2(5 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
flame, when it comes in contact with the air. 
You will observe that a very similar kind of gas 
comes from all the tubes, whether they were filled 
with coal, oil, rosin, or wood. If now tubes are 
Cached to this vessel and it he pressed down 
into the water icy weights,, a jet of this invisible 
gas wili escape, and can he lighted at the other end. 
These tubes for conducting the gas can be 
stretcneu miles away to carry the gas to any point 
where light may he wanted. Large pipes are laid 
down in the street, under ground, and from these 
smaller ones branch off into the buildings. With 
the exception of some lime vessels through 
which the gas is passed when just made, we have 
described all the essential apparatus of a gas 
manufactory. The gas for burning is simply 
grease, or rosin, or coal, heated to a vapor, just as 
we would change water to steam in a steam en¬ 
gine, only that greater heat is required to vapor¬ 
ize these more solid substances. Cut we need 
not go to the city or village to see a gas manu¬ 
factory. Every house has one, two, three, or 
more gas factories. Thai tallow candle, or oil, 
or fluid lamp, is a little gas factory of itself, and 
you are actually burning gas as much as your 
aristocrat^ city eousius, and precisely the same 
xind too. 
The tallow, oil, or fluid (which is in part distill¬ 
ed rosin) is drawn into the hot wick, which eva¬ 
porates or converts it into gas, just as does the 
hot iron in the gas house. 
The gas made by the candle or lamp wick, 
comes at once in contact with the air, and is con¬ 
sumed. (At another time we shall try to explain 
,ust what takes place in burning, and how, and 
why, the light is produced, which is a very inter¬ 
esting matter). One point more lust here. All 
ihe blaze produced in burning wood, or any kind 
of fuel giving out a flame, is simply the burning 
cf a gas of just the same kind as that made in 
he gas house. 
Ifyou examine a candle flame closely, you will 
iDserve a dark spot around the wick. This is a 
vpace filled with gas unburned. Only a thin film 
■«urns on the outside of the flame. 
Put or.e end of a little tube down inside of the 
dame, close to the wick, and the unburned gas 
wiU rise up through the tube, and it may be light- 
id at the upper end. 
A PRACTICAL SUGGESTION. 
If you look at the wick closely, you will see that 
tis surrounded with the gas which keeps the air 
away and prevents its burning. The wick dark¬ 
ens the flame a good deal, and this is one reason 
why gas made elsewhere, and burned as it escapes 
from a tube, gives a brighter light than a lamp or 
>_andle requiring a wick. As the tallow in a com¬ 
mon candle wears away, the wick bends over and 
projects through one side of the flame. There it 
comes in contact with the air, and is gradually 
consumed, as you will see by the bright spot on 
the end. Now, it is desirable to have as little 
wick as possible to interfere with the light. To 
this end it is better to make all candle wicks as 
nightly braided or twisted as possible. If too 
small, they will bend over, and melt away the 
grease on one side. 
In spermaceti, and other kinds of candles not 
melting easily, the wick is made so small that 
it bends over very soon, and coming in contact 
with the air, it burns off, and require? no snuffing. 
----- 
A Good Wife. —That young lady gives ration¬ 
al security for becoming a good wife, who does 
not apologize when you find her at work in the 
kitchen, but continues her task until it is fin¬ 
ished 
Hotes on Cooking, &c. 
PICKLING SWEET APPLES. 
Here is something we know to be good : 
To one half peck sweet apples make a 
syrup of 2 lbs. sugar and 1 pint of vinegar. Boil 
the apples in this syrup until tender ; then re¬ 
move them, and make a new syrup of2£ lbs of 
sugar and 1 pint of vinegar. Add one teaspoon¬ 
ful of cloves and one of cinnamon tied in a bag. 
Let the syrup boil 15 or 20 minutes ; then pour it, 
while hot, over the fruit. The first syrup is good 
for other sauces. 
PUMPKIN PRESKEVES. 
The following is home-tried and proved : 
An excellent and economical sweetmeat is 
tnus prepared : To 71bs. of pumpkins take 51bs. 
of sugar, 4 lemons, and 2 oz. of green ginger root, 
to be obtained at most grocers’ stores. Cut the 
pumpkin in slices, half an inch in thickness, and 
in size and form to suit the fancy. Boil the pump¬ 
kin in the syrup, until tender. Then remove it 
and add the lemons and ginger root. These 
should be sliced thinly and scalded before being 
put into the syrup. Boil it down until it is rich 
enough to keep without fermenting, and then 
pour it over the pumpkin. Ifthe ginger root can¬ 
not be obtained, lemons alone impart to it an 
agreeable flavor. 
COOKING TURNIPS AND CABBAGES. 
“ Sophia,” of Columbus, Pa., sends us the fol¬ 
lowing : • Pare the turnips and cut them into 
slices only one-fourth of an inch in thickness. 
Stew them in just water enough to cook. When 
soft, mash them with a common potato masher, 
and season to the taste. In this way all the 
sweetness of the root is retained, which is not the 
case when a large quantity of water is used. Cab¬ 
bage stewed in same way is excellent.Query. 
Unless liquid enough is used to leave them wa¬ 
tery, is there not danger of their scorching 1 How 
would it answer to put the thin slices into a dish 
without any water, and set them into a vessel of 
boiling water; or in a steamer. If set in a basin 
in hot water, a plate might be put over to keep out 
water or rather steam from above. We leave the 
experiment with the ladies.— Ed. 
SUET PUDDING—CHEAP AND GOOD. 
We often enjoy a very excellent suet pudding, 
so called, which we do not remember to have de¬ 
scribed. We should rather call it a suet cake. 
We last evening asked for a “ prescription,” and 
received the following : Take one teaoupful of 
molasses, one of sweet milk, one teaspoonful of 
soda and one of salt, half to three-fourths of a 
cup of finely chopped suet, or a half a cup of but¬ 
ter, half a teacupful of currants or raisins, (if de¬ 
sired.) Stir together with, say r three teacupfuls 
of flour, or enough to form a stiff batter. Add 
nutmeg or cinnamon to suit the taste. Put into a 
greased tin basin, or in a mold, and cook two to 
three hours in a steamer. This comes out “ as 
light as a feather,” and makes a nice dish for the 
supper table, especially where cream can be had 
to eat with it. 
LOAF CAKE. 
A lady sends the following to the Agriculturist: 
Take three cups of milk, one cup of sugar, 
half a cup of yeast; make a thick batter, and let 
it stand over night. In the morning, add two 
cups of sugar, one and a half cups of butter, one 
egg, and spice as you like.—This strikes us as 
being new, but in the absence of the Editress we 
dare not pronounce upon that point. We do not 
quite understand what comes after Ihe “ spicing 
as you like it 1 Is there to be no raising in the 
morning 1 How is it to be baked 1 Ladies, please 
give ail the particulars. A good many fellows 
have gone to keeping Bachelor’s Hall since the 
“hard times” came on, and they have subscribed to 
the Agriculturist to get your help—don’t forget the 
particulars required by entirely new hands at 
cookery. 
SODA CAKE AND CREAM CAKE. 
Mrs. L. A. Mitts, of Black Hawk County, Iowa, 
contributes the following two formulas: 
Soda Cake, one loaf .—Beat together slightly one 
egg and one teaspoonful of dry sugar. Mix well 
with one leaspoonful of soda dissolved in a tea¬ 
cupful of sweet milk, 2i tablespoonfuls of melted 
butter, one pint of flour measured and then sifted, 
2 teaspoonfuls of cream of tartar, and extract of 
lemon to suit the taste. Bake quickly in a basin 
in a hot oven. [A recipe very nearly like the 
above has been used in our family for a longtime, 
and is much liked. A smaller quantity of butter 
will suffice, unless a rich cake is desired.] 
Cream Cake. —Three teacupfuls of sugar, 3 of 
thick sour cream, 5 eggs beaten, 2 even teaspoon¬ 
fuls of soda and 2 of salt. Mix well with flour 
enough to make a batter, flavoring to the taste. 
Bake quickly in two three-pint basins, or in patty 
pans. 
Price of Sausage Fillers. —Error corrected .— 
In describing this implement, on page 295 of 
last number, the price was stated at $1,75 and up¬ 
wards. It should read: $3,75 and upward, as 
the lowest price of those with a wheel and crank is 
$3,75 at the House Furnishing and Agricultural 
Stores. 
Going-to Market. 
We recollect a story told us in our boyhood-by 
an old farmer, of two of his neighbors living 
about five miles out of the nearest market town. 
One of them was building a house and, of course, 
had carpenters and masons on hand, whom he 
boarded while doing their work. As his own limi¬ 
ted provisions were insufficient to furnish this 
extraordinary draft on his household supplies, he 
had to buy. 
One Sunday morning, a neighbor living a mile 
or two beyond him, came jogging down the road 
on his mare, with a mule foal following—it was 
the fashion to raise mules in those days in New 
England—and under him, on the saddle, a well 
filled grain bag. 
‘Good morning, neighbor Hawkins, what have 
you got in your bag V 
‘ Mornin’, mornin’, responded Hawkins.’ ‘I’ve 
got a bag o’beans that we didn’t want at home, 
and so I thought, as I hadn’t much to do to-day, 
I’d go into town, and sell ’em.’ 
‘ Well, what are they worth 1’ 
‘ Don’t know exactly. Joe Styles tell’d me he 
got seven shillings for his; so I s’pose that’s 
about the goin price.’ 
‘I’ll tell you, Hawkins ; I want some beans ; 
and if you’ll let me have ’em, I’ll give you that, 
and so save your going into town, and you can 
go home and do a day’s work to boot.’ 
Musing a little, and scratching his head, ‘no I 
believe not,’ said Hawkins, ‘the old woman wants 
a little tea, and other notions, and I guess I’ll go 
along. May lie I’ll get seven and six for ’em’. 
‘ Very well,’ replied Jotham Bently, as he 
turned round to look alter his carpenters, and 
away rode Bildad Hawkins to market his beans. 
Being a man of humor, and thrifty withal, as 
soon as Hawkins had turned into the right hand 
road over the hill, Bently got up his horse, sad¬ 
dled and mounted him, and jogged on after, keep- 
