96 
LADIES DEPARTMENT. 
Cab tea' ^Department. 
POTATO STARCH. 
It may not so generally be known as it should 
be, that starch made from the common potato fur- 
nishes an excellent substitute for arrow root, as a 
wholesome, nutritious food for children. It also 
makes an equally good, cheap pudding for their 
fathers and mothers. For, as it does not possess the 
medicinal properties of arrow root, it is much to be 
preferred as an article of daily food, except for 
children who are subject tn diarrhnpa, or summer 
complaint. 
The process of making this kind of starch is so 
exceedingly simple, and the time required is so 
short, as to put it in the power of every one having 
the means at hand. All you have to do is, to grate 
any given quantity of well-washed potatoes into a 
tub of clean cold water : let it settle for a few min- 
utes, and then pour off the foul water from the top ; 
put the residue into a coarse hair seive ; plunge it 
into another tub of clean cold water and wash the 
starch through the meshes of the seive, leaving the 
grated potato in the seive, to be thrown away. 
Let the water settle again ; pour it off, and wash 
the starch a third time. This last water will come 
off pure, which should be poured off; take out the 
starch after scraping off any remains of potato grat- 
ings that may be on the top ; put it on dishes to 
dry, and it will immediately be fit for use. 
When wanted for use, the starch need only be 
mixed with a very small quantity of cold water, 
and then stirred into boiling water, or milk, without 
boiling. The article makes a stiff and beautiful 
starch for clearing thin muslins, and is much less 
troublesome than that made of wheat. E. S. 
FATTENING POULTRY. 
I read with much pleasure your very sensible 
remarks on the cheap method of fattening poultry, 
published in the January number, and take the lib- 
erty of saying that I concur fully in the opinions 
therein expressed, having more than once had occa- 
sion to notice the inferiority of the flesh of animals, 
as well as that of poultry, treated of by your Bos- 
ton correspondent. Those allowed the liberty to 
feed in the manner more agreeable to their natures 
and habits, as you rightly judge, possess great 
superiority in the texture and flavor of game. 
Fowls do not require a superabundance of food 
to make them fit for the table of an epicure ; and 
poultry, as well as other animals, closely shut up, 
and crammed with nutritious food, may, and will 
become very fat, but they are in a feverish' state 
while so confined, and their flesh is neither well 
flavored nor healthful. Beside this, unless kept 
perfectly clean, which, in boxes, is very difficult, 
they are apt to acquire a most hateful smell as well 
as taste. If, on the contrary, they are suffered to 
run at large, and are regularly fed, they will not 
wander far from the homestead, and will easily 
fatten, and what is of much more consequence, 
(for, who does not turn with loathing from the idea 
of eating the fat of any kind of poultry'?) they 
grow in size, and afford firm, white, juicy flesh, the 
most wholesome, perhaps, of any description of 
meat that can be set before us. 
As to the cheapness of the method recommended, 
the increase to the northern farmer's profits would, 
I fear, be more than doubtful, if he bought the rice, 
at the average price of five cents a pound, and 
had it boiled for his fatting poultry. 1 " guess'' 
they would eat before the sixteen days had passed, 
more than their carcasses would sell for in the 
market, be they in ever so fine a condition. 
Under the head of cruelty to animals, I would 
notice, and bear my testimony against "confining 
the feet to the. floor of the box" — even though the 
method employed be less cruel than that so com- 
mon among English poulterers of nailing the feet 
to the board on which they stand. Ducks and 
geese, they place in rows of six to eight, with the 
feet thus fastened, and then secure another nar- 
rower board ~>ver their backs, thus effectually pre- 
venting change of place or position. Their neigh- 
bors, the French, have a method, (which I forbear 
to describe, for long may it be before any such are 
practiced on this side of the Atlantic,) of feeding 
turkeys and geese which causes the liver to increase 
to an enormous size, for which they obtain high 
prices from the pastry cooks, who make of them 
the much celebrated luxury pati foie gras. An 
unsophistocated stomach revolts at the bare mention 
of eating a diseased animal, or any part of it ; and 
no animal can be in a healthy state when one organ 
is enlarged beyond the limits fixed by nature. But 
setting this consideration aside, could any friend of 
humanity wish to add to the luxury and so-called 
refinements of his table, at the expense of the tor- 
tures the unfortunate animals thus treated must 
suffer 1 
For turkeys, barn-door fowls, and ducks, I know 
of no food upon which they grow larger, and fatten 
better, than bonnyclabber, (curdled, sour milk,) 
thickened with wheat bran. They eat it- vora- 
ciously, and do not soon tire, as they are apt to do 
on some other kinds of food. E. S. 
Eutawah, February 1st, 1849. 
♦— — 
THE PROPER SOIL FOR ROSES. 
All roses like a rich soil, which should be made 
light for the delicate rooting varieties, and more tena- 
cious for the robust, hardy kinds. 
In order to form a light soil, procure one bushel 
of seasoned turfy loam, half a bushel of well-de- 
composed stable manure, half a bushel of leaf mold 
and white sand, proportioned according to the tex- 
ture of the loam, which will in no case require 
more than one fourth of its own bulk. The heavy 
soil may be composed of one bushel of stiff turfy 
loam, one bushel of nightsoil that has been mixed 
with the loam and laid by for a year, half a bushel 
of leaf mold or well pulverized manure and sand, 
as recommended above. 
A little burnt earth added to either of the com- 
posts will improve them. These above-named ma- 
terials should be thrown together, and frequently 
turned, for at least three months before they are 
used. 
How to Clean Pots and Boilers. — As soon as 
soups, boiled milk, gravies, &c. are taken out of 
your boilers, pour into them some hot water, which, 
even if you cannot then stop to clean them, will 
save a vast deal of the time and trouble that must 
be spent if they are left to become cold, with the 
gravy, or whatever else, hardened on them. 
