1862. 



THE ILLINOIS FARMEE. 



837 



DiKECTioNS FOR Oidbr-Making. — The follow- 

 ing extract is from the Country Genlleman, 

 .from a report on apples and their manngement, 

 submitted last year by a committee of the Hamp- 

 shire (Mass.) Agricultural Society, of which Mr. 

 David Rice was Chairman : — 



Good cider cannot be made from inferior, or 

 decayed, or worm-eaten fruit. The apples 

 should be ripe and mellow before they are ground 

 out in the mill. They should be mixed, sour and 

 sweet, in about equal proportions when carried 

 to the apple heap. After the fruit is ground in 

 the mill, the pomace should stand in the vat a 

 day or two, being frequently stirred with a 

 wooden shovel. Being thus bronght into contact 

 with the air, the cider will have a fine rich color, 

 and a better flavor, acquired by the digestion of 

 the apple skins, which contain a fragrant oil, 

 and by chemical changes wrought in the cider 

 proper by atmospheric influences. The cider 

 should be stored in well-cleansed barrels or 

 casus, and put into a dry, cool cellar. After fer- 

 mentation has quite ceased, the barrels or casks 

 should be hermetically closed. No foreign sub- 

 stance should ever be added to cider with the 

 idea that it can be improved or made better 

 thereby. Those who wish to poison their cider 

 by chemicals will bear in mind that when they 

 do so, their cider becomes a mtdicinal tincture, 

 unfit for a beverage, or to use in any way unless 

 prescribed by a physician. Cider will keep fit 

 for use much longer if bottled soon after the vin- 

 ous fermentation has ceased. 



-••»- 



The Great Northern Lakes. ^-The late gov- 

 ernment surveys of the great lakes, gives the 

 following exact measurement : 



Lake Superior — greatest length. 355 miles ; 

 greatest breadth, 100 miles ; mean depth, 988 

 feet ; high above the sea, 627 feet ; area, 32,000 

 square miles. Lake Michigan — greatest length, 

 300 miles ; greatest breadth 109 miles ; mean 

 depth, 900 feet ; high above the sea, 587 feet , 

 area, 20,000 square miles. Lake Huron — great- 

 est length, 200 miles , greatest breadth, ICO 

 miles ; mean depth, 500 feet ; high above the 

 sea, 574 feet ; area, 20,000 square miles. Lake 

 Erie — greatest length, 250 miles ; greatest 

 breadth, 80 miles; mean depth, 200 feet; high 

 above the sea, 555 feet ; area, 6,000 square 

 miles. Lake Ontario — length, 130 miles ; mean 

 breadth, 65 miles ; mean depth, 500 feet ; area, 

 6,000 square miles. Total length of five lakes. 

 1,346 miles ; total area, 84,000 square miles. 



<•• 



Our Teeth. — They decay. Hence unseemly 

 mouths, bad breath, imperfect mistication. Ev- 

 erybody regrets it. V/hat is the cause ? I reply 

 want of cleanliness. A clean tooth never de- 

 cays. The mouth is a warm place— 98 deg. 

 Particles of meat between the teeth soon decom- 

 pose. Gums and teeth must suffer. Perfect 

 cleanliness will preserve teeth to old age. How 

 shall it be secured ? Use a quill pick, and rinse 

 the mouth after eating. Brush and castile soap 

 every morning ; the brush aad simple water on 



going to bed. Eestow this trifling care upcn 

 your teeth, and you will keep them and ruin the 

 dentists. Neglect it, and you will be sorry all 

 your lives. Children forget. Watch them. Thf; 

 first teeth determine the character of tbesccoDi 

 set. Give them equal care. Sugar, acids, sswla- 

 eratus, and hot things, are nothing when com- 

 pared with food decomposing between the t»;eth. 

 Mercurialization may loosen the teeth, lor.g use 

 may wear them out, but keep them clep.n and 

 they will never decay. This advice is worth, 

 more than thousands of dollars to every boy iad 

 girl. — Br. Lewis _ .. 



Impbotejients in Houseebepisg. — Itissoioe- 

 times said that there are less improvements ia 

 the art of housekeeping than aiiy cJher. It is 

 quite true that there are not euongh of them, 

 and those that are made are not geaw^aty adop- 

 ted. Let us refer now to what wft regard as an. 

 improvement in the little art of shelling beans. 

 The old method making use of the thumb and 

 fingers ; then the use of a needle to prepare the 

 pod to open readily. Now, tbe method is to 

 pour upon the pods a quantity of s&alding water 

 and the beans slip very easily from the pod. Bj" 

 pouring scalding water oa apples, the skin may 

 1)6 easily slipped off, and maeh labor saved. — 

 Scientific American. 



-«•»- 



Small Pox. — It should be tept distinctly be- 

 fore the minds of the people that vaccination is 

 an almost perfect preventive of small pox until 

 the age of puberiy, (say fifteen), but after that 

 time it becomes less and less efficacious until 

 twenty -five, when the system becomes less sus- 

 ceptible to the disease up to thirty-five, ■when 

 the predisposition to email pox seems to die out 

 altogether. The specific inference is that every 

 child ought to be re-vaccinated on entering the 

 fifteenth year. To show the preventive power of 

 vaccination, statistics prove that before vaccina- 

 tion, or even inoculation was practiced or known 

 in Boston, to-wit : 1721, (the year of its first 

 tr'al in England by Lady Mary Wortley Mon- 

 tague en her own daughter), one half of the en- 

 tire population lay sick of the disease at the 

 same time, and one out of every twenty-seven 

 died of it — which,, at the same rate, would kill 

 over thirty thousand persons in New York city 

 alone, while the total deaths from all causes in 

 a single year were less than twenty-three thous- 

 and. In 1792. forty-six per cent — forty-six per- 

 sons out of every hundred — in Boston had small 

 pox at the same time. But a few years later, 

 when vaccination was generally practiced, many 

 city physicians did not see a single case of small 

 pox ia twenty months ; and during a period of 

 twenty-eight years, less than three persons a 

 year died of small pox in Boaton. — HaU't Jour- 

 nal of Health. .■ V ■:■. '■- ■ -v-v \; . :•,:■'/ 



•—*■ 



— Most persons choose their friends as they 

 do other useful animals, prefering these from 

 whom they ex-ect the most service. 



