148 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[ August, 



than three hundred sorts of puddings and 

 sweetmeats, titty metliods of cooliiug heef and 

 mutton, eiglity of fowls. Among the ricli 

 classes the same dislies are not used oftener 

 tlian once in tliree or four weeks, so great is 

 the variety. One would supjiose their dishes 

 would disorder the stomach, but dyspejisia is 

 a rare disease in France. Altogether, the 

 French are an extraordinary people, and when 

 their habits and methods of living are under- 

 stood, we cease to wonder at their health and 

 gre^t wealth." 



If there is any one domestic operation on 

 this earth more than another which ought to 

 be e.xecuted with care, economy and skill, it 

 is that of cooking; and yet, among the average 

 of American housewives, there is none that 

 receives less attention and talent. A woman 

 during the course of her life will change the 

 style and quality of her dresses, her bonnets, 

 her shoes and her furniture hundreds of times, 

 and will even manifest some galling anxiety 

 lest she be deemed unfashionable, and yet will 

 stand as invulnerable as the "rock of ages" in 

 regard to the style of cooking and baking — 

 the last loaf in an experience of forty years 

 will be, perhaps, worse thail the^i>f. 



The morning, midday or evening meal, its 

 time, its place, its quality and its order, is the 

 most important domestic event within the life 

 experiences of human beings, for on it de- 

 pends the physical and mental health, as well 

 as the happiness and content of the entire 

 family. Ilunger and thirst, normally mani- 

 fested, are the imperative calls of nature 

 through the ordination of nature's God, and 

 caimot be with impunity lightly or disdain- 

 fully regarded. The Divine fiat has gone forth, 

 and the physical and mental systems canuot 

 be built up or recuperated without a scrupu- 

 lous attention to the legitimate demands of 

 these natural desires — and more, physical 

 comfort and development is the plane and 

 continent upon which must rest and be mani- 

 fested the moral comfort and development of 

 the creature. 



There is not a single labor in the daily circle 

 of domestic duty but what should be subordina- 

 ted to thedaily meals, and none more entitled to 

 the thoughtful and patient skill of the prudent 

 housewife, or her domestic assistant, whatever 

 else may lie necessarily omitted. 



Everything that is eateu and drunken should 

 be eaten and drunken "to the glory of God," 

 and with reference to Ilim who has said, 

 " Take, eat this and drink this in remem- 

 brance of Me." The careless, .slovenly and 

 disorderly manner in wliich the meal is pre- 

 pared by the mas.ses of the pef)i)le, and the in- 

 decent haste and imperfect manner in which 

 it is appriipriated, is little short of daily pro- 

 fanation. Of course tliere is an opposite ex- 

 treme, in which there may be a morbid fastidi- 

 ousness manifesteil, which may culminate in 

 mere .sensualism, but we have reference to 

 that intelligent exercise of domestic duty 

 which makes the proper distinction between 

 " eating to lire " and " living to eaV 



Wc arc not advocating those excessive com- 

 binations of pickels, spices and condiments 

 which are resorted to to create a false or mor- 

 bid apetite, for the sake of its illegitimate 

 gratification alone ; but, as God has created 

 an infinite variety of edibles for the delecta- 

 tion of the human family, and as the larger 

 number of these require culinary preparation, 

 as much skill should be exercised in this de- 

 partment of domestic labor, as is exercised in 

 the production of a watch, a necklace, or a 

 dressing-case. Much of the illness, the un- 

 happinees, and the domestic disquietude of the 

 world, may be traced directly to unskillful and 

 im wholesome preparation of human food, and 

 the barbarous manner in which it is parta- 

 ken of. 



The secret of French cooking lies in this, 

 that their "skill is handed down from one 

 generation to anf)ther, each yeneration addiwj 

 its mm hnprorcments;'''' in which they differ 

 from other jjeople, who never add any imjirove- 

 ments, but who make it a point to literally do 

 things just as their fathers and mothers have 

 done them—" good, bad or indiflerent. "— Eu. 



THE HISTORY OF CULTIVATED VEGE- 

 TABLES. 



The Tomatd or " Love Apple." 

 ( I.t/en/H-r^iciitn esetite-ittiini,) 



The Tomato, or Love Apple, is the fruit of 

 a herbaceous plant, having a hairy stem and 

 rank smell ; belonging to the Nightshade and 

 potato family, nat. or Holanactm. It is a na- 

 tive of South America, whence it was early in- 

 troduced liy the Spaniards into Europe, and 

 used as a vegetable. The editor of the ISon- 

 iiardinitr (pour I'an 1818) describes the tomato 

 as coming orginally from Mexico, but Mr. 

 Sabine, in a paper he read on this plant, before 

 the Horticultural Society in 1819, said that 

 there is no authority for this statement, for 

 though Hernandez, in his History of Mexico, 

 mentions it, he does not particularly distin- 

 guish it as a native of that counti'y. South 

 America being the native country of this veg- 

 etable, it was of cour.se unknown to the ancient 

 Greeks and Romans ; still the name Lycoper- 

 sicum is stated to have originated with Galen, 

 the celebrated physician, who lived about A. 

 1). 131, but it has not been ascertained to what 

 plant it was given. The name is derived from 

 h/kos, a wolf, and persktm, a peach, implying 

 that the fruit was of such inferior quality as 

 to be tit only for the use of that animal. Ges- 

 ner, an eminent jihysician and naturalist of 

 Zurich, born in 1.516, entered into some inves- 

 tigation of Galen's on the subject, but they did 

 not lead to a certainty, and his opinions are 

 criticLsed by JohnBauhin Anguillara, an Ital- 

 ian, in a work published in loljl, conjectures 

 that the I^ycopersicum of Galen was the to- 

 mato, and on this authority it is said to have 

 acquired in after-times the name of Lycoper- 

 sicum Galeni. In the Adversaria of Pena and 

 L'Obel, imblished in 1.570, it is called Potua 

 antoris, Pvmimi aureum, and Lycopersicum rpui- 

 rundam, in conformity with Anguillara's con- 

 jecture. 



In the " Elemens de Botanique " of Tourne- 

 fort, 1094, we find he adopted Lyco])ersicum 

 as the name of the genus in which he placed 

 the particular plant now treated of. Dodoens, 

 a Dutch botanist, described this plant as grown 

 in his time in the Continental gardens, (see 

 his ' 'Pemtades, " published aA Antwerp, 1.58;5), 

 and that the fruit was eaten, dressed with 

 pepper, vinegar and oil. It api)ears by the 

 " llortus Kewensis," to have been cultivated 

 in England in the year 1.59G, but it nuist have 

 been introduced some years previously to that 

 date, as Gerard mentiojjs it in the early jiart 

 of his voluminous "Herbal," (published in 

 1597), wliich must have taken .some years in 

 compiling and jirinting. 



Tliis aCithor calls the tomato Po^mim amoris. 

 and says, " Apples of I>ove do grow in Sjiain, 

 Italy, and such hot countries, from whence 

 myself have received seeds for my garden, 

 wlicre they do increase and prosper." He also 

 tells us that "there hath happened into my 

 hands another sort very notable with the for- 

 mer, only the fruit thereof is of a yellow col- 

 our. " Parkinson, in his "Paradiseis," pub- 

 lished in KioO, says that "the tomato grows 

 naturally in the hot countries of Barbnry and 

 Ethiopia, yet some report them to Vie first 

 brought from Peru, a province of the West 

 Indies. We only have them for curiosity in 

 our gardens, and for the amorous aspect or 

 beauty of the fruit." Tliere is no record when 

 this vegetable was first employed as an escu- 

 lent in this country, but Miller, in his "Gar- 

 deners' Dictionary," published in 17.52, after 

 describing tliem, says they were much used in 

 soup in his time. Being a native of hot cli- 

 m ites, the croi> very much depends on the 

 season in this countrj' ; when it is favorable, 

 large quantities are produced in the open air. 

 As far back as 1818, being a very fine .summer, 

 the growth of this vegetable around London 

 exceeded the demand. Mr. John Wilmot, of 

 Isleworth, states that from acrop of (lOO plants 

 that season, he gathered 4(10 half-sieves. 1'lie 

 fruit on several single plants prol.iably weighed 

 40 lbs. ; some of the ajiples were of an extra- 

 ordinary size, exceeding twelve inches in cir- 

 cumference, and weighing twelve ounces each. 



It is stated that this vegetable, medicinally 

 considered, is an excellent substitute for calo- 

 mel, and can be taken when that valuable 

 medicine cannot, and with less injury to the 

 constitution (see Mcintosh's "Book of the 

 Garden.") In France and Italy whole fields 

 of this jilant ai-e cultivated ; so great is the 

 demand in some parts of the latter country 

 that there is scarcely a dinner served up in 

 which it does not in some way or other forma 

 part. In England the plant is more cultivated 

 than formerly, and there has been of late an 

 importation of this vegetable from the United 

 States, iireserved in tins. In the course of an 

 extensive series of chemical experiments on 

 plants by E. Solby, he found that the leaves 

 and stems of the tomato contained nitric acid. 

 It is stated in the "Gardeners' Magazine," 

 vol. X., (1834), that tomato buds 'may be 

 grafted on jiotatoes, and plants thus treated 

 produce good crops of both vegetables. 



The old European botanists wrote the name 

 of this plant Tnmatle. The Spaniards and 

 Portuguese call them Tomates, which appears 

 to be the original Peruvian appellation ; and 

 in Mexico this and several plants of the Sola- 

 num genus are called Tomatles. 



There are several varieties of Tomatoes 

 known by the form and color of their fruits. 

 Duval, in his " Katural History of the Sola- 

 num," notices their distinctive characteristics, 

 and describes each as a distinct species ; but 

 it is believed that they can all be referred to a 

 common typo, viz., the large tomato, with 

 deeply-divided, rough, hairy leaves, and clus- 

 ters of yellow flowers, succeeded by large lobed 

 fruit of an orange red or scarlet color when 

 ripe. Dr. B. Seeman, in his " Flora Vitien- 

 sis," or the description of plants in the Fiji 

 Islands, mentions Solanum anthropophaijoriim 

 (the cannibal's tomato), called Bogo dina, be- 

 ing one of the plants which Fijians cultivate 

 very near Bure-ni-sa, or strangers' house, 

 where the bodies of the slain in battle are al- 

 ways taken to be feasted with the fruit of this 

 plant, and from wliich it appears that savages 

 sometimes require a relish with their disgust- 

 ing food. — H. G. Glasspoole, in Science Gos- 

 sip). 



^ 



PROPERTIES OF FUEL.— WOOD. 



The wood we burn is composed chiefly of 

 thn^', elements, oxygen, hydrogen, and carbon, 

 in various projiortions. Of these, oxygen adds 

 nothing whatever to its value as fuel : that de- 

 pends upon the other elements; hence, the 

 more oxygen, the less there can be of the other 

 substances, and the poorer the wood. Oxygen 

 and hydrogen are both gases. Keither has 

 ever been liquified or .solidified. Carbon, on 

 the other hand, is a constant solid, and it is 

 this property that makes our fires stationary. 

 AVhen wood is newly cut, it contains from 

 twenty to fifty per ("ent. of sap or water, the 

 quiintity varying with the kind of wood, and 

 with the season of the year. Exposed to air 

 for a year, wood becomes air-dried, and parts 

 with about h.alf of its water ; fifteen per cent, 

 more may be expelled by artificial heat ; but 

 before it loses all its moisture. It begins to de- 

 compose or char. The presence of water iu 

 fuel therefore dimini.shes its v.alue as such in 

 two ways : it hinders and delays coiubustiou, 

 and wastes heat by evaporation. If one hun- 

 dred pounds of wood contains thirty pounds 

 of w.ater, there is left but seventy pounds of 

 corabustilile material. In the process of burn- 

 ing, one pound will lie expended in raising the 

 temperature of the inheivnt water to the boil- 

 ing point, and six more in converting it into 

 vaiior, makuig a loss of seven jiounds of real 

 fuel, or seven-tenths of the entire comlmstive 

 force. Besides this dead loss of about ten per 

 cent, of fuel, the water present is an annoy- 

 ance, by hindej'iug free and rapid combustion. 

 E(iual weights of dilferent varieties of wood 

 in similar conditions produce equal quantities 

 of heat, but it will not do to purchase wood 

 by weight, owing to the varying quantities of 

 its moisture. It is usually sold by measure, 

 but even equal bulks will be found to vary in 

 this latter respect as much as equal weights. 

 A series of careful experiments conducted by 



