114 



SILK MANUAL, AND 



I excuse for speiuling a whole day at the tavern, 

 imbibing " wet damnation." 



If you are a married man, as I hope you are, 

 for no other one has consistent claim to the char- 

 acter of a good citizen, you know, or if you do 

 not, your wife does, that it costs no trifling sum 

 to provide sweetening for the family, while there 

 is no possibility of living without it ; and experi- 

 ence has fully shown me, that for many of the 

 purposes of domestic cookery, Apple Molasses is 

 far preferable to West India, while it is at the same 

 time much cheaper. 



I make little cider; my apples are worth more 

 fed to my hogs than for cider; but I make a prac- 

 tice of selecting my best sweet apples, those that 

 furnish the richest, heaviest liquor, and making a 

 cheese from them, using the cider thus olitained 

 for making aj)p!e or quince jireserves, boiling 

 down for molasses, and keeping two or three bar- 

 rels for drink, or ultimate conversion into vine- 

 gar. When new from the press, and before fer- 

 mentation commences, that which 1 intend for 

 boiling is brought to the house, and boiled in 

 brass to the proper consistence ; taking care not to 

 burn it, as that gives the molasses a, disagreeable 

 flavor, and taking off the scum that rises during 

 the process. The quantity to be boiled, or the 

 number of barrels of cider required to make one 

 of molasses, will depend greatly on the kind of ap- 

 ples used, and the richness of the new liquor. — 

 Four, or four and a half, are generally sufficient, 

 but when care is not used in making the selection 

 of apples, five barrels may sometimes be necessa- 

 ry ; but let it tnka more or less, enough must be 

 used to make the molasses, when cold, as thick as 

 the best West India. When boiled sufficiently, it 

 should be turned into vessels to cool, and from 

 them transferred to a new sweet barrel, put into a 

 cool cellar, where it will keep without trouble, 

 and be ready for use at all times. 



Molasses made in this way will be pure, and 

 possess a vinuous or rather brandied flavor, which 

 makes it far superior to the West India for mince, 

 apple or tart pies, though where the apples used 

 are very sour, a small quantity ofimi)orted mo- 

 lasses may be advantageously used. It is also 

 excellent for making beer in the summer, giving 

 it a briskness and flavor which common molasses 

 will not ; in short, there are but few uses to 

 which molasses is applied, in which it will not 

 be found equal or superior to the other. Its 

 cheapness should also be a decided recommenda- 

 tion with the farmer. The cider from which I 

 manufacture my molasses, is worth at the press 

 a dollar a barrel, and it is worth a dollar to re- 

 duce it to molasses, thus making the cost of a 

 barrel of molasses, allowing four and a half bar- 

 rels of cider to be used, four dollars and fifty cents. 

 The price of common molasses will average about 



fifty cents a gallon, or sixteen dollars a bairel, 

 making a saving to the farmer in the use of ap- 

 ple molasses, of about ten dollars per barrel. — 

 Genesee Farmer. 



Substitute for Steam Locomotives. — Mr 

 Emmons of New Jersey, is about trying a locomo- 

 tive to be moved by springs, instead of steam 

 power. The machinery is all arranged, and the 

 experiment is to be made during the next week. 



We have observed the above paragraph in sev- 

 eral of the papers. It is melancholy to see such 

 a waste of labor and ingenuity, in a vain attemjit 

 to produce an effect, which would be obviously at 

 variance with the well known laws of nature. It 

 must be tnanifest to any person of reflection, that 

 locomotion cannot be prodsced withou. power, 

 and that power cannot be produced by springs. 

 They may be made, as in the case of a clock or 

 watch, to produce a continued motion, arising 

 from the power applied in winding up the spring, 

 but they do not create any power. A locomotive 

 furnished with springs, may in the same way be 

 made to act, for a short distance, by the reaction 

 of springs previously wound up, but with no great- 

 er power than that necessarily applied in winding 

 it up. There can therefore be nothing gained to 

 the efficiency of the engine, by the application of 

 thesprings,as the power required to prepare them 

 to produce motion, would be more effectually ap- 

 plied to tlie tin-ning oJ' a crank, or more directly 

 to the shoving the car. — Boston Adv. 



Sweet Apples. — Since the farmers of this vi- 

 cinity have turned their attention to apples as 

 food for cattle, sheep and hogs, and as an article 

 of domestic cookery, they have found that there 

 is a deficienc}' of sweet apples in their orchards. 

 When cider was much in demand, coinparatively 

 little attention was paid to the kind of apple cul- 

 tivated. A few choice winter kinds, as the Rus- 

 sets, Baldwin's and Greening's were procured, and 

 the remainder were general 'y seedlings, perhaps 

 good and perhaps bad, no matter which, if t.iey 

 would only make cider. 



Paine Wiigate, of Hallowell, who perhaps has 

 as good an orchard as any in this vicinity, if it be 

 noi so large, and who has paid much attention to 

 the variety of fruits, has favored us with some fine 

 specimens of sweet apples of a variety well worth 

 propagating. Among them were the Hearth Sweet- 

 ing, an apple which keeps well during the winter 

 and into summer. Hoyt's Sweeting, an apple of 

 very tender pulp — Smith's Sweeting, a large va- 

 riety — the Franklin Sweeting, which is a large 

 and well known variety. Mr Wingate observes 

 that some of his trees bear every year, but that 

 the flavor of those apples are not so good, as 

 the same variety that do not bear but every other 

 other year. 



