254 
AMERICAN AORICULTURIST. 
[AtTQUBT, 
are unable to say, but probably a sufflcient time if 
the ban-els are full and tigbt. Where additions are 
made as the cucumbers are picked from day to day, 
a strong brine is used, about a quart of salt to the 
gallon of water, and the cucumbers kept down by 
means of a circular board with weights upon it. A 
great trouble is often experienced with pickles in 
brine from tlie formation of a white scum upon the 
surface. This is probably some microscopic veget- 
able growth of a char.acter similar to mould. It 
has been recommended as the best means of man- 
aging this to put a cloth under the follower used to 
keep the pickles uuder the brine, and each time ad- 
ditions of fresh cucumbers are made to the barrel, 
to carefully lift the cloth to remove the scum on 
it, and wash the cloth clean before replacing it. 
1 I M» » I ■ 
American Extravagance in Living. 
To one who has traveled abroad, or informed 
himself thoroughly respecting the economy of do- 
mestic life in Engl.and, and on the Continent, few 
things are more striking than our American ex- 
travagance. We waste in our food much which 
wonld be turned to good account in their family 
maintenance. Much goes into the swill-pail, or is 
thrown out for the chickens and dogs, and cats, 
which would there be worked over for the table of 
the servants, or given to the poor. We are extrava- 
gant in dress. Bro.-idcloth and silk, and Patent 
leather and Alexander's gloves are none to tine lor 
daily use. We are " clothed in purple and fine 
linen, and fare sumptuously every day." In car- 
pets and rosewood furniture, and lace curtains and 
mirrors, in carviug and gilding, in equipage and 
grand dwellings, — in short, in whatever may con- 
tribute to physical indulgence and material show, 
we put little or no restraint upon our desires. 
And what we might, perhaps, with some show of 
reason do in times of peace and plenty, and low 
prices, we have continued to do in time of war and 
national distress, and thCenhanced cost of living. 
Now, to an outsider, this must look foolish, if 
not morally wrong. What if we think we can 
afford this high style of expenditure? Fast living 
is hurtful to soul and body. Frugality, temper- 
ance, self-restraint, are signs of a better character, 
than wastefulness and headlong self-indulgence. 
They are productive of truer happiness, more gen- 
uine self-respect and better health. Individual ex- 
travagance and national luxury have in all past 
times gone together, and are likely to do so in time 
to come. It is well to have an eye to the future. 
There may be rainy days ahead. If they come, we 
shall be thankful for our economy, and if they 
do not, it will do us no harm to have provided 
with habits of carefulness for every contingency. 
— • -m^^ •-» 
Blackberry Wine and Syrup. 
We are asked how to make blackberry wine with- 
out the addition of water to the juice, and how 
much syrup will be required to the gallon of juice 
to preserve it any Icugth of time. These inquiries 
show that the writer does not make a distinction 
between wine and syrup. If he wishes to make 
syrup, the juice from the berries should stand 13 
hours more or less, according to the weather, until 
a partial fermentation takes place, and a thick pulp 
coagulates and separates from the clear liquid. 
This pulp is removed by straining, and to the clear 
liquid, sugar is added in the proportion of 13 pounds 
to the gallon, put on the fire and allowed to come 
to the boil. Syrup prepared in this way will con- 
tain all the "nutritious and medicinal virtues of 
the fruit." In making wine from fruit juices the 
object of adding sugar is not to preserve the juice 
through the agency of the sugar, but to afford a 
source of alcohol. Few frnit juices, except the bet- 
ter kinds of grapes contain enough fruit sugar to 
form a sutBciently strong wine to keep without 
changing to vinegar, hence the addition of sugar. 
If sugar is added directly to the juice of blackberry, 
raspberry, and other of our common fruits, it 
forms a jelly and does not ferment, and it is accord- 
ingly necessary to add more or less water. The 
best blackberry " wine " we ever made was in the 
proportion of one quart of water, one quart of juice 
and two pounds of sugar. There is a great mis.ap- 
prehension with respect to the medicinal properties 
of blackbrry wine and syrup. Their curative effects 
are due to their astringency, which depends upon 
the tonic acid they contain. This principle is much 
more abund.ant in the root than in the fruit, and an 
infusion of the root, prepared as directed in July, 
will be found much more medicinal, though per- 
haps less agreeable, than the " wine " or syrup. 
Bread, etc., from Wheaten Meal. 
A correspondent, " Nymphea," in Torkville, N. 
Y., is quite enthusiastic on the subject of bread 
from unbolted ground wheat, and sends not only 
her recipes but specimens of the articles made ac- 
cording to them. The preparations were sweet, 
light, and palatable, and would no doubt be prized 
by those who like articles made from wheaten 
meal. We give her own account of the manuer of 
producing them : 
" After all that has been said on the vexed bread 
question, probably many of your readers may re- 
ceive with great incredulity the statement that goad 
light, and wholesome bread can be made with sim- 
ple meal and water. I believe we have spoiled our 
bread for the sake of having it look white. We 
take great pains to grind the wheat to an impalpa- 
ble powder, carefully sift out those portions which 
conduce most to sweetness, lightness, and nutri- 
tion ; and then take a vast deal more pains to put 
in artificial ingredients which at best but poorly 
restore these important qualities. If good wheat 
be ground coarsely (if with sharp stones the better) 
and not bolted, nor sifted, you can, by the follow- 
ing, and other recipes, make good, light bread, 
quickly and certainly ; bread that will keep for days, 
and yet can be eaten hot with impunity, because 
it contains no unwholesome drugs or compounds. 
Batter Cakes. — Stir wheat meal slowly into cold 
water till it is of a consistence about half w.ay be- 
tween griddle cakes and pound cake. Bake in large 
patty pans or small muffin rings in a hot oven 20 
or 30 minutes. If wanted extra nice, use milk in- 
stead of the water. Now pletise do not laugh at 
this recipe, nor argue against it ; but try it faith- 
fully, and if necessary, repeatedly ; and do not un- 
dertake to mend it until you can make it. If the 
cakes do not come out of the oven as light as good 
wheat bread, your batter is too thick or too thin, 
probably the latter, or you have undertaken to 
bake it in a large loaf, or to mar the recipe in some 
other way. I prefer to use the patty pans which 
should not be more than 2}4 inches across the top, 
and 1 inch deep. If oblong, they may be 3 or 4 
inches long. The fluted tins will do, and if greased 
with a very little sweet oil, the cakes will soon 
come out smoothly while hot. Some prefer to drop 
the batter by the spoonful on a large tin ; this 
saves time. This bread will keep moist and tender 
two or three days unless it has been salted. 
Sweet Batter Cakes. — Make the batter as above, 
sweeten to the taste (better slightly), and add a 
dash of cinnamon Bake as above. 
Wheat Meal Rolls. — Pour boiling water into good 
wheat meal. Stir with a stout spoon into a dough 
as soft as can be conveniently handled. Work it as 
little as possible, roll %inch thick on a well planed 
board, cut into inch-and-a-half cakes with a knife 
or a cake cutter, and bake quickly. This does not 
require so hot a fire as the batter cakes. The bread 
is sweeter but not so porous, and will keep longer. 
Boiled Paddi7ig. — Make a dough as in the last 
recipe, and roll X 'i<^h thick. Stir up shred apples 
or any slightly tart fruits with wheat meal, and a 
little water if necessary, and wrapping it up in the 
crust, turn-over fashion, put it into a bag and boil an 
hour. Two or three hours will improve it. Eat 
with sweetened cream or other simple dressing. 
Wheat Meal Mush.— Stit wheat meal gradually 
into slowly boiling water, as for hasty pudding. 
Let it cook very slowly 20 minutes or more. Eat 
with sweetened cream. Afterthe meal is all stirred 
in, whortleberries either dried or fresh, foi-m a 
charming addition. This pudding makes a palata- 
ble, cheap, and wholesome desert, which can be 
prepared at short notice. 
Ambrosia. — Make a batter as in the first recipe, 
or a trifle stiffer. Grease a deep dish and spread 
this batter half an inch thick upon the bottom. 
Place upon this a layer of small fruits or tart sliced 
apples, with barely sugar enough to correct their 
acidity. Put a very thin layer of batter, or if the 
fruits are very juicy, wheat meal should have been 
added with the sugar, sufficient to absorb the juice 
in cooking ; then another >ayer of fruit with sugar, 
flour, etc., covering the whole with a thin layer of 
batter. Bake about 1 hour in a moderate oven. 
The best fruits for this dish are tart cherries, black- 
berries, plums, and grapes. The two points to be 
observed are, not to let the fruits touch the dish or 
the surface, and not to let the juices escape in cook-* 
ing. This dish is better if it ripen a day or two 
before it is eaten, thus permitting the fruit to 
perme.ate the cereal with its juices and aroma. 
This, Mr. Editor, is my very own invention and 
ray chef d^ceuvre^ and as I must needs have a name 
for it, I h.ave appropriated the type of all excellence 
among the edibles of ancient mythology." 
«- ^«B- .-• 
Fly Poison— A Caution. 
There are still many places where the old-fashion- 
ed fly-poison is used. Druggists sell it as " Cobalt," 
an incorrect name, and one which does not indi- 
cate the true chmacter of the article, ground metal- 
lic arsenic. This when mixed with sweetened wa- 
ter is sure death to flies and equally fatal to people. 
From the many cases of poisoning of children re- 
sulting from the use of this fly-poison, we advise 
to discard it altogether and endure the annoyance 
of flies rather than risk the poisoning of children. 
Darkening the rooms is the best w.ay of getting 
rid of flies ; keep them out with millinet frames. 
■ I M«M .-• 
Sagging Doors. — After doors have been 
long in use, they sometimes pinch near the top, 
and the usual remedy is to plane them off at the 
sticking point. But this planing removes the 
paiut or graining, and is a great evil. The cause 
of the pinch is the sagging of the door; and this 
comes from the wearing down of the hinges by 
long use. Instead of planing off the doors, a better 
way is to go to the tinners and get some tin or 
sheet-iron washers made which will just fit the cen- 
tral rod or pivot of the hinge. This will remedy 
the evil at small expense, and save the mutilation. 
Hints on Cooking, etc. 
Soft Sorglmm Cake— Take 3 eggs, 1 
pint of sorghum molasses, 1 of sour cream, half a 
nutmeg, 1 teaspoon ful of soda. Beat the eggs and 
molasses together until light, thicken with flour 
to the consistence of batter coke, this will be 
enough to fill two common sized stove pans. 
Ciinger1>rea,d. — Take 1 quart molasses, 1 
pint lard, 2 pints very sour cream, 2 heaped table- 
spoonfuls soda, 2 of ginger or nutmeg, mix into a 
dough as soft as can be rolled ; roll thin .and bake. 
Extra Piidlding.— To 1 quart of milk add 
the yolks of 3 or 4 eggs, sweeten to your taste, let 
it first raise to a boil, (have the whites beat to a good 
froth) stir in the whites, then put away fo cool. A 
pudding made in this way I think is hard to beat, 
and not very unwholesome. 
Egg Puils.— Take 1 pint sweet milk,l quart 
sifted flour, 2 eggs, 1 teaspoonful salt. Mix the 
yolks with the milk. Beat the whites to froth. 
Mix all together and divide into twelve earthen 
cujjs. Bake 30 minutes in a very hot oven, and eat 
as soon after as possible with good butter. The 
cups must be new, or those which have never been 
wet or greased. The puffs when done will slip out 
of the cups easily, and are served at table, bottom 
side up, for beauty. The cups may be cleaned 
sufficiently by scraping and wiping with a dry clotb. 
If the cups are ever wet the puSb stick. 
