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AMERICAN AGrillGULTUR 1ST. 
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Air-tight Provision Safe. 
Among other recent additions to our stock of 
household conveniences, is an article which we 
have sketched above. It consists essentially of 
an iron plate, raised in the middle, and grooved 
around the edge ; and a tin,cover. In the groove 
in the bed-plate is placed a strip of India rubber, 
upon which the cover fits down. The cake, 
bread, meat, or other article, is set upon the 
iron plate, the cover placed over it with its edge 
upon the rubber, and it is then brought down 
firmly by means of two little ears or clamps. It 
will be readily seen that the rubber packing ex¬ 
cludes ants and other insects, and also shuts out 
air. The iron plate is neatly japanned black, and 
the cover is also japanned on the outside with fan¬ 
cy colors, so that the whole is ornamental. We 
have as yet obtained only two small sizes ; the 
cover of the larger ones is 9 inches in diameter, 
and 7 inches high. Retail price 75 cts. Larger 
sizes, suitable for holding several loaves of bread, 
will doubtless soon be made. Arrangements are 
being made for manufacturing these articles for 
market, of which due announcement will proba¬ 
bly be made in our advertising columns—perhaps 
in the present number. 
—-*0-4 —=ra <£> cr*™- >-0- - — 
For the American Agriculturist. 
Common Errors in Speaking. 
BY ANNA HOPE. 
As I came in the cars from Geneva to New- 
York, there sat behind me two ladies, very ex¬ 
pensively dressed. When the cars stopped, a 
gentleman came to speak to them. Among other 
questions, he asked if it was “ a pretty general 
lime of health in Cincinnati’’—a form of inquiry 
more peculiar than correct—and being assured 
that it was so, he offered his services to the la¬ 
dies in any way they should require. One of them 
immediately opened her satchel and took from it 
a silver cup, requesting him to bring her water. 
As she handed it to him she said, “ It will need 
to be wrenched,” (she meant rinsed ). I have 
not unfrequently heard washer-women use this 
expression, but I was surprised to hear it from 
other lips. In my younger days I always asso¬ 
ciated education and refinement with wealth, and 
I well recollect my amazement when I first heard 
ungrammatical expressions from gentlemen and 
ladies, but I have grown wiser, and I find that 
correct English is not quite so common as I had 
formerly supposed. 
A few hints on pronunciation and grammar may 
not be out of place in the Agriculturist, and they 
may call the attention of some of its readers to 
inaccuracies of their own that have escaped their 
attention, and which they would gladly correct. 
Different parts of the country have different 
peculiarities in minor errors, as well as in more 
important matters, but there are errors which 
“ know no North or South, or East or West.” 
There are very few persons who are perfectly 
accurate in their use of language, and even those 
who know better, often err in consequence of 
wrong influences in childhood. A New England¬ 
er is easily distinguished from a New-Yorker 
and so is a Southern or a Western man by pe¬ 
culiarities of which they themselves are uncon¬ 
scious. The “ nasal twang” has been generally 
considered peculiar to New England, but so far 
as my observation extends, it belongs equally to 
other northern States. I have noticed more of it 
out of New England than I ever heard in it. The 
finest, fullest, roundest, most musical voice I ever 
heard is that of a lady of Irish birth who has been 
educated in this country. Her words drop like 
pearls from her lips. 
A common fault in pronunciation is not sound¬ 
ing the g at the end of such words as farming, 
sweeping, dusting, pronouncing them as if spelled 
farmin, su-eepin, dusiin, 
Tuesday, student, duly, dew, due, flute, duke, new 
and a few other words which should have the 
clear sound of u as in unite, are often pronounced 
as if spelled with oo ; as Toosday, sloodcnt, dooly, 
doo, etc. The proper sound of u in these words is 
one of the most beautiful in the language, and it 
seems a pity to dispense'with it, and in its stead 
make oo do double duty. No one thinks of calling 
upon u to relieve oo. We never hear of a man’s 
putting on his lute, nor of his haling at the idea 
of endeavoring to give the correct sound to each 
letter. * 
The unaccented vowel is too often dropped 
out of words, as sal'n, for satin, curt'n for curtain, 
sudd'n for sudden. When a child, I heard a mem¬ 
ber of one of the old New York families talk about 
fowl's, and whether to think of it as incorrect, or 
as something very stylish, I scarcely knew, but 
I practiced upon the word till I could, in my room 
say tow'l as well as she, although I did not ven¬ 
ture upon it elsewhere. 
Al and el are frequently changed in speaking 
into le; as meddle for medal, mortle for mortal. 
The e and i are sometimes changed into a or u 
in many w’ords ; as quantaly instead of quantity, 
crualty for cruelty, humanaty for humanity. 
February is often pronounced Febuary ; prevent¬ 
ive, preventative; government, gooerment; cupola, cu- 
palo; attacked, altackted; droivned, drownded; um¬ 
brella, umbcrcl or umbcrella; violent, voilent; afraid, 
afeared; chimney, chimlcy; awkward, atokard; errand 
errant, or arrant, or arrdnd; polite, perlite. 
A very common grammatical error is the use 
of them for those. “Give me them peaches.” 
Shut them doors. “ Open them windows,” instead 
of “ Give me those peaches,” etc. 
The objective cam is sometimes used for the 
nominative. ‘■‘Him and me are going to New- 
York,” instead of “ He and I are going ” and the 
nominative case is also used for the objective ; 
as “ Between you and I," instead of “ Between 
you and me.” “She came to see Mary and I," 
instead of “Mary and me.” 
Who is often used where the objective whom is 
required ; as “ Who did you see 1” “ Who is this 
fori” instead of whom did you see, etc. 
These and those are often incorrectly used in¬ 
stead of this and that." “ Do you like these kind 
of apples 1” “ Those kind of potatoes arc watery.” 
You may like “these apples,” and you may like 
“ this kind ” of apples, but there is no propriety 
in using the plural f/iese with the singular kind. 
Those potatoes may be watery, but “ that kind of 
potatoes is watery. 
Went is often incorrectly used for gone ; as“ I 
should have went home,” instead of “ I should 
have gone home.” 
Done is used for did; as ‘‘ I done it ” for “ I did 
it, or I have done it." “ He done it,” for “ He did 
it.”—“ Hadn’t ought,” is used for “ought not.” 
Sens too often used instead of sit; as “Set 
down and rest yourselves.” Set is an active 
verb, sit, a neuter verb. Wc may set a chair in 
its place, but we must sit in it. A ben sits tm her 
eggs, but we set a trap for the rat that would 
steal them. 
The use of the active verb lay for the neuter 
verb lie, is very common. How often we hear it 
said, “ I laid down for an hour,” when it should 
be, “ I lay down.” Wc can lay books down, hut 
w e lie down ourselves. Book’s lie on the floor 
after we have laid them there. I must lay my pen 
aside this morning or I shall he in danger of oc¬ 
cupying more than my share of the columns of 
the Agriculturist. 
Head Cheese 
Is much liked by most persons as a cold relish, 
and is an economical way of using the coarser 
parts of a pig. It may lie prepared as follows: 
Split a hog’s or pig’s head in two, and remove 
the eyes and brains. Cut off the oars, scald them 
and the head, and scrape them clean, removing 
the discolored parts. After washing well with 
cold water, put into a covered kettle with nearly 
boiling water enough to cover it. Boil gently, 
removing the scum from time to time, as it rises, 
and cook until the bones can be easily separated 
from the meat. Take out all the hones, chop fine 
and season with salt, pepper, adding sage or 
thyme, if liked. Enclose it in a hag or cloth, 
place it in a colander set in a dish to receive the 
drippings, and lay a plate over it with sufficient 
weight to press as dry as wanted. The heavier 
the weight, the more lean the cheese will he, as 
the fat is readily pressed out. Keep it in the 
cloth in a cool place. It should he sliced thin 
for table use. 
Arrow-Root Pudding. —Contributed to the 
Agriculturist by Mrs. J F. King, Wayne Co, 
Ga., who esteems it a great luxury: Dissolve 
thoroughly two heaping tablespoonfuls of Arrow- 
Root in a little cold milk. Heat a quait of milk 
to a boil and pour it upon the dissolved part, stir¬ 
ring it very rapidly to prevent its being lumpy; 
swdeten to taste; flavor with rose, lemon, or va¬ 
nilla; just before it is to be served, beat up 8 
eggs, yolks and whites, separately, mix thorough¬ 
ly with the Arrow-Root, and bake in a quick oven 
15 or 20 minutes. 
Pumpkin Fritters.— From a subscriber at 
Somerville, N. J. Stew the pumpkin Ihe same as 
for pies. To each pint of pumpkin add two quai ls 
milk, three eggs, two teaspoonfuls saleralus, a 
little salt, and sugar to the taste. Stir in flour 
enough to make a thick hatter. Drop a small 
portion at a time into hot lard and cook brown. 
Pop-Overs. —Stir together one cup flour, one of 
sweet milk, one beaten egg, and butter the size of 
a walnut. Bake in small tin rounds—and they 
will be excellent for breakfast calces. So writes 
a correspondent of the Agriculturist at North¬ 
ampton, Mass. 
Snow Corn Cakes. — Take any desired quantity 
of Indian meal and add sugar and salt to the 
taste. Stir in with a spoon twice or three times, 
its bulk of snow. Try a little on a hot griddle * 
if it cooks too dry to turn well, add more snow : 
if too wet to be light, add more meal. Bake like 
buckwheat cakes. 
Cleaning ketti.es. A hit of pearl-ash, at 
large as a walnut, dissolved in hot water, wit. 
remove grease from iron cooking vessels, aim 
also take out the taste left by onions < r otlie. 
higlilv flavored food. 
Do good yourself, if you expec < s i va / 
