106 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
[MAECn, 
You expect be* to keep the bouse neat and tidy. If 
it is not so, j'ou run to a saloon. You expect her 
hair to be always smooth, her dress always in order, 
her stockings always neat, your clothing always in 
order, the dust swept from its thousand gathering 
places, something good to eat three times a day 
besides lunches, and her to be as neat and attractive 
as she was the night you popped the question. 
How can she be all this, if she has to spend hall her 
time picking up what j’ou carelessly throw down ? 
If your wife, mother or sister be neat, you should 
be ; if not, teach her neatness by good examples.” 
About Arrowroot. 
The Doctor orders a patient to be fed on “ Ar¬ 
rowroot gruel,” and you go to the store to buy it, 
and are served with neither arrow nor root, but 
only a white powder, and wonder why that starchy 
looking substance shotild be called Arrowroot. 
The origin of many of our names for things in com¬ 
mon use, is often quite difficult to trace; but in the 
present case the tradition is preserved; the ar¬ 
ticle in question takes its name from the root that 
furnishes it,and that root was so called beeauselhc 
natives of J.amaica were in the habit of .applying it, 
bruised, to the wounds made by poisoned arrows. 
The plant is a native of the West Indies, and is 
bot.anically named Maranta arundinacea ; the first, 
or generic name being in honor of an Italian bot¬ 
anist named Maranti, and the other name means 
reed-like. Several species of Maranta are cultivated 
in hot-houses for the beauty of their foliage, which 
Is sometimes marked with ditferent colors. The 
present species grows two or three feet high,and has 
the form given in our engraving, which also shows 
the small white flower and the large scaly root, or 
tuber. Tbe plant is cultivated in the AVest Indies, 
particularly in Bermuda, and before the war its 
culture had made some progress in Georgia and 
a few of the other States in the South. The Arrow- 
root of commerce is starch prepared from the 
tubers of this pl.ant, by grating them on a wheel 
r.asp, and then c.arcfully w.ashing away the fibers 
and alt other m.attcrs except the starch, which is 
then thoroughly dried and packed in boxes and 
casks for exportation. It is a lumpy powder— 
more white and glistening than other forms of 
starch, and is superior to them on account of its 
great purity. It is free from any peculiar odor or 
taste, is easily digestible, and well suited to tbe diet 
of invalids. It may be used for puddings, blanc¬ 
mange, etc., in t be same way as corn starch. Potato 
starch is sometimes falsely sold as Arrowroot, but 
it has not such a dead white appearance, and can 
usually be detected by its odor, though sometimes 
it is necessary to make use of the microscope to 
detect the fraud. The grains of potato starch are 
larger th.an those of arrowroot, and have different 
markings. A tablespoonful of arrowroot, first 
mixed with a little cold water and then added to a 
pint of boiling water, will, when cool, form a nearly 
transparent jelly, which, flavored with sugar, 
lemon, etc., makes a pleasant sick diet. With the 
same quantity of milk a blanc-mange is produced. 
About Potatoes and Cooking Them. 
Excepting wheat, no article is so largely used for 
food as the common potato—called the “ Irish,” 
and at the South the “ Round” potato to distinguish 
it from the sweet potato. 4 pounds of potatoes 
contain about 3 lbs. of water and 1 lb. of solid mat¬ 
ter, taking the average of the different varieties. 
Fresh lean beef contains just about the same jjro- 
portion of water. A large part of the solid por¬ 
tion of potatoes, is starch, as is the case with wheat, 
corn, and indeed most vegetable substances con¬ 
sumed as food. 400 lbs. of potatoes yield about 
300 lbs. of water ; 04 lbs. of starch ; 15 lbs. of sugar 
and gum; 9 lbs. of protein or nitrogenous com¬ 
pounds which furnish direct nutriment for muscles 
or lean flesh ; 1 lb. of oil or fat, and 11 lbs. of woody 
fiber. If dried and burned, the 400 lbs. of potatoes 
yield nearly 4 lbs. of ashes. These 04 ounces of 
vishcs consist of about 3.5)^ oz. of potash ; 8 oz. of 
phosphoric acid (which enters largely into thecom- 
i position of bones); 8% oz. of sulphuric acid (oil of 
vitriol); iyi oz. common salt; oz. of silica ; 
oz. of magnesia ; oz. of lime, and nearl}' IJ^ oz. 
of soda.—It will thus be seen that the potato is a 
very good article of food. The starch, sugar, gum, 
and oil, meet a great want of the animal system, 
giving material for respiration and the formation of 
fat. The protein compounds supply muscles, and 
the siilts in the ashes afford material for bones, etc. 
A pound of potatoes furnishes as much material for 
fattening and warming the body, as a poimd of 
beef, while costing scarcely one-tenth part as much. 
Cooking.— The starch in potatoes exists as little 
grains, 10 or 13 of them together, in cells. Heating 
the potato by boiling, steaming, or baking, causes 
these cells to burst, and the water unites with the 
starch grains, sivelling them. If all the water con¬ 
tained in the potato thus unites with its starch, the 
potato cooks dry and mealy. If only part of the 
water is absorbed by the starch, then the potato is 
watery. The best mode of cooking this esculent is 
by baking, which drives off all the water that does 
not unite with the starch. If boiled, cook them 
r.apidly, and when just done, pour off the water, 
and dry them out; then they are improved by 
mashing fine to free them from indigestible lumps ; 
this, of course, can be done by the teeth of those 
who prefer their pot.atoes “undressed.” Frying 
them, dries up the starch, leaving it similar to 
charco.al, and when done brown they are almost as 
indigestible as so much charcoal or wood. 
A New Discovery—The Ague Plant. 
The “ague plant” has recently been discovered, 
—not tlic plant th.at cures ague, but the one that 
causes it. Here is one plant, at least, that we c.an 
notice without being overwhelmed with applica¬ 
tions for seed. To be sure it is a little thing, and 
takes a good eye, aided by a good microscope, to 
to find it, but when found, it c.an not be said it “ is 
no great shakes,” for it is the “genuine Shaker 
seedling” itself. Doct. I. II. Salisbury, of Clcve- 
l.and, Ohio, announces in the Amcric.an Journal of 
the Medical Sciences, that fever and ague is caused 
by a minute plant, which is found where stagnant 
w.ater has just dried awaj-. The spores, or repro¬ 
ductive dust of this microscopic plant, are diffused 
through the night damps, .and being taken into the 
system by breathing, arc the cause of that wide 
spread scourge, the ague. The h.abits of these 
minute plants completcl}’accord with wh.at was be¬ 
fore known of the occurrence of miasm, and that 
they arc the real c.ause of it has been shown by 
taking boxes of earth containing them, to places 
where an ague was never known to occur. In 
about two weeks after the ague plant was taken 
there, well marked cases of the disease appeared. 
This discovery does not as yet increase our know¬ 
ledge of the means of ridding ourselves of the j 
jilaut, but it will probably lead to that—just as one | 
if he c.an only find out “ how he got such a cold ? ” J 
is already half cured. The spores only rise in the I 
night, and then to a hight varying with the locality, 
of from thirty to one hundred feet. This explains | 
why night air brings on ague, and why elevated lo- 
c.alities are free from it. After the ague seed is | 
taken into the system, the plant is propagated there, j 
and the patient becomes a sort of animated hot-bed. \ 
■» -— o — —>-»- I 
’SToiajnasJs’ Sffosiseliold. ScieMce. —This 
valuable book we have recommended in former 
times, .and call .attention to it .again now. It treats 
somewhat fully of the science of living, especially 1 
of cooking, the why and wherefore ; of the various 
kinds of food, beverages, clothing; of he.at, light, 
air, cleansing, etc., etc., in nearly 500 pages. The 
first part may be r.ather scientific for the unlearned 
reader, yet no one can go through the book, or read [ 
.any part of it, without learning much that will be 
practically useful in household work, and gaining j 
m.any ideas that will furnish food for thought and |l 
interest one’s mind while engaged iu the most *■ 
common operations of daily labor in the house. 
AVe should be glad to see a copy owned, read, and | 
studied in every household—by men as well as 
women. It is sent post-paid by mail for $1.7.5. 
Hints on Cooking’, etc. 
Plain Pies, etc. —A lady contributes the 
following to the Agriculturist “ I send a recipe for 
a pumpkin or squash pie-crust, that I think will be 
new to most of 3 'our readers. At the present high 
prices of lard and butter, many perhaps will feel 
like eating pies m.ade iu this way, that would not in 
any other; it is simply this : Thoroughly grease a 
platter and while warm, sprinkle it with dry Indian 
meal to the thickness of an ordinary crust, then 
pour in your squash prepared iu the usual manner. 
It soaks the meal sufficiently to form a crust hard 
enough to cut a piece out well, and tastes some¬ 
what like a baked Indian pudding; no one perhaps 
would suppose it could be fit to eat, but try it. 
“ One reason why pics .are considered so injurious 
is, that the fluids of the stomach cannot act on so 
much grease. One of the first chemists iu the 
country once told me, that fruit sewed up in a 
bladder would give as much nourishment as if encas¬ 
ed in pastry as rich as you will find in many hous¬ 
es. A much more healthful .article is a crust raised 
like biscuits, or made with an alkali (cither soda 
or s.aler.atus,) .and an acid, as cream of tartar, sour 
milk or cream, or buttermilk; an under-crust raised 
thus answers nearly as well as the usual kind. 
“ I^Iolasises €}ingei-l»read. —One cup hot 
water, piece of butter half size of an egg, one cup 
molasses, tcaspoonful ginger, cloves and saleratus. 
Mix the whole so thin that it will pour easily. 
“ The above are plain cheap and simple, but know¬ 
ing your paper is intended for all, I send them. In 
most of the lady’s books the recipes are so costly 
and require so much skill iu making as to be but 
little used only by the rich.” 
l®resse€l Cliiclcen.— Boil the chicken with 
the giblets until tbe bones cau be easily pulled out. 
Then season to taste, with salt and pepper (a little 
thyme is a great improvement), and mince quite 
fine; after which put it in a dish or pan, with 
weights enough upon it to press it firm; set it 
aw.ay to cool, and when turned out, it makes a nice 
side dish for dinner, or relish for tea. 
Weltfom 'Wca.l.— Boil 4 eggs hard ; slice thin ; 
pl.ace round the bottom of a 3-quart bowl; Lay over 
these a layer of uncooked ve.al cut very thin ; then 
a layer of cooked ham cut very tMn\ fill the bowl 
with these alternate layers ; cover it closely with a 
plate, and put a weight on the top of the plate, and 
cook in a steamer three hours. Set it in a cool 
place till the next day, when it will be jellied. 
