310 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
person who will send us a right sort of implement 
to accomplish the purpose, to give him a free ed¬ 
itorial advertisement which will hasten him along 
on the road to fortune. 
For the American Agriculturist 
Twelve General Rules of Health. 
N. B.—Without tolerable physical health all 
other possessions or acquirements are compara¬ 
tively useless; therefore 
1. Be regular, temperate and cleanly in all your 
habits. 
2. Avoid all unnatural stimulants, especially to¬ 
bacco and alcoholic drinks. 
3. Eat only such food as your own or the gen¬ 
eral experience of others has proved to be 
wholesome. 
4. Avoid late meals and late hours. 
5. Rise early. 
6. Keep out of harm’s way. 
7. Take regular and sufficient exercise daily in 
the open air. 
8. Use as little and as mild medicine as possi¬ 
ble. 
9. Secure at least one regular evacuation of the 
bow’els daily, especially after breakfast. 
10. Cultivate a cheerful temper, and keep a 
clear conscience. 
11. Do not fancy yourself sick upon every 
trifling ailment, but take prompt measures of cure 
whenever you perceive decided symptoms of dis¬ 
ease. 
12. Remember that all must die at some time ; 
therefore prepare betimes for another world. 
Flushing, L. I., Sept., 1858. J. S. 
—---»o»-- 
About Drying Apples- 
October and November are the best months for 
drying apples, and the well-ripened, choice, fall 
varieties, are by far the best for that purpose. 
Some people have an idea, that anything in the 
shape of an apple, big enough to pare, cut, and 
core, let the flavor be what it may, is just as 
good for drying as another. We beg leave to 
correct this error. It is just as important to have 
a good apple to dry, as to eat raw, cook, or bake. 
To those, therefore, who want good dried apples, 
we will offer a few suggestions. 
1st. Let your apples be of good size, fair in 
shape, choice in flavor—sweet or tart, as you 
may prefer, but both are good for a variety of 
purposes. They should be gathered without 
bruising; laid by till nearly ripe, but not quite 
ripe ; pared with a machine—if you have a good 
one—and quartered, or half quartered, accord¬ 
ing to the size of the fruit, or the use to be made 
of the article when dried. 
2nd. Let the work be done as rapidly as pos¬ 
sible, for the fruit may ripen too fast after begin¬ 
ning to do them, and keep the cutting and coring 
up with the paring; for the moment the open 
flesh of the fruit becomes exposed to the atmos¬ 
phere, not heated, it begins to lose its aroma, 
moisture, and flavor, all to the damage of its qual¬ 
ity when dried. 
3rd. If you choose to string them, which may be 
done, or not, as you prefer, do it as soon as you 
can. We should not dry thus, preferring wire 
racks for the purpose. Then, instead of hanging 
them up by the side of the house, in the sun, or 
in the kitchen, where millions of flies will 
alight upon, and live on them for several days, 
put them in a kiln, or drying-room, with a heat 
of a hundred degrees of thermometer. Let the 
kiln be ventilated at the bottom and top, to pass 
off the exhaling moisture, but not enough to 
make a perceptible draught through it. 
4th. AVhen the drying heat has sufficiently 
closed the pores of the cut fruit to prevent 
the escape of its aroma, the heat may be modi¬ 
fied ten or twenty degrees, and so continued un¬ 
til they are sufficiently cured for storing away, 
which may be known by breaking a few pieces, 
and the absence of any settled moisture in the 
flesh, showing fermentation. 
5th. When sufficiently cured, pack them away 
in small bags, or sacks made of common cotton 
sheeting, or light flour sacks, not closely crowded 
in, but as they will naturally fill; tie them close¬ 
ly, and hang them to nails on the side of a dry 
room. They will thus keep indefinitely, or till 
you want to use, or market them. 
A well selected apple, properly pared, cut, cored, 
and cured, is one of the best luxuries of the table, 
while indifferent varieties, carelessly worked up, 
strung and dried in the kitchen, half covered with 
flies, fused with the steams of cookery, dust, and 
the accumulations and exhalations of an open, 
disordered living-room, are not fit to eat, nor 
even to sell. We have seen apples diied after the 
latter fashion, even in the households of other¬ 
wise tidy people ; and to those who are in the 
habit of doing so, we say, try the other plan, and 
if they do not acknowledge it a better way, in 
every possible use an apple can be put to, call up¬ 
on us, for the difference in expense. 
Every housekeeper is aware how often the 
sad-irons (flat-irons), and sundry other heavy 
articles are called into requisition, as weights to 
press meats, fruits, etc., to render them compact 
or extract juices. We formerly constructed an 
implement for this purpose, thus : A stout board 
was cut four feet long, and five inches wide at 
one end, and tapering to H inches at the other. 
Two strong spikes were driven into the wide end, 
but left projecting one inch. Over the usual 
place of the kitchen table, an upright strip was 
nailed against the wall, and fitted with pairs of 
holes over each other, so arranged that the spikes 
would fit into them. Any article to be pressed was 
set upon the table near the wall, the large end of 
the lever placed over it, at the desired hight, by put¬ 
ting the spikes upon the end into the right holes, 
when a strong pressure was obtained by a small 
weight, say a sad-iron, hung upon the long arm. 
We have just obtained a household implement, 
more convenient for most purposes, an en¬ 
graving of which is shown above. It consists of 
a cylinder made of tin, three or four times its 
usual thickness, around the bottom and top of 
which is an iron band, well coated with tin—three 
tinned iron feet being attached to the lower rim. 
Inside is a movable bottom board, pierced with 
holes, and over this a round board or follower, just 
fitting the drum. Over the top is a tinned iron 
cross-piece, which slides on easily, and wher. 
turned round to a certain point, catches upon pro¬ 
jections on the upper rim, and is held firmly. 
Through this cross-piece a long screw passes, 
and fits into a hole in an in)a placed on the top of 
upper wooden follower. Fruit, meat, or other ar¬ 
ticles are put in, the upper board placed upon 
them and the pressure applied by turning the 
screw down. It appears to be well adapted for 
the purpose for which it was designed. It is call¬ 
ed “ Jenk’s Universal Kitchen Press.” Particu 
lars, as to price, &c., will be found in the appro 
priate place in the advertising columns. 
An inquiry about Bread—The use of Cream 
of Tartar and Soda. 
To the Editor of the American Agriculturist: 
It is now a common thing for editors, lecturers, 
and authors on cookery to repudiate the use of soda, 
cream of tartar and saleratus in making bread, 
stating that these drugs are poisonous, produc¬ 
ing dyspepsia, and other maladies, and so affecting 
the constitution of the American people that they 
are rapidly producing a degeneration of the race. 
Are these things true 1 If so, why is it sol 
Bread is usually raised by carbonic acid intro¬ 
duced into the dough by fermentation, or chemi¬ 
cal action. Now when the cook takes a teaspoon¬ 
ful of bicarbonate of soda and an equal quantity of 
tartaric acid and dissolves them separately, and 
incorporates them with the dough, a chemical 
change immediately takes place by which carbon¬ 
ic acid gas is eliminated, which causes the bread 
to raise. The rationale of the process is easily 
understood. The tartaric acid unites with the 
soda producing tartrate of soda which is left in 
solution in the bread, whilst the carbonic acid of 
the bicarbonate of soda is set free, most, if not all, 
of which escapes during the process of baking; 
but even should it remain in the bread, it is con¬ 
fessedly not deleterious ; but the real question is 
this : Is the tartrate of soda injurious to health t 
If this question is fairly settled, aside from adul¬ 
terations of soda, cream of tartar and saleratus, 
the whole question is settled—for when cream of 
tartar and saleratus is used, tartrate of potash is 
left instead of tartrate of soda, (a). 
Tartarte of soda and tartrate of potash are not 
poisons, and are not injurious to health. They 
belong to the class of neutral salts, and are, med¬ 
icinally considered, refrigerant, diuretic, and mild¬ 
ly laxative. They are exceedingly simple and 
inoffensive salts without irritant or corrosive 
qualities. 
Chloride of Sodium or common salt is taken as 
food, perhaps in as great quantity as tartrate of 
soda or potash, and with much more truth might 
be called a deleterious agent, as its properties are 
stimulant, tonic, chologoguic, irritant and emetic, 
yet no one thinks of calling it an unwholesome 
ingredient in food. So with lime, being a neces¬ 
sary constituent of the body, it enters into the 
system in the form of phosphate and carbonate, 
in food and drink, yet no one thinks of denounc¬ 
ing it as detrimental to health, because quicklime 
can not be taken as food. If warm or hot bread 
is to be denounced, let it not be because it con¬ 
tains soda or cream of tartar, but for the true rea¬ 
sons. I hope to elicit the opinions of the scien¬ 
tific on the subject. M. D. 
Jefferson. Greene Co., Iowa, July 29, 1858. 
Remarks. — (a) Cream of tartar and bi-carbon¬ 
ate of soda, (i. c. common cooking soda) are the 
substances usually employed. These when 
