123 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[April, 
of space prevented our responding to the request to 
lend it our strong aid. Of the Fair held, a lady friend 
writes incidently : "I was sorry you could not visit us 
last fall, though I expect you would not have heen 
pleased with the fair. The display was said to "be very 
creditable to our young State, hut like Tim Bunker's 
State Fair, the prize money was mostly paid to horse 
racers; and the housewives, to whose handiwork premiums 
were awarded, are obliged to content themselves with 
paper diplomas instead of the promised premiums. I think 
the effect will not be favorable to future fairs. JMany say ; 
'the horse jockeys take all the prizes; I will not try 
again. 1 — Last year I made 300 lbs. of premium butter from 
one cow, and husband proposed taking ' Cherry, 1 her calf, 
and a crock of the butter over to the fair. He was too 
busy, however, and would have lost his la )or." The peo- 
ple were too much occupied with the fast horses to pay 
any attention to such trivial matters as 300 lbs. of good 
butter from one cow, besides the family supply of milk. 
The MoiHBaly Report of the Agri- 
cultural Department for January contains 
several interesting and valuable articles. One on the 
" Kate of Wages of Farm Laborers in the United States " 
has been prepared with great labor and pains. There is 
also an important article on wool consumption, and one 
on the Red Bug or Cotton Staincr, besides minor items, 
tables, etc. Now, why should not the people who are 
taxed for this publication, and are sufficiently desirous to 
get it,wvite for it and be supplied ?— They will be informed 
that the supply is exhausted. "We claim that subscrip- 
tions should be taken at cost for this and similar publica- 
tions, and so all who wished could be supplied, provided 
they applied in advance ; 5 cents a number or 50 cents a 
year would more than cover the cost of printing, etc. 
Prescribing at a distance. — The 
London Lancet records a case of an Englishman, in this 
country, who, being seized with a renewed attack of an 
illness from which he had suffered at home, consulted his 
physician in London, by means of the Atlantic cable, a 
prescription was returned by the same channel. This is 
as in the olden times, when physicians wrote in cabalistics. 
JPeat as Fuel. — A word of caution is neces- 
sary to the enthusiastic people who are rushing into peat 
enterprises, buying peat machines and peat bogs at fab- 
ulous prices. Remember Multicaulis and Petroleum. 
There is undoubtedly great wealth in our peat swamps. 
It is a question to be solved, whether they are worth 
more for manure, or for fuel. In estimating the value 
for fuel, it will not do to put a cord of uncondensed peat 
higher in value than a cord of wood. Then it is to be 
remembered that peat in drying shrinks into from J^ to 
y s of its original bulk, and the better the article the more 
shrinkage. If it costs three dollars a cord to manufacture 
peat and two dollars to get it to market, and wood is 
worth only four dollars a cord, you do not gain much by 
buying peat, or putting it into the market. This whole 
business is too much a matter of experiment for farmers 
to venture upon largely. Jt will he safer for capitalists 
to make the experiments. While the article is so valua- 
ble for manure, we should not advise haste in selling 
peat bogs, even at the high figures sometimes reported. 
Grapes-A Correction. — In our cata- 
logue of Grapes, in the Horticultural Annual, Roger's 
Hybrids were omitted by the loss of a slip containing the 
notes. This omission occurs only in the first two thous- 
and, and is remedied in those printed since. That which 
Doct. Grant proposed to call "Washington," and is so 
recorded in the Annual, is to be known as Eumelan. 
The Miner iPE bq mi. — This variety is adver- 
tised as of " excellent flavor, 1 ' and " never injured by the 
curculio." Can some one— not interested in its sale- 
give us an account of this plum, and its real value ? 
Keeping- Pichles in Salt.— M. Roberts. 
A quart of salt to a gallon of water will make a brine 
strong enough. There is no danger of getting them too 
salt, as they will only absorb about so much, and the soak- 
ing before putting into vinegar will take it all out. The 
greening of pickles by putting them in a brass kettle is a 
custom much more honored in the breach than in the ob- 
servance. Pickles are made for the stomach rather than the 
eye, and should not be poisonous, that they may be green. 
Salt in Whitewash. — Salt is a good addi- 
tion to whitewash, but if put Into that used upon fences 
or buildings which cattle can get at they will be likely to 
lick it off. Wash made of water lime is less giaring. 
Sorghvun Vinegar. — u J. W. Y.," says a 
good vinegar can be made from sorghum juice without 
evaporating, by letting it stand in the sun a few days, 
exposed as much as possible to the air. With the syrup 
at a dollar a gallon it is not a very cheap source of vinegar. 
The skimmings arc much cheaper as recommended in 
Feb. number, page 48. Why would not the bagasse, or 
pressed cane, treated in a leach like the apple pomace, 
make a good vinegar? Has this ever been tried? 
Hoe Cake. — Hawkey gives thefollowing : Mix 
a little salt with sifted meal, and pour boiling water upon 
it, sufficient to dip the batter out on a common cooking 
stove griddle. This should be tested by throwing a pinch 
of meal on it, and it is hot enough when the meal begins 
to turn brown. As soon as this is the case, dip the batter 
or mush out of the pan upon the griddle until it is covered 
all over exactly half an inch thick. Cook it with a lively 
fire, and when baked enough to turn without sticking, 
turn the cake over and bake it on the other side. 
Mice — How to get rid of them. — 
" C. T. P." Keep a good cat. Color not important. Set 
the common wire spring traps. Use any of the rat poisons 
made of phosphoric paste. Use arsenic spread on a paper, 
and mixed with meal— where nothing else can get it. 
Ventilation in Houses. — Mrs. C. C. Al- 
len. See March No. Agriculturist. 1S67, and Sept No., 1S64. 
Maryland Recipe for Hams. — For 
one hundred pounds of hams, eight pounds of fine salt, 
two pounds of brown sugar, two ounces of saltpetre, iy 2 
ounces of potash, four gallons of soft water. The brine 
must be boiled and cooled. The meat must be well 
washed before being cut up, then lie in a cool place for 
some days. Rub each piece with fine salt, and pack the 
whole down. Let it remain two or three days, according 
to the weather. The brine should then be poured into 
the cask at the sides. Leave the hams six weeks in the 
brine. Take out and rinse in cold water. Hang up to dry 
four or five days, then smoke with hickory wood. 
€ornnieal Pudding — Mrs. L. A. Mutter. 
— Two cups of cornmeal, one cup of grated bread, one 
cup of molasses, and one of sour milk, two tablespoon- 
fuls of butter, a half a teaspoonful of ginger, do. of cin- 
namon, one teaspoonful of baking soda, or a half a tea- 
spoonful of saleratus, three eggs ; after the batter is made, 
one cup of sliced apple — the apple must be of a kind that 
will cook quickly — and can be added or left out as prefer- 
red. Bake half an hour in a moderately hot oven. Cream 
and sugar for sauce, as any other is apt to alter the flavor. 
Corn Muffins. — One and a half pint of corn- 
meal, a half pint of wheat flour, one pint of sour or thick 
milk, two pints of sweet milk, two eggs, a small teaspoon- 
ful of salt, do. of baking soda. Bake twenty minutes in 
a tolerably hot oven. To be made up just before baking, 
and must be well beaten. If preferred, use all sweet milk, 
and raise with a tablespoonful of yeast. 
Newport Cake. — Three eggs, 1 quart of 
flour, 2 teaspoonfuls of cream tartar, 1 of soda, 2 table- 
spoonfuls melted butter, 3 of sugar, 1 cup of milk. -Bake 
in a long tin pan and cut in slices ; eaten hot with butter. 
Corn Riscuit. — One and a half pint of cold 
mush, one and a half pint of wheat flour, one cup of but- 
ter, nearly a pint of sour cream, a small teaspoonful of 
baking soda, do. of salt. First rub flour and butter to- 
gether, then add mush, then the other ingredients. 
Rye ISread. — " C. H." wants a recipe. "A 
quart of water and as much milk. Two teaspoonfuls of 
salt and a teacup of Indian meal. A teacupful of home 
brewed yeast, or half as much distillery yeast. Make it 
as stiff as wheat bread with rye flour. — Miss Beeclier. 
To Keep Smoked Meat— By J. C. E.— 
Make a dark, tight closet in the north end of the garret, 
or in any out-building. If there is any appearance of fly 
or worm, during the summer, dust the hams with air 
slacked lime. Some allow their bams to hang in the 
smoke-bouse during the summer, starting a smoke occa- 
sionally to keep off insects. The house should be tight. 
Cooking Cabbag-e-H. B. Stanley. — Cut 
it fine, but not cross cut it. Put itin the firying pan, add a 
little salt and pepper, with some cream and a large piece 
of butter. Cook it slowly for ten minutes. Then add a 
half teacupful of vinegar, and turn it over immediately 
into the dish from which it is to be served. 
Influence of the moon on Meat. — 
" I. P. C. S." It is one of the many foolish superstitions 
that the world has not yet outgrown. "Kill your pork 
when the moon is increasing and it will swell in the pot," 
Stuff your pigs with good sound corn, or com meal, for 
two months before slaughter, and the moon can't help its 
swelling in the pot. The meat of lean, half fed animals 
always shrinks in cooking. 
Poor Man's Pnuuing;. — Set 2 quart 
skim milk over a kettle of hot water, until it is scalding 
hot, then stir into it a pint of com meal, and immediately 
after set the pan off; add a teacup of syrup or molasses, a 
teaspoonful of salt, and one of allspice ; put in a buttered 
pan ; bake slow one hour. Good, warm or cold, with 
cold cream or without. — M. W. C. 
Paimnlcin Johnny Cake. — Take 1 bowl 
•of com meal, 1 % teacups of stewed pumpkin; add 3 
table spoonfuls of sugar, 1 teaspoonful of soda, and 2 eggs. 
Mix well and bake in a moderate oven. — Mrs. M. E. i?.— 
[We have pleasant memories of this. Hubbard or Boston 
Marrow Squash is an improvement on the pumpkin. — En.] 
Frothy Cream and no BSutter. — 
" 3. E.," of East Fairfield, Ohio, says : " Our cow calved 
about the middle of Fourth month last ; will calve again 
27th of Fifth month ; gave in the summer forty pounds of 
milk per day. We have failed to get butter for the past 
two months ; nice thick cream, slightly sour and suffi- 
ciently warm, gets thin and froths in a few minutes and 
bids defiance to " patience and perseverance;' ' We have 
tried all the remedies we have heard of, both for cow and 
cream. Salted the cow, etc., all to no purpose. We under- 
stand that it has been a failing with the cow heretofore. 
We could get good butter in 15 to 30 or 45 minutes during 
the summer and fall and early winter. *\ Has not your 
cream frozen occasionally ? Buy a thermometer and be- 
gin churning when the temperature of the cream is 65°, 
having scalded out the churn so that it will not cool the 
cream. Feed the cow a little linseed or cotton seed cake 
meal and some roots if you can. It will not do to warm 
cream by pouring much hot water into it. 
Eggs for Setting.— "C. E. G.," Buffalo, 
N. Y. Eggs will often hatch after being transported hun- 
dreds of miles by rail, at other times a few miles of wag- 
gon or railroad travel will ruin them. No reliance can be 
placed on eggs transported far, unless they be carried in 
the hands, and packed with great care at that. 
What are Corn Cobs Good For ? — 
" L. F. L.," of Torrington, Conn., asks : u Are corn cobs 
of any use as nourishment for animals, or as a manure 
for vegetables ? I shell a large amount of corn and have 
tried cobs as manure in various ways, have put them in 
m y pig-pen for a season, and from there to my garden, 
have put them in a heap to heat and rot, and then to the 
garden, and have applied them in a natural state with bad 
rather than good results. I have used them as fuel, they 
make very strong ashes and will form a hard crust over 
the ashes in the stove, some of it is white, some green, 
etc., of which I send you a sample for your opinion ; if it 
is fit for feed for stock of any kind, then our farmers 
should grind their cobs with their corn." Ans. Wc 
suppose they have a little value as manure but are slow 
to decompose, and believe it to be much better to burn 
them and apply the ashes which are very valuable. It is 
worse than useless to grind cobs with the corn unless the 
corn is very soft and immature. After the corn ripens 
well the cobs contain a very small proportion of nutri- 
ment—not bo much as straw. 
The N. Y. State Agr'l Society held 
its Annual Meeting at Albany, on the 13th and 14th of 
February, for the election of officers, as announced in 
our last issue. The reportjof the Treasurer, Luther H. 
Tucker, Esq., showed the finances of the Society in a 
healthy condition. There was an interesting and instruc- 
tive Address by X. A. Willard, on the Agriculture of 
Great Britain, and another by Dr. Fitch, on the recent 
discoveries in Entomology, dwelling particularly upon 
the canker worm, the joint worm, and the grape-beetle. 
The address of the retiring President, J. Stanton Gould, 
was a scholarly performance, full of practical wisdom 
which we hope to see carried out in the future operations 
of the Society. We exceedingly regretted that there were 
not better arrangements made for discussion of topics of 
practical interest to farmers and horticulturists. There 
were present at the meeting a hundred or more gentle- 
men from various parts of the State, and some from 
abroad, distinguished farmers, nurserymen, and horticul- 
turists, whose last year's experience we very much want- 
ed to obtain. Yet there were no arrangements made for 
discussions and experience meetings. We had but three 
sessions in the two days, when wc could easily have had 
twice as many of two hours each, and have got much 
useful information and spread it before our readers. 
We beg leave to suggest a change in this respect at the 
next Annual Meeting. We know the Committees ape 
necessarily busy, but the rest of the members should 
have work laid out for them in meetings for discussion. 
Patent Office Reports.- 1 W," asks 
where he can obtain them. If " W." lives in a large city 
he can probably find them at any dealers in waste paper. 
