AMRURJLCAN AGRICULTURIST, 
158 
piece of butter the size of an egg; 3 cups flour, 
and teaspoonful of soda ; 2 teaspoonfuls one of 
cream of tartar mixed with the flour; 1 cup of 
sweet milk. Bake in muffin rings, in a quick oven. 
Bread Pudding'. 
Contributed for the Agriculturist b^a subscriber 
in Tolland Co , Ct. In the evening take a loaf of 
bread baked on the morning of the same day—one 
made with a pint of milk is about the right size— 
and crumble it very fine, especially the crust. 
Tour on new milk enough to barely cover the 
crumbled bread, and let it soak over night. The 
next morning mash it very fine; add 8 beaten 
eggs, a large pint bowl of raisins, about a table¬ 
spoonful of salt, and put into a 4-quart pan for 
baking with milk enough to nearly fill the pan. 
Bake 2 to 3 hours, according to the heat of the 
oven. To be eaten with warm, sweet sauce. [We 
think any loaf of biead, even two or three days 
old, if still sweet , might be used. Ed ] 
Ready Made Yeast. 
A housekeeper in Concord, N. H., of 20 years 
experience, recommends the following to the read¬ 
ers of the Agriculturist: Boil a handful of hops in 
2 quarts of water and add 4 large potatoes boiled, 
mashed and strained. Scald 6 tablespoonfuls of 
flour in the liquid, adding 1 cup of sugar and 1 cup 
of salt. When cold add yeast to ferment it, tinn¬ 
ing the liquid to 2^ quarts. This put in well-cork¬ 
ed bottles will keep six weeks in the hottest 
weather. Use half a teacupful for each loaf of 
bread. 
Peppering Bacon. 
Hervey Caldwell, Rush Co., Ind., recommends 
putting a good coat of ground black-pepper upon 
Bacon (hams) after it is smoked and ready to he 
packed away in Spring. He recommends 1 lb. 
pepper to 100 lbs. bacon. This he says will keep 
away skippers, and other vermin. 
Cucumber Pickles. 
Mrs. Cynthia Stanley, of Hillsdale, Mich., 
sends the following. It is taking a good deal of 
trouble for a dozen cucumbers, but those who eat 
this article, pickled or unpiclded (we do not) may 
consider the pickles obtained worth the trouble : 
“ Take 12 cucumbers, full grown, but notripe; 
pare, quarter, scrape out the seeds, and sprinkle 
on a little salt, and let them stand five or six hours. 
Dissolve 14 lbs. of sugar in 2 quarts of vinegar, 
heating and straining it. Immerse in the liquid a 
bag containing £ ounce each of cloves and cin¬ 
namon. Put the cucumbers, rinsed from the salt, 
into the liquid ; set over a slow fire for twenty 
minutes; then pour the whole into a crock and 
cover tightly for twenty-four hours. At the end 
of this time pour off the liquor, scald, and return it, 
and repeat the process at the end of another 24 
hours. Then cover tightly and set aside in a cool 
place, and they will keep for a long time. 
Soap for Hard Times. 
S. S. Moody, North Headly, Mass., recom¬ 
mends the following: Cut 14 lbs. of common bar 
soap into thin pieces, and boil fifteen minutes in 
a pail of soft water with 1 lb. of sal soda. Pour 
the whole into a barrel, and fill two-thirds full 
with water. [This will make a solution of hard 
soap, but not a genuine soft soap. The latter can 
onlv be made with potash. The distinction be¬ 
tween hard soap and soft soap is, that the alkali 
in the former is soda, and in the latter, pot¬ 
ash.—Ei>.] 
Grease Spots. 
Susanne, of Brooklyn, writes : “ Tell the read 
ers of the Agriculturist that many of these eye¬ 
sores may be removed for a sixpence invested in 
French chalk.” She gives, as an example, that her j 
4-year-old carried a nice edition of “ Cowper” 
into the kitchen and dabbed it into the butter plate. 
She scraped some of the French chalk over the 
spots of grease, and in an hour afterward brushed 
off the powder and put on a fresli dose, leaving 
it three or four hours, when Cowper was himself 
again. “The same application operates equally well 
upon greased clothing, though, sometimes, two or 
three applications may be needed. The French 
chalk (clay) can be obtained at any drug store.” 
Convenient Bye Hopper. 
S. W. R., of Harford Co., Md„ sends to the 
Agriculturist a description of a convenient leaching 
tub, somewhat on the plan of the filtering appa¬ 
ratus, fig. 1, page 92, March No : “ Take a com¬ 
mon meat or fish barrel (a mackerel barrel is best,) 
and put brick, stone, or wooden blocks in the bot¬ 
tom, say 6 or 8 inches high ; upon these put a false 
bottom of rough boards well filled with large holes, 
or lay in two or three pieces with openings be¬ 
tween. The upper head may be used, by boring 
holes in it and notching the edge. Lay in some 
straw, and then put in the ashes, punching them 
down well with the end of a spade, to prevent the 
water from washing out the ashes. The water 
poured over the ashes will slowly settle through, 
and may be drawn out by means of a spigot or 
tap at the bottom. The opening in the bottom 
answers as a secluded reservoir, where the lye is 
prevented from being acted upon and injured by 
the carbonic acid of the air, and a constant sup¬ 
ply of fresh lye may be kept on hand for use as 
desired. No more than is wanted need be 
drawn off at any time. 
Coloring', Blue, Yellow, ami Green. 
Mrs. E. Gilbert, Lenawee Co., Mich., offers the 
following to the lady readers of the Agriculturist. 
We are not able to speak of their value as com¬ 
pared with other modes. Were they not from 
good authority we should “ guess” (not asseri) 
that the salt would not be a sufficient mordant to 
render the colots permanent. 
“ To Color Blue. —Dissolve 1 ounce Oxalic acid 
in half a pail of rain water. Put 1 ounce Prus¬ 
sian blue in an earthen bowl, and wet with some 
of the acid water. Stir till dissolved and then 
put the whole in the acid water. This is enough 
for 2 lbs. of cotton cloth. Dip the cloth into the 
water, wring out, and dry in tire shade. Then 
rinse in a pail of rain water, in which a single 
handful of salt has been dissolved. To color 2 
lbs. of Cotton Yellow —Dissolve 2 ounces sugar 
of lead in a paiiful of rain water. Scald the cot¬ 
ton goods in this for 5 minutes. Take out the 
cloth, and then dissolve in the same liquid 1 ounce 
of Bi-chromate of Potash. When all is dissolved 
scald the cloth again for a few minutes, stirring it 
about all the while to keep it from spotting. Dry, 
and then rinse in salt water as for the blue color. 
To Color Green —First color yellow as above 
(without rinsing in salt 1) and then dip in the Prus¬ 
sian blue dye, finishing with the salt water rins¬ 
ing. These operations must be done in 
brass vessels. The above modes of coloring are 
much used for rag carpets.” 
Preserving Cans, and a Hint to Tinmen. 
A fourth year’s experience with the air-tight, 
screw-top, or self-sealing cans for preserving 
most kinds of fruits, has convinced us beyond a 
doubt that this mode of putting up fruit is not only 
more healthful, but in the end cheaper than the 
old fashioned way of “ preserving ” in sugar. 
When the fruit season comes round we shall ad¬ 
vise our readers to put up their cherries, straw¬ 
berries, raspberries, and by all means the peaches 
j in air-tigtit cans. We have these fruits now 
as fresh and good as when they were picked last 
season. But large numbers of our subscribers 
wrote last year that they could not get the cans 
without paying double or treble the first cost, 
for transportation of such bulky articles. The 
main object of this note is to say that a bet'ci 
way for those living remote from large towns 
where these cans are made, is to secure a quan- 
tiiy of the covers with the screw caps attached, 
and have the main body of the can, that is the 
sides and bottom made by a tinman in your im¬ 
mediate vicinity. Or what would be better, per¬ 
haps, suggest to your tinman to get a gross or 
two of the caps, more or less, and prepare the cans 
lor sale, q his idea was suggested by seeing a 
quantity of the covers and caps being packed fora 
distant Western town. They are made on a large 
scale by machinery, and sold at about $1 25 per 
dozen, the same cover answering for a on» quart 
or a two quart can. A dollar per dozen or at 
most $1 12, would probably cover the cost of mak¬ 
ing the body of the quart cans, and the transpor 
tation ot the caps. This would bring them below 
the price ($2 50 per dozen), that they are retail¬ 
ed for at the bead quarters. We are using some 
quart cans the fourth year, which reduces the cost 
to 5 cents a year, and this amount is saved in the 
less sugar required, to say nothing of the more 
healthful and more delicious sweet-meats thus 
secured. 
Into which are thrown all sorts of paragraphs—such as 
Notes and Replies to Correspondents, with Useful ot 
Interesting Extracts from their Letters, together with. Wean 
ings of various kinds from various sources. 
To Correspondents —We have examined many hun¬ 
dreds of-laid over letters’ the past month.answering 
them privately, or in the items heiow—some single para 
graphs apply to a dozen or more letters. The remaining 
letters now on hand wilt he attended to next month, arid 
as many new romers as possible. 
Hot-Beds—M ticls, Leaves.—T. Allen, Athens 
Co.. O. Where muck cannot he had, get forest leav, s, ot 
the surface soil from the woods, scrapings from ponds, oi 
turf and loam from the road-side to mix wnh manures 
These are improved hy being previously strewn over the 
stables to absorb the liquids. In making hot-beds will) 
forest leaves, put them in dry. The moisture from the 
surrounding earth will be sufficient. 
Trees—Deep I 5 fan tingr and Eanlting-.-ln 
reply to California subscriber and others, we advise to 
set trees as nearly as may be to the same depth that they 
Stood in the nursery. The great aim in transplanting 
all trees should ne, to preserve ihe original condition ot 
depth, extent of root, &c. With regard to hanking up, 
when a tree is first s< t it is well to add a good body of 
earili to keep it upright; but the surplus earth should be 
removed as soon as the ground has settled firmly 
Dwarfing; Trees—How «o do it—H Sherwood 
Niagara Co., N. Y We can dwarf the natural slocks o 
apple, pear, cherry. Ac., hy heading back. They are usii 
ally dwarfed, however, by working on less vigorous 
stocks, such as ihe Paradise or Doucain, for the apple 
on the Quince, for pear ; and on the Mahaleb and Morello 
for the cherry. These are usually budded low, or nearly 
in the ground, with the variety of fruit lo form ttie top. 
Pear Trees-What to Plant.—A. G., of 
Washington Co., N. Y., asks the above question, rightly 
proposing to confine himself lo a very few kinds. He does 
not, however, state whelher he wishes Summer. Fall oi 
Winter Iruit. For two trees of each we would name 
for Summer, one each of Madeleine and Benrre Giflard 
for early Autumn, Bartlett and Fondante d’Automne ; foi 
late Autumn, Flemish Beauty arid Louise Bonne de Jcr 
sey; for Winter, Lawrence and Winter Nelis. We 
would chose standards rather than dwarfs, though dwarfs 
of some varieties, if carefully nursed, do well for limited 
areas, and for fruiting soonest after planting. 
Ashes on Peach Trees.—J. Webster, of I’hil 
adelphia, states that finding his favorite peach trees de 
caying. he dug around the roots w ith a trowel and discov 
ered a number of white grubs. These he killed, and scat 
tering among ttie roots about two quarts of strong wood 
ashes, he covered them with earth again, and spread on 
the surface two quarts of slaked lime. The grubs disap 
peared and the trees recovered, flourished and bore fruit 
for several years, until they were removed on another ac 
count. It is barely possible that tbe white grubs were one 
