PROCEEDINGS OF THE FARMERS' CLUB. 187 



making' currant jelly the jtnce of the fruit should never be boiled in the 

 sugar. Put the quantity of sugar into a wooden bowl, then simmer your 

 currants over the fii'e; after skimming pour the juice over the sugar and 

 stir it until the sugar is dissolved, and you will have a very superior jelly. 



Mr. Charles Downing, of Newburgh, prepares a very superior article of 

 peaches. The peaches are halved, fill up the center with sugar, and 

 then set them into an oven, not too hot, some hours. When done they can 

 be packed away for use. In canning fruit of any kind, care should be 

 taken never to use any but the very best triple-refined sugar, and the 

 fresher from the refinery the. better, as the very best loaf sugar undergoes 

 changes by exposure to the atmosphere. 



Subject for the next meeting, " Canning Fruit." 



Adjourned. JOHN W. CHAMBERS, Secretary. 



November 11, 1862. 

 Mr. Wm. Lawton, of New Rochelle, in the chair. 



Corn Cobs for Fuel. 



Dr. S. J. Parker. — I know of no more convenient article for kindling coal 

 than corn cobs. I was led to try it by seeing a farmer friend about to 

 throw fifty bushels of corn cobs away. I requested him to give them to 

 me, for I thought they would kindle anthracite coal, such as I was then 

 using in my famil}'-. He replied, "you can have them; they are not worth 

 much for anything; they lie all winter in the manure heap and don't rot; 

 I cast them out on my meadows and fields in the spring, and they are the 

 last things to disappear of the manure, so you can have them." They were 

 cobs of corn threshed by the treading of horses' feet on them on the barn 

 floor, and were thus broken about as fine as stove coal A load of them 

 kindled my fires all winter, and my experience is that a cord of pitch pine 

 wood, already cut and split, is not as convenient or profitable as a cord of 

 cobs. Chemistry shows us that they are mostly carbon. Farmers' practical 

 experience confirms the chemical record; so that wherever coal is used they 

 are worth as much and more than split wood. A wisp of paper, or a few 

 shavings, kindle them as readily as wood; they burn out rapidly, and leave 

 a clear coal fire in a full glow. 



Farmers' Ink. 



Dr. S. J. Parker. — A very cheap ink can be made from the following 

 materials, which can be purchased at any drug store for eight or ten cents. 

 This ink will keep for years if not frozen, and is as perfectly permanent as 

 any other in common use. Take one drachm of bichromate of potassa and 

 half an ounce of extract of logwood, and one and a half gallons of rain 

 water, or if you like an ink that flows easily, two gallons. Heat the water 

 till it simmers but does not quite boil, add the extract of logwood, .and as 

 soon as it is dissolved add the bichromate of potassa; stir the compound 

 five minutes with a stick, keeping all the while the water simmering, but 



