190 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[December, 



ern after the successful breeder of animals. The 

 latter studies the animals which are mated. Let a 

 breeder of corn select some of the bg*t stalks in hts 

 field, cover the young ears before the '■ silk " comes 

 in sight. Then take pollen from a stalk very much 

 like the one which is to bear the seed corn. Save 

 the best ear, plant in a good place by itself, and 

 cultivate well. Continue this work, and in a few 

 few years he can make almost anything he chooses 

 of his corn. One should let no peculiarity of corn 

 escape his attention. See which endures dry weather 

 best; notice the height of the upper ear, the stalk, 

 the earliness, the number of nodes, whether the 

 stalks are slender or stout, whether the ears have 

 long or short husks, long or short, large or small 

 shanks, etc. This is a facinating study, and he 

 who will begin an intelligent series of experi 

 ments looking to the improvement of corn, will be 

 quite sure to succeed. He will interest and profit 

 himself, and also become a benefactor to his race. — 

 Ameriam Agricidturist. 



Hort:cl ruRE. 



Bitter Rot in Apples. 



Bitter rot in apples is becoming quite prevalent in 

 this country among the older trees. Three plans are 

 proposed as preventives : Rusty shingle nails driven 

 into the tree half an inch apart, just below the limbs, 

 all around. Another is, just as the tree comes out 

 in full leaf, take a common draw knife and girdle the 

 tree, taking off all the outer bark on a space about 

 one foot in length. Still anothsr is to top-dress the 

 soil under each tree, as far as the limbs or roots ex- 

 tend, with from one to two bushels of a mixture of 

 lime and wood or coal ashes. The presence of sorre 

 will serve to indicate whether the land is sour or not, 

 in which case the last plan should be adopted lor the 

 general good of the orchard, whether the trees are 

 subject to the bitter rot or not. It is not claimed 

 that these plans are infallible, but they have all been 

 known to cure this disease in trees so afflicted ; at 

 least, they are worthy of trial, on a small scale. 



Sheltering Tender Plants. 



The Prairie Farmer gives this good suggestion to 

 young gardeners who have no room in the house for 

 thrir young plants which want some shelter at night : 

 Take any frame like that of a hot-bed, and cover it 

 with brown factory muslin instead of glass. If 

 wanted to be waterproof, select cotton cloth, brown 

 fac ry, or muslin, of a close texture; take two 

 ounces of lime water, four ounces of linseed oil, one 

 ounce of white of egg, two ounces of yellow of egg • 

 mix the lime and oil with very gentle heat, beat the 

 eggs separately, and mix them with the former ; 

 spread the mixture with a paint brush over the cot- 

 ton, allowing each coat to dry before applying an 

 other, until they become waterproof. 



of ground and closely covered with boards. Pour 

 them on a dry unbroken ground in a nice heap, or 

 make a pen with boards, and first cover with straw 

 — clean wheat-straw is the best, as it will not hold 

 dampness so bad as oat-straw — and then cover 

 clo.sely with the earth taken from the trench to be 

 dug around the heap. They should not be covered 

 too deep at first, because apples like almost anything 

 else "go through a sweat," and should be allowed 

 air; but as the weather cools or tiireatens a freeze, 

 then a good heavy re-covering s necessary. By all 

 means gather the apples early and carei'ully, and if 

 well cared for you will find that your little orchard 

 will bear you untold food for both man and beast. 

 Nothing is better for the milk-cow in the winter than 

 a peek of apples sliced into their bran, and nothing is 

 more relished. Other stock will relish them as well. 

 Apples are too healthful to be neglected. 



Household Recipes. 



Apple Picking. 



Apple-picking time is too often put off too long in 

 this country, and made a secondaryjconsideration. 

 A good supply of the fruit of the orchard should 

 always be laid in early in the fall. It is probably the 

 most healthful product of the well appointed farm, 

 and if more attention were paid to it there would be 

 fewer doctor's bills paid. To insure a good supply 

 of apples for a long time they should be gathered by 

 the 10th of October at the least, or when they first 

 begin to fall. It is a hard matter to give the way to 

 keep all apples best, as different ones require differ- 

 ent care. Some will quickly spoil in a warm place, 

 while others will wither and seemingly dry up and be 

 sound a long time. One rule, however, is quite 

 safely applied to all apples, and that is to keep as 

 cool as possible without letting them freeze. Fall 

 and winter apples should be put away separately and 

 used in their respective seasons. Those intended for 

 early marketing shodld be rigidly sorted and none 

 but the best sent to town, as inl'erior grades will not 

 sell at hardly any price. Later sorts should be 

 stowed in leaves or chaff, or buried in some dry piece 



Apple Compote.— Peel, core and halve six large 

 apples, trimming them so as to get them all of a 

 size ; drop them as they are done into cold water, 

 with the juice of a lemon squeezed into it to prevent 

 their turning brown. Have ready a strong syrup 

 (made with one pound of sugar and one quart of 

 water) boiling hot ; put the apples into this, with 

 the thin rind of a lemon and two or three cloves. 

 As soon as they are cooked (great care must be 

 taken that they do not break), take them out and 

 dispose of them, concave side uppermost, on a glass 

 dish ; place a piece of currant jelly or quince jelly in 

 the hollow of each apple, then reduce the syrup well, 

 and when cold pour as much as it as is necessary 

 under the apples. 



How Fish Suould be Fried. — All fish should be 

 fried in the purest oil. This can be used over and 

 over again by clarification, and, ail thingsconsidered, 

 oil is quite as economical as lard or dripping. Clean 

 your pan with silver paper, put therein sufficient oil 

 to thoroughly and deeply immerse the fish. Permit 

 this boil, and it will attain so high a temperature 

 that when a finger of bread is dipped into it and 

 instantly drawn out the bread has acquired a brown 

 surface, or a piece of white paper dipped into it 

 comes out dry; then, and not until then, your fish, 

 already egg-and-bread crumbed, is launched lightly 

 on the surface of the oil, the boiling power of which 

 will keep it afloat, and then, according to the thick- 

 ness of the flsh, from two to three minutes should 

 be given to it ; then turn it gently with flat tongs. 



Fig Podding.— Take quarter of a pound of finely 

 grated bread crumbs, half a pound of finely chopped 

 figs, three ounces of white sugar, six ounces of finely 

 chopped suet, with grated nutmeg to taste. Put the 

 figs in a teacupful of warm milk near the fire until 

 thoroughly soaked, then add the other Ingredients ; 

 mix well, put into a mould and boil for four hours. 

 Serve with rich liquid sauce. 



Scotch Hoicu-PoTcn.— Take four pounds — neck 

 and breast — of mutton, the latter cut into neat square 

 pieces. Cut into dice, very small, turnips, carrots, 

 onion, cauliflower and a very little cabbage in 

 qu.intity to fill a quart bowl ; put these on together 

 with two quarts of cold water ; boil gently for two 

 hours; add a few peas and some blades of parsley. 

 When ready, serve in a tureen, the meat 'with the 

 rest, after seasoning to taste. 



Scotch Barley Broth.— Take the middle cut of 

 a neck of mutton, put*it on to boil with a quart of 

 water to each pound of meat. Put in, while the 

 water is cold, a breakfast cupful of pearl barley. Cot 

 up into dice, quite small, turnips, carrot, green onion, 

 or a little leek and cauliflower in quantity doubly 

 that of barley. When the soup is boiling add these, 

 and a few blades of parsley when half done. Let the 

 broth boil two hours. Then serve the meat with 

 some of the broth as gravy. 



Children's Pudding.— Put one teaspoonful of 

 Carolina rice and one tablespoonful of tapioca into a 

 three-pint pudding dish, add one tablespoonful of 

 coarse brown sugar and a small pinch of salt. Let 



this soak close to the fire, and let it be constantly 

 stirred. Then put very little bits of butter on the top, 

 and put it in a moderate oven. For the first half 

 hour stir it often from the bottom ; then leave it. In 

 two hours you will have a pudding far exceeding in 

 richness one made with eggs, and with a delicious 

 flavor. Sago, or tapioca, or rice alone, is equally 

 good. 



Cream Cakes.— Into half a pint of good cream 

 stir a pinch of salt and as much flour as will make a 

 stiff batter; than add a teaspoonful of carbonate of 

 soda ; hake at once in a shallow tin, in a very quick 

 oven, and serve hot, with sifted sugar over. If liked 

 sweet two ounces of sugar may be stirred in with the 

 other ingredients. 



Chicken with Okba.— Singe and draw a large 

 tender chicken, cut in small pieces, put in a sauce- 

 pan with two ounces of butter, two ounces of lean 

 ham and an onion cut in squares ; stir on the fire 

 until the moisture is evaporated, drain the butter off, 

 wet with two quarts of beef broth, add a quart of 

 peeled and seedless tomatoes (cut in pieces), half a 

 green pepper (cut small), four ounces of rice, and 

 about fifty tender okras (pared at both ends and cut 

 in rounds) ; season with salt, pepper, nutmeg, a 

 bunch of parsley with aromats, also a leek and a 

 stalk of celery tied together ; set to boil, cover and 

 simmer fifty minutes; skim off the fat, remove the 

 parsley, leek and celery, pour into a soup-tureen and 



Soda Cake. — Mix with one pound of flour, a tea- 

 spoonful of carbonate of soda and one of tartaric 

 acid, then run in six ounces of butter, four ounces of 

 sugar and one ounce of finely-shred lemon peel, to- 

 gether with one-half pound of currants ; add two 

 well-beaten eggs, and briug the mixture to the 

 proper consistency with warm milk. Bake at once. 



Live Stock. 



Garget in Cows. 

 A writer says that he has never failed to cure gar- 

 get by the use of beans. He feeds one pint of,bean 

 meal, mixed with othei meal, for four successive 

 days, and has found that quantity sufficient to cure 

 the worst cases. He thinks if cows were fed with 

 beau meal several times a year they would never be 

 troubled with garget. 



"Doctoring" Farm Animals. 

 It is a poor practice to be continually dosing ani- 

 mals. When wc see a farmer frequently visiting the 

 drug store for medicine for his stock, the impression 

 is that there is something radically wrong in his 

 management. He is the " sick one," and needs the 

 aid of a good physician — some one to show him that 

 sickness rarely happens on a well-ordered farm ; 

 that clean, warm stables and plenty of good feed, 

 pure water in abundance, etc., are far better than 

 their opposites, with all the physic that the largest 

 dnig st(Me eun supply. Nothing is mo-e clearly 

 proved than the importance of care and keeping of 

 tiie ri;;ht sort for the health of she farm animals 

 and their prolitable growth and increase. Sickness 

 will sometimes come with the very best management, 

 and when it does it is better to employ skilled hands 

 to cure than to "doctor" and "physic," and per- 

 haps kill the valuable animal yourself, that under 

 proper treatment might have been saved at a trifling 

 expense. — Agriculturist. 



Overfeeding v/ith Hay. 



Now tliat cows are about going into winter quar- 

 ters a hint about feeding hay may not be out of place. 

 We often heard dairymen talk as if the height of 

 skill in taking care of cbvvs in winter was to get all 

 the hay down that is possible to cram into them. " I 

 give my cows all the good hay I can get them to eat," 

 is the boastful remark often heard "from a spirited 

 and aspiring dairyman, though in doing so he is 

 wasting good provender without promoting the best 

 welfare of his animals. It is a good thing to feed 

 cows well and to be sure that they have food enough 

 to sustain them fully, but it is neither wise nor eco- 

 nomical to crowd them with a great bulK of hay of 

 any quality. It is not wise to crowd any animal with 

 a great bulk of coarse food. 



Cows should have no more hay than they have 

 time to masticate, and if this is not enough for their 

 necessities they should have some easy digesting con- 

 centrated food along with it. The quantity of hay 

 given should never exceed what they will eat up 

 clear, and twice a day is often enough to give time 

 for properly ruminating. — National Live Stock Jour- 



