POPULAR GARDENING. 



NOVKMBER, 



"^e Household 



A Meat or Fruit Diet, Which? 



If the meat packers' strike in Chicago, re- 

 marks a leading daily paper, has the immediate 

 effect to put up the price ot meats a good many 

 consumers may improve the opportunity to be- 

 come vegetai"ians, or at least to explode the 

 doctrine that, with the bountiful fruits and 

 vegetables of our gardens, with or without fish, 

 eggs and poultry, the absence of the heavier 

 albuminoid foods will be greatly missed. 



A change in the food supply as referred to 

 would without any doubt be an easy matter to 

 effect in the overflowing abundance of the 

 American food markets. The gardens of the 

 people and the great orchards and market gar- 

 dens of the country are offering to consumers 

 the proper food to suit this country's climate 

 l>etween May and November at least. 



One fact appears to be in the way of fast be- 

 coming established and that is that enlighten- 

 ment tends to make men eat less food or lighter 

 food. If this country, in its affluence of flesh 

 meat, has looked down with scorn upon whole 

 nations who feed upon succulent vegetables, 

 fruit, vegetable oils, grains and fish, science 

 now Instructs us that this attitude of contempt 

 is one of class ignorance. 



People who work with their brain are advised 

 to be bght feeders. Those who by their occu- 

 pation get but little exercise for their muscles 

 ai'e leaj-ning that heavy diet clogs their facul- 

 ties and gives them the sensation of muscular 

 fatigue for the unused supplies they have taken 

 into the system. The magnificent muscular 

 development in the peasants of Southern 

 Europe is produced on mush, macaroni, Chest- 

 nuts, Grapes and the oily Olive, with cheese, 

 eggs and the vegetable soups. The Hindoo and 

 Chinese live in the main on rice and butter or 

 rice and lard, a system which enables the 

 American-Chinaman to add much market 

 money to his savings in lieu of spending it. 

 Many Americans could with advantage pattern 

 after John with respect to this. 



Let us take it for granted therefore that any- 

 thing like a corner in meats would be very far 

 from an alarming disaster. So long as we 

 have the Apples and the Hominy we can forego 

 the hog. With the vast supplies of the lighter 

 and safe foods there are few physicians who 

 would complain for their patients were the 

 strikes in the meat-packing line long continued. 



Brieflets. 



Bill of fare liouks are brain savers. 



For dusting "h use an old silk baukerchief. 



Rapid eatiug; it is as unhealthy as it is vulgar. 



Pouring boiling water over Raisins makes the 

 stiming vf them easier. 



Salt the spot made by a spill of milk or anything 

 else on the stove, and the suffocating smoke will be 

 quenched. 



Powdered Borax, A very small bit answers 

 better than soap in water tor washing milk bottles 

 and milk utensils. 



Stove Cement. It is a handy article often and 

 easily made. Two parts fine ashes, one part salt 

 and water, to make a mortar. Dry with slow fire. 



Cold Tea and Vinegar. One of the best house- 

 keepei-s of our acquaintance turns the tea left 

 over into the vinegar barrel, claimmg that it pro- 

 motes acidity as n-ell as a fine color. 



Have you nut noticed a smell of cooking in some 

 peoples' clothing? Caused by their turning the 

 kitchen into a wardrobe, or having freshly ironed 

 clothes near the frying pan or vegetable pot. 



To polish glass, and remove slight scratches, rub 

 the surface gently, first with a clean pad ot fine 

 cotton wool, and afterwards with a similar pad 

 cnvered with cotUjn-velvet which has been charged 

 with fine rouge. The surface will, under this treat- 

 ment, acquire a polish of great bi-illiancy, quite 

 free from the presence of any scratches. 



We don't buy the twine we have u.se for by the 

 bull, neither do we depend on the bits that come 



around store packages, but instead we buy warps 

 by the half i>ound or more, from a carpet weaver 

 and wind the contents into small balls for use. We 

 find that it is both stronger and cheaper than ball 

 twine. Mrs. E., Dcinf,~ville, N. Y. 



A Handing Basket. When a market basket 

 shows signs <pf age, but is yet strong and unbroken, 

 remove the handle, line it neatly with calico, shir a 

 cover of some contrasting color, {pink inside, and 

 gray in small figure for outside is pretty) for it. 

 Then when ironing lay all the pieces that need 

 repairing by themselves, and as soon as aired put 

 these into the basket, here to remain until they pass 

 through the mender's hands. Elder's Wife. 



To Disinfect a Boom. More attention is daily 

 being given to approved sanitary methods, and this 

 is right. After a room has been occupied by a per- 

 son sick with a contagious disease it should be I 

 disinfected. To do this, remove the paper from the 

 walls, the carpets, and the furniture, exposing them 

 to the air and wind and giving the latter a fresh 

 coat of varnish. Mattresses should be made over 

 new and the hair boiled. The crowning act should 

 be to burn several pounds of sulphur in an iron 

 vessel in the room, having it tightly closed, and the 

 cracks of doors, etc., packed with strips of cloth. 

 Afterwards by whitewashing, painting and paper- 

 ing the room may be re-newed. 



This will Taste Good Thanksgiving— chicken 

 fried whole we mean. It should be a well-grown 

 broiler, yoimg and tender. Additional material; 

 Sweet, salted lard or clarified drippings, rtour, salt 

 and Pepper, two or three slices of young Onions 

 dropped in the hot fat. Draw and wash out the 

 chicken with soda and water, rinse well and wipe 

 dry. Steam for half an hour. If you have no 

 steamer wrap the fowl in mosquito netting and lay 

 in a colander, set over a pot of boiling water, fit a 

 close cover on the colander and keep the water at a 

 hard boil, but not touching the chicken, forty min- 

 utes. Wipe the fowl, roll in salted and Peppered flour 

 until well coated and lay in the salted fat, enough to 

 cover it, and boiling. When browned transfer to a 

 hot dish, garnish with Parsley and serve. 



Money is indeed " filthy lucre "' and young people 

 should be taught above all else never to take it in 

 the mouth because of the filth, if not positively 

 worse matter, that adheres to it. Only the other 

 day a subscriber to Popular Gardening, who is 

 also a microscopist, informed us that even on coins, 

 the darker lines that appear at the angles formed 

 by the raised edge and figures may, under a power- 

 ful glass, be seen to harbor many forms of bacterial 

 life. This being true of smooth metal coins, what 

 can be said on the same score of paper money, that 

 becomes loaded with filth and actually worn out 

 as it passes from hand to hand, pocket to pocket of 

 all classes of people, even those that are vile, and 

 uncleanly in habits— and of the diseased, whose 

 very touch is contamination. Money is really un- 

 clean ; it should be handled accordingly. 



Where provision is made for a ntmiber of 

 separate runs, in which separate races can be 

 reared, operations may be carried on for many 

 successive years without an)' such undesirable 

 crossing as has been referred to. The plan to' 

 be adopted is to note down carefully the parent- 

 age of every brood, and to keep the chickens 

 from one community together until they are 

 to be mated with others. The breeding yards 

 for next year are then to be made up from the 

 best specimens, taking care not only that the 

 cocks and hens are not related, but that two 

 runs at least are thus made up without any 

 fraternal relationship between them. Unre- 

 lated chickens will thus be secured for next 

 year also, and so the system can be caiTied on. 



poMltry. 



Several Points in the Selection of 

 Breeding Stock. 



At the outset the question occui-s, What is 

 the best age to breed from? Those well up in 

 experience claim, first of all, that it is better 

 to have some variation in the age of hens and 

 cock. It is now quite generally admitted that 

 the strongest and best chickens are those reared 

 from a cockerel about one year old, and hens 

 in their second year. 



One drawback, on some accounts, to such 

 mating, may be raised to the effect that the off- 

 spring invariably have a large proportion of 

 cocks. Most breeders therefore, for general 

 purposes, prefer a two-year-old cock, and hens 

 fully twelve months old. Fowls are good for 

 breeding up to the age of four yeai-s, but are 

 of little value beyond. 



The avoiding of near relationship is of greater 

 importance than seems to be generally recog- 

 nized. Still much of the stress that is laid upon 

 the matter of introducing what they call 

 " fresh blood " by some authore, and especially 

 by breeders, is uncalled for. It is certainly 

 most destructive to breed from fowls that are 

 closely related, and to go on promiscuously in- 

 terbreeding in one yard is still worse, as must 

 be obvious to every thoughtful mind. 



CONDENSED POULTRY NOTES. 



Profits go with personal supervision. 



Bones roasted until brittle break much easier. 



Broomcorn seed fed now and then is a treat for 

 hens. 



Almost 3Jiy site but a low one for the poultry 

 house. 



The Space for Hens. To put it at 6 square feet 

 of room (3 feet by 2 feet) for each one, in which to 

 roost and exercise, will be not far from right. 



For a bracing tonic in winter, an(i one that will 

 m a measure guard against roup, it is only neces- 

 sary to add to the water a few drops of a solution 

 of sulphate of iron (green vitriol), to give it a slight 

 niiueral taste. The water will assume a rusty ap- 

 pearance but this is quite immaterial. 



Its a hen's natural business to lay eggs, and a 

 good many of them; if she does not it is because 

 nature is hindered. Now in nature, hens get much 

 green food, insect food and some meat, and if 

 we would have them at their best for laying when 

 eggs are high priced, then we must see to it that 

 this part of the diet is all right. 



Feeding Egg-shells. All that can be saved up 

 should find their way to the feeding box, but see to 

 it that they are well fined up first. Thrown out 

 broken in halves only, with some of the albumen 

 still retained, and the fowls devour them greedily, 

 getting a taste of what is in an egg, and thus may 

 be tempted into that worst of bad habits, egg eating. 



It would in thousands of cases pay to work up a 

 direct semi-weekly trade between the producer and 

 consumer of eggs. Taken to customers twice a 

 week regularly, so that they could depend on never 

 having an egg beyond four days old, and you would 

 have no trouble to get several cents per dozen more 

 for such than the retail dealers ask for eggs 

 that are as many weeks old For instance, to save 

 up eggs for two weeks and then deliver them to 

 customers in lots that should last them two weeks, 

 brings some of the eggs to four weeks old before 

 being used, a thing very objectionable when the 

 same product could as well be fresher. 



New Breeds. The Prairie Fanner says: The 

 "woods are full of' new breeds, which their ad- 

 mirere are booming with all the might of printer's 

 ink. We have the White Plymouth Rocks, the 

 White Wyaudottes, Dingos, the Motley Bells, the 

 Pea Comb Plymouth Rocks, and perhaps some 

 others that are not yet named ; and if we beUeve all 

 that is claimed for them each one possesses more 

 good qualities than any other breed of fowls on 

 earth. But those who have no money to experi- 

 ment with had better go slow; if you have fowls of 

 a well established breed, such as give good re- 

 turns for the food and care bestowed, don't trade 

 them off until you know you are going to get some- 

 thing better. It often pays to ''make haste slowly." 

 Poultry on a Small Lot. A correspondent de- 

 sires information in regard to raising fowls on a 

 small lot, 35x10(1; and as to how many chickens for 

 a beginner, and which are the best for the purpose. 

 We would suggest that 25 feet at the lower end be 

 fenced off, making a lot 25x25. A house 8x8 should 

 accommodate a flock consisting of a cock and 10 or 

 11 hens. If 25 feet more be taken up there can be 

 double or changeable yards, each lot being 25x25. 

 Then, while the hens are running in one yard, green 

 food may be grown in the other, and if the house is 

 on the line the hens can be changed from one yard 

 to the other occasionally. The Brahmas are excel- 

 lent, as they do not fly. If the fences are high the 

 Leghorns will prove satisfactory. Do not feed too 

 heavily, but rather keep the fowls hungry, in order 

 to make them exercise at scratching. Give them 

 all the feed they can eat at night, however. The 

 main point is to keep them busy, and then size of 

 yard is of but little eimaeqxwnce.— Poultry Keeper. 



