30 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[ February, 





Fruits in Kansas. 



The following varieties of fruits were recommend- 

 ed by the KansaB Stirte Horticultural Society, at its 

 recent meeting : 



The committee on condensed fruit list, omitting 

 the apple, Dr. William W. Howsley, chairman, re- 

 ported the following : 



Pears. — Bartlctt, No. 1; White Doyenne, 1; Flem- 

 ish Beauty, 1; Duchesse de Augouleme, 1; Winter 

 Nelis, 1; Seckel, 2. 



Peaches. — Hale's Early, No. 1; Crawford's Early, 

 1; Stump the World, 1; Heath Cling, 1; Yellow Al- 

 berge, 'J; President, 'I. 



Plums — Uinkley or Minor, No. 2; Wild Goose, 2. 



Cherries. — Early Richmond, No. 1; Maj Duke, 1; 

 English Morello, No. 2. 



Apricots. — Breda, No. 1. 



Grapes. — Concord,!; Dracut, 2; Clinton, 2. 

 Kaspberries, — Miami, No. 4; Doolittle, 2; Philadel- 

 phia, 2. 



Blabkberries. — Kattatinny, No. 1; Lawton, 2. 



Gooseberries. — Houghton, No. 1. 



Strawberries. — Wilson's Albany, No. 1; Chas. 

 Downing, 1; Downer's, 1. 



Committee for the southern fruit district, D. B. 

 Skeels, assisted by J. S. Williams, reported the fol- 

 lowing: 



Apples. — Early Harvest, Red June, Red Astrachan, 

 Cooper's Early White, Lowell, Maiden's Blush, 

 Chenango Strawberry, Fall AVine, Buckingham 

 Wine (synonym Pennsylvania Red Streak), Jona- 

 than, Winesap, Rawles' Janet, Ben Davis, Missouri 

 Pippin, Willow Twig. 



Pears. — Bartlett, Duchesse de Angouleme. 



Cherries. — Early Richmond, Belle Magnifique, 

 English Morello. 



Grapes. — Concord, Delaware, Dracut, Amber. 



Blackberries. — Lawtou, Kittatinny. 



Raspberries. — Miami Black Cap," Doolittle Black 

 Cap. 



Gooseberries. — Houghton. 



Additional varieties by J. S. Williams. 



Apples — Summer — Summer Rose, Early Pennock. 

 Autumn — Fameuse. Winter — Wagoner, Yellow 

 Bellflower, Dominie. 



Crab. — Hysop and Transcendent. 



Peaches. — Hale's Early, Large Early York, Stump 

 the World, Old Mixon (free and cling), Crawford's 

 Late, Smock, Heath Cling. 



Pears. — Flemish Beauty, Belle Lucrative, Seckel. 



Plums. — Hinkley or Minor, Wild Goose. 



Apricot. — Breda . 



Grapes — Delaware, Clinton. 



Strawberries. — Chas. Downing, Wilson's Albany. 



Mr. Shinn endorsed the report. 



druggist will put up a small quantity of this mix- 

 ture for a few cents, as all the ingredients are inex- 

 pensive. Labels written with this ink, and bearing 

 the date l>>.5fi, can be seen in the orchard of one of 

 my neighbors, as legible as the day they were writ- 

 ten. This is proof enough of the value of the ink. 

 Ztnc labels are now advertised for sale, but any one 

 can make them with the aid of a pair of tinner's 

 shears — a tool that every farmer should possess. 

 From a strip of zinc four inches in width, cut off 

 labels half an inch broad at one end, and tapering 

 to a point at the other. By cutting the broad end of 

 the label at each edge alternately of the zinc strip, 

 nothing is wasted, and each cut gives a label. The 

 name and date (and the latter should never be omit- 

 ted) are writteu on the broad end of the label, and 

 the other end twisted loosely around a twig 

 of the tree to be marked. This is some trouble, but 

 not too much when the work is to last a lifetime. — 

 ^1. H. Chi'^terj in Country Ge?Uletnan. 



How to Make a Hot Bed. 



A good hot bed may be made upon the surface of 

 the ground, piling up the manure from two feet six 

 inches to three feet high, and at least six inches 

 wider all around than the frame. This extra width 

 tends to preserve the heat within the frame ; and if 

 it be a foot wider than the frame it would be better 

 than six inches. The situation should be where the 

 soil is dry ; and the bed should front to the south, 

 or as nearly south as the location will permit. The 

 sashes should either he procured before the bed is 

 made, or their exact size should be known when the 

 frame is made ; and the frame may be made to hook 

 closely together, so as to he removed and easily stored 

 away when not in use. Fresh horse duns is the best 

 manure to produce heat. It should be thrown into a 

 heap and wetslightlv aluuit a week before it is placed 

 on the bed and turned over once or twice before 

 using it to increase the heat. When put on the bed, 

 tread it down tirnily, and cover it about six inches 

 deep with light, rich soil, and ascertain the degrees 

 of heat when you desire to sow your seeds, by plung- 

 ing a thermometer into the soil ; and if too warm, 

 wait a day or two for the bed to cool. Seeds will 

 stand a heat of 90 degrees very well. Sometimes 

 seeds are sown in jjots and jians, which are plunged 

 into the manure without any covering of soil ; but in 

 such a case, it should be covered three or four inches 

 deep with sand or ashes to retain the heat. Wooden 

 boxes six inches deep, made of very thin boards, 

 about two feet lonsr, and one foot wide, would be 

 better than pans and pots for some kinds of plants. 

 The bottom might be zinc, or galvanized sheet iron, 

 perforated with small holes to allow water to pass 

 through them, if the watering should be too copious. 

 Such boxes could be packed in without any waste of 

 room ; and they could be easily removed to fork up 

 the bed anew to increase the heat, or to allow a new 

 bed to be made, when the heat of the old one is too 

 much exhausted. 



Ink for Horticultural Labels. 



There is so much inquiry lately for ink for writing 

 on zinc labels, that a good receipt for such an article 

 may benefit some one. It is an old one, and has 

 probably appeared in your columns long ago, but it 

 is worth repeating. It is as follows : Powdered ver- 

 digris, 2 parts; sal ammoniac, 2 parts; lampblack, 

 1 part; water, 20 parts. A quill pen will be neces- 

 Bary, as it will corrode a steel pen very quickly. Any 



The English Hop Trade. 



A correspondent of the Mark Lane Bxprexs esti- 

 mates the English production as follows: Mid Kent- 

 district, 17,000 acres and 119,000 cwt.; East Kent, 

 12,000 acres and 78,000 cwt.; West and North Kent, 

 4,000 acres and 12,000 cwt.; Weald of Kent, 10,000 

 acres and 60,000 cwt.; Sussex 11,000 acres and .5.5,- 

 000 cwt.; Worcester and Hereford, 9,000 acres and 

 i;!,. 500 cwt.; Surrey and Hants, 5, .500 acres and 33,- 

 000 cwt. The total area is given at 68,500 acres, and 

 the aggregate product .S70,.5O0 cwt., or 5.41 cwt. per 

 acre." The writer quotes a recent circular of a lead- 

 ing firm of brewers, stating that crops on the conti- 

 nent are everywhere short; in-Bohemia, especially, 

 tliere is a general failure. An average crop on the 

 whole continent would produce from 1,000,000 lo 

 1,200,000 cwt., whereas the actual yield is supposed 

 not to exceed from 260,000 to 300,000 cwt., while the 

 actual consumption is between .5.50,000 and 600,000 

 cw^., and the stocks, remaining over is supposed to 

 be between 150,000 and lS0,O0O'cwt. In England old 

 stocks are remarkably low. 



Grafting Currants. 



The Rm-id Nem Yorker says : Lovers of the cur- 

 rant and gooseberry have reason to feel- .jolly over 

 the success, which seems to attend grafting them 

 upon the Missouri currant (Hibes a-iircvui), which is 

 not liable to the attacks of the borer. Besides, they 

 are exempt from mildew. And thus by a single, 

 happy hit the two great drawbacks to currant and 

 gooseberry cultivation have been over come. The 

 beauty of these littletre.es, when loaded with their 

 pretty berries, as displayed at the Centennial, is 

 of itself enough to insure their general cultivation. 

 It would be well for those who intend experiment- 

 inir with grafting currants to bear in mind that 

 there is a great ditl'crence in the varieties of theMissouri 

 currant, some making better stocks) than others. 



DOMESTIC ECONOMY. 



Boiled Dinners. 



The degeneracy of the modern stomach spoils the 

 application of some of the best of our series of gas- 

 tronomic essays. To write of pies, or puddings, or 

 hot buckwlieat cakes, or boiled dinners, or any other 

 hearty and generous food, for this generation of dys- 

 ]-)eptics and in-doors men, is like descanting upon 

 skating and rowing in ahospital forcripples, or dilat- 

 ing upon music and oratory in a deaf and dumb 

 asylum. There are so many "tea and toast" chaps, 

 .and oatmeat and bran-bread lunatics, and gastric- 

 juiceless individuals who devote their time to finding 

 out what "doesn't agree with them," that one can- 

 not count upon the sympathy of his readers when re- 

 viving one recollections of good living. 



Nevertheless, we deem it a duty to do our part to 

 prevent the abolition of the old-time "sutiptantials." 

 Chief among these we must ever rank the boiled 

 dinner, which, if the cooks keep on refining it, will 

 soon be "though lost to sight, to memory dear." 

 For a boiled dinner, like baked beans, cannot survive 

 "style." A genteel boiled dinner is to the real article 

 what a gas fire in a gilded cast-iron back log is to the 

 old glowing brick fireplace. As the first innova- 

 tion, the potatoes were mashed ; then the beets were 

 omitted ; then sweet, juicy, home-made corned beef 

 was supplanted by a leathery "remnant" from the 

 butcher's; then each article was cooked separately ; 

 ;in<l finally the cabbage was banished, because it 

 "scented up the house" in cooking — though a boiled 

 dinner without cabbage is like a "roast turkey with- 

 out stullhig, or the play of ham and eggs with the 

 ham left out. A piece of boiled salt beef, flanked 

 with a few regulation vegetables, cooked as they are 

 for any other meal, doesn't constitute a boiled dinner 

 any more than a fricasseed fighting cock makes a 

 game supper. 



For the genuine boiled dinner, such as did good to 

 the stomachs and souls of the sturdy men who "made 

 and preserved us a nation," you want, first, a good 

 piece of corned beef — not the lean, brown, bony slabs 

 that are commonly set apart for that purpose, and 



eventually go to the hash-bowl, but a thick, tender 

 cut, with liberal streaks of fat and lean. We confess 

 to a preference to the home-pickled meat ; but if you 

 can't have that, select a piece fresh and have it put 

 in your butcher's barrel with a pinch of saltpetre 

 added to give it color. Then take Savoy cabbages — 

 about one more than you think you will want ; some 

 white French turnips — to be boiled with the beef, 

 cabbage and potatoes, and served hot, in slices. 

 Select potatoes that will boil dry and tender without 

 falling to p eces. Beets boiled separately, and served 

 in hot vinegar and butter, complete the list. The 

 condiments are not a slight matter — nothing is, 

 about a good dinner. To some people any colored 

 fluid that is a trifle sour is vinegar ; but the instructed 

 taste knows better, and craves the genuine article on 

 its boiled dinner. The mustard should be mixed 

 fresh, for those wdio like it ; an ancient pot of mus- 

 tard is as bad as salt that has lost its savor. There 

 should be no dessert after a boiled dinner, unless it 

 be fresh fruit. Nothing is more incongruous or un- 

 necessary than a lot of pastry or sweetmeats after 

 such a repast. 



Of course, everybody can't safely eat such a meal. 

 But let none such imagine it is the dinner, r.ather 

 than their stomach, or mode of life, that is at fault. 

 A man who huddles into a crowded street car and 

 hurries to his business, bends over his desk, or perch- 

 es on his stool, or stands at his counter, all day, with 

 not a breath of fresh air in his lungs, or exercise 

 enough to stir his slugish blood — who dashes out 

 for ten minutes to swallow a hasty lunch, and brings 

 a fagged mind and listless body to his hearty meal 

 late in the day — who robs himself of sleep only to 

 continue his w-ork, or seeks recreation in the vitiated 

 air of a crowded theatre or hall — such a man cannot 

 be expected to really relish any hearty food. But he 

 should not, in justice, berate the articles that others 

 find wholesome. "Because thou hast suddenly be- 

 come virtuous, shall there be no more cakes and 

 ale?" or, to paraphrase the quotation to meet the 

 case. Because you have not the stomach of a man, 

 shall there be no more boiled dinners? — Golden Rule 



Repairing Leaky Cellar \A^alls. 

 The season now at hand is the one most important 

 for making cellars dry and cleanly. In fact, the re- 

 liairing of leaky cellar walls should never be delayed, 

 since the crevices are continually widened b.v the 

 water soaking through. Cement, tar and water-glass 

 are the best materials for the purpose, but the last 

 two can only be used as a time when the cellar is dry, 

 as iu wiuter, perhaps even in September, or after 

 drying and airing it in winter by artificial means. 

 When nearly dry, the leaky portions of the wall can 

 be readily recognized, and should be marked with 

 charcoal. Holes and cracks should first be filled with 

 hydraulic cement. The marked places, when dry, 

 should be coated three or four times w ith a solution 

 of one volume of commercial water-glass in two of 

 water, and finally, after becoming perfectly dry, with 

 a solution of one volume of water-glass in one-half 

 volume of water. Instead of the solution of water- 

 glass, tar, kept quite liquid by heating, may be laid 

 on a number of times. If cement is to be employed, 

 the marked portions of the wall should be cut out 

 wedge-shaped, and carefully filled with a cement, 

 rather thickly made up, with one-half sand. If the 

 cellar cannot bedried, the moist places should be cut 

 out somewhat deeper (4 to 6 inches), and filled with 

 cement by placing a tube of material, about as thick 

 as a finger, in the middle, and packing the cement in 

 tightly around it, and, if necessary, holding it in 

 place with a board until it hardens, while the water 

 escapes through the tube without exerting any pres- 

 sure upon it. After 20 or 30 days the opening may 

 be plugged up. 



^ 



Handy Men. 



Next to a good mousing cat, a faithful watch-dog, 

 and a good family chestnut-colored horse, is a handy 

 man. Now don't misunderstand me, and say that I 

 compare a man with either of my favorites in the 

 speechless world, not at all. Man is the noblest 

 work of God, except a woman; but really a handy 

 one 1 am un.able to class. Conceive of anything 

 about a home more desirable, when circumstances 

 have compelled you to neglect home duties, or rather 

 postpone them, than for a man to fill the surcease 

 by being able to wash dishes, make beds, sweep, 

 make bread, and in straightened times darn his own 

 stockings, sew on his buttons, and preserve his hab- 

 itual good humor. If so, there is no rufHe or splash 

 in the home life in consequence of the inability to 

 maintain the order and comfort of the household. 

 Of course the season of the year favors the demon- 

 strations of handy men. We should not expect him 

 to leave his plough, harrow, or mowing machine, to 

 help iu the kitchen, but if he came to eat, and had a 

 mind to place the chairs, fill the ice-pitcher, or pare 

 the potatoes, it might contribute wonderfully to the 

 comfort of the tired housewife; not only by saving 

 steps, but the feeling of appreciation that cheers up 

 many a tired worker, and braces them up for the 

 numtierless duties about a home. Handy men are 

 generally fortunate in getting good wives, and any 

 woman is fortunate who has a handy husband. — 

 Misa Ruby, in Maine Farmer . 



