102 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



[July, 



and whole cloves. Five cents' worth of bay 

 leaves, to he bought at a druggist's, will last 

 a dozen years. Into, perhaps, a quart or more 

 of soup-stock, having removed tlie cake of fat 

 from the top, put, one hour before dinner, 

 half an onion sliced and three tablespoonf uls 

 of well-washed rice. Let this boil gently. A 

 few minutes before dinner add a salt-spoon- 

 ful of celery-salt, pepper and salt to taste. 

 Chop a little fresh parsley fine and put into 

 the tureen. It will not flavor much, but will 

 look pretty. A little here means a teaspoon- 

 ful when chopped. The rice meantime has 

 boiled itself into a thickish substance, form- 

 ing what is called a puree. The color of your 

 puree will be wliitish, and its taste wiil be 

 good. Try it. For a vegetable soup, chop 

 fine one medium-sized carrot, half a turnip, 

 one large onion; add a small bay leaf and one 

 clove, and boil with as little water as possible 

 for one hour. If you have any cooked or un- 

 cooked tomatoes, add a few spoonfuls. Let 

 the soup stock come to a lioil, skim and put 

 in the vegetables. Thicken slightly with two 

 tablespoonf uls of corn starch or flour and your 

 soup is done. For a tomato soup, take the 

 quart of stock and let half a can of tomatoes 

 boil together for three-quarters of an liour. 

 Strain, add a teaspoonful of sugar, salt and 

 pepper, one cup of milk, and, if the stock is 

 not very rich, a small hit of butter. Thick- 

 en with about two tablespoonfuls of flour, 

 rubbed to a smooth paste with a little cold 

 water or milk. 



For potato soup, or puree rather, boil five 

 medium sized potatoes and onions together 

 until the new potatoes are ready to fall to 

 pieces. Drain well, sprinkle with salt. Have 

 the stock hot, skimmed. Then rub the pota- 

 toes through a collander into the hot stock, 

 and to make it smoother stir in one or two 

 tablespoonsfuls of flour, blended smoothly in a 

 little cold water as in the tomato soup. Add 

 pepper and a teaspoonful of chop))ed parsley. 



I have spoken so far only of beef liones. 

 A leg of mutton will furnish just as much 

 material in the way of bones as the beef. 

 Then there are the beef-steak and veal cutlet 

 bones, small ones to he sure, butjust put them 

 on the fire in a small skillet, and they will be 

 the nucleus of another soup, or give enough 

 more for another iilateful. The^ quantity 

 given here is intended for a family of four. 

 With a larger family, of course there will be 

 more bones, therefore more soup possible. 

 Neither is it claimed that one can make a 

 dinner of these soups. They are simply a 

 relish — a prelimiaary to the dinner, and it is 

 hoped have been presented in such a way as 

 to seem easy to make. — K M. N., in tht Con- 

 tinent. 



MORE ABOUT THE SPARROWS. 



The sparrows seem to have a good many 

 friends after all. The papers are full of com- 

 munications on their excellent work in clear- 

 ing away the insect pests and destroying 

 those so hurtful to farmers and gardeners. 

 The Philadelphia Telegraph has espoused the 

 cause of the detested stranger and urges his 

 case as earnestly as the Times calls for his de- 

 struction. But we fear the Telegraph is not 

 quite so good a naturalist as thi.s controversy 

 seems to demand. In alluding to the pear 

 buds, which sparrows admittedly cut oil' and 



frequently destroy on the trees, it says : " It 

 is not the bud he is after, but the infinitesimal 

 parasite that comes with it, covering the pear 

 bud, for instance, this year like a thick green 

 scum. To get a good 'bite' of larvce, the bird 

 sometimes takes the bud, too, but not al- 

 ways." Now this is an excuse that will hard- 

 ly find approval among ornithologists. Birds, 

 we think we may safely say, do not do busi- 

 ness on that wholesale plan. The finches, of 

 which family the sparrows are such conspicu- 

 ous members, don't capture their prey in that 

 way. Nature has endowed them with very 

 excellent eyesight, and like all the rest of the 

 finch tribe, witli bills capable of picking up, 

 one at a time, even the "infinitesimal para- 

 site" on the pear buds, if they had the dis- 

 position to do so. They take their food bit by 

 bit, and not by great mouthfuls, as the Tele- 

 graph says and evidently believes. 



The simple fact in this controversy is that 

 the amateurs who are so largely discussing 

 the sparrow question on the sparrow side 

 omit one very important feature out of their 

 case, and one, too, that is virtually decisive of 

 the whole case. Ornithologists have divided 

 birds into orders, arranged according to tlieir 

 habits and other peculiarities. Some feed on 

 animal food exclusively, others on fruits, and 

 others again on seeds of various kinds. A 

 few feed on all these, but the sparrow is not 

 one of them. Ilis bill fixes his place and tells 

 correctly the kind of food he feeds on. His 

 place is not and never was among the insecti- 

 vorous birds. He is as firmly established 

 among the seed-eaters as the eagles and owls 

 are among the meat eaters. As well might 

 these peo])le try to persuade us that a falcon 

 will eat corn and oats as that a sparrow's 

 principal food is insects. It is contrary to 

 their nature. It is not their fault, perhaps, 

 but just now it happens to be their misfortune. 

 We ao not deny that they occasionally swal- 

 low an insect, but this arises either from a 

 mistake or through greed. Hunger may per- 

 haps, on rare occasions, force him to adopt 

 this unnatural diet, but we may safely assume 

 it is much against liis will and that he returns 

 to his natural food at the earliest opportunity. 

 The truth is, the poor sparrows are not at all 

 responsible for the fact that they don't feed 

 upon insects. It is one of the conditions of 

 their creation and they can't shake it off. 

 They are no worse than many other birds we 

 have, but at the same time it won't do for 

 tlieir friends for them "to assume a virtue 

 when they have it not." As we said before, 

 an occasional insect may accidentally find its 

 way into the stomach of a sparrow, but at the 

 .same time a pair of common house wrens, 

 whose business is insect catching and eating, 

 will destroy more of these pests than all of 

 the sparrows in Fairmount Park. If we are 

 to have pleas for sparrows, let us at least put 

 them on scientific grounds and not such as the 

 sparrow's own nature repudiates. — New Era. 



HOW TO SLEEP. 

 Health and comfort depend very much on 

 attention to matters that to some seem very 

 trivial. We have sometimes heard persons 

 complain that they did not sleep well ; that 

 they were troubled with horrible dreams, and 

 awoke in the morning weary and nervous. 

 Inquiries as to diet, exercise and other essen- 



tials of health have often failed to reveal any- 

 thing that could account for these unfavorable 

 conditions. 



It is not well in these cases to limit our in- 

 vestigations to the routine of a day; but we 

 should inquire at what hour the patient goes 

 to bed, what he thinks about usually, and 

 most particularly what position lie places him- 

 self in to invite sleep V If lie lies on the back 

 with his hand over his head, there will be a 

 half-conscious compression of the chest, with 

 difficult breathing, to relieve which he opens 

 his mouth. The air coming in direct contact 

 with the throat, causes dryness, and then 

 snoring will begin. In the meantime the 

 pressure of the viscera on the large artery 

 whose course is along the inner portion of 

 the backbone, impedes the circulation of the 

 blood, producing discomfort which manifests 

 itself in horrid dreams. Thus the whole night 

 is passed in a disturbed sleep, and perhaps 

 many nights pass without one of refreshing 

 sleep. The most unwise course under such 

 circumstances would be to resort to the use of 

 opium or any other drug. The ranks of the 

 victims of this unfortunate habit are recruit- 

 ed mainly from such cases a.« we have de- 

 scribed. It is wonderful what control an in- 

 dividual can get over himself if he Iries. 

 There is no reason why a person cannot lie 

 upon his side instead of the back, and keep 

 his hands and arms down; and then he will 

 not open his mouth; then his throat will not 

 become dry, neither will he snore or have bad 

 dreams. But often he can't help thinking 

 about his business, and his thoughts will run 

 on for hours. This is also a habit that may 

 be broken up. Have the will to put aside 

 your thoughts, and in time you will have the 

 power to do so. 



We do not say that there are not other 

 causes that habitually interfere with sound 

 sleep, but we believe there is a remedy for 

 each difliculty wliich may be found by .seek- 

 ing for it. — llalVs Journal of Health. 



SMALL GARDENS. 



An article in your paper, clipped from the 

 West Chester ioc'tZ, induces me, for the bene- 

 fit of others, to make a more explicit state- 

 ment. 



The garden in question is not more than 

 150 by 2U0 feet, from the superficial surface of 

 which must be deducted the space occupied 

 by fruit trees and a width of six feet all 

 around for the growth of raspberries and cur- 

 rants. 



Within the small space left I not only 

 raised about two hundred quarts of straw- 

 berries, but also peas, beans, red beets, cab- 

 bage and tomatoes in abundance, together 

 with a crop of potatoes which will yield me 

 sixteen bushels at the very least. 



I paid notliing tor liired lielp, but cultivated 

 the ground myself for rela.xation from my 

 literary labors, which you know are consider- 

 able. I was at no outlay for manure, but 

 used compost, made up of fine grass cut by 

 the la<«vn mower, saw dust, slops, decayed 

 vegetables, coal ashes, etc., such as will accu- 

 mulate about a place. 



I put on the coal ashes in large quantities, 

 though told that it would be injurious. I 

 thought otherwise, and correctlj' so, because 

 I knew the ashes would keep the ground from 

 " baking," a fault which needed remedy. 



