174 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[Novemberi 



half made into cider. He does not count on a full 

 or heavy crop oftener than once in four years. For 

 the codling moth he turns sheep into the orchard, 

 by which t'.iese insects are nearly cleared out. The 

 long-wool sheep are best, as Cotswolds, Leicesters 

 and South Downs; Merinos eat tlie bark. The soil 

 of the orchard is rich cnouah without manure. Mr. 

 Whitney advises for an orchard that it slope to the 

 north, cultivation with corn for a few years, then 

 seeding to clover, to be plowed under every three or 

 four years- 



Grafting in Winter. 



Some horticultural wiseacres have discovered that 

 fruit-grafting can be done in the winter season nearly 

 as successfully as in the spring, and regard it as a 

 discovery of vast importance. We should suppose 

 that, as this work is by no means agreeable when 

 the mercury stands below the freezing point, tne 

 three spring months, when grafting is sure to be suc- 

 cessful if done with any degree of care, would be 

 ample time for the labor to be performed, even in 

 the most extensive nurseries. Those who' may like 

 it and are willing to run the risk of winter-grafting, 

 will of course exercise their own wish about it ; but 

 we would suggest to those who have valuable apples 

 or pears that they are anxious to propagate, to ad- 

 here to the more favorable seasons for doing the 

 work. — Gennantowii TehgrapJt. 



Domestic Economy. 



Storing Potatoes. 

 Every method has been ti'ied by farmers to store 

 and preserve potatoes during the winter, and, we 

 may say, until potatoes come again. It is the most 

 valuable of all vegetables, though here and there we 

 find a person and a writer who undertakes to tell us 

 of their unwholesomeness. It is universally con- 

 sumed in all civilized countries, as where it cannot 

 be grown it is imported, which can be done loug dis- 

 tances without injury, when ventilation is attended 

 to. In storing potatoes several methods are adopted, 

 yet they are practically the same, the object being to 

 protect them against freezing, whether buried in pits 

 or stored in cellars. The iijst consideration is to 

 keep them in perfect darkness ; the next is, the bins 

 shonld not be too deep — not over three feet — to pro- 

 duce warmth and cause them to sprout. When 

 stored in the field, straight trenches are dug, say 

 twenty feet in length and foui-or fiveinwidtli, which 

 are filled to the depth of three feet with potatoes, 

 then well covered with straw, on top of which put 

 eighteen or twenty inches of earth. In a pit twenty 

 feet long there should be about three gas escapes or 

 ventilating openings, which should be plugged wil:h 

 straw and covered with a board set at an angle to 

 turn the rain. If in cellars, barn or otherwise, the 

 bin should be covered with rugs, old carpetings or 

 straw. Those intended to be kept for late spring 

 sales should be frequently examined and all sprouts 

 removed ; for as soon as a potato begins to sprout it 

 loses its solidity and dryness. 



Night Air. 



An extraordinary fallacy is the dread of night 

 air. What air can we breathe at night but night air? 

 The choice is between pure night air wiihout and 

 foul air from within. Most people prefer the latter. 

 An unaccountable choice. What will they say if it is 

 proved to be true that I'ully one-half of the diseases 

 we suffer from are occasioned by people sleeping 

 with their windows shut? An open window, most 

 nights in the year, can never hurt anyone. This is 

 not to say that light is not necessary for recovery. 

 In great cities night air is often the best and purest 

 air to be had in twenty-four hours. I could better 

 understand shutting the window's in town during the 

 day than the night, for the sake of the sick. The ab- 

 sence of smoke, the quiet, all tend to make night the 

 best time for airing the patient. 



One of our higliest medical authorities on con- 

 sumption and climate has told nic that the air in 

 London is never so good as aftei- 10 o'clock at night. 

 Always air your I'oom then from the outside air if 

 possiljle. Windows are made to open, doors are 

 made to shut ; a truth which seems extremely difH- 

 eult of apprehension. Every room must be aired 

 from without, every passage from within. But the 

 fewer passages there are in a hospital the better. — 

 Florence Nirjhtmgale. 



Drying Apples. 



The rapid increase or the fruit ilrying business 

 throughout the country is making a market for the 

 surplus apples and small I'ruits, which otherwise 

 would be wasted, and is giving the residents of 

 towns a supply of fruit for their tables which they 

 could not otherwise enjoy. Among the larger dry- 

 ing establishments is that of I). Wing & Co., of 

 Kochester, an account of which is given in the Rural 

 Hoii'c. They have four Alden evaporators, which, 

 running day and night, dry 400 bushels in 24 hours, 

 consuming three-fourths of a ton of coal at the same 



time. Windfalls of good winter sorts are used, for 

 which twenty to thirty cents per hundred pounds 

 are paid the farmers. Twelve Hubbard's apple 

 parers and slieers are employed to fit the apples for 

 drying, each parer requiring two girls to attend it. 

 Before drying, the fruit i.s bleached with the fumes 

 of burning sulphur, which whiten it without affect- 

 ing taste or quality. About seven hours are requir- 

 ed for the entire completion of the drying from its 

 commencement. Each dryer holds thirty bushels. 

 Each bushel of apples yields about five pounds of 

 dried fruit. A great advantage in transportation is 

 shown by Ihe fact that the dried fruit weighs only 

 about one-tenth as much as the fresh apples from 

 which it is made. At another drying establishment 

 in Fiocbestcr, ten tons have 'been contracted to a 

 London dealer, who pays at Rochester seven cents a 

 pound for it, or St40 per ton; last year the price 

 averaged six and a-balf cents. 



Beautifying Bedrooms. 



The newest mania among fashionable women, 

 married and unmarried, is to make their bedroom 

 beautiful. The lately acquired taste for decoration 

 is now taking that turn, to the neglect of drawing 

 rooms and parlors. Pillow shams and bed spreads 

 are luxuriously and expensively gotten up of silk, 

 satin, embi'oidery and lace; dressing cases are fur 

 nishcd with elaborate taste and ingenious fancy 

 work receptacles for toilet and otherariicles. Bottles 

 and boxes of the finest workmanship and choicest 

 materials hold the cologne, perfumeries, powders 

 and other scents for her ladyship's toilet. Pictures 

 hang upon the wall, or they are hung with silk, lace 

 or Oriental stuffs. Even her toilet crockery must be 

 of the choicest ware, or composed of odd pieces. 

 The ideal bed has a canopy over it, and this is made 

 as beautiful as faste and money will permit. The 

 framework is made of metal, commonly of burnished 

 brass or nickel. From this is suspended beautiful 

 curtains held by cords and tassels, ribbons or 

 bands. Statuary are on the walls, and the city is 

 searched for rare and beautiful thiugs to put in this 

 ideal, at present, of a woman's heart — her bedroom. 



Learn the Value of Money. 

 A silver dollar represents the day's work of the 

 laborer. It is given to a boy. He has no idea of 

 what it has cost or of what it Is worth. He would 

 be as likely to give a dollar as a dime for a top or any 

 other toy. But if the boy has learned to earn the dimes 

 and dollars by the sweat of his face, he knows the diff- 

 erence. Hard work is to him a measure of values 

 that can never be rubbed out of his mind. Let him 

 learn by experience that a hundred dollars represents 

 a hundred weary days of labor, and it seems a great 

 sum of mcmey; a thousand dollars is a fortune, 

 and ten thousand dollars is almo.st inconceivable, for 

 it is far more than he ever expects to possess. When 

 he has earned a dollar he thinks twice before he 

 spends it. He wants to invest it so as to get the 

 full value of a day's work for it. It is a great 

 wrong to society and to a boy to bring him up to 

 man's estate without this knowledge. A fortune at 

 twen'y one without it is almost inevitably thrown 

 away. With it, and a little capital to start on, he 

 will make his own fortune better than any one can 

 make it for him. 



Useful Hints. 



Sweet apples are fattening, simply because the 

 sweets, oils and starch are so , but the sour ones 

 (acids i)roduce leanness) nourish more than they 

 fatten; both are wholesome as food. Tea, water, 

 etc., do not fatten, but may bloat. Strong, green 

 tea may so far injure the health as to produce lean- 

 ness and neuralgia. 



Among the causes of salt-rheum are the excessive 

 use of salt — as the name indicates — and of strong 

 acids, with the use of poor soaps, with too much 

 alkali in them, which irritates tfie skin, appearing 

 on the hands, etc. It is highly probable that some 

 of the victims of this eruption use too much soap on 

 their hands, simply, and wet them too often. If the 

 skin seems dry and hard, apply glycerine or sweet 

 oil at night. — Honseltold. 



A Cheap Well. 



A correspondent writes ; " Dig down to a depth of 

 five or six feet a bole four feet in diameter ; brick it 

 up— using water lime mortar. Below this dig your 

 well in diameter a little less than the bricked top, 

 and as you go down plaster the dirt or sand on the 

 sides with water-lime mortar. A well dug and 

 plastered in this way costs one-half the price of an 

 ordinary well of the same depth and diameter, and 

 is proof against all kinds of vermin, nor can any dirt 

 wash down from tlie sides. I have a well made in 

 this way that has done excellent service for eleven 

 years, and in that time it has been cleaned out only 

 once. There is no need of cleaning such a well, as 

 there is no accumulation of filth in it. The bricking 

 at the to]i is done to avoid injury from frost, as the 

 plaster peels ofl' where the ground behind it has 

 frozen." 



Own a Home. 



Every man who has or expects to have a family 

 should strive to become the owner of a home, for 

 without one he can never feel nor be independent. 

 With a home of his own he becomes better con- 

 tented, feels a deeper interest in public affairs, and 

 is a better member of society. No man should rest 

 satisfied until he possesses at least a small portion of 

 the grandest of all possessions — land— the fruitful 

 mother of all thf^ productions which sustains exis- 

 tence, secures comfort and gives stability and inde- 

 pendence to life. Every man makes his life what it 

 is, out of the material circumstances which surround 

 him. How different the feelings of the family, with 

 a home they can call their own, to those who are 

 dependent tenants. 



Household Recipes, 



To KEEP fresh meat sweet for a week, in summer, 

 plunge it in vinegar, with a plate over it to keep it 

 under. Wash off when using it. Try it. 



Colo Slaw*. — Cut a head of cabbage finely; salt 

 to taste, rubbing it gently between the hands for a 

 few minutes; drain all the water off; take a half- 

 pint of vinegar — not too strong— one tablespoonful 

 of sugar ; two spoonsful of sour cream ; beat it in 

 the cut cabbage a few minutes ; sprinkle pepper 

 over it and serve. 



Eel Pot-pie. — Cut your eels in pieces about an 

 incli and a half in length ; take a pan about two 

 inches deep; butter it around the sides ; put in some 

 pared potatoes cut in pieces — not too small — and add 

 some of the eels ; sprinkle pepper and salt over 

 them, with a little saffron ; roll some of the dough 

 you intend to use and cut it into squares ; lay some 

 of them over the top and around the sides ; put in 

 another layer of potatoes and eels, and roll a top- 

 crust. Before you put it on pour a pint of boiling 

 water in the pan ; cut three or four holes iu the top- 

 crust, put it on and press it firmly against the pan 

 around the edges ; put it in an oven, hot enough to 

 bake bread, for one hour. 



Spirits OF Am.monia, applied to a fresh wound 

 or a bruise, relieves the pain almost immediately. 



Cream should be stirred twice a day, if not 

 churned on the same day, and kept in a cool place 

 till wanted. Leoline. 



To Tell Good Eggs. — If you desire to be certain 

 that your eggs are good and fresh put them in 

 water — if the butts turn up they are not fresh. This 

 is an infallible rule to distinguish a good egg from a 

 bad one. 



To Broil Tomatoes. — Cut off the green part of 

 the stem and place the tomatoes on a gridiron over 

 the hot coals, and cover with a pan or lid. They 

 are to be cooked slowly. When done take up, dress 

 very liberally witli butter, salt and pepper. 



MARLBOROUun PoDDiNG. — Stcw a few apples 

 and strain them, add a teacup of hulter, a teacup of 

 sugar, a teacup of cream, the juice of two lemons 

 with the best part of the grated rind, a little mace 

 and four eggs beaten lightly, and to be baked in a 

 rich paste. 



Lemon Ginger Cakes. — Quarter pound of butter, 

 one-half pound of sugar, three eggs, one small cup 

 of milk, the same quantity of molasses, three and a 

 quarter pounds of flour, teaspoonful of ginger, one 

 of cinnamon, one tablespoonful of salerat us dissolved 

 in milk, the rind of two lemons and the juice of one. 

 Bake iu a quick oven. 



Indian Meal Pudding. — One pintof Indian meal 

 cooked, one quart of milk, half a cup of butter, one 

 pint of molasses, four eggs, with a little cinnamon 

 or nutmeg ; boil the milk, stir in gradually the meal, 

 mix all together and let it stand two hours; add the 

 eggs when the puilding is ready to put in the oven ; 

 let it bake two hours. 



Warmed-over Biscuits. — Stale cream biscuits 

 can be so nicely warmed over that none can object to 

 eating them. They may be broken apart, and a 

 quarter of an hour before tea should ue dipped 

 separately into a bowl of clear water, and replaced 

 in the baking tin iu the oven. They should simply 

 be heated through, but not browned or crisped. 



Sausage.- Housekeepers will do well to preserve 

 the following first-rate recipe for sausage. To every 

 twelve pouii's of meat take three tablespoonfuls of 

 salt not much heaped, tbiee tablespoonfuls of black 

 pepper, eight tablespoonfuls of sage, and half a tea- 

 spoonful of red pepper. Good sausage is splendid 

 with buckwlieat cakes iu winter, and I got this 

 recipe from a friend whose sausage is always good 

 as long as it lasts. 



"Cold Slaw'" "8 a eorruiitjoii of the Saxon kohi salaad, 

 whicli simply mt-iiKS kate mlad, or eahbafje salad. Some 

 I e >ple (ireler tliis sillad hot, but it is seldoiii if ever called 

 hot slaw. Th^-y roay not linow ttie origin otf the name. The 

 crueilerous eeuus. Bransica, iuciudes the kohls, calea, 

 cabbages, cauliflowers, &c. 



