AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
101 
traveling by land or by sea, for hotel pur¬ 
poses, or use in private families, for young or 
old, we recommend it cordially, as a substi¬ 
tute for fresh milk. 
We look with interest for the scientific re¬ 
port of the committee of the Academy of 
Medicine, in which we hope for an exposi¬ 
tion of the domestic, culinary, and hygienic 
properties of solidified milk. 
SUMAC-OSIERS. 
1 was brought up to the woolen business 
in Western Massachusetts, and have not only 
cut and cured but used tuns of sumac as an 
ingredient for dying. The only reason why 
American sumac is inferior to the imported 
article is that old growths are used. If it is 
cut every year and nothing but the new 
growth saved, it is doubtless equal to that 
which comes from abroad. Foreigners, av1i@ 
make it an article of commerce, cut, cure 
and sell the growth of each year, so that it is 
full of coloring matter. We used to cut 
over our grove each year, and thus keeping 
it down, the sprouts were abundant and of 
the first quality. Sumac generally grows in 
rocky, worthless land, and, if managed prop¬ 
erly, will yield more value in sumac than it 
could be made to produce in any other crop 
with the addition of careful and expensive 
culture. The rocky dells and worthless hill¬ 
sides of Hampden and Berkshire Counties 
in Massachusetts, yield, or if properly kept 
down would yield, all the sumac that the en¬ 
tire State would use with all her morocco 
and cloth manufacture; and it could be cut 
and cured by berry-picking school-boys. I 
did it before I was old enough to be of any 
service in working a ship to import it. But 
nine-tenths of the rural population, whose 
children industriously pick blackberries and 
whortleberries to buy straw hats and school¬ 
books, are not aware that sumac is of any 
earthly use, and would gladly avail them¬ 
selves of its profit if informed. 
It should be cut just before frost comes 
and cured like corn-stalks, and when dry, 
cut by means of a straw-cutting machine, 
leaves, sticks and all, and put into stacks for 
market, or it might be ground fine in a bark 
mill. If cut close to the ground, several 
sprouts will grow, four feet high, from the 
stump in a season. This is the sumac of 
commerce. 
In respect to the osiers or willow for bas¬ 
kets, I desire to say, everybody knows that 
willows are as abundant of growth, and are 
regarded as much of a nuisance around wa¬ 
ter-courses as sumac is in hill pastures. Why 
import that which costs us so much tireless 
labor to destroy l Why not save it with the 
same labor that it now costs to destroy it 1 
There is a German in this city living within 
a stone’s throw of my store, who hires the 
farmers in the neighboring counties to cut 
and bundle up their willows forhim and sink 
them in the brook until he wants them. In 
April, May and June he and all his children 
down to four-year olds, are busily engaged 
in stripping the bark and preparing a stock 
for their year’s work. But does it pay? 
The farmers are doubtless satisfied with the 
compensation he gives, for they bring him 
caitloads, and smile over the gold he gives 
them in exchange for otherwise worthless 
“ willow sticks.” But does it pay the Ger¬ 
man to make them up into baskets ? He 
landed in Philadelphia fiften years ago with 
only five dollars in his pocket; he has reared 
nine children, done no other business but 
make willow baskets, and is worth to-day 
the house he lives and works in, and has 
twenty thousand dollars in the Savings Bank. 
It seems to pay. I have often thought, as I 
nave seen this family stripping their willow 
twigs and carting away (at a cost) loads of 
t he tough hark, why it might, not be used fpr 
the manufacture of paper. I am confident 
it would pay—surely it would be very valu¬ 
able as an article of manure. 
[New-York Tribune. 
NEW SYSTEM OF PRESERVING MEAT. 
Ip fresh meat could be had from distant 
countries, where it bears a very low price, 
the people of France would be able to pur¬ 
chase a much larger quantity of animal food; 
but this has been hitherto impossible, for the 
cost of transport and of fattening would be 
such as to make the meat dearer than that 
which is raised in France. Attempts have 
been made to preserve meats in the cheap 
countries, and export them to France, but 
they have all failed. There is now a project 
before the Emperor and the Minister of War 
for the drying of meat in South America, 
where it can be had at about one sou per 
pound, and importing it from thence for the 
use of the army and navy. We have seen 
some specimens of meat dried in Paris, and 
which at the expiration of five months were 
perfectly fresh and good. In South Ameri¬ 
ca a very large quantity of meat is dried in 
the sun, but the process carries away a very 
large portion of the nutritious properties, 
and it remains good only for a few weeks. 
The process on which the government has 
now to give a decision is simple and appa¬ 
rently efficacious. The water of the meat, 
which forms a very large portion of its bulk, 
is removed; and not by heated air, which 
has been frequently tried, and never with 
success,but by mechanical means; the meat 
is then plunged into a sort of varnish made 
from the gelatinous portions of the animal, 
and which not only forms a hard surface, 
but also enters into the pores of the meat 
and augments the nutrition, and then the 
meat is gradually dried. In about fifteen 
days it is fit for packing, and will, according 
to the assertion of the inventors, keep good 
for two or three years. When required for 
use, the meat is put for a few minutes into 
water, and it nearly resumes its originalbulk, 
and is cooked in the usual way. If it be 
true that meat thus prepared will keep for 
two or three years, or even for one year, 
the adoption of the process will produce an 
enormous change in the economy of subsis¬ 
tence. In South America it can be prepared 
at about two sous per lb. including every 
cost. As it is reduced in bulk about one- 
half, the cost to transport would not exceed 
one sou, and it could be sold in France, with 
a profit of 25 per cent, at four sous per lb. 
South American meat is not, perhaps, equal 
in quality to that raised in France, but even 
supposing it to be inferior to the extent of 
20 per cent, the working-classes and the 
poor would have an abundant supply of 
animal food. [Galignani. 
THE GIPSY’S HEN. 
A few evenings ago I sallied forth to enjoy 
a stroll along the green lanes and fields after 
my daily toil. The evening was delightful, 
and so was the music from the birds in the 
trees and hedges. It was equally delightful 
to see the children gamboling along in wild 
glee and gathering the bashful buttercups 
and the starry daisies, until, to quote Eliza 
Cook, “ wearied with prattle, they loitered 
home, in twos and threes, laden with their 
flowery spoils, to lie and dream all night of 
worlds made of flowers.” Continuing my 
walk amid a most delightful perfume from 
the flowers of the thorn, the bean-fields and 
the clover, and enjoying the beauty of the 
scene around, with the setting sun’s golden 
light thrown upon the buds just breaking 
“into emerald greenness,” I came upon a 
gypsy’s encampment, A heap of faggots 
was blazing on the grrmndj and ovo? if was 
suspended the kettle. The gypsies were 
some of them engaged in preparing the even¬ 
ing meal, while the children were gathered 
around their father, who was amusing them 
by playing some well-known airs upon his 
violin. 
“ Down by yon hazel copse, at evening, blazed 
The gipsies faggot—there we stood and gazed . 
Gazed on her sun-burt face witli silent awe, 
Her tattered mantle, and her hood of straw. 
Her moving lips, her caldron brimming o’er ; 
The drowsy brood that on her back she bore, 
Imps, in the barn with mousing owlet bred. 
From rilled roost at nightly revel fed.” • 
JtouEns. 
I entered into conversation with them, and 
examined the camp, when I discovered, in 
one corner of a cart, a hen sitting upon a 
seat of eggs, and some of her chickens were 
hatched. On inquiry, I found that, though 
they frequently traveled many miles during 
the setting period, they had generally good 
luck with their hatches. The fowls were 
healthy, and supplied the gipsies with abun¬ 
dance of eggs, owing, doubtless, to their 
extensive pasturage , and the multitude of 
insects found in the shady lanes. My visit 
to the camp afforded me another proof of the 
retentive vitality in eggs, and satisfied me 
that some gipsies are courteous—cleanly in 
their tents, and poultry producers as well as 
consumers, and therefore they do not always 
have recourse to the neighboring roosts for 
their revels.—C. P., Boston. 
[Poultry Chronicle. 
MAKING BREAD, 
—_»— 
The Rhode-Island Society for the promo¬ 
tion of Industry gave the first premium on 
domestic bread to Mrs. Hiram Hill,of Provi¬ 
dence. The follow’ing is Mrs. Hill’s recipe 
for making the bread exhibited by her : 
For two loaves of the ordinary size, take 
two potatoes, pare them, slice very thin, and 
boil quick until quite soft, then mash to a 
fine pulp, and add, little by little, two quarts 
of boiling water, stirring until a starch is 
formed ; let it cool, and then add one-third 
of a cup of yeast. This forms a sponge, 
which should remain in a moderately warm 
place for ten or twelve hours, or over night, 
until it becomes very light and frothy, even 
if a little sour, it is of no consequence. When 
the sponge is ready, add flour, and work 
it until you have formed a stiff, firm mass. 
The longer and more firmly this is kneaded, 
the better the bread. 
Let the kneaded mass remain, say from a 
half to three-quarters of an hour, to rise, then 
divide into pans, where it should remain, say 
fifteen minutes, care being taken that it does 
not rise too much and crack; then put the 
loaves into a quick oven and bake, say three 
quarters of an hour. If the oven is not hot 
enough, the bread will rise and crack; if too 
hot, the surface will harden too rapidly and 
confine the loaf. 
Mince Pies. —Boil three pounds of lean 
beef till tender, and when cold chop it fine. 
Chop three pounds of clear beef suet, and 
mix the meat, sprinkling in a table spoonful 
of salt. Pare, core and chop fine six pounds 
of good apples ; stone four pounds of raisins 
and chop them; wash and dry two pounds 
of currants ; and mix them all with the meat. 
Season with a spoonful of powdered cinna¬ 
mon, a powdered nutmeg, a little mace, and 
a few cloves, pounded, and one pound of 
brown sugar ; add a quart of Madeira wine 
and half a pound of citron cut into small 
bits. This mixture put down in a jar and 
closely covered will keep several weeks. Ii 
makes a rich pie for Thanksgiving and 
Christmas. [Maine Farmer. 
An Eminent Painter was once asked what 
he mixed his color with, in order to produce 
so extraordinary an effect, 11 1 mix them 
with brains, sir!" was his answer, 
