138 



THE ILLmOIS FAKMEK. 



Mat 



Vinegar for Everybody. 



I notice in a late number of •* Field Notes," 

 that a correspondent says there is not a barrel of 

 pure cider vinegar in the city of Golumbus, but 

 an article composed of whisiiy and molasses, or 

 something worse ; and then he appeals to the 

 people to plant more orchards, and make their 

 surplus apples into vinegar. I think we would 

 have to wait a long while for vinegar in that way. 

 I think I can propose a way so that everybody 

 can have pure, wholesome vinegar of their own 

 make. I will give you my own experience : 



A few years ago I Leard people talk about the 

 vinegar plant ; I obtained one five years ago, 

 from a lady, who gave full directions how to- 

 manage it ; she said it mu^t be changed every 

 month, on Friday after the new moon ; that there 

 would then be a new plant formed, which might 

 be separated from the old one ; that each plant 

 must be used separate, and each to make one 

 gallon of vinegar every month. I also heard 

 from others many things about the vinegar plant 

 which I then concluded and am now well satisfied 

 were mere whims; however, I tried my plant, 

 and made ray vinegar from it through the sum- 

 mer aud fall, but in the winter the jar it was in 

 got broken, and I did not take any care to save 

 the plant. I examined it then, and had done so 

 before, and became satisfie<^ that it was no more 

 or lese than the mother from cider vinegar. 



After that I got some vinegar from a grocer, 

 which he said he knew to be pure cider vinegar, 

 and after getting three gallons in a jug at three 

 different times, I found about a table-spoonful of 

 mother in the jug; I put it to about a quart of 

 sweetened water, and put it in a glass jar so that 

 I might witness the operation. It was some time 

 before it began to make any change, but at length 

 it began to enlarge, and in about two months it 

 formed a thick, nice plant or mother on the top, 

 and the vinegar was very sharp. I then put it 

 into a gallon jar, and it kept increasing in size; 

 I then put it into a two gallon jar, and at last I 

 procured a keg, which holds twelve or fourteen 

 gallons, (this was about a year after I commen- 

 ced ;) since it has been in the keg it has done 

 well, and I have changed it but twic^ in the past 

 year. 



Now if anj'body wants good clean, wholesome 

 vinegar of their own, I w uld advise them to do 

 I as I have done : first, get a quantity of mother, 

 — ^nd then get a good strong cask that will hold 

 from five to twenty gallons or more, take out one 

 head, (if it has two in it,) set it on end, put in 

 a faucet near the bottom, use clean rain water, 

 make it milk warm, and sweeten it by using one 

 pint of molasses to each g'<llon of water; put it 

 in the cask, put in the mother, cover it suffic- 

 iently to keep out the flies and dirt in the summer. 



If you set it where it wiil get the sun and air, 

 it will make vinegar mUch quicker. In the win 

 ter it is necessary to keep ii in a warm cellar, or 

 some place where it will not freeze. After it be- 

 comes vinegar, it is not strictly necessary to keep 

 it in a warm place, but while it is making, it will 

 Bonr much faster if it is kept where it is warm. 

 After it becomes vinegar, you can draw and use 

 as you need, and when it gets low, draw all out 



and put it in something for present use ; empty 

 out the mother and the sediment which will beiu 

 the bottom, fill up your cask again and put in 

 the mother. 



You should not use too much water at first, 

 until you get plenty of mother, as it will take 

 longer to make vinegar. If you us" more than a 

 pint of molasses to a gallon of water, it will 

 make stronger vinegar, but it witl take longer to 

 make. If you use less molasses, it will make 

 quicker but will not be so sharp. This I believe 

 to be the best, cheapest and most wholesome 

 vinegar that can be used ; much better than that 

 which is made from whisky, oil of vitrol, or any 

 poisonous ingredient. 



An Old Mait. 



Peru, Ind. 



Bemasks. — We can corroborate all our corres- 

 pondent says, except that we do not believe there 

 is anything else so good as pure cider or wine 

 for vinegar. Where this cannot be had, a vine- 

 gar from sweetened rain water is an admirable 

 substitute. But the vinegar keg should be kept 

 supplied with all the fruits used from time to 

 time in the family, such as dried arp'es, berry 

 jam, apple skins, etc., soaked in clean waters, 

 scalded, and rubbed through a sieve or colander, 

 then strained through a cloth, and the liquor thus 

 obtained put in the tub to keep up the supply. 

 We tried the Vinegar Plant, so called, several 

 years ago, and found it just as our correspondent 

 says. — Ed, Field Notes. 



Pood for Fowls. 



Fowls are of all birds, the most easy to feed. 

 Even alimentary substances agree with them, 

 even when it is buried in manure ; nothing is 

 lost to them; they are seen the whole day long, 

 incessantly picking up a living. In well-fed 

 fowls, the difference will be seen, not only in the 

 size and flesh of the fowls, but in the weight and 

 goodness of the eggs, two of which go farther, 

 in domestic uses, than three rom hens poorly 

 fed, or half starved. It is customary to throw 

 to the fowls in a poultry -yard, once or twice tt 

 day, a quantity of grain, generally corn, and 

 somewhat less than they would consume, if they 

 had an abundance. Fowls, however, are more 

 easily satisfied than might be supposed from the 

 greedy voracity which they exhibit when fed 

 from tiie hand. It is well known, that as a gen- 

 eral rule, large animals consume more than small 

 ones. There is as much difference in the quan> 

 tity of food consumed by individual fowls as there 

 is in an mals. It has been found, by careful 

 experiments, that the sorts of food most easily 

 digested by fowls, are those of which they eat 

 the greatest quantity ; they evidently become 

 soonest tired of, and are least partial to rye. It 

 has also been found that there is considerable 

 economy in feeding wheat, corn, and barley, well 

 boiled, as the grain is thus increased in bulk at 

 least one-fourth, and the same bulk seems to 

 satisfy them ; but there is no saving in boiling 

 oats, buckwheat or rye. — American FouUerer'a 

 Companion. 



