1882.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
337 
full, add water to cover the cucumbers ; as more 
are added, use more salt, and water if needed, to 
cover them, using half a bushel of salt to the bar¬ 
rel. When full, head up the barrel, knock out the 
bung, and fill up completely with water. In tight 
barrels cucumbers in a brine of this strength, will 
keep for a long time. In salting small quantities, 
a brine strong enough to float a potato may be 
poured over the cucumbers, placed in a jar or keg. 
It takes about a month for the brine to thoroughly 
penetrate them, and make them fit for putting into 
vinegar. For family use. most persons prefer the 
cucumbers rather larger than those sold in bottles ; 
whatever the size fixed upon, it is desirable to have 
all in the same lot as nearly of a size as possible. 
The following vegetables may be 6alted in the 
same manner: Green Tomatoes, String Beans, 
Green Peppers, Martynias (taken when very tender), 
and unripe Melons with the contents removed 
through a hole made in the side. Peppers have a 
slit made in them to admit the brine into the in¬ 
terior. At the pickle-factories, great care is taken 
to use only the purest salt; that containing lime is 
said to cause decay. Coarse salt in crystals is the best. 
Side-Shelf for Draining Bottles. 
Bottles for holding fruit, catsup, etc., should, 
when emptied of their contents, be thoroughly dried 
and aired, after being well washed and rinsed, or 
when they are refilled the fruit will not keep well. 
SIDE-SHELF FOB BOTTLES. 
It is a hazardous undertaking to stand bottles up on 
a table to drain, especially the long, slender ones so 
often used for holding catsup, for the least jar may 
send them over and break them. Besides, when 
stood up on a table, although they will be well 
drained, the air is not free to circulate through 
them. Sometimes I have used a simple little con¬ 
trivance which overcame both difficulties. It is a 
board 4 feet long and 15 inches wide, in which are 
over two dozen various sized holes, the largest of 
sufficient diameter to admit the mouth of a good- 
sized fruit jar, and the smallest large enough to 
hold the slender necks of catsup bottles. The 
board is fastened to the wall on a south porch by 
hinges. Twine strings pass through holes in each 
end of the board, and fastened to staples in the 
wall, hold it in place at the right angle. When not 
wanted, the shelf can be hooked up against the 
wall; but this is seldom necessary, for when not in 
use in holding bottles, it makes a handy temporary 
resting place for such articles as partly ripened to¬ 
matoes and seeds. Mrs. Busyhand. 
What Shall We Eat? 
BY A MINNESOTA HOUSEKEEPER. 
I never felt more at rest myself on that question 
than I do now. There is one thing, anyhow, always 
on hand—material for bread, which contains all of 
the elements needed for the growth and repair of 
the human body. All we need besides is “ trim¬ 
mings,” and less of those, apparently, than ever 
before. Meat is fifty per cent higher than it was a 
year ago, but that fact is nothing to us. We do 
not “ hanker after it ” at all, and we live and grow 
and work hard and enjoy life without.it. 
All this we had settled in our own minds before 
we saw that the entire wheat flour, mentioned last 
month, had been examined by a doctor with the 
microscope, and found to be-the best of many dif¬ 
ferent kinds of flour. He commends the large 
proportion of “gluten-cells,” and speaks highly 
of it for children and invalids. Though we are not 
exactly invalids nor infants, we believe that the 
flour which is best for them is best for us also, to 
keep us in health and to promote healthy growth. 
1 smiled as I read over the last article I wrote 
about bread, for I suspect that I have said my last 
good word for white bread. We had to go a month 
between our first half barrel and our next barrel 
of entire wheat flour, living on white bread and 
Graham. I had just baked an ovenful of white 
bread (uncommonly nice, I thought), when the new 
barrel came. It was two weeks from that time 
before I could get all of that white bread eaten in 
any shape, mostly in toast, the last in pancakes, 
which is expensive and bothersome, and less 
wholesome, I think, than the best of bread. The 
only decent Graham we can get costs six cents a 
pound, and as about one-third of that is bran, the 
nourishment it contains costs us as much as eight 
cents a pound. 
Whiteness has long been considered one of the 
most desirable qualities in bread. But how innu- 
tritious white bread looks to me lately ! How rich 
and good the brown ! Yet I never felt so about the 
coarse Graham. And then one needs to learn how 
to cook the new flour. However it is baked, it must 
have more room to swell than common flour and it 
must be thoroughly baked. A soft dough and a 
thin batter is the rule you must go by. As I find 
dry yeast most convenient, I usually scald a batter 
of the new flour at night, and when cool enough, 
stir in the soaked yeast. Before breakfast I stir 
this thick with flour and knead it well, not letting 
the dough get too stiff, put it directly into the pans 
to rise, and have the baking soon over. You can be¬ 
gin early in the morning, without scalding the flour, 
and have the baking done betimes if you use only the 
best and freshest yeast, and keep the sponge warm. 
Perhaps a good word ought to be said for bran, 
after all, as a medicine! Those who have been 
long accustomed to its irritating action, to over¬ 
come the natural tendency of a sedentary life and 
full habit of living, cannot, perhaps, easily dispense 
with it. Some waste matter is undoubtedly neces¬ 
sary to promote digestion, but bran, for that pur¬ 
pose, seems deal at six cents per pound. All our 
fruits and various kinds of vegetables afford 
considerable waste matter, as well as does bran. 
Cisterns Cheaply Made. 
BY EBEN K. REXFORD. 
About the majority of country and village houses, 
one sees old barrels, with boards or troughs, and 
occasionally eave-spouts of tin, arranged to con¬ 
duct water into them from the roof. The supply 
thus obtained is often inadequate to the wants of 
the family, and soon becomes unfit for use. Dead 
leaves, worms, all kinds of flying refuse, collect in 
the barrels, and they afford breeding places for 
myriads of mosquitoes ; besides the supply of soft 
water is in a condition to use only a short time after 
a shower. Every house should have a cistern. None 
but those who have been accustomed to the use of 
soft water in domestic operations, know how much 
superior it is to hard. It not only makes things 
cleaner, but the labor of cleaning is greatly les- 
•ened, while hard water ruins woollens. 
The expense of building cisterns is not large. In 
localities where the soil is composed principally of 
clay, I have seen them built by digging a hole in 
the ground, and plastering the exposed surface 
with water-lime. Generally a layer of stones is 
placed in the bottom, over which a thin mixture of 
lime and water is poured. This runs down among 
the stones, fills all the crevices, and settles into a 
smooth surface above them, and, when dry, forms a 
floor of sufficient thickness and hardness, to allow 
any one to tread upon it while cleaning out the cis¬ 
terns, without danger of breaking the floor. Plas¬ 
ter the lime directly upon the slanting sides of 
earth, with a common trowel. Care should be 
taken to not mix up a great quantity at any one 
time, as the lime soon “sets,” and it becomes im¬ 
possible to smooth the walls properly, if too large 
a surface has been plastered over roughly, before 
beginning the smoothing process. 
The top of the cistern should be well covered, 
and pains taken to see that the earth on which the 
wall is put, is below frost in winter, otherwise freez¬ 
ing is likely to crack the coat of lime, and cleave it 
off, or leave cracks, through which the water will 
soak out. If properly banked up in winter, such a 
cistern will last for years; it is quite as satisfac¬ 
tory, indeed, as one built up of brick or stone. An 
opening large enough to admit a person should be 
left in the covering. In cleaning it, the walls can 
be readily washed, and all slime completely re¬ 
moved by using a stiff scrubbing brush. Such a 
cistern costs but a few dollars in its construc¬ 
tion, and will pay for itself in a short time. 
Drying Fruit, etc., for Home Use. 
In a former number we have suggested that those 
who dry fruit for market in the old-fashioned way 
can not hope to compete with that dried in the 
evaporators, and that it would be better for neigh¬ 
bors to co-operate in procuring the needed appara¬ 
tus. By going to a little trouble, fruit for home 
use can be dried in much better condition than usu¬ 
al, by arranging a box covered with hot-bed sash. 
Though we illustrated this last year, yet so many 
have inquired about fruit-drying, that we reproduce 
the engraving. A suitable box, tight enough to keep 
out insects, is built; this is of a width and length 
to hold the desired number of sashes; hot-bed 
sashes are the best, as they are so made as to allow 
the rain to ran off. The box should be raised some 
inches from the ground, upon legs, or placed upon 
pieces of joist. The important point is the ventila¬ 
tors ; there should be an opening a foot long and 3 
or 3 inches wide, at each sash, low down in front, 
and a similar one at the rear, near the top of the 
box. These openings are to be covered with wire- 
cloth, but mosquito netting or other open fabric, 
will answer. The articles to be dried may be placed 
upon cloths, spread upon the bottom of the box, 
but it will be much more rapid if placed upon 
trays, made by covering frames with some thin 
open material ; these trays should be raised a few 
inches above the bottom of the box, so that the air 
may pass up through them. The drying will be 
done very rapidly, and the articles free from dust 
and all soiling by insects. The thinner the fruit is 
sliced the more rapid will be the drying. In drying 
sweet corn do not let it get too old, but take it in 
just the proper condition for the table, and cook it 
as if to be eaten before cutting it from the cobs. 
Egg Gravy.—When eggs and butter are both 
dear, I sometimes make what we call an egg gravy 
for a dressing to bread and potatoes. Break and 
beat up light tour fresh eggs, and mix thoroughly a 
thin paste made by stirring well together, a table¬ 
spoonful of flour, and about half a teacup of water. 
Heat to boiling one quart of sweet unskimmed 
milk, and just as it boils, add a level teaspoonful 
of salt. Then turn in slowly (stirring rapidly), the 
mixture of eggs and flour paste. Let it all boil to¬ 
gether for a few minutes, stirring well nearly all 
the time, and turn it out for the table. F. E. R. 
Peas.—Americans are great consumers of green 
peas, but they are far behind the Europeans in the 
use of ripe peas. These are imported as “ split 
peas,” the hull being removed and the peas split in 
halves. They are about equal to beans in their 
amount of nutriment, and should be more gen¬ 
erally used, if only to give a variety, than they are 
by our people outside of cities. A bowl of pea- 
soup at mid-day is equal to a hearty dinner. 
