting oth- 

 er grass : in these instances, if in the sharfe or on 

 moist ground, it loses its striped colpr, In one 

 instance, the roots passed under fhe garden wall 

 into the back yard, and entirely eradicated the oth- 

 er grass, and occupied a number of rods of ground, 

 when it grew rank and lost its striped color. I 

 have not been able to ascertain the best mode of 

 propagation ; it produces little if any seed that 

 will vegetate, The striped grass of the garden, 1 

 am confident, does not produce any ; for we have 

 cultivated it for near twenty years, and have never 

 known a single spear that was produced from seed. 

 The Phalaris that grows in wet land, blossoms 

 abundantly, but produces very little seed, and that 

 is liable to become fungus, resembling the spurred 

 rye. The propagation by transplanting the roots 

 into wet land among the bogs, although attended 

 with but little labor, must take considerable time 



to entirely eradicate the hog fcrass, iis I have 

 l>roved by experitnent. I trans])liinted, a utimber 

 of years since, into a bog meadow, some of the 

 grass, and although it took root and grew rapidly, 

 spreading among the other grass, and even send- 

 ing up shoots in the centre of bogs, still the bog 

 grass retnains. I planted, as an experiment, about 

 one half of an acre bog meadow with the Phalaris 

 a year last spring, it having been previously plough- 

 ed for two or three years ; it was planted fotir feet 

 apart each way ; it all lived, and is spreading well, 

 and probably in afevv yetirs will occupy the wliolo 

 groutid, I have ploughed up one acre more, and 

 intend to plant it in the satne way, I also sowed 

 some of the seed last spring, proctired frotn grass 

 that grew on wet land, but am not certain that 

 any of it has cotne up. Shall sow more next 

 spring, and hope in a few years to be able to as- 

 certain its importance, and the best mode of culti- 

 vation. Yours, with respect, 



Andrew Hahris. 

 Hon. Elizur Goodrich, Jr. 



Sf-LECTion of seed wheat. — The selection of 

 good seed of any kind, to plant or sow, is an ob- 

 ject of no stnall itnportanee to the cultivator, and 

 we accordingly find farmers, who are careful, ])ur. 

 suing some plan or other which shall ensure them 

 the best seed for their sowing. In the case of 

 wheat, some select the largest and best ears or 

 heads, which they can find, others throw up tlieh- 

 wheat in a windy day, antl select that which is 

 blown the least distance, as being the heaviest and 

 tnoBt plutiip. We think, however, that the best 

 plan,' and the one which will be most sure to give 

 the heaviest grain, is to put it into some thick 

 liquor and take those kernels which usually sink 

 to the bottom. Liquors may be made sufficiently 

 thick to bear up an egg, by various substances in 

 them, by potash, as in common lye — by soap or 

 by salt. Darwin recommends a solution of salt 

 sufliciently strong to bear up an egg, and the 

 wheat plunged into this. This might be done at 

 the time of sowing, or even before, if the wheat 

 wet in it be carefully dried — but at sowing time, 

 when it is common to soak or wash wheat in lye 

 it would be a small matter to make the liquor as 

 .strong as possible, and thus select the heaviest 

 and best of your seed while pieparing it for the 

 ground. It would be but a little labor to test the 

 plan on a stnall quantity and ascertain the facts 

 concerning it. — Maine Farmer. 



To CORRECT MUSTINF.SS IN GRAIN. Cornwllicll 



is housed withoi'it being thoi-oughly dried, or which 

 is stored in a damp jilace, acquires a musty smell 

 and taste, which render it unfit for the customary 

 uses; but as this alteration affects only the outer 

 covering, and not the substance of the kernel, it 

 may be easily removed by throwing upon the 

 grain double its weight of boiling water, carefidly 

 stirring the mass till the water becomes cold. The 

 spoiled kernels, which swim upon the top, must 

 then be removed, the water poured off, and the 

 grain spread to dry. M. Peschier preferred em- 

 ploying for this purpose boiling water rendered 

 slightly alkaline, and afterwards washing the grain 

 in pure water. When corn has been heated, or 

 manifestly injured, the vegeto-animal portion is al- 

 most always changed : the farina will not ferment 

 well, and the bread made from it is unwholesome : 

 such grain will answer for starch. — Chaptd. 



