1879.] 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



93 



the question arises, whence came the apples and 

 fruits of the pile-huildcrs ? The same question inicht 

 be propounded with respect to the wheat wliich is 

 found in the debris of their dwellings, and the 

 answer to the one question would probably be an 

 answer for the other. It is not improbable that the 

 distribution of grains and fruits anions: 'he nations 

 of the earth has a much greater antiquity than has 

 commonly been admitted. In attempting to deter- 

 mine the original specilic character of our common 

 apple, we have to deal with a difficult question. 

 The apple of the present day is the productof centu- 

 ries of cultivation and horticultural skill, and the 

 transformations and modifications efleeted thereby 

 are such that we need not be surprised if we are 

 unable to recognize the original or parent stoclt. 

 Linnieus named the common apple of cultivation 

 Pyrm Jfabts, taking as the type the common seed- 

 ling apple, which he appears to have considered a 

 good species, and the same view has been generally 

 entertained by successful botanists. 



Pruning Evergreens. 



We have been in the practice for many years of 

 pruning evergreens as freely as deciduous trees, and 

 have found great advantage in the practice, wherc- 

 ever a better or more systematic form is desirable. 

 They may be cut freely it the growth of the tree is 

 vigorous, but the same ol)jcct may be reached with 

 moderate growers by pinching oil' the shoots early in 

 the season. Small, distorted trees, which are unfit 

 for sale in the nursery, have been changed in a few 

 years into objects of symmetry and beauty by both 

 modes of treatment combined. Josiah Hoopes 

 states, in a late number of the Tribune, that early 

 in spring he cuts his evergreens freely into shape 

 without regard to buds or anything "else. Pines, 

 with their scanty lateral buds, are easily made to 

 produce regular conical heads. The fault with some 

 of the pines is their thin growth ; with a little atten- 

 tion we find that this fault may be corrected by early 

 pinching back the new shoots. Take the Scotch or 

 Austrian pine, for example, or such specimens as 

 have long and slender shoots. When they have 

 grown two or three inches early in the season, pinch 

 off all the ends. They will form new buds, and an 

 open head may be thus changed into a dense and 

 compact one. The natural graceful form should be 

 preserved to a certain extent, and the tree not be 

 changed to mathematical stilfness.— Co«««rj/ era- 

 Poisoned by Mushrooms. 



Mr. J. A. Palmer has a paper on poisoning by 

 mushrooms in the Moniteur ticienlifique. He states 

 that there are three dittV-rent ways in which mush- 

 rooms may act as a poison. First', thev may produce 

 the eiTeets of indigestible matter, as when" the hard 

 coriaceous species is eaten, and even the edible mush- 

 roop may cause a similar result, for when it is de- 

 composing it gives off sulphuretted hydrogen gas in 

 quantity sufficient to induce vomiting. Second, a 

 subtle alkaloid, without smell or taste, is contained 

 In some mushrooms, as, for instance, in the group of 

 the Ammitce, and is called amanilin. No antidote 

 has yet been discovered for this poison, and to it 

 most of the cases of death followinL;- [],e i-itinn of 

 mushrooms is due. It is at first slm, in jis arrinn. 

 But after the lapse of eight to liinin li.:ui> iln^ 

 patient experiences stupefaction, iiau.-i:i, aii.l diar 

 rhoea. Delirium follows, and then dcatli. Mush- 

 rooms containing amauitin will impart poisonous 

 properties to wholesome varieties, if both happen to 

 be placed in the same vessel. The poison can be 

 absorbed by the pores of the skin. Mr. Palmer car- 

 ried in his hand some amanito! wrapped up in a 

 paper, and, notwithstanding the protection which 

 the wrapper should have afforded, he was seized with 

 alarming symptoms. 



Wood Ashes for Peach Trees. 

 I have never known a person who would dispute 

 the assertion with which the chapter on peaches in 

 Thomat' Fruit Cultnrisl opens. "The peach, when in 

 perfection, is the most delicious fruit of our climate." 

 Unfortunately the disease known as yellows, and the 

 enemy known as the peach borer, make it, in manv 

 localities, one of the most difficult of fruits to grow". 

 For several years I have used wood aslies about my 

 peach trees with marked success in obvlat-ing these 

 two evils. About a peck of fresh ashes is applied 

 each spring and fall about the stem of the tree in a 

 little conical mound, that previously so placed being 

 spread upon the soil when a new application is made". 

 The conical mound prevents the attack of the borer, 

 and the dressing of ashes upon the soil stimulates 

 the vigor of the tree so that it is enabled to resist the 

 disease. But this must be accompanied by regular 

 shortening-in of the last year's growth, and by thin- 

 ning of the fruit, to prevent overbearing, which ex- 

 hausts the tree and leaves it an easy prey to disease. 

 A ease of yellows occasionally, though rarely, ap- 

 pears in my orchard, as must be expected where a 

 disease is constitutional.but by this treatment peaches 

 are now successfully grown where their cultivation 

 Wfts for a. long time abandoned.— Com ji(ry Gentleman. 



Cord-Wood in an Acre. 

 To estimate the quantity of cord-wood in an acre 

 of woodland requires experience. A person who has 

 been engaged In clearing land aud cutting wood could 

 give a very close estimate at a general glance, but 

 other persons would make the wildest guesses. An 

 experienced person may proceed as follows : .Measure 

 out lour square rods of ground ; that is, thirty-three 

 feet each way, and count the trees, averaging the 

 cubic contents as near as possible of the trunks, and 

 adding one-fourth of this for the limbs. Then, as 138 

 cubic feet make a cord, and the plot is one-fourth of 

 an acre, the result is easily reached. Fairly good 

 timber land should yield a coi-d to every four square 

 rods. A tree two feet in diameter and thirty feet 

 high to the limbs will make a cord of wood, if It is 

 growing in close timber, and the limbs are not heavy. 

 If the limbs are large and spreading, such a tree will 

 make I"^ to \]4 cords. A tree one foot In diameter 

 will make a fourth as much as one twice the diame- 

 ter. In estimating it is necessary to remember this 

 Agriculturist. 



fact.- 



Gooseberries and Currants. 



den. They are no li.^i i- I ' -row 



readily from cutting.-^, i , ,i , : ; y,.^^ 



from six to ten inches in i i.,! :; ;:,. i.aor 

 place where they arc h; .!.iiid i.ciin.uu luly, lorce 

 them into the ground not less than four inches, 

 press the ground tlrmly around them, mulch them 

 aud let them alone. If a bn»h is desired let the buds 

 on the cutting remain ; but if a tree or single stem is 

 preferred, remove all the buds that would go beneath 

 the surface. Let them stand about three feet in the 

 row, and if there is more than one row, let the rows 

 be four feet apart. 



In the spring the dead wood of both the goose- 

 berries and currants should be cut out, and the new 

 growth should be thinued where there are too many, 

 as it will interfere with the product. The best red 

 currant is the Dutch ; and the best gooseberries are 

 Downing's Prolific aud Houghton's Seedling. • 



Mulching Newly Planted Trees. 

 We have found mulching to he of decided benefit 

 to recently transplanted trees of all kinds, and es- 

 pecially to deciduous trees. It should be applied be- 

 fore the sun becomes hot and the ground dry and 

 beginK to I'ake— .-ay in May. Various applications 

 are u^. ,1— ,.<,i,i,. apply horse manure, fine shavings, 

 saw liii.-i, -pt ni Ian, L'l'ass, and even charcoal. We 

 have usitl alinofl t-xclusively grass, and think it 

 answers as well as any other. But it should be re- 

 newed two or three times a season and the soil stirred. 

 It keeps the soil around the tree moist and cool, and 

 prevents the growth of weeds. Evergreens can also 

 be mulched with benetii, ili.iui;li mc do ii,,i ihink 

 they demand it to an ciiual r\'.,u\. a.- tiaii- di-n.-^e, 

 low foliage answers prcliy well at- a ^nlisiii in.-. The 

 ground, however, shoulil \n- frifinently Mirnd be- 

 neath them. We never mulch any tree afitr the 

 first season, unless it looks a little under the weather. 

 — Oermanlown Telcgrajih. 



Domestic Economy. 



Some Interesting Facts Concerning Bread. 

 Of all articles of vegetable food bread must be 

 considered as the most' import ant. The mode of 

 preparation of bread is essentially the same every- 

 where, though its constituents may vary with the 

 different material conditions of th"e people of the 

 earth. Wheat bread is everywhere recognized as 

 the most nourishing and the most healthy. Medium 

 .wheat usually yields from 72 to 80 per cent, of good 

 flour. The miller sometimes tries to increase the 

 yield of flour by grinding with the stones set closely ; 

 but it is at the expense of the quality of the floiir, 

 for the starch granule becomes thereby bruised and 

 damaged, and is found to be deteriorated for the 

 purpose of bread-making. Bakers prefer a flour 

 which feels a little harsh between the finger and 

 thumb, instead of soft and smooth. The Israelites 

 ate leavened bread, except on peculiar occasions. 

 The Bedouin of the present day, as his ancestors 

 did, cooks his unleavened bread in the embers, gen- 

 erally between layers of dried dung. The Egyptians, 

 like the London bakers, kneade ' bread with their 

 feet. It is claimed that the art of making bread 

 from wheat was first taught the Chinese 1998 B. C. 

 The Hebrew bread was a flat cake, baked on thi- 

 hearth or ou a metallic plate. There were no pro- 

 fessional bakers in Kome till more than .'iSO years 

 after the building of the city, and the occupation 

 formerlj belonged to women. " Vinegar to soak bread 

 was a regular ration with the Koman soldiery. 

 Bread was made with yeast by the English bakers in 



Barley-meal is the chief food of a large number of 

 people in the north of Europe and in the south of 

 England, where the laborer is partly paid his wages 

 in meal or grain. It is also used in Wales and Scot- 

 land, especially when wheaten bread is dear. It is 



employed by about ninety per cent, of the outdoor 

 laboring population of England. Barley bread is 

 heavy, coarse and rigid, though its taste is one of 

 strength, and it quickly satisfies the hunger. The 

 common way of making It into bread in Europe is by 

 mixing it with an equal proportion of wheaten flour, 

 and sometimes it is mixed with oatmeal and rycmeal, 

 and baked Into cakes. When used whole as food, 

 barley is first parched, as in many districts of India. 

 In external appearance the grain of rye presents a 

 closer resemblance to wheat than any of the other 

 cereals. It Is, however, darker In color and smaller 

 in size. Rye bread is less nourishing and harder to 

 digest than that made of wheal, yet It was once a 

 common article of food in England. It forms the 

 dark-colored and sour-tasting bread which is etill 

 extensively used in the north of Europe. It may be 

 considered as filling the place of wheaten bread In 

 the temperate countries where poverty prevails and 

 agriculture is the least advanced. It Is rarely eaten 

 alone, but is frequently mixed with twice its bulk of 

 wheaten flour. 



Indian corn Is one of the most extensively used 

 grains in the world, though it is not well adapted for 

 making bread, on account of its deficiency in gluten, 

 without the admixture of wheaten or rye flour. 

 Used alone, eornmcal, like oatmeal and barley meal, 

 is made into a cake. The common brown bread of 

 New England is made from a mixture of rye and 

 Indian meal. Mixed with maple sugar, and baked 

 into cakes, Indian meal formed at one time the chief 

 article of diet of the Delaware Indians. The ration 

 of a Kaffir servant is three pints of Indian cornraeal 

 per day, ami, although he rarely gets anything else 

 to pat, he maiiai-es to keep in good health. Through- 

 out Mexico, where corn is the staple article of food, 

 it is cooked hy baking it into flat cakes about six 

 inches in diameter and a third of an inch In thick- 

 ness. It is prepared by boiling the whole corn in 

 water, with a little soda or lye of wood'ashes, until 

 it is perfectly soft to the core, but not broken up; 

 it is then allowed to cool, and Is taken from the pot 

 in small portions at a time and crushed into a paste 

 between stones. On account of the absence of 

 gluten, oatmeal cannot be vesiculated and made into 

 bread, like wheaten flour. It is, however, made into 

 thin cakep by mixing into a paste with water, and 

 then baking on an iron plate. Under this form it is 

 a staple food in Scotland, Norway and some i>ortions 

 of Germany. Oatmeal Is known as a strong food 

 and one that requires much cooking iS order to break 

 its starch cells. 



Surrounded by an abundance of wheat, corn, rye 

 and barley, Americans scarcely realize the straits to 

 which the teeming millions of the Old World are put 

 for bread, nor the variety of substances in general 

 use. Bread made of bran flour in the Black Forest 

 regions' is hard, dry, tasteless and indigestible. 

 Bread made of moss and lichens is eaten in Iceland, 

 as well as in other sections during famines ; that 

 made from Egyptian millet has a sour flavor. Potato 

 bread remains fresh longer than rye bread, and when 

 mixed with wheat or rye flour is quite satisfying ; Its 

 nourishment is about one-fifth that of wheat. In 

 1030, during a famine in England, very good, whole- 

 some, whits bread was made from boiled turnips. 

 The moisture was pressed out of the turnips, and 

 they were then kneaded with an equal quantity of 

 wheaten flour. During the siege of Paris the bread 

 served out constituted a very coarse and mixed article, 

 aud by analysis it was found to be composed of one- 

 eighth wheat, four-eighths potatoes, beans, peas, 

 oats and rye, two-eighths water and the remaining 

 eighth straw, hulls of grains and the skins of vege- 

 table products. In Sweden and Norway beech saw- 

 dust is sometimes converted into bread." llice bread, 

 used in the East, is raised with difficulty unless the 

 dough is mixed with acids. Bread is made of 'the 

 roots of the water lily in Sweden, of peanuts mixed 

 with white flour ill Spain, of chestnuts roasted and 

 ground in Southern France, of the bread-tree fruit, 

 the sweet potato, the banana and the almond In 

 Africa, of roots in parts of Brazil. In times of 

 famine men have met the exigency by Uie yse of 

 bread made from acorns, pumpkins, roots, wood, 

 hay, straw and nnis.—Buston Cultiralor. 



Ho-w to Make Sauce and Croquettes. 

 Mr. Delmonico, talking about entrees, says that 

 Americans ought to copy "the French method of 

 utilizing small bits of raw meats and fowls, and of 

 re-cookiug all kinds of cold joints and pieces of 

 cooked moat which remain, day after day, from every 

 dinner in almost every family." The success of such 

 dishes depends mainly on the sauce, which Is best 

 made Irom broth. The following is his recipe for a 

 favorite sauce : '-Take an ounce of ham or bacon, 

 cut it up in small pieces, and fry it In hot fat. Add 

 an onion aud carrot, cut up, thicken with flour, then 

 add a pint or quart of broth, according to quantity 

 desired, season with pepper and salt, and any spice 

 or herb that is relished (better though without the 

 spice), aud let simmer for an hour, skim carefully 

 and strain. A wineglass of any wine may be added, 

 if liked." Cold roast or broiled beef or mutton may 

 be cut into small squares, fried brown in butter, and 

 then gently stewed in the sauce above described. Mr. 

 Delmonico describee croquettes as the attractive 



