Agriculture is the most healthful , the most useful , and the most noble employment of man.— Washington. 
VOL. VI. NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER, 1847. 
A. B. Allen, Editor. 
HOW TO MAKE JAMS. 
Jams, or conserves of fruit and sugar, are all 
made by boiling either the pulped or bruised fruit 
over a fire, with one-half of its weight to an equal 
weight of loaf-sugar, until the mixture becomes a 
jelly when a little is placed on a cold plate. When 
sufficiently thick, the half-fluid mass should be 
passed through a coarse hair-sieve, while hot, in 
order to remove the stones and skins of the fruit, 
and poured into pots or glass jars. The latter may 
be covered with paper dipped in brandy or with 
pieces of bladder closely tied on. The following 
are the proportions employed in making some of 
the principal preserves :— 
1. Apricot Jam. —Six dozen apricots, stoned and 
pared, or flesh of the fruits, two and a half pounds ; 
white sugar two or three pounds; will yield about 
four and a half pounds of jam. 
2. Cherry Jam. —Stoned cherries four pounds; 
white sugar two pounds; improved by adding 
about two pounds of red currants, or a pint of cur¬ 
rant-juice. 
3. Gooseberry Jam. —Picked and stalked goose¬ 
berries (red or yellow) 22 lbs.; white sugar 12 
lbs.; will produce 26 lbs. 
4. Orleans Plum Jam. — Equal weight of fruit 
and sugar; improved by the addition of a few ripe 
raspberries or gooseberries. 
5. Raspberry Jam. —Picked raspberries and white 
sugar, of each 14 lbs.; improved by a little red or 
white currant-juice. Product 26 lbs. 
6. Strawberry Jam. —Picked strawberries and 
white sugar, of each seven pounds; will make 13 
lbs. of jam. May be made with or without the 
addition of currant-juice. 
7. Apple Jam. —Equal weight of fine flavored 
sour apples pared and quartered, and of white sugar 
with the addition of one quince. 
NO. IX. 
Harper & Brothers, Publishers. 
APPLE-ORCHARDS.—No. 1. 
The introduction of the common apple-tree into 
the North American colonies, dates back to the 
earliest periods of their settlements. In the Mid¬ 
dle, Northern, and some of the Western States, no 
branch of rural economy has been pursued with 
more zeal, and few have been attended with more 
successful and beneficial results, than the cultiva¬ 
tion of orchards. It was not undertaken on an ex¬ 
tensive scale, however, until about the commence¬ 
ment of the present century, when, according to the 
Transactions of the Massachusetts Agricultural So¬ 
ciety, the hardy yeomanry of the soil entertained 
the opinion that “ the moderate use of cider, as 
a common beverage, was highly conducive to 
sound health and long life.” It appears from 
Dodsley’s London “ Annual Register,” that in 
the year 1768, the Society for promoting Arts, 
&c., at New York, awarded a premium of 
£10 to Thomas Young, of Oyster Bay, for the 
largest nursery of apple-trees, the number being 
twenty-seven thousand one hundred and twenty- 
three. Between the years 1794 and 1808, Mr. 
William Coxe, of Burlington, New Jersey, enriched 
his lands in that vicinity with extensive orchards, 
containing in the aggregate several thousand trees, 
which occupied a space of seventy or eighty acres ; 
and within and since that period, numerous other 
orchards have been planted in various parts of the 
country, equalling and even surpassing them in 
extent. Among the largest, and perhaps the most 
select, are those of Mr. Robert L. Pell, of Ulster 
county, New York, which have been planted about 
twenty years, and are said to contain twenty thou¬ 
sand trees. 
Choice of Varieties .—So great is the diversity of 
taste, in regard to the merits of this fruit, and so 
numerous are the varieties which are rapidly be* 
