78 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



'[May 



where a feuce can be dispeuseii with, It should be 

 done. Now that much farm work ie done by ma- 

 chinery, fields should be as lar;^e as they well can 

 be, because work can be done so much easier in a 

 large field than in a small one, where a large part of 

 the time is taken up in turning around. This cutting- 

 up lots into small fields is very poor management, to 

 say the least. I have seen a farmer run a stump 

 fence directly through the middle of a four-acre field, 

 thus spoiling the looks of it, as well as causing 

 much extra labor in the cultivation of the same. 



Oatmeal and Beef Tea. 

 I find this quite useful to give strength to weak 

 patients ; take two tablespoonsful of fine oatmeal 

 and make it perfectly smooth in two spoonsful 

 of cold water ; pour into this a pint of strong beef 

 tea; boil it eight minutes; keep stirring all the 

 time ; it should be very smooth ; if lumpy pass 

 through a sieve. 



Horseback Riding. 



Fifty or a hundred years ago the saddle was quite 

 sure to be found in the farmer's barn as one of the 

 necessary articles of the farm ; but now it is too 

 much put to one side for the harness and buggy. 

 When the roads are bad the saddle should be more 

 generally used on the ground of both economy and 

 comfort. Boys and girls should learn the art of 

 horseback riding. As far as possible every farmer 

 should have a horse suited to the saddle. 



English and American Implements. 

 The English manufacturer makes his implements 

 heavy, without much regard to the strength needed. 

 Their forks, whether for spading, or hay, or manure 

 forks, are much too heavy, and are most unwieldy, 

 as compared with the neatly shaped, lightly built, 

 and easily handled American forks. The English 

 plow is usually three times as heavy as ours, twice 

 as long, and much less easily handled. The cradles 

 they use in cutting their grain would not be used by 

 one of our reapers, and so with many other of their 

 heavy farm implements. 



Cement for an Aquarium. 

 Cement for an aquarium that will not crack or 

 peel from glass or galvanized iron : Take by measure 

 ten parts of litharge, ten parts of plaster of Paris, 

 ten parts of fine dry white sand, and one part finely 

 powdered rosin. When wanted for use mix into a 

 stiff putty with boiled linseed oil. Do not use the 

 tank for three or four days after cemented. 



In Testing Eggs 

 The fresher the egg the smaller the air chamber. 

 This can be seen at the broad end of the egg if it be 

 held against a strong light in a dark room. Stale 

 eggs have a mottled, grayish look about them. A 

 new-laid egg will always give a feeling of warmth 

 if the tongue is pressed to the large end . 



To Take the Woody Taste Out of a Pail, 



FUl the pail with boiling hot water ; let it remain 

 until cold, then empty and dissolve soda in lukewarm 

 water, adding a little lime to it, and wash the inside 

 well with the solution ; after that scald with hot 

 water and rinse well" 



Household Recipes. 



Jelly Custard.— To one cupful of any sort of 

 jelly add one egg, and beat well together with three 

 teaspoons of cream or milk. After mixing thorough- 

 ly bake In a good crust. 



Marlborough Pie. — Grate six apples, one cup of 

 sugar, three tablespoons melted butter, four eggs, 

 juice and grated rind of a lemon, two tablespoons 

 brandy or wine, if you choose ; if not, omit it. Bake 

 In an under, but without top crust. 



Vermicelli Soup.— Boil three pounds of veal for 

 three hours in three quarts of water. Then strain 

 and add to it a cupful of vermicelli which has previ- 

 ously been boiled for twenty minutes in water. Add 



salt to taste -and serve with a plate of grated Parme- 

 san cheese. 



Broiled Chicken.— Clean and split open the 

 chicken and broil it on' the gridiron over a clear fire. 

 Sprinkle with salt and pepper, spread it with the 

 best fresh butter and serve on a hot platter with a 

 few sprigs of watercress around it. Serve the lettuce 

 salad with it. Dress the salad with oil, salt, pepper 

 and vinegar. 



Snow Cakes. — Half-cupful of butter, three eggs, 

 two cupsful of sugar, four of. fiour, one of milk, 

 two teaspoonsful of baking powder. Stir butter and 

 sugar together, add the beaten yolks and half the 

 fiour, with the baking powder in it ; pour in the 

 milk, beat the whites thoroughly and mix in ; then 

 stir in the rest of the flour. Bake in small, fancy- 

 shaped pans, and ice when cold. 



Light Pot Pie.— One pint of sour milk or butter- 

 milk, one teacup of sour cream and one teaspoon of 

 soda ; add flour and mix hard, like bread, and let it 

 stand one hour to rise. Never roll or cut it, but nip 

 it off in pieces the size you wish. Boil thirty minutes 

 and you will always have it as light as a puff. Al- 

 most any kind of fresh meat will make good pot- 

 pie, though chicken, beef and veal are preferable. 

 Prepare the same.as for baked chicken pie; drop 

 one thickness of the crust all around the top of the 

 pot. Let the pot be uncovered the first fifteen 

 minutes, then cover it and boil fifteen minutes 

 longer. Be sure that it does not stop boiling from 

 the time the crust is put in until you take it up ; 

 bring it to the table immediately. 



Chicken Pudding.— Cut up as for fricassee and 

 parboil, seasoning well with pepper, salt and a lump 

 of butter the size of an egg to each chicken. The 

 fowl should be young and tender, and divided at 

 every joint. Stew slowly for hall' an hour ; take 

 them out and lay them on a flat dish to cool ; set 

 aside the water in which they were stewed for your 

 gravy. Make a batter of one quart of milk, three 

 cups of floui', three tablespoons melted butter, "one- 

 half teaspoon soda and one spoonful cream tartar, 

 four eggs well beaten and a little salt. Put a layer 

 of chicken in the bottom of the dish and pour aboUf 

 one-half cupful of batter over it, enough to conceal 

 the meat ; then another layer of chicken and more 

 batter till the dish is full. The batter must form 

 the crust. Bake one hour in a moderate oven. Beat 

 up an egg and stir into the gravy which was set 

 aside. Thicken <«fith two teaspoons flour, boil up 

 and send to table in a gravy dish . 



Putting Away Clothes.— When putting away 

 winter clothes see that they are clean and whole. It 

 is a great comfort to take them out ready for use. 

 Have a bag to hold the stockings of each member if 

 the family. Label each one, in order to save time 

 and not be obliged to look into each to flnd the ones 

 you wish to use. 



Spice Cakes.— Take one cup of molasses, three- 

 quarters of a cup of sugar, one tablespoonful of 

 ginger and cinnamon and allspice. Add these to 

 one-half cup of melted butter, and beat in two tea- 

 spoonfuls of soda and flour enough to roll. Roll very 

 thin, cut out with a tin cutter and bake in pans in a 

 hot oven. 



Orange Pie or Pudding.— One pound of butter, 

 one pound of sugar beaten to a cream, one glass of 

 brandy, wine or rose water ; ten eggs beaten to a 

 high froth ; have two oranges and boil the rind until 

 it is tender, change the water two or three times 

 while it is boiling, then beat it in a mortar and 

 squeeze the juice in, together with the rind of one 

 lemon grated and the juice of the same ; mix all well 

 together with the other ingredients, and bake in a 

 puff paste without an upper crust ; half this quantity 

 is sutfieient for two ordinary-sized pies. 



Canadian Jelly Cake.— Beat one teacupful of 

 white sugar and four ounces of butter to a cream ; 

 add the yolks of three eggs, well beaten, and two 

 tablespoonsful of milk. Stir into the above one 

 pound of flour, with two teaspoonsful of cream tartar 

 and one of soda mixed in. Last of all add the whites 



of the eggs beaten to a strong froth. Flavor with 

 lemon essence, and pour the batter into four shallow 

 tin-like plates, and bake fifteen minutes in a quick 

 oven. When cold, two cakes are placed on the top- 

 of each other, with jelly or preserve between. The 

 cakes should be an inch thick when baked, and cov- 

 ered with powdered sugar. 



Rhubarb Tart.— Line a pie-plate withgood paste 

 and bake it with a filling of uncooked riceor of linen 

 rags. When done remove the filling and put in 

 the rhubarb already stewed and sweetened and fla- 

 vored with a little lemon juice and peel. Instead of 

 putting on a whole top crust, twist some strips of the 

 dough or past and lay three of them, acrossTthe pie 

 from edge at wide intervals. Then lay tliree more 

 strips over the first three so that they can cross them 

 in checkerboard pattern. Arrange the oven so that 

 the top and not the bottom will bake. Brown the 

 strips slightly and quickly. Serve with a pitcher of 

 cream. 



Barley Socp. — Boil one pint of pearl barley in 

 one quart of stock until it is reduced to a pulp, pass 

 it through a sieve, and add as much more stock as 

 will be required to make the puree of the consitten- 

 cy of cream ; put the soup on the fire ; when it boils 

 etir into it (off the fire) the yolk of an egg beaten up 

 with a gill of cream; add half a pat of fresh butter, 

 and serve with small slice of bread fried in butter. 



Sauced Herring.- Place the herrings side by 

 side in a pie-dish, with slices of onion and bay leaf, 

 and some salt and whole pepper; mix half and half 

 of vinegar and ale, and pour as much of the mixture 

 over the fish as the dish will hold. Put the dish 

 into a pretty hot oven for about twenty minutes, 

 taking care never to let the fish get dry, but as they 

 get soaked up pour over the remainder of the vinegar , 

 and ale. Serve cold. 



Royal Diplomatic Pudding .—Soak half.boxof ' 

 gelatine in half a cupful of cold water one or two 

 hours. Pour on this two-thirds of a pint of boiling 

 water, and add the juice of a lemon, a cupful of 

 sugar and half a pint of wine. Stir and strain. 

 Have two moulds, one holding two quarts the other 

 a quart. Put a layer of jelly in the large mould, 

 and place on ice. When hard garnish with candied 

 cherries cut in Two. Pour in a few spoonfuls of 

 liquid jelly, not hot, to hold the cherries, and then 

 pour in enough to cover them. When the jelly is 

 perfectly hard, set the small mould in the center of 

 the large one, and fill the space between with jelly. 

 Fill the small mould with ice and set both in a, 

 basin of ice-water. When the jelly is again hard re- 

 move the ice from the small mould, which fill with 

 warm water, and lift it out carefully. The vacant 

 space is to be filled with custard, made by the fol- 

 lowing recipe : The yolks of five eggs, half a cupful 

 of sugar, two tablespoonsful of wine, one tablespoon- 

 ful of vanilla extract, half a box of gelatine, soaked 

 in half a cupful of cold water, a scant cupful of 

 milk . Put the milk to boil, add the gelatine, and ' 

 the eggs and sugar beaten together. Strain and add 

 the wine and vanilla. When the custard begins to 

 thicken add half a pint of cream whipped to a stiff 

 froth. Pour the custard into the space mentioned, 

 and let it stand until it hardens. Turn the puddlne: 

 out of the mould, and .serve with soft custard 

 poured around it. 



To MAKE chocolate (it must never be cut with a- 

 knife) an ounce and a half is requisite for a cup. 

 Dissolve it gradually in hot water, stirring it the 

 while with a wooden spoon ; let it boil for a quarter 

 of an hour, and serve it hot with milk, or without, 

 according to taste. "More than fifty years ago," re- 

 lates Brillat-Savarin, "Madame d'Arestrel, the Lady 

 Superior of the Convent of the Visitation at Belley, 

 told me that if I wished to drink really good 

 late it must be made the night before in an earthen 

 ware pot, and left. The night's repose concentrati 

 it, and gives it a softness which makes it myc 

 better. 



How THE Chinese Make Tea.— "The tea is put! 

 in a clean teapot and hot water poured on it, and leftJ 

 to stand fifteen or twenty minutes and steep. Heral 



