106 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[March, 
You cxi)eet ber to keep the house ueatand tidy. If 
it is not so, you run to a saloon. You expect her 
hail- to be always smooth, her dress always in order, 
her Etockiugs always neat, your elotliiu;;- ahvays iu 
order, the dust swept from its thousand gathering; 
places, somelliing good to e.at three times a day 
besides lunches, and her to be as neat and attractive 
as she was the night you popped the question. 
How can she be .all this, if she has to spend halfher 
time picking up what you carelessly throw down ? 
If your wife, mother or sister be neat, you should 
be ; if not, teach her neatness by good examples." 
About Arrowroot. 
The Doctor orders a patient to be fed on " Ar- 
rowroot gruel," and you go to the store to buy it, 
and arc served with neither arrow nor root, but 
only a white jiowder, and wonder why that starchy 
looking substance should be called Arrowroot. 
The origin of many of our names for things iu com- 
mon use, is often quite diflicuU to trace ; but in the 
present case the tradition is preserved ; the ar- 
AUUOWi:OOT. 
tide in queslion takes its name from the root that 
furnishes it, and that root was so called because the 
natives of Jamaica were iu the habit of applying it, 
bruised, to the wounds made by poisoned arrows. 
The plant is a native of the West Indies, and is 
botanically named Maranta anindhiacea ; the first, 
or genciir name being iu houor of an Italian bot- 
auist naiued Maranti, and the other name means 
reed-like. Several species of Marania are cultivated 
in hot-houses for the beauty of their foliage, which 
is sometimes marked with diiferent colors. The 
present species grows two or three feet high,aud has 
the form given in our engraving, which also shows 
the sm.all while flower and the large scaly root, or 
tuber. The plant is cultivated in the AVest Indies, 
particularly in Bermuda, and before the war its 
culture had made some progress in Georgia and 
a few of the other States iu the South. The Arrow- 
root of commerce is starch prepared from the 
tubers of this plant, by grating them on a wheel 
rasp, and then carefully washing away the fibers 
and all other matters except the starch, which is 
then thoroughly dried and packed in boxes and 
casks for exportation. It is a lumpy powder- 
more white and glistening than other forms of 
Btarch, and is superior to them on account of its 
great purity. It is free from any peculiar odor or 
taste, is easily digestible, and well suited to the diet 
of invalids. It may be used for puddings, blanc- 
mange, .etc., in the same way as corn starch. Potato 
starch is sometimes falsely sold as Arro\vroot, but 
it has not such a dead white api)earance, and can 
usually be detected by its odor, though sometimes 
it is necessary to make use of the microscope to 
detect the fraud. Tlie grains of potato starch are 
larger than those of arrowroot, and have different 
markings. A tablespoonful of arrowroot, first 
mixed with a little cold water .and then added to a 
pint of boiling water, will, when cool, form a nearly 
trauspareut jeily, which, flavored with sugar, 
lemon, etc., makes a jilcasant sick diet. With the 
same quantity of milk a blane-mange is produced. 
About Potatoes and Cooking Them. 
— « 
Excepting wheat, no article is so largely used for 
food as the common potato — called the "Irish," 
and at the South the "Round" potato to distinguish 
it from the sweet potato. 4 pounds of potatoes 
coutain .about 3 lbs. of water and 1 lb. of solid mat- 
tei-, taking the average of the different varieties. 
Fresh lean beef coutains just about the same pro- 
portion of water. A large part of the solid por- 
tion of potatoes, is starch, as is the case with wheat, 
corn, .and indeed most vegetable substances con- 
sumed as food. 400 lbs. of potatoes yield about 
300 lbs. ofw.ater; 64 lbs. of starch; 15 lbs. of sugar 
and gum ; 9 lbs. of protein or nitrogenous com- 
pouuds which furnish direct nutriment for muscles 
or lean flesh ; 1 lb. of oil or fat, and 11 lbs. of woody 
fiber. If dried and burned, the 400 lbs. of potatoes 
yield nearly 4 lbs. of ashes. These 64 ounces of 
ashes consist of about 35}.;^ oz. of potash ; 8 oz. of 
I'liosjihoric acid (which enters largely iuto the com- 
position of bones); 8-1.^ oz. of sulphuric acid (oil of 
vitriol) ; 4)^ o'z. common salt ; 3,'.{ oz. of silica ; 3 Y 
oz. of magnesia ; \].i oz. of lime, and nearly 11^ oz. 
of soda. — It will thus be seen that the potato is a 
very good article of food. The starch, sugar, gum, 
and oil, meet a great want of the animal sj'stem, 
giving material for respiration .and the formation of 
fat. The protein compounds supply muscles, and 
the salts in the .ashes afford material for bones, etc. 
A poimd of potatoes furnishes as much material for 
fattening and warming the body, as a pound of 
beef, while costing scarcely one-tenth part as much. 
Cooking. — The starch in potatoes exists as little 
grains, 10 or 13 of them together, in cells. Heating 
tlie potato by boiling, steaming, or baking, causes 
these cells to burst, and the water unites with the 
starch grains, swelling them. If .all the water cou- 
taiued in the pot.ato thus imitcs with its starch, the 
potato cooks dry and mealy. If only part of the 
water is absorbed by the starch, then the potato is 
watery. The best mode of cooking this esculent is 
by baking, which drives off all the water th.at does 
not unite with the starch. If boiled, cook them 
rapidly, .and when just done, pour off the w.ater, 
.and dry them out; then they are improved by 
mashing fine to free them from indigestible lumps ; 
this, of course, can be done by the teeth of those 
who prefer their potatoes "undressed." Frying 
them, dries up the starch, leaving it similar to 
charcoal, and when done brown they are almost as 
indigestible as so much charcoal or wood. 
A New Discovery— The Ague Plant. 
The "ague plant" has recently been discovered, 
— not the plant that cures ague, but the one that 
causes it. Here is one plant, at least, that we can 
notice without beiug overwliclmed with applica- 
tions for seed. To be sure it is a little thiug, .and 
takes a good eye, aided by a good microscope, to 
to fiud it, but when foimd, it can not be said it " is 
no great shakes," for it is the "genuine Shaker 
seedling" itself. Doet. I. H. Salisbur)-, of Cleve- 
land, Ohio, announces in the American Journal of 
the Jledical Pcienees, that fever and ague is caused 
by a minute plant, which is found where stagnant 
water has just dried away. The spores, or repro- 
ductive dust of this microscopic plant, are diffused 
through the night damps, and beiug taken into the 
system by breathing, are the cause of that wide 
spread scourge, the ague. The habits of these 
minute plants completely accord with what was be- 
fore known of the occurrence of mi.asra, and that 
tliey are the real cause of it has been shown by 
taking boxes of earth containing them, to places 
where an ague was never known to occur. In 
about two weeks after the .ague plant was taken 
there, well marked cases of the disease appeared. 
This discovery does not as yet increase our know- 
ledge of the means of ridding ourselves of the 
plant, but it will prob.ably lead to that— just as one 
if he can only find out " how he got such a cold ? " 
is already half cured. The spores only rise iu the 
night, and then toahight varying with the locality, 
of from thirty to one hundred feet. This explains 
why night air brings on ague, and why elevated lo- 
calities are free from it. After the ague seed Is 
taken iuto the system, the plant is propagated there, 
and the patient becomes a sort of animated hot-bed. 
Yoiimans' Iloiiseliold Seieiico. — This 
valuable book we have recommended iu former 
times, .and call attention to it again now. It treats 
somewhat fully of the science of living, especially 
of cooking, the why and wherefore ; of the various 
kinds of food, beverages, clothing; of heat, light, 
air, cleansing, etc., etc., in nearly 500 pages. The 
first part may be rather seientinc for tlie unlearned 
reader, yet no one can go through the book, or read 
any part of it, without learning much that wi.l be 
practically useful in household work, and gaining 
many ideas that will furnish food for thought and 
interest one's mind while eng.aged in the most 
common oper.ations of daily labor in the house. 
We should be glad to see a eojjy owned, read, and 
studied in every household — by men as well as 
women. It is sent post-paid by mail for ■?1.7.'>. 
Hints on Cooking, etc. 
Plain Pies, eto.— A lady contributes the 
following to KVa AqricHUuristl: — "I sendareciiie for 
a pumpkin or squash pie-crnst, that I think will be 
new to most of your readers. At the present high 
prices of lard and butter, many perhaps will feel 
like eating pies made in this way, that would r ot in 
any other; it is simply this: Thoroughly grease a 
platter and while warm, sprinkle it with dry Indian 
meal to the thickness of .an ordinary cru^t, then 
pour in your squash prepared in the usual manner. 
It soaks the meal suflSciently to form a crust hard 
enough to cut a piece out well, and tastes some- 
what like a baked Indian pudding; no one perhaps 
would suppose it could be fit to eat, but try if. 
" One reason why pies are considered so injurious 
is, th.at the fluids of the stomach cannot act on so 
much grease. One of the first chemists in the 
country once told me, that fruit sewed up in a 
bladder would give as much nourishment .as if encas- 
ed in pastry .as rich as you will fiud in many hous- 
es. A much more healthful article is a crust raised 
like biscuits, or made with an .alkali (either soda 
or saler.atus,) and an acid, .as cream of tartar, sour 
milk or cream, or buttermilk ; .an imder-crust raised 
thus answers nearly as well as the usual kind. 
" IVIolassos Giitgortoresi!*!. — One cup hot 
wafer, piece of butter half size of an egg, one cup 
molasses, toaspooiiful ginger, cloves and salcratus. 
Mix the whole so thin that it will pour easily. 
" The above are plain cheap and simple, but know- 
ing your paper is iuteuded for all, I send them. In 
most of the lady's books the recipes are so costly 
and require so much skill in making as to be but 
little used only by the rich." 
Pressed Cliiclfeii.— Boil the chicken with 
the giblets until the bones can be easily pulled out. 
Then season to taste, with salt and pepper (a little 
thyme is a great improvemeut), and mince quite 
fine ; after which put it in a dish or pan, with 
weights enough upon it to press it firm ; set it 
away to cool, and when turned out, it makes a nice 
side dish for dinner, or relish for tea. 
Welton Veal.— Boil 4 eggs hard ; slice thin ; 
place round the bottom of a 2-quart bowl ; lay over 
these a layer of uncooked veal out very thin ; then 
a layer of cooked ham cut very tliln\ fill the bowl 
with these altern.ate layers ; cover it closely with a 
plate, and jiut a weight on the top of the plate, and 
cook in a steamer three hours. Set it in a cool 
place till the next day, when it will be jellied. 
I 
