200 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



April 



SUBSTITUTES POS COFFEE. 



The high price of tea and coffee has caused 

 many to adopt substitutes for a moi-ning bever- 

 age. Go where you will, you hear the subject dis- 

 cussed, and stepping into houses, you are regaled 

 with the odor of burning peas, rye, barley, or 

 whatever is designed for a substitute. That some 

 of these articles will make a very palatable and 

 wholesome beverage we think no one will deny. 

 We give below some of the recipes that are float- 

 ing around, and have been commended : 



Eye Coffee. — Take a peck of rye and cover it 

 with vvater, let it steep or boil until the grain swells 

 or commences to burst, then drain or dry it. Roast 

 to a deep brown color, and prepare as other cof- 

 fee, allowing twice the time of boiling. Served 

 with boiled milk. 



Another. — Take some rye ; 1st, scald it ; 2d, 

 dry it ; od, brown it, and then mix it with one- 

 third coffee and two-thirds rye, and then you will 

 have as good a cup of coffee as you ever drank. 



Sweet Potato Coffee. — Another writer, in one 

 of our exchanges, gives the following recipe for 

 the preparation of a substitute for coffee. We 

 give it for what it is worth, never having seen it 

 tiied : 



"Take sweet potatoes, cut them fine enough to 

 dry conveniently, and when diied, grind in a cof- 

 fee mill ; dry them by the fire or stove at this sea- 

 son of the year, or by the sun when that will do 

 it ; grind and use, mixed with coffee in such pro- 

 portions as you like. Some of my neighbors omit 

 half of the coffee ; some more." 



Barley Coffee. — Take common barley, or the 

 skinless if it can be obtained, roast as you would 

 coffee, and mix in such proportion as suits your 

 taste. It is very good. 



Pea Coffee. — It is probably known to many that 

 a very Large per cent, of the ground coffee sold at 

 the stores is common field peas roasted and ground 

 with the coffee. There are hundreds of thous- 

 ands of bushels of peas annually used for that 

 purpose. Those who are in the habit of purchas- 

 ing ground coffee can do better to buy their own 

 peas, burn and grind them, and mix to suit them- 

 selves. 



Carrot Coffee is recommended by an exchange. 

 Cut up, dry and grind, and mix with coffee in 

 quantities to suit the taste. 



The Women of a Nation. — I do not hesitate 

 to say that the women give to every nation a mor- 

 al temperament, which shows itself in its politics. 

 A hundred times I have seen weak men show real 

 public virtue, because they had by their sides wo- 

 men who supported them, not by advice as to par- 

 ticulars, but by fortifying their feelings of duty, 

 and by dii-ecting their ambition. More frequent- 

 ly, I must confess, I have observed the domestic 

 influence gradually transforming a man, naturally 

 generous, noble and unselfish, into a cowardly, 

 common-place, place-hvmting self-seeker, thinking 

 of public business only as a means of making him- 

 self comfortable — and this simply by contact with 

 a well-conducted woman, a faithful wife, an excel- 

 lent mother, but from whose mind the grand no- 

 tion of public duty was entirely absorbed. — 

 Tocaueville. 



THE CATTLE MARKETS FOB MARCH. 



The following is a summary of tlie reports for the four weeks 

 ending March 20, 1862 : 



NUMBER AT lURKET. 



CatHe. Sheep. Skotes. Lire Fat Hogs. 



February 27 778 2850 475 Few. 



March 6 1036 4030 500 — 



March 13 1559 1925 700 — 



March 20 1217 1158 1040 150 



Total 4690 9963 2715 150 



PRICES. 



Feb. 27. Mar. 6. Mar. 13. Mar. 20. 



Beef cattle, 4?" ft 5 «6|c 5 ig7 5 ©6? 5 ig6| 



Sheep, live weight 44S54 4jg5j 4\d.^\ 4'35j 



Swine, stores, wholesale. .. .4 .§5 4j35i SjgSi 3125 



" " retail 5 §6 4|g6 45^64 4^n.6 



Live fat hogs 4 Jg5 4^ 



Rematiks. — Most of the cattle at market during the month 

 were offered for sale as beef. Of the 4590 cattle reported above 

 as the total for the four weeks, 2480, or more than one-half, were 

 from tlie West. During the first half of the month the market 

 showed an upward tendency, while for the last half it has been 

 downward. This change was more marked in mutton than in 

 beef, produced partly at least by the large arrivals of heavy 

 sheep from the West, at the market of March 6th. Jlilch cows 

 sold readily until the last week, March 20, wheu the market was 

 quite dull. 



Chickens vs. Chinch Bugs and Plum Wee- 

 vils. — We see it reported in the Southern Plant- 

 er, that a hen and chickens placed in a coop in the 

 corner of a wheat field, where the chinch bug had 

 commenced its ravages, proved to be an effectual 

 check upon the insects thereabouts, though they 

 did considerable injury out of the range of the 

 chickens. 



The chinch bug is only one of the destructive 

 insects which chickens are ever ready to pick up. 

 In our yard stands a black-heart cherry tree, the 

 fruit of which was quite wormy last year, — as is 

 often the case with this variety. This spring we 

 placed a chicken coop with its occupants near the 

 tree, and secured a full crop of fruit, showing no 

 appearance of worms. The insects, as they emerged 

 from the ground in winged form, were so effectu- 

 ally picked up that they failed to deposit their 

 eggs in the fruit. Of course there will be a short 

 crop of worms next season. 



New Seedling Potatoes. — In another col- 

 umn, Mr. Charles W. Gleason, of Holden, in 

 this State, advertises several varieties of new seed- 

 ling potatoes, some of which we have seen, but 

 not tasted. They are very handsome, and espec- 

 ially so is the Garnet Chili. It is of medium size, 

 flattish, and the eyes are nearly on a level with 

 the general surface of the potato. This is always 

 a recommendation, as it is difficult to prepare a 

 potato for the pot where its eyes are deeply set. 

 Mr. Gleason has given much attention to the mat- 

 ter of introducing new varieties of good potatoes, 

 and among them we shall undoubtedly find some 

 that will be a valuable addition to our present 

 list. 



