AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
187 
Cooking - .—Dolly’s letter (Ill.,) is received, and is 
marked (or a chapter at first opportunity. 
Pickling—-Vinegar.—“ Subscriber ” Lawrence, 
Kansas Territory. We are not certain as to the “chemi" 
eai colorless fiuid in pickle jars. We have found in these 
apparently only vinegar, and have always understood that 
the vinegar used is made from grapes, or the lees of wine. 
A little alum and salt are sometimes added to give a 
bright green color to the pickles, say two-thirds of a tea- 
spoonful of salt and a table-spoonful of alum to a gallon, 
boiled in the vinegar. About the only pickles we really 
relish are made of young black walnuts, or butternuts. 
These are gathered when a pin can be thrust through 
them, and either washed by stirring thoroughly in ley, or 
scalded in water and rubbed with a cloth, to remove the 
roughness. Next soak in salt brine a week or so, and 
pierce ttwm through with an awl or needle, and put them 
in close jars, covering with scalding vinegar. Some add 
to the boiling vinegar, cloves, cinnamon, pepper'and gin¬ 
ger, and also mustard seed. Cucumbers, small and fresh 
gathered—cut, not pulled—Tnay be kept a long timein salt 
brine. Before using, soak in freshwater and put them 
into warm vinegar, which will thoroughly penetrate them 
i n a tew days. Cucumbers, green tomatoes, peppers half 
grown, nasturtiums, peaches, pears, cherries, onions, cab¬ 
bage, green beans, radish pods, dec., are all pickled by 
putting them directly into vinegar. Many persons boll 
cloves, nutmegs, ginger, pepper, cinnamon, onions, &e., 
for three or four minutes with the vinegar before using, 
any or all of these to suit the individual fancy or taste. A 
little alum boiled with them gives the green color. Peach¬ 
es are often kept in brandy. Common whisky may be 
substituted for vinegar for most kinds of pickles, especial, 
ly cucumbers. Vinegar, in the absence of cider, may be 
made in various ways. Ten gallons of clean soft water> 
one gallon of molasses, a gallon of whisky and a pint of 
fresh yeast, put into a cask with a sheet or two of white 
paper, will produce a good vinegar in five or six weeks, if 
standing in the sun or a warm room. The bung must be 
kept open to admit air, covermg it with wires or millinct 
to keep out insects. Ten gallons of water and twenty 
pounds of brown sugar, put into a cask with a little yeast, 
and left in the sun or a warm room, will produce a good 
vinegar in three to six months. Sweetened water, sweet¬ 
ened tea, or any sweet liquid added to a vinegar cask 
from time to time, will keep up the supply. Beet Vinegar 
is made by washing sugar beets, grating them fine, press¬ 
ing out the juice—a cheese press will do for this. Put the 
juice in a barrel and cover the bung w ith gauze, and let it 
stand in the sun 15 or 20 days. We believe a bushel will 
produce about 0 gallons of excellent vinegar. 
Tomatoes, Preserving - and ©rying - .— Sea 
Island (Geo.) Subscriber’s letter came too late for last 
month’s “ Basket.” See directions for preserving toma- 
oes on page 185. They may be dried, by cooking as if for 
the table, without seasoning, then spread on plates and 
dried into thin sheets in the sun, finishing off in the oven 
if necessary. Thus prepared they may be kept a long 
time. Moistened and cooked slightly, with seasoning, they 
will be almost 11 as good as new ’’—not quite. Fine To¬ 
mato Figs, are prepared thus : Remove the skin by dip¬ 
ping m hot water, put them in an earthen jar with equal 
weight of sugar ; after two days pour off liquid and boil 
and slum it till clear, then pour it over the tomatoes; two 
days after boil and skim as belore ; in two days repeat 
this the third time, and in two days more take out and 
dry the tomatoes for a week or soon large earthen plates, 
and pack away in small wooden boxes, with fine white 
sugar between the layers. They will keep for years, and 
we know they are good. Apples cut up, and boiled in the 
syrup left, makes a nice sauce. 
Ourrant Wane.—0. W., (whose letter we have not 
room to print entire,) sends us the following two recipes 
for Currant W me, taken from the private Cook Book of 
his mother, commenced in 1792. Her currant wine and 
preserves were noted for their superiority. He thinks the 
first recipe was most used. Good sugar was considered 
an important matter. A brother now has excellent cur¬ 
rent wine made the year he was born, (1806,) as well pre¬ 
served as any “ South Side" ever brought from Madeira, 
lsf Recipe. —Strain the currants through a cloth, and to 
each quart of juice add 3 quarts of water and 4 pounds of 
sugar, (1 quait of water to each gallon of liquor.) The 
third day after filling up the cask, make up any shrinkage 
by adding some of the liquor reserved for that purpose ; 
bung it up tight and leave it undisturbed a twelve months ; 
then Dottle. 2 d Recipe,— To a gallon of currants, (the 
fruit,mot the juice) add one gallon of water; bruise them 
well ; strain through a cloth, and add to each gallon of the 
liquor 21 pounds of good brown sugar. Put into a cask, as 
above; let it stand six months ; then bottle. 
Wisconsin ILamls.—Joseph Clowes, of Star 
Prairie, St. Croix Co., Wis., writes us, quite at length, m 
glowing terms of the country thereabouts. Many others, 
at various points in the West, write similarly of their sev¬ 
eral localities—indeed, so numerous are such letters, that 
/Could we publish them, our paper would need to be 
doubled, and nothing else inserted in it. These letters 
are interesting to us personally, as they help us to a 
knowledge of the “Great West,” which we are daily 
studying, and they would interest many other individuals, 
but not, perhaps, the great mass of our hundred thousand 
readers. Mr. Clowes slates one fact which we have be¬ 
fore impressed upon those seeking new homes, viz.: that 
there are thousands of chances to buy just as good laud 
east of the Mississippi as west of it, and at lower prices, 
We have the present season seen hundreds of thousands 
of acres of good lands in Illinois and Wisconsin, that can 
be bought for $10 to §20 per acre, and almost the same 
maybe said of States still further east. 
Corn Stackers.—J. B. Reeve, Shelby Co., Ill., and 
several others. The King Phillip variety requires no 
different treatment from others. We think it usually ad¬ 
visable to remove suckers. They seldom yield corn, and 
if taken off while young they leave more room, more air, 
more sunlight, and more roots for the bearing stalks. If 
there is a thin stand in the hills, the suckers may be left 
to grow for fodder. Other questions of J. B. R. have been 
answered in part, and the others will receive attention in 
their season. 
CEiinese Sugar Cane ©tatting.—To inquiries 
as to time of cutting for grinding we can give no definite 
answer, based on experience, as everything connected 
with this plant is still new. From the examination of our 
own canes last year, and what we can gather from others, 
the best stage for cutting will probably be just as soon as 
the seed is sufficiently mature to be gathered, but not 
fully ripe. For cattle feed it may be cut at almost any 
stage of growth previous to the hardening of the canes. 
If cut now, it is said to sprout for a second growth. This 
needs trying at the far North 
Stunted Unthrifty Fear Trees.—Wm. Day, 
of Morristown, N. J., writes more fully upon these than 
we now have room for. He considers that one great cause 
of the unthriftiness of the pear lies in the fact that many 
of them are worked (budded) upon sucker stocks. He 
tried the experiment by planting out 1,000 of these suck¬ 
ers, obtained from old trees, and after nursing them for 
several years, during which he budded some and grafted 
others, giving all careful culture in good ground, he was 
compelled to discard the whole of them. A neighbor of 
his held on to some for ten years, but failed to get four 
good trees out of 100 planted. We fully indorse his (Mr- 
Day’s) closing remarks, viz.: “ Good thrifty stocks and 
clean culture will alone produce vigorous and thrifty 
trees, and no respectable nurseryman will use any others.” 
AJiitoinals—Apricots.—J. M., of Onondaga Co., N. 
Y., will find the soft-shelled sweet almond too tender to 
succeed well for out-door culture, in his latitude, or indeed 
anywhere noith of Philadelphia. Only the bitter, hard- 
shelled varieties, are hardy, and these are of little value 
except as stocks for working the apricot upon. The apri¬ 
cot, itself, was badly killed around New-York City the 
past two Winters. 
Wild ©Miosis.—' 11 A Subscriber,” at Green Hill, 
Tenn., asks how to rid his farm from these. Proper til¬ 
lage under the plow and hoe should effectually clear them 
from each field, as it is cultivated in rotation, if no foul 
grass seed is used m laying down. To free grazing lands 
without plowing, turn sheep upon them early in the sea¬ 
son. Sheep are fond of the tops and by pasturing for a 
day or two as often as they attain a few inches in hight 
the garlic or wild onion will disappear in one or two 
seasons. If any one knows a better way we shall be glad 
to make it public. 
ESmltling—Getting New Varieties.—D. C. 
of Maryland, asks whether he shall bud in the branches, 
or near the ground. If the trees are less than one inch in 
diameter at the base, we advise budding near the bottom; 
if the tree is larger than this, bud in the limbs, or graft 
next Spring. 
“ Michigander,” having an orchard of young un¬ 
grafted trees, proposes to bud a ponion of the limbs of 
each tree, and allow one branch to go unchanged, ii^ 
order to produce new varieties of value, or, at least, test 
the qualities previous to changing the whole. This will 
be a tedious process. If the trees were produced from 
seed, the probability is that ninety-nine in a hundred may 
be improved by new scions. Nurserymen often take sci¬ 
ons irom twenty to forty seedlings, and graft them into as 
many limbs of one large tree, carefully marking each. In 
the course of two years, most of them will bear, when 
any choice varieties can be selected, and the original tree 
then be used to take scions from, 
EgT]?*? fill.—“ Young Egyptian’s ” letter is received. 
We have recently been to your Capital, “ Cairo," and all 
along northward, and may have something to say about it. 
In the meantime, please tell us about the practical opera¬ 
tions, or modes of culture, pursued in your vicinity, brief¬ 
ly and to the point, as many ideas in as few words as pos¬ 
sible. Please write on but one side of the paper. 
ICoSil Kabi,—J. C., West Brattleboro, Vl. See 
page 140 of this volume, (June No.) 
Grapes—IB inpini poIypliySIe.—C. Hoffman, Jr. 
of Dauphin Co., Pa., will find his grape queries answered 
at page 158, (last number.) The “ Lupin polyphylle ” is 
a flowery plant; an annual. Judging from the specimen 
we are growing from Patent Office seed, it is not specially 
interesting. 
Kapc.—E. Meldahl, of Parkersburg, Va , writes that 
he has raised rape after a wheatcrop; it waseaten off three 
times by cattle ; started early in the Spring, and a volun 
teer crop of wheat came up among it, both doing well; the 
rape was somewhat injured by insects, seed not so large 
and plump as the imported. There bemg no oil mill near, 
he dropped the cultivation. The haying items in his letter 
are too late to be of use this season. 
Wliite Rye.-A. Gray, of Pendleton Co., Ky. We 
have heard of the “ White Rye ” to which you refer, but 
have as yet been unable to obtain anything definite 
respecting it. Can any one give any information on 
this topic 1 Thanks for your kind words of approval. 
DIRECTIONS FOR SUGAR MAKING- 
Philadelphia, July 16, 1857. 
Editor of the American Agriculturist : 
Dear Sir : A reply to your inquiries in relation to the 
requisite instruction for arranging mills, boilers, tanks, 
fitters, coolers, &c., &c., and then also, the “ modus oper 
andi,” after all are ready, will be rather difficult to give 
in a manner satisfactory, even to ourselves, with the light 
before us. We have spared no pains or time in collecting 
information to enable us as far as possible to give to oth¬ 
ers engaged in the pioneering of this new Sugar Cane 
movement. We shall do the best we can, however, and 
urge those engaged in it to be thorough in experimenting, 
try all the modes and means known, and be sure to keep 
some careful reccord for future use. In the course of 
two weeks we expect to be in possession of the results of 
a test in Florida near Orange Springs, which shall be 
made public whatever it is. Mismanagement has de¬ 
prived us of the use of the cane we had planted in the hot 
house for early test. The first that will be worked be¬ 
sides that in Florida, will be at Gov. Hammond’s about 
the 10th or 15th of August, Col. Peters tells us that his 
70 acres of “ Sorgho,” is now about six feet high and will 
be ready from 1st to 15th September ; he has some earlier 
planted that he will work about the 20ih of August. On 
this he uses a two horse mill just being shipped by us, and 
a steam power mill for his large crop. He only designs 
making syrup or molasses except, perhaps a small experi¬ 
ment with sugar. 
The cane must be allowed to mature fully, not attempt¬ 
ing to work it until the seed is lully out of the milk, and as 
some of the tillers will be rather later than others it will 
no doubt be better to throw them out for fodder than jeop¬ 
ardize the rest. The leaves should be stripped off before 
cutting and the top cut off with the seed some two-and-a- 
half or three feet down, as there is not much saccharine 
juice in the upper end. Then if your apparatus is ready .cut, 
and grind as fast as you cut, and boil as fast as you grind, 
since the less time the stalks or cut cane is exposed the 
better. The juice, if concentrated by the usual process 
will pass through two seives—first No. 8 and then No 16 
set over a large tin funnel immediately under the mill 
(which will be set about three feet from the ground upon 
three posts firmly bedded in the ground about three feet.) 
This funnel is contracted lo a pipe of two inches diameter 
and running under ground past the horses track, and 
entering a tank either lined with tin or painted thorough¬ 
ly, and varnished so as to be impervious to the juice and 
easily washed clean, when left idle for even one hour. 
The juice is raised by tin buckets or tin or copper pump 
from this to a clarifier. This may be of sheet iron No. 8, 
and about 12 inches deep and large enough to fill your 
first kettle, and set higher with draw off pipe and stop¬ 
cock entering at the bottom. This clarifier is set so that 
the heat is applied under it after leaving the range of 
boilers and may be shut off by damper into another side 
flue, while you discharge this pan. The heat being ap¬ 
plied slowly, a thick scum rises and when near boiling 
you change dampers and draw off until the juice begins 
to show sediment or scum, then clean the pan and fill 
again, and so on. Now in this first kettle you add lime 
well slacked and sifted, until your juice will not change 
the color of litmus paper (which can be got at any good 
drug store quite cheaply.) While the juice is acid it will 
change it to a reddish hue, and if thus boiled will neither 
granulate nor keep sweet as molasses. With our two 
horse mill of rollers 17 inches long, we use three boilers 
holding 60, 40 and 20 gallons, with the latter imme¬ 
diately over the fire and set with flaring walls or jambs, 
rising above each about 6, 8 and 10 inches, and com¬ 
pletely cemented with water-lime. The last or 20 gallon 
boiler should be higher than the 40 and that above the 60, 
so that the scum will run through the gap into the next 
kettle behind successively. The scuin should also be 
thrown back whenever accumulated into the hindmost 
kettle If you have no experience in testing the syrup in 
