32 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Jan. 



was worth 60c. in gold — say 90c. in our mon- 

 ey. The duty is 15c. more, also in gold, say 

 22c., and the expenses of buying, commission, 

 freight etc. are about 20c. moi'e, so that a 

 Rochester maltster cannot get barley from Can- 

 ada for less than ,$1.32 per bushel. Had our 

 papers given this information, they would have 

 saved the farmers of AVestern New York over 

 a million of dollars. As it is, we have lost all 

 the benefit of the duty on barley. — Joseph 

 Harris, in American Agriculturist. 



PRESERVUsTG MEAT. 

 The following is the Knickerbocker Pickle 

 as given by Judge Buel in the Albany Cultiva- 

 tor for October, 1835. We have tried it 

 ourselves several times with good success, us- 

 ing, however, only about half an ounce of salt- 

 petre instead of three ounces, as recommended. 



Take six gallons of water, nine pounds of 

 salt, three pounds of coarse brown sugar, one 

 quart of molasses, three ounces salt-petre, and 

 one ounce of pearlash — mix and boil the whole 

 well, taldng care to skim off all the impurities 

 which rise to the surface. This constitutes the 

 pickle. When the meat is cut it should be 

 slightly rubbed with fine salt, and suffered to 

 laj' a day or two, that the salt may extract the 

 blood ; it may then be packed tight in the cask, 

 and the pickle, having liecome cold, may be 

 turned upon and cover the meat. A follower, 

 to tit the inside of the cask, should then be laid 

 on, and a weight put on it, in order to keep 

 the meat at all times covered with pickle. The 

 sugar may be omitted without material detri- 

 ment. In the spring the pickle must be turned 

 off, boiled with some additional salt and mo- 

 lasses, skimmed, and when cold, returned to 

 the cask. 



For domestic use, beef and pork hams should 

 not be salted the day the animals are killed, 

 but kept until its fibre has become short and 

 tender, as these changes do not take place after 

 it has been acted upon by the salt. 



HORTICULTURAL HINTS. 



FusCHiAS, commonly called Lady's Eardrop, 

 are easily kept throughout the winter, and if 

 planted where they receive only the morning 

 sun, form one of the most beautiful of summei'- 

 blooming plants that decorate the garden. 

 When taken up in the fall, all that is requisite 

 is to sec that the roots are covered in the soil, 

 and that during the Avinler they are just a little 

 moist, never wet, and always free from frost. 

 An ordinarily dry cellar, dark, will generally 

 keep them perfectly, without any atti'ution. 



In forming footpaths or carriage-drives in a 

 new place, if you have not obtained the advice 

 or aid of a landscape gardener, which you 

 should have done, l)e careful not to get the 

 curves too strong. A crooked path is, if any- 



thing, more objectionable to the eye of taste 

 than a straight line. Let all your curved lines 

 exhibit a reason for diverging from a straight 

 course, and let that reason be apparent to the 

 mind of the most thoughtless. 



Always have a work bench in your wood 

 shed or a part of your barn, if you cannot af- 

 ford a room pui'posely as a tool and work- 

 room. A few tools of the common kinds, saws, 

 chisels, planes, &c., Avill enable you to fit up 

 and repair, or make many a thing that if you 

 had to hire a carpenter, you would never think 

 of having, because of its cost. Labels, stakes, 

 melon boxes, &c., can be made up in stormy 

 days of fall and winter, at a great saving. 



All clay lands, and we may say all good 

 garden lands, if dug or plowed deeply, and 

 turned up rough, and exposed to the Avinter's 

 frost, will improve in quality full as much as 

 the covering of one coat of manure given and 

 worked in in spring. 



All the paths around the house and grounds 

 should be carefully cleaned this month, and any 

 little repairs requisite to comfort about the 

 house and grounds made, that comfort and se- 

 curity from storms, &c., may be had during 

 the cold frost and storms of winter. 



As every ruralist is supposed to have a horse 

 and cow, we must remind them that warm and 

 dry stables are a great preser\'ative of their 

 health, and that all saving of animal heat, by 

 having a warm room, is a saving of food. 



Bean poles, dahlia stakes, &c,, should be 

 gathered together, and stacked away carefully 

 for another season. — N, Y. Horticulturist. 



IvEEPiNG Cabbages. — Cabbages in the spring 

 are a great scarcity, yet there is no reason that 

 they should not be as plentifid then as in the 

 fall. Only a little care is necessary. We have 

 generally kept them fresh and crisp through 

 the winter, and the plan we adopted was this. 

 We dug a trench out of doors, aljont three 

 feet deep and boxed it all around with loose 

 boards. In this we put the cabbages, standing 

 them on end with the roots downwards, not al- 

 lowing the heads to touch. The whole was 

 then covered with boards, placing them close 

 enough together to keep out the wet ; the earth 

 was then heai)cd upon the top, forming of 

 course a mound of about two feet in height. 

 In this state the cab])age kept all winter long 

 in most excellent c(5ndition. No frost i-eached 

 them and they were as fresh in the spring as 

 when first put away. — Frederickton Farmer. 



Mr. B. F. Allen, of Vienna, writes to the 

 Maine Farmi'.r, Nov. Sth, that he now has five 

 lambs, — three bucks and two ewes, — which were 

 dropped last Jmic! by one sheep. Tiie lambs 

 ai'c v(!ry similar in a])pearance, and are nearly 

 as large as lambs usually are of the same age. 



