VOL XV. KO. a'^ 



AND GARDENER'S JOURNAL 



205 



APPLE MOLASSES. 



B7 Tr,Y A.N'D SEE. 



Brother farmers, will you listen to me a few 

 minutes, wliile I tell you how to provide yourself 

 with a first rate article, and one of prime neces- 

 sity. Vou are prohahly in something of a haste, 

 though I hope you have your potatoes dug and 

 safe in your cellar, for there are many things a 

 farmer has to do to be ready for winter. It is just 

 about election time also, and every farmer should 

 manage so as to be able to drop in at the poll and 

 give his rote for a good man and true ; but do not 

 do, as many will, make the privilege of voting an 

 excuse for spending a whole day at the tavern, 

 imbibing " wet ilamnation." 



If you are a married man, as I hope you are, 

 for no other one has consistent claim to the char- 

 acter of a good citizen, you know, or if you do 

 not, your wife does, that it costs no trifling sum 

 to provide sweetening for the family, while there 

 is no possibility of living without it; and experi- 

 ence has fully shown me, that for many of the 

 jiurposes of domestic cookery, Apple Molasses is 

 far preferaide to West India, while it is at the same 

 time much cheaper. 



I make little cider; my apples are worth more 

 fed to my hogs than for cider; but I make a prac- 

 tice of selecting my best sweet apples, those that 

 furnish the richest, heaviest liquor, and making a 

 cheese from them, using the cider thus obtained 

 for making apple or quince preserves, boiling 

 down for molasses, and keeping two or three bar- 

 rels for drink, or ultimate conversion into vine- 

 gar. When new from the press, and before fer- 

 mentation commences, that which I intend for 

 boiling is brought to the liouse, and boiled in 

 brass to tlie proper consistence ; taking care not to 

 burn it, as that give^; the n)olasses a disagreeable 

 flavor, and taking off the scum that rises during 

 the process. The quantity to be boiled, or the 

 number of barrels of cider required to make one 

 of molasses, will depend greatly on the kind of ap- 

 ples used, and the richness of the new liquor. — 

 Four, or four and a half, are generally sufficient, 

 hut when care is not used in making tlie selection 

 of apples, five barrels may sometimes be necessa- 

 ry ; but let it takj more or less, enough must be 

 used to make the molasses, when cold, as thick as 

 the best West India. When boiled sufficiently, it 

 should be turned into vessels to cool, and from 

 them transferred to a new sweet barrel, put into a 

 cool cellar, where it will keep without trouble, 

 and be ready for use at all times. 



Molasses made in this way will be pure, and 

 possess a vinuousor rather brandied flavor, which 

 makes it far superior to the West India for mince, 

 apple or tart pies, though where the apples used 

 are very sour, a small quantity of imported mo- 

 lasses may be advantageously used. It is also 

 excellent for making beer in the suminer, giving 

 it a briskness and flavor which common molasses 

 will not ; in short, there are but few uses to 

 which molasses is applied, in which it will not 

 be found equal or superior to the other. Its 

 cheapness should also be a decided recommenda- 

 tion with the farmer. The cider from which I 

 manufacture my molasses, is worth at the press 

 a dollar a barrel, and it is worth a dollar to re- 

 duce it to molasses, thus making the cost of a 

 barrel of molasses, allowing four and a half bar- 

 rels of cide<- to bfe used, four dollars and fifty cents. 

 The price of common molasses will average about 

 Jifty cents a gulloo, or sixteen dollars a baircl, 



making a saving to the farmer in the use of ap- 

 ple molasses, of about ten dollars per barrel. — 

 Genesee Farmer. 



SbasTiTUTE FOB Steam Locomotives. — Mr 

 Emmons of New Jersey, is about trying a locomo- 

 tive to be hioved by spring?, instead of steam 

 power. The machinery is all arra))ged, and the 

 experiment is to be made during the next week. 



We have observed the above paragraph in sev- 

 eral of the papers. It is melancholy to .see such 

 a waste of labor and iiigenuhy, in a vain attemjit 

 to produce an effect, which would be obviously at 

 variance with the well known laws of nature. It 

 must be manifest to any person of reflection, that 

 locomotion cannot be produced withou. power, 

 and that power cannot be produced by springs. 

 They may be made, as in the case of a clock or 

 watch, to produce a continued inotion, arising 

 from the power applied in winding up the spring, 

 but tliey do not create any power. A locomotive 

 furnished with springs, may in the same way be 

 made to act, for a short distance, by the reaction 

 of springs previously wound up, but with no great- 

 er power than that necessarily applied in winding 

 it up. 'I'here can therefore be nothing gained to 

 the efficiency of the engine, by the application of 

 the S(]rings, as the power required to prepare them 

 to produce motion, would be more effectually ap- 

 plied to the turning of a crank, or more directly 

 to the shoving tlie car. — Boston Adv. 



Sweet Apples. — Since the farmers of this vi- 

 cinity have turned their attention to a|jples as 

 food for cattle, sheep and hogs, and as an arti(de 

 of domestic cookery, they have foimd that there 

 is a deficiency of sweet apples in their orchards. 

 When cider was much in demand, comparatively 

 little attention was paid to the kind of apple cul- 

 tivated. A few choice winter kinds, as the Rus- 

 sets, Baldwins and Greenings were procured, and 

 the remainder were generally seedlings, perhaps 

 good and perhaps bad, no matter which, if t.iey 

 would only make cider. 



Paine Wingate, of Hallowell, who perhaps has 

 as good an orchard as any in this vicinity, if it be 

 not so large, and who has paid much attention to 

 the variety of fruits, has favored us wiih some fine 

 specimens of sweet apples of a variety well worth 

 propagating. Among them were the Hearth Sweet- 

 ing, an apple which keeps well during the w'.nter 

 and into summer. Hoyt's Sweeting, an apple of 

 very tender (lulp — Smith's Sweeting, a large va- 

 riety — the Franklin Sweeting, which is a large 

 and well known variety. Mr Wingate observes 

 that some of his trees bear every year, but that 

 the flavor of those apples are not so good, as 

 the same variety tliat do not bear but every other 

 other year. 



The scarcity of bread-stufli', and of forage, &c., 

 has learned om- farmers the value of apples as an 

 article of food for man and beast. Very little ci- 

 der is now made in this neighborhood, but the 

 apples are given to swine and to the cattle, and 

 used on the table — and indeed we find from ac- 

 tual experiment, that baked sweet apples and milk 

 is far more palatable and nutritious te an Editor, 

 than " saw dust pudding." — Maine Far. 



Arsenic Danger of cleaning bottles with shot. 



The following inqjortant caution has been jiub- 

 lished by Dr Murray, in a Leeds paper : — The 

 case of poisoning by arsenic in Jersey, on the 21st 



of August last, owes its source to a most unwar- 

 rantable practice, and onethat cannot be too niii()i 

 reprehended. It ai)l)ears that the bottle of perry 

 was fatal to one individual, and that three others 

 suffered severely. This practice of cleansing bot- 

 tles with shot is a most dangerous one ; they are 

 apt to adhere to the bottom. Shot is a compound 

 of lead and arsenic — and both are emin(!nlly sus- 

 ceptible of chemical attack from the malic and ni- 

 tric ac:ds obtained in perry and cider. They will 

 thus have in solution, liighly poisonous salts of 

 lead and arsenic. I had myself nearly fallen a 

 victim to a glass of perry, and by analysis discov- 

 ered the cause. The antidote must be two-fold. 

 A weak solution of sulphate of magnesia or Ep- 

 som salts, would neutralize the lead, by forming an 

 insoluble sulphate. Peroxyde of iron, I can also 

 state, is an effectual specific for arsenic. 



Mr Cooke : I send you the result of an exper- 

 ment which 1 made the past season upon seeding 

 potatoes. The land, manure and culture was ex- 

 actly the same. 



1. One very large potato in each hill, 17 



2. Two quarters of a very large po- 



tato to a hill, 14 



3. Two halves of a common sized one, 11 



4. Four small ones to a hill, 13 

 1 have reduced the quantities to decimals tliat 



the relative proportions may be seen at once. I 

 repeated the experiment in' another part of the 

 field, but with the same result. Large whole po- 

 tatoes produced the best and most abundant crop. 

 In one row I put two large potatoes to a hill, and 

 the yield was a trifle less than where I put only 

 one large one to a hill. If I bad planted an acre, 

 .ind seeded it as in the first case, there would have 

 been about 340 bushels, 



an acre of the second, 280 " 



" third, 220 " 



" fourth, 260 " 



The difference between the first and third is 

 120 bushels, which at 2.5 cts. per bushel, amounts 

 to $30. Now if I should have nothing but little 

 potatoes to plant next spring, I should do well to 

 throw them away and buy large ones at one dol- 

 lar per bushel ; and yet how many there are who 

 are so "short out" for potatoes, that they are 

 obliged to pick out all that are fit for planting, to 

 eat, and then plant tlie leavings. Says farmer B. 

 I don't know how it is, but I never have more 

 than half potatoes enough, and I plant as many as 

 any of you. The thing is you plant too many. 

 Such as you plant count up fast. The potato lias 

 been wonderfully improved, and I thiidv it may be 

 still greatly inqiroved, both in quantity and qual- 

 itv, by planting good seed on good ground, with 

 good cultivation. LEONARD K. HATCH. 



Atstecfd, JVov. 25, 1836. 



[Silk Grower Sf Agr. 



There is a yoke of Oxen in Tiverton, R. I., 9 

 years old, one weighing 2149 pounds, and the oth- 

 er 1809 pounds. They were worked until some 

 time in the past summer. They are mammoths 

 in size, and the owner, Mr B. Brayton, intends to 

 keep them another year. 



Luther V. Bell, M. D. of Concord, N. II-, late 

 of Derry, (a son of Gov. Samuel Bell,) has been 

 appointed Physician and Superintendent of the 

 McLean Asylum for the Insane, at Charlestown, 

 Mass. 



