SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
15 
COMPOSTS. 
Composts of various kinds have already been r§com- 
mended and described ; but a few words more : 
Let nothing that is capable, when decomposed, of fur- 
nishing nutriment to your growing crops be permitted to 
go to waste about your premises. A compost heap should 
be at hand to receive all decomposed refuse. The best 
basis for this heap is well dried swamp muck ; but where 
this is not readily obtained, procure rich turf scraping 
from the roadside, leaves and surface soil from the wood 
lands and the sides of fences, straw chips, corncobs, 
weeds, &c., aiding the decay of the coarser materials by 
the addition of urine or the lime and salt mixture men- 
tioned in a previous section. Let this be composted with 
any animal matter found about the premises, or in the 
vicinity ; the carcasses of all dead animals, large or small, 
offal of every kind, woolen rags, bones, old boots, shoes, 
and waste leather of every description, the droppings of 
the hen-roost, soap-suds, salt, brine, all drainings from the 
sink-spout, slops from the chambers, and cleanings from 
the privy — let all go to the compost heap. And whatever 
will not decay there, with sufficient rapidity, without as- 
sistance, aid its decay by the addition of such substances 
as will facilitate the object. Bones, leather, etc., may be 
softened so as to pulverize readily, by being packed in 
ashes and kept moist a few months ; and if the whole be 
sufficiently covered with muck during the process, there 
will be no loss of any element ; or they may be packed in 
an old cask in a strong solution of potash, or may be pre- 
pared with sulphuric acid in the most scientific manner, 
and when thus prepared in either of these ways, will add 
greatly to the value of the compost heap. And if it is 
not strong enough, add wood ashes to any extent, from 1 
to 10 or 12 bushels per cord. 
When thus prepared, our compost heap should be care- 
fully worked over, thoroughly mixing all the different in- 
gredients. It may, then, be applied to the soil in the 
same manner with that from the barn cellar, or in any 
other way desirable, — The Farm. 
INDIAN MEAT. AND CORN BREAD. 
It is said that many more people would eat corn bread 
if they knew how to cook it. An “ experienced house- 
keeper” has furnished us with some good recipes, which 
we commend to inexperienced housekeepers. A bushel 
of corn contains more nutriment than a bushel of wheat. 
The latter is not generally considered fit to eat unless 
ground very fine and bolted. It is a mistake, however. 
Indian corn treated in the same way is never spoiled. It 
never should be ground fine. Let that be remembered. 
Fine meal may be eaten when 'fresh ground, but it will 
not keep sweet. The broken oil globules become rancid 
and bitter. 
Corn cakes, made of meal and water, with a little salt, 
mixed into a stiff dough, very thoroughly, and baked on 
a board before a hot fire, or in a hot oven, or in little cakes 
on a griddle, till entirely done, are very sweet, wholesome 
bread. 
Corn and wheat bread is wholesome and nutritious, 
and easily made— if you know how. Stir two tea- 
cupsful of white meal in a pint of hot water for each 
loaf; free it from lumps, and let it stand twenty-four 
hours. Boil two or three potatoes, peel and slice, and 
mash in a pint of water, which thicken with flour till it is 
stiff batter, and then add half a teacupful of baker’s yeast. 
You will use about one-third as much meal, scalded as 
above, as you do of flour; knead the meal and yeast, and 
sponge, and add a little salt with the flour altogether, and 
mould in pans to rise moderately, and then bake, at first 
in a hot oven. This bread will be moist, and more nu- 
tritious and more healthy than if it were all flour. 
Buckwheat cakes are improved by adding corn meal, 
prepared in the same way, in about the same proportion 
as for bread, A “little wheat flour may be added to ad- 
vantage, Don’t let your batter over-rise and| s^ur, and 
never use saleraetus if it does. 
Corn meal pudding may be made of yellow meal, sti r- 
red into scalded skimmed milk, till as thick as gruel, and 
when cool, add ginger’ cinnamon, nutmeg, salt and 
sweetening to suit the taste, and a little fine-cut suet, and 
some raisins, or, dried peaches, or a fine-cut apple. It 
should bake an hour or more according to size. You who 
do not believe anything made of corn meal can be good, 
will please try this recipe for a pudding. — Philadel'pliia 
Post. 
A TENDER EAY. 
Be gentle to the new laid eggs, 
For eggs are brittle things ; 
They cannot fly until they’re hatched, 
And have a pair of wings ; 
If once you break the tender shell. 
The wrong you can’t redress; 
The “yolk and white” will all run out, 
And make a dreadful “mess.” 
'Tis but a little while at best, 
That hens have power to lay — 
To-morrow eggs may addled be. 
That were quite fresh to-day. 
Oh ! let the touch be very light 
That takes them from the keg ; 
There is no hand whose cunning skill 
Can mend a broken egg ! 
Ay — touch it with a tender touch. 
For till the egg is biled, 
Who knows but that unwittingly, 
It may be smashed and spiled. 
The summer breeze that ^ginst it blows 
Ought to be stilled and hushed : 
- For eggs like youthful purity. 
Are “orful when they’re squshed.” 
CHARCOAE FOR HOGS AND OTHER ANIDLiLSe 
One of the most simple and excellent medicines for any 
derangement of the stomach of human beings, is finely 
pulverized, fresh burnt charcoal. For this purpose it 
should be closely corked up in a bottle as soon as it has 
been burnt and ground ; a teaspoonful taken in a wine 
glass of water once a day will frequently be found bene- 
ficial and worth more than all the quack nostrums with 
which the country is flooded. 
But our object was to speak of the value of charcoal to 
domestic animals, particularly to fattening hogs. . A half 
pint of it finely pulverized and mixed with corn meal and 
water to each animal once or twice a week, will be found 
extremely beneficial in aiding digestion and preventing 
any derangement of the stomach, arising from over- feed- 
ing, as is liable to be the case with that hoggish animal. 
Besides serving as a medicine, it is also extremely fatten- 
ing, either in itself or rendering the food eaten more avail- 
able by correcting and stimulating the digestive pov/ers. 
Charcoal has also been known to work wonders in fat- 
tening poultry, geese, ducks, &c. It may be given in the 
same way as recommendedrfor swine. Fowls that have 
accidentally been confined for a long time where they had 
access to no food, except charcoal, when discovered, were 
found not only to have sustained themselves but to have 
actually fattene d.— Valley Farm er. 
Apples Imported by England. — In 1856, the importa- 
tion of apples into England is stated at 538,000 bushels — 
50,000 bushels of them from the United States. 
