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2Y0 



THE ILLINOIS FAEMEE. 



Sept. 



ever to bring • info his home, fruits, berries, or 

 vegetables, green, unripe, OTcr-ripe, wilted or de- 

 cayed. 



3. Produce purchased in market, because it is 

 cheap, or under-price, is culpable economy ; it is 

 paying half price for what is not only worthless, 

 but worse. 



4. Salads, lettuce, kale, cucumbers, peas, and 

 green corn, wilt under any circumstances in a few 

 hours, and should therefore be eaten the same day 

 gathered. Beans should be picked, shelled, and 

 cooked immediately. 



5. Berries, melons, tomatoes and all similar juicy 

 fruits, having but a brief interim between the un- 

 ripe and decaying condition, are always just objects 

 of suspicion and intelligent examination." — Rural 

 Mew Yorker, 



How to Polish Shirt Bosoms. 



I was somewhat amused by the letter from a 

 young housekeeper, Mrs. Pry. As she feels desir- 

 oiis to make her husband's shirts, bosoms and col- 

 lars look nice, I will tell her how my wife does up 

 mine. 



The first thing is to wash them clean, then starch 

 them thoroughly with the best of starch. A little 

 pure spermaceti or dissolved gum Arabic in the 

 starch will improve it, but have the starch thick, 

 and work it into the linen thoroughly. When in 

 a proper condition, use the common sad iron to 

 smooth them and get them into proper shape, the 

 same as though they were not to be polished. I 

 would here say that you cannot polish linen on a 

 soft cloth. Take a piece of hard wood (I use birch) 

 say 10x14 inches, or size of a shirt bosom, and 

 plane it even and smooth. When you use the pol- 

 ishing iron lay the linen on that, without any cloth 

 underneath ; a liberal supply of elbow grease is in- 

 dispensable to make the ting look first rate. Now 

 for the polishing iron. We use McCoy's patent. 

 I have seen several kinds, but I like this the best. 

 You cannot polish with an iron with a flat face ; 

 the one I use is made something like a small shoe, 

 with a round heel on both ends, nicely polished, 

 and care should be had to keep it so, if you wish 

 to have your linen look well. The linen we buy 

 at the stores, is polished by men, or machinery, 

 which gives it a finer polish than can usually be 

 given by females. But if Mrs. Pry will get a good 

 polishing iron, and follow the directions as given, 

 she will not feel ashamed of her husband's bosoms 

 and collars.— .4»werica7i Aarictdiurist. 



' Hutchin's Cider Mill. — We hear glowing ac. 

 counts of the value of this mill, for making cider 

 and wine. Being of iron it occupies but little 

 space, and its cheapness will recommend it to eve- 

 ry person who has a small orchard, that he may 

 dispose of the windfalls in the way of cider, or he 

 can make up a daily supply of sweet new cider, so 

 valuable at this season and through the autumn. 

 H. W. Austin of Chicago has them on sale at $20, 

 His cai'd was not in time for this number. 



4»l 



' Dwarf Plums on the Fbaibies. — On the Prairie 



at Tolona, Champaign county, I saw dwarf plums 

 loaded with fruit — saw no signs of curculio. Dr, 

 Chafee, on whose grounds I saw them, told me that 

 his experience had given him ten times the confi- 

 dence in the dwarf plum there, that he had in 

 dwarf pears. And it was apparent he had an 

 abiding confidence in the latter. 



Other Sorts of Fruit Growing Here. — Hard- 

 shelled almonds, nectarines, apricots, Spanish 

 chestnuts, the olive and qiunce, were growing on 

 Dr. C.'s grounds, and hardy. Quinces were very 

 productive — ditto nectarines, apricots and al- 

 monds. There were also figs growing in the grap- 

 ery. 



The Early Montmorency Cherry was growing 

 on the same grounds under the name of Early May 

 or Early Richmond. It came hither under the lat- 

 ter name, from an Eastern firm. And thus had 

 my friend, Dr. C, been mislead as to the real char- 

 acter of the Early Richmond ; and he had mislead 

 others. The influence of a single error in such 

 matters cannot be estimated. And too great care 

 care cannot be exercised in the nomenclature of 

 fruit. 



The Missouri Flowering Currant, so exten- 

 sively talked of the Illinois State Horticultural 

 Society, at its last meeting, is growing here, and is 

 bearing abundantly. It is called sweet, sprouts 

 from the root, all over the garden. Dr. C. says, 

 " Once in the darden, it can't be got rid of." — C. 

 D. B., in Rural New Yorher. 



^^ The rule to prune grape vines in summer 

 is, to cut back the fruit-bearing canes to within 

 two or three leavrs of the clusters. Now is the 

 season to do it ; but you should not so prune that 

 that no new wood will be left to bear fruit next 

 year, as it is the canes that grow this season which 

 produce fruit next year. 



Saving Seeds. ' - 



Every farmer should save his own garden seeds. 

 The cost of a new stock every spring from the 

 seedsman is no small item of expense. After once 

 securing good kinds and growing from them in a 

 careful manner, he is sure of having good and re- 

 liable seeds, and many varieties of vegetables may 

 be improved by judicious management. But with- 

 out special care the tendency is to deteriorate, 

 particularly in the hands of unskilled growers. 

 Deterioration arises from two causes, viz : in grow- 

 ing from inferior specimens; and in growing two 

 or more varieties of the same species so near each 

 other or promiscuous fertilization. Many persons 

 who pretend to save their own seeds often gather 

 the refuse at the end of the season, after having 

 gathered all the best for family consumption, such 

 particularly, as peas, beans, &c. The consequence 



