266 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
and profitable. Try this mode and you will not 
willingly go bade to the hard boiled “ inevitable 
salt junk.'’ 
Mutton cooked in the above manner is very 
nice. 
DRYING PUMPKINS AND TOMATOES. 
As fruit is scarce in many parts of the Country, 
every house-wife should lay in a good stock of 
dried pumpkins and tomatoes. Pumpkins may be 
put up in the old fashioned mode of cutting into 
rings, paring and drying upon poles; or they may 
be cut into small pieces, and dried on plates in the 
sun and oven. A better plan, however, is to pare, 
stew and strain them, just as if for pies ; then 
spread the pulp thinly upon earthen dishes, and 
dry quickly in a hot sun or a partially heated oven. 
If dried slowly there is danger of souring. Store in 
a dry room. Kept in this manner they retain 
much of the freshness and flavor of newly gath¬ 
ered fruit. The dried pulp should be soaked in 
milk for a few hours before using. In making 
pies they are greatly improved by stirring the 
pumpkin into scalding milk, especially if eggs be 
not used. Tomatoes may be kept in excellent 
condition by cooking, straining and drying just as 
described for pumpkins. 
PICKLING CABBAGE. 
We have used an excellent pickled cabbage, 
kept in perfect condition for half a year at a time, 
which was prepared thus : Slice the heads very 
finely. A head of red cabbage mixed with half a 
dozen white ones giving the whole a pretty color. 
Sprinkle on and mix in a little salt. Scald togeth¬ 
er,«say one gallon of good vinegar, two or three 
tablespoonfuls of sugar, one tablespoonful of 
cloves, one of ground cinnamon, and a teaspoon- 
ful or less of ground black pepper. The cloves, 
cinnamon and pepper should be put into a bag 
while scalding. When cold pour the pickle 
over the cabbage, and also drop in the bag of 
spices. Keep the whole well covered, putting 
a plate over the cabbage to hold it down in the 
pickle. 
SALTING DOWN LIMA BEANS. 
A correspondent spys that Lima Beans may be 
preserved a long tune by gathering the pods when 
they begin to turn yellow, and packing them in 
kegs with alternate layers of salt. We imagine 
they would not be very good after this salting 
process. Perhaps the salt would not strike through 
the pods to injure the beans themselves. We 
have always kept them, by picking as soon as 
they can be shelled, and drying before fully ripe. 
READY MADE YEAST. 
Perhaps all our lady readers may not understand 
the best method of having good ready made yeast 
always at hand. We invariably have good bread 
made from yeast cakes prepared as follows : Put 
into three pints of water a handful of hops and 
nearly a quart of pared potatoes cut into small 
pieces. Boil for hall an hour, and strain while 
scalding hot into sufficient flour to make a stiff 
batter. Stir it well, adding one tablespoonful of 
fresh yeast, and set into a warm place to rise. 
When light mix it stiff'with Indian meal, roll out 
. thin and cut into round cakes or square pieces 2 
to 24 inches in diameter Dry these thoroughly 
and keep them in a bag in a dry place. They will 
remain good for months. Before using take one 
of these cakes for each medium sized loaf, soak in 
warm water till soft and add a teaspoonful of soda 
for three or four yeast cakes. Add this to the flour 
with warm water, and raise in the usual manner. 
Some put the light yeast without adding the In¬ 
dian meal, into close jars or jugs, and use as 
needed. It will not keep many weeks by this 
method. 
RHODE ISLAND PANCAKES. 
Sometime since, D. Salter sent us the following, 
indorsed as very good; we should hardly call 
them pancakes: “To one pint of Indian meal 
and one pint of rye flour, two tablespoonsful ot 
molasses, 1 tea-spoonful of salt, 1 of saleratus, 
and 3 eggs, well beaten. Stir with these new 
milk enough to make a stiff batter, and fry 10 
minutes in lard, like doughnut's. When milk and 
eggs are scarce, we think the following is nearly 
as good: Mix well 1 quart of Indian meal, 1 
quart of rye flour, 2 large table-spoonsful of melt- 
ed shortening, 5 table-spoonsful of molasses, 1 ta¬ 
ble-spoonful of salt, a scant tea-spoonful of salera¬ 
tus, and 1 quart of water. Fry as above. 
TO COOK CAULIFLOWERS. 
To the queries of A. M. Daniels, of Tioga Co., 
N. Y., and Jane M. Richards, of Iowa, we reply, 
that we have them cooked similarly to common 
cabbages, thus : Remove the leaves and tie the 
head or flower in a cloth, or cabbage bag, and 
boil in water until soft, which will require 14 to 2 
hours. Then remove from the kettle, press out 
the water, and serve a sweet cream gravy, or 
with drawn butter, that is butter melted in hot 
water and thickened with flour. 
PICKLED BOILED CABBAGE. 
Mrs. M. A. H. Rowe, of East Chatham, sends 
the following mode of pickling cabbages, which 
is indorsed by a good judge of our acquaintance : 
Look over the heads and wash them thoroughly. 
Cut into quarters and boil until tender. Then 
put down in layers in a tub, sprinkling upon each 
l layer, salt, allspice and ground cinnamon, using 
2 ounces of salt, and 1 ounce each of allspice and 
cinnamon, to 8 quarts of cabbage. When put 
down cover with vinegar. The boiling before 
pickling we think a decided improvement upon 
the common method of putting them down un¬ 
cooked. 
APPLE DUMPLINGS. 
An old schoolmate, Mrs. E. M. Chalker, sends 
us, from Michigan, the following: Mix well to¬ 
gether one well-beaten egg, one pint of good but¬ 
termilk, one tea-spoonful of salt and one of sale¬ 
ratus, with flour enough to make a stiff batter. 
Into well-buttered tea-cups drop hall a table-spoon¬ 
ful of the batter, and set into each cup an apple 
pared, quartered and cored, with the quarters put 
together again. Now cover the apples with bat¬ 
ter and set the tea-cups into a steamer over boil¬ 
ing water. Cook one hour. This appears to be 
a good recipe, and we shall have it tried. 
FRITTERS. 
Mrs. Chalker also recommends the following : 
Beat well together one egg and two table-spoons¬ 
ful of sugar. Add one tea-cup full of sweet milk, 
dfie tea-spoonful of soda, and flour enough to 
make the batter. Salt and nutmeg to suit the 
taste. Fry as soon as possible after mixing. 
PICKLING AND KEEPING HAMS. 
John Clackson. of Pike Co., Pa., recommends 
the following method. Lay them down in a prep¬ 
aration of seven pounds of salt, mixed with half 
pound of coarse sugar, one pint of molasses, and 
half ounce of saltpeter. Let them remain 4 to 8 
weeks, according to their size, then drain, put 
into a paper bag and hang for a month in a chim¬ 
ney where a coal fire is kept. Pack away in bar¬ 
rels, with malt screenings enough between to 
keep them from touching each other. The other 
plan described by Mr. C. is not practicable, as 
the “ essence of smoke ” is a very variable article 
and cannot be relied on. 
ABOUT FLIES. 
E. Y. B., of Meriden, Conn, writes : I believe 
there is no loyal road to the extermination ol 
flies, which “ Country Housekeeper ” inquires af¬ 
ter in the October Agriculturist, page 238; nor 
can they well be “ destroyed in the egg,” but the 
eggs may be in a great measure prevented. Let 
the same neatness exist in the surroundings of 
the dwelling, which is considered necessary to 
comfort within it, and there will be few flies to 
annoy one. And as a matter of economy this 
should be attended to, for, while guano is $60 a 
tun and more, no one can afford the wasted am¬ 
monia to breed and feed a hundred flies. Keep 
the contents of the yard composted, the sty well 
“ mulchedall other out-buildings deodorized, 
have a cistern for all sink water, look well to the 
melon rinds, and other debris of that sort, and 
this fly nuisance will be greatly abated. Remem¬ 
ber, he is pursuing a bad system of farming whe 
raises many flies. 
HOME-MADE CORN STARCH. 
In answer to our Kansas subscriber’s inquiries, 
A. B. Price, of Boone-Grove, Porter County, Ind., 
sends the following to the Agriculturist-. Take 
the ears when full of milk, grate fine into water, 
in a tub ; strain off the husk, &e., through flan¬ 
nel ; let the strained water stand all night, then 
pour it off, or strain it off if necessary ; add more 
hnd clean water to the starch, with a little indigo 
to suit taste ; let it stand about half a day, then 
decant off the water, and dry in the sun as soon 
as possible. We make all our starch in this way, 
and we think it worth twice as much as any we 
can buy. 
Remarks. —This will do well for using unripe 
corn ; the sample sent to us is apparently very 
good But a simple, cheap process for using dry 
ripe corn is desirable, for some of the remote set¬ 
tlers in frontier towns, where, from the difficulty 
of getting articles to or from market it is necessary 
to manufacture every article possible. Starch, 
however, is not one of the “necessities ” in such 
localities. 
Our Kentucky Correspondent “ Mrs. C. H. P ” 
contributes the following four recipes : 
TO MAKE STARCH IN QUANTITY. 
Take a bucket full of wheat, and put it in a 
barrel with 2 or 3 buckets full of warm water; 
set it in the sun or a warm place, till it gets a lit¬ 
tle soft, then pour oft' the water. With a maul 
pound and mash the grains as much as you can 
then add more warm water, or let it set till it fer¬ 
ments, pounding it often, till the bran comes off; 
then rub it through a colander and sieve ; wash 
and strain it through flannel-cloth—blue it, pour 
off the top for starch for calicoes, and you will 
have a large quantity of nice starch settle at the 
bottom. 
GREEN TOMATO CATSUP. 
Slice large green tomatoes, salt them as for the 
table ; boil them 20 minutes in vinegar and water 
in which there has been put a pound of sugar; 
take them out and put a layer of tomatoes, then 
pepper, spices, horse-radishes, mustard, onions, 
&c., to please your fancy—then pour on cold 
strong vinegar to cover them, then put another 
layer of tomatoes, spices, vinegar, &c., till the jar 
is full—it is now fit to use 
TO DYE A BRIGHT AND LASTING YELLOW 
Simmer your hanks of yarn -in strong alum 
water ; then put a layer of peach tree leaves in a 
tub, then a layer of yarn, then leaves, till all are 
in; then pour over them the boiling hot alum 
water to cover them; let it set all night; wring 
out and air it; then heat the dye and put in fresh 
leaves with the same yarn, in layers, and pour 
over the hot dye for several days, wring it each 
day till you get it the shade you like. Set it with 
