1863.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
311 
light, convenient, cheaper than tin, ami if not 
punched through hy sharp poiuts, they are almost 
everlasting." Answer:— Zinc is very easily acted 
upon chemically (that is, corroded or raBted,) and 
the salts formed are poisonous ; a very small quan- 
tity produces vomiting. As these salts are of light 
color and easily dissolved, they are not readily seen. 
Sour milk, fruits, etc., constantly eat off and dis- 
solve portions of the zinc. No substauces used for 
human or animal food should be placed in zinc 
vessels, or those lined with zinc. 
Pickle the Small Onions for Soldiers. 
From a letter to the American Agriculturist, writ- 
ten by a nurse at one of the soldiers' hospitals at 
the South, and from a variety of sources, we learn 
that our soldiers, both in hospitals and in the field, 
have a strong liking for pickled onions. Almost 
every one cultivating a garden lias more or less of 
small onions, too small to boil well, but just the 
thing for pickling, and we urge them to save every 
one, and pickle them to be sent in bottles, jars, or 
wide mouthed jugs, to the Sanitary or Christian 
Commissions, or directly to somchospital or camp. 
At our request a good housekeeper communicates 
her method for the readers of the Agriculturist as 
follows : Peel the onions ; lay them in weak brine 
over night ; scald them in fresh water for live min- 
utes, not to soften them ; drain off all the water ; 
ponr over them hot viuegar previously seasoned 
with a little cloves, mustard, and pepper boiled in. 
The stronger the vinegar, the less spices required 
to keep them. After standing two or three days, 
pour off the vinegar, scald, and return it to the 
onions. They may then be kept in any convenient 
covered vessel. 
Drying Green Corn— Good Method. 
" Housekeeper," sends to the American, Agricul- 
turist her method of preserving green sweet corn, 
which she says is always successful. ( We have for a 
long time satisfactorily practised a similar method 
both with sweet corn and the common sorts) : 
" Gather the corn while still soft ; simply scald it on 
the ears, not boiling it soft ; cut it off with a knife; 
spread it on plates, and dry quickly in the snu when 
hot, and by the fire or in an oven, at night, and 
when the sun is not shining warm. It sours quick- 
ly, and therefore needs rapid drying, but too high 
heat spoils it. Keep in a bag in a dry place. The 
secret of having it good when cooked, is to soak it 
over night, and boil it well in the same water. It 
is then almost as good, at any time of the year, as 
when first gathered. Add no more water in boiling, 
than will cook away, but avoid the least scorching. 
Any common corn may be treated in the same way, 
but is improved by adding a little sugar when cook- 
ing. Season with salt, and milk and butter boiled 
in, the same as for green peas or beans. Cream is 
still better." 
" Higdum." 
A lady sends to the Agriculturist a recipe for a 
pickle under the above name, which she says is 
much liked by her friends. We published some- 
thing similar, a few years since, but can not recom- 
mend the compound as a particularly attractive or 
digestible one. It may be pleasing to some, and 
healthful to those who have good teeth to thorough- 
ly masticate the stuff before swallowing it— if they 
will use the said teeth : " Take equal amounts of 
onions, green tomatoes, and of ripe cucumbers from 
which the seeds and skins are removed. Chop the 
whole together very fine ; sprinkle salt over the 
mass, let it stand over night, and drain off the fluid 
thoroughly through a sieve or colauder; pour over 
the mass and mix well with it hot vinegar, previ- 
ously boiled with plenty of mustard, cloves, black 
pepper, and red (Cayenne) pepper. After a few 
days drain off the vinegar, scald, and return it. 
Those who relish sweet oil in salads, add this, after 
the final scalding. Some add wine at the same time." 
[We should think there is quite enough in a mix- 
ture like the above, without adding the wine. — Ed.] 
Piclcled Green Ceru. — A lady corres- 
pondent of the American Agriculturist says she has 
tried various methods for preserving green corn, 
but has always failed to keep it iu cans, or in any 
other way than by drying or pickling it. She finds 
that by pickling it in strong vinegar it makes a very 
good winter and spring relish. Another corres- 
pondent directs as follows: To one gallon of corn 
cut from the cob, add one pint of salt. This can be 
freshened out by putting it into clear water, letting 
it stand about one hour, changing the water three 
or four times. Cooked in milk, with butter and 
pepper added to suit the taste, it forms a palatable 
dish for winter. 
Apple BBsitrlei". — "Mary" of Alliance, O., 
communicates to the Agriculturist the following 
directions for making apple butter : Boil a barrel 
of cider from sweet apples, to one third its origi- 
nal bulk, after having first taken out two pailfuls iu 
which to cook the apples. Nicely pare and core 
sweet apples enough to make two bushels of fruit 
wheu fiuished. Boil these in the cider which was 
reserved for the purpose, until they are a little 
soft, then pour the whole into the boiled eider, 
while hot, and cook ; stir it until a pulp. Sauce 
thus prepared, will keep good for several years. 
Bird's Kest Sagpo Fmdding-.— Contrib- 
uted to the American Agriculturist, by Mrs. P. J. S., 
of Litchfield Co., Conn.: Pare and cover enough 
apples to cover the bottom of yonr pudding dish. 
Soak one cup of sago in as much water as it will 
absorb, and pour it over the apples ; bake until the 
apples are cooked soft. If it dries much in cook- 
ing, add water. The dish can be covered to pre- 
vent a hard crust forming. Other fruits can be 
used instead of apples. Eat with cream, milk and 
sugrtr, "r other sauce made according to the taste. 
ib©ys & (bhm,s» araraim 
A GJlaost Story. 
Do any of our young readers ever get frightened when 
sleeping nlone in a room, or when going through a wood, 
or a secluded road, or by a grave yard, by imagining that 
they do see or may see a ghost ? Doubtless many of them 
have had such experiences. The writer had, when a boy, 
and lie has never conversed on the subject, with a person 
who had not thus suffered. But he has grown older and 
wiser now, and after studying the subject, is so thorough- 
ly convinced that there has never been a real ghost and 
never will be, that he could sleep as quietly near a ceme- 
tery or in a cave, as if no hobgoblin stories had ever been 
whispered into childish ears. — We have just read a long 
ghost story of which the following is the substance. A 
man had been fishing all day, and retired to rest at night 
at the house of a friend. He was awakened after midnight 
by a tapping at his window, and saw some white object 
moving about his room. He also plainly heard a curious 
sound " fit," " fit,' 1 " fit." In his fright, he called for his 
host, who ran in with a light, but was tripped up, and 
his light put out in the fall. Both sprang from the room, 
being tripped several times before reaching the door, and 
they waited for daylight in great terror. Then the mys- 
tery was thus explained. The fisherman on going to his 
room had unjointed his rod and carried it with him, for- 
getting to remove the minnow (little fish) used as a bait. 
A large white cat coming in, hat* snapped at the bait and 
been caught by the hook. She uTew the line from the 
reel and wound it around the bed posts and chairs, and in 
striving to get loose made the noise "fit," "fit," "fit." 
The frightened man had heard these sounds and the beat- 
ing of a lilac bush against the window, had seen the 
white ghost (cat), and stumbled over the line. Every 
ghost that has been reported, if investigated at the time, 
would prove to be as unreal, or real, as the white cat 
caught on a fish-hook. 
Intelligence of Fishes. 
A writer in a recent English work, " The Angler Nat- 
uralist," says: "That fish are not so stupid as many 
people suppose, is proved by a little incident which was 
observed at the Zoological Gardens. In some plate-glass 
tanks were a pike and several perches. These fishes 
took no notice of our entrance, and continued perfectly 
supine, though the keeper walked several times past their 
tanks, as if about t-o feed them; but when he walked away 
from them toward the cupboard where the net with which 
the baits were caught, was kept, the stolid demeanor ol 
tlie fish, both pike and perch, gave way to the most in- 
tense excitement. They rushed to and fro across their 
enclosures, straining their noses against the glass, erect- 
ing their fins, and exhibiting every token of agitation ; 
and when the keeper, having taken the net, proceeded 
with it toward the bait tank, the whole shoal fastened their 
eyes upon him, following every movement, anil constant- 
ly veering round, as if under magnetic attraction, toward 
whichever part of the room he turned. It was evident 
that these fish knew where the net was kept, that the 
keeper was going to fetch it, and that his doing so was a 
preliminary to their being fed." 
Hfot Quite sx Meteor. 
A correspondent of the Agriculturist communicates the 
following incident, which recently occurred near Chilli- 
collie, O. — Some boys who were playing in a cornfield, 
were startled by a loud rumbling noise not far from them, 
and on searching for the cause, soon discovered a large 
boulder (rock), which had evidently just arrived from 
parts unknown. One of them applied his bare foot to it, 
when to his great astonishment he found it extremely hot, 
as though it had just been ejected from the crater of some 
volcano. Then there was, of course, great wonder where 
the strange rock could have come from ; some thought it 
had fallen from the sky, as they had read accounts of 
such phenomena; others supposed a volcano might in- 
deed have burst out at no great distance. If the investi- 
gation had stopped with mere guessing, as has often hap- 
pened when strange occurrences have been observed, 
the slonc would have made quite a noise in the commu- 
nity; but some persevering youngster continued his ef- 
forts to solve the mystery, and was at last rewarded with 
the true explanation. Soraoone had been burning brush 
on a steep hill not far distant, and the boulder being set 
free by the fire consuming the sticks which held it in 
place, had come tumbling down to the plain below, and 
thus the meteoric explanation and other startling theo- 
ries were quickly exploded. 
PVew Puzzles to be Answered* 
No. 53. Mathematical Problem.— Contributed to the 
American Agriculturist by John White, Alleghany Co , 
Pa. A farmer bought a circular tract of land at the rale 
of $1 a foot for the diameter. He surrounded it with a 
post and rail fence at $2 a panel, each panel being 12 
feet long, and stocked it with sheep at $2 per head. His 
sheep cost him three times as much as his fence, and he 
had 50 feet square of pasture for every sheep. What did 
the land, fence, and sheep, each cost 1 
No. 54. Illustrated Rebus.— A truth worth considering. 
Answers to Problems an<l Frizzles* 
Answers to Problems in September Agriculturist page 
281. Illustrated Rebus, (No. 50).— C on tin ewe din 
dust rib rings C on tent men tea; which, properly ar- 
ranged and read by the sound, reads : Continued industry 
brings contentment. No. 51. Arithmetical Problem.— A 
little study of this example shows that the key to its so 
lution is found in the mathematical truth that "The 
product of the sum and difference of two numbers is 
equal to the difference of their squares." We leave it 
unanswered for another month, that our young readers 
may attempt to successfully use this key. Several have 
already done so. No. 52. Enigma. — The mystical word 
is Hannah. No. 49. Mathematical Problem.— (August 
No., page 249.) A could do it in 6 days ; B, in 3 days. 
The following have sent in correct answers ; the num- 
bers indicate the problems, etc., answered by each: 
Henry H. Osgood, 46: (we like to receive new problems, 
accompanied with solutions ;) Orient, 44 ; M. E. Brother- 
ton, 44; George Elcock, 46; S. A. Dickey, 44; W. W. 
Dickey, 44; "Little Falls," 46 ; J. N. Miller, 44; C. A. 
Kaufman, 44, L. O. Gay, 46; Charles T. Pettit. 48, 
Aaron S. Littleton, 4S ; James D. McGifTert, 40, 50, 51 ; 
W. Jones Rodgers, 51 ; Wat Van Flee', 51; Charles P. 
Hoffman, 51 ; W. Marsh, 49; John White, 49, 5t), 51, 52; 
P.O. Jones, 49: A. A. Rudolph, 52; C. ft. Miller, 49, 50. 
