AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
39 
do at once, to renovate his trees and improve 
his fruit. So he gave the land, which was in 
poor grass, a good coating of lime, with a 
sprinkling of potash, in the spring, and in the 
fall he added ten cords to the acre of a compost 
of swamp-muck and barn-yard manure. Then 
he broke it up with a trench plow, going deep 
where the roots had not spread, and so shallow 
as not to injure them near the trunks of the 
trees; after that, he kept the ground in root 
crops, moderately manured every year, till the 
last one, when he laid it down to grass again: 
and this is the result. Now, I’m of the opinion, 
father, if you’ll let me do the same this fall, we 
shall have just as good quinces hereafter as 
Doctor Particular.” 
“Nonsense, my boy; haven’t we manured, 
plowed, and cropped the orchard once in four 
years ever since it was set out? Barn-yard 
manure and muck—all stuff! The trees don’t 
want any—they are growing too rank already.” 
“ Perhaps,” added I, “this is the reason the 
fruit rots so much.” 
“ Exactly,” says my husband, “though I’ve 
no doubt the unusual quantity of rain this year, 
the excessive heat that followed, and more in¬ 
sects than I ever saw before, have lent their 
aid.” 
“ Yes,” put in Willy, nothing daunted by the 
rebuff he had got, “ perhaps father is right. I 
did not think of the plowing and manure; nev- 
theless, I haven’t a doubt all the lime and potash 
in the soil is exhausted, and that a little of these 
ingredients would help the fruit.” 
My husband queried, while the boy argued, 
produced his books, and read from them, till at 
last he seemed convinced; though he is so set 
in his way, he would not fully acknowledge 
“ that it might be a good thing to add the lime 
and potash.” 
Friday, 23 d. —I will skip over to-day, as no¬ 
thing particularly worth noticing occurred. 
Saturday, 24 th. —This is baking-day, and a sad 
hard time I’ve had of it. Neither yeast nor 
yeast cakes seemed to work, and the bread is 
heavy enough. Monday afternoon I will go and 
see Mrs. Goodwin. She never has poor bread, 
or pies, or cake, and I am determined I will 
learn all about making dough rise surely and 
well. But I wish some body would invent a 
baking machine half as efficient as my washer. 
What a saving of labor it would be to us poor 
farmers’ wives! We cannot send to the baker’s, 
as town’s-people do; and as to resorting to 
crackers or hard bread, I never could relish 
them; and they don’t seem to digest so well 
as good home-made bread. 
That terrier puppy, or rather a pair of them, 
loose again, and mistaking a brood of my rare 
and beautiful pheasant chickens for birds, they 
gave chase to and killed three of them before 
the boys could beat them off; though the 
motherly hen followed them all the while, and 
fought like fury, nearly picking out one of then- 
eyes. But the puppies were as indomitable as 
herself, and being almost as active as gray- 
hounds, two of them were too much for her. 
The boys cried bitterly over the loss, and now 
consent to have the puppies chained up to their 
dog-house, till they get older and learn better. 
Now, what do you say, Mr. Editor? Will 
you please give us your opinion ? 
[In answer to our fair correspondent, we beg 
leave to say, that we do not like to interfere in 
family affairs; yet, as she has appealed to us, 
we will propose a, comnromise between the 
father and son. Spread broad-cast over the or¬ 
chard ground, as soon as convenient next month, 
twenty or thirty bushels of lime to the acre, and 
an equal quantity of wood-ashes, or the equiva¬ 
lent to the latter in potash, which would be 
about 180 lbs. Dissolve this in water, and apply 
it from a water-cart or garden engine, or water¬ 
ing-pot. If this is not convenient, then pulver¬ 
ize the potash very finely, and scatter it by 
hand, taking care to have the hand well gloved, 
so as not to cauterize it. Then break up the 
orchard ground before frost sets in, as deep as 
the roots of the trees will admit, without injuring 
them. Next summer keep the weeds down with 
a light plow and a harrow, and the next fall give 
it another dressing of lime and ashes, and an¬ 
other plowing and harrowing the following sum¬ 
mer till August, when it may be laid down to 
grass again for two or three years. We would 
not recommend taking any crop, unless the trees 
are young and only partially shade the land; 
for if you do so, it will require manure to pre¬ 
vent exhausting the soil, and we doubt, under 
these circumstances, whether the crop would 
pay the expense of cultivation.] 
Sweeping the Streets. —We learn that sev¬ 
eral fashionable ladies have undertaken to sweep 
the sidewalks of Broadway with the trains of 
expensive dresses. It is hardly proper to carry 
Anti-Woman’s Rights practices to such an ex¬ 
treme of humility; for a silk skirt sweeping the 
streets is as much out of its appropriate sphere, 
and gives as much evidence of its “strong-mind¬ 
edness,” as a pair of laced boots and imitation 
pants upon the platform of a convention. A 
friend of ours was so unfortunate as to step in¬ 
advertently upon the extremity of one of these 
trains, and being a gentleman of exquisite mod¬ 
esty, his feelings were lacerated worse than the 
fabric, which, indeed, was so stout as not to tear 
at all, though the indignant jerk of the fair lady 
parted some of the threads with which it was 
gathered at the waist. Some of the mysterious 
architecture was near being revealed, by which 
our real women build themselves into shapes as 
opposite as possible to those of the marble fig¬ 
ures which stud the aisles of the Crystal Palace. 
With wonderful dexterity, however, she closed 
the gap with one hand, raised her train above 
danger with the other, and at the same instant 
annihilated the offender with the lightning of 
her eyes. This serious accident shows the ne¬ 
cessity of some legislative enactments for the 
protection of foot-passengers, since collisions of 
trains bid fair to become as frequent on side¬ 
walks as on railroads. The dust is already 
nearly as troublesome as in the cars, and Punch’s 
invention of a boy with a watering-pot to every 
two ladies has not yet been adopted in this 
country ; though some time ago he published a 
picture representing its successful operation in 
London. 
The first object of modern reformers is to 
call things by their right names; and we suggest 
the appellation of Broomers as peculiarly appro¬ 
priate to those ladies who wear dresses too long; 
both because it expresses the peculiarly useful 
labor which they perform, and also because it 
implies their relationship to the Bloomers, whose 
dresses are too short. —Journal of Commerce. 
-- 
A Large Radish. —A correspondent writes 
us that he pulled a radish from his garden on 
the 15th September, which measured eleven 
inches in circumference. It was of the long 
purple variety, perfectly sound, tender, and 
palatable. He claims no merit for raising it, as 
it was self-sown among the potatoes, and was 
shaded by a fruit tree. 
- *-*-•- 
Cleanliness is so necessary to health, that 
Dr. Francis says, if he ever recommended a 
cure-all, it would consist of a bar of yellow 
goap. 
The following recipe was furnished us by 
Mrs. P., of Brooklyn, Conn., and we can testify 
to the extra quality of the pies made by follow¬ 
ing it: 
For four Lemon Pies. —Grate the peels of 
four lemons, and squeeze the juice into the 
grated peel. Then take nine eggs, leaving out 
half of the whites, one pound of loaf (or white) 
sugar, half a pound of butter, one pint of cream 
(or of milk,) and four tablespoonfuls of rose¬ 
water, and beat them ivell together, and add 
the lemon. Divide into four pies, with under¬ 
crust, and bake. 
How to cook Sweet Potatoes. —Boil two 
large sweet potatoes, rub them through a 
sieve, then add a piece of butter the size of an 
egg, a little salt, one pint of buttermilk, a tea¬ 
cup of sugar, a table-spoonful of saleratus, dis¬ 
solved in warm water. Bake in an earthen 
dish. Serve up cold with cream. 
Arrowroot Blancmange. —Put a quart of 
milk to boil; take an ounce of Bermuda arrow- 
root, ground fine, make it a smooth batter with 
cold milk, add a teaspoonful of salt; when the 
milk is boiling hot, stir the butter into it; con¬ 
tinue to stir it over a gentle fire (that it may 
not be scorched) for three or four minutes; 
sweeten to taste with double-refined sugar, and 
flavor with lemon extract or orange-flower 
water, or boil a stick of cinnamon or vanilla 
bean in the milk before putting in the arrow- 
root; dip a mould into cold water, strain the 
blancmange through a muslin into the mould ; 
when perfectly cold, turn it out. Serve currant 
jelly or jam with it. 
Rice Flour Blancmange. —Make as directed 
for arrowroot blancmange—a small teacupful of 
ground rice to a quart of milk. 
Thickened Milk, (Milk Soup.) —Put a quart 
of milk over the fire to boil; put a teacupful of 
wheat flour into a basin ; sprinkle over it enough 
water to make it damp; then work it between 
the hands until it forms in small smooth rolls; 
put a teaspoonful of salt to the milk, and when 
it is boiling hot, stir in the flour : let it boil 
gently for ten or twelve minutes, then turn it 
into a tureen; add sugar and nutmeg if liked, 
or without either. 
This is very light and nourishing for invalids 
or children, except in cases of constipation, 
which boiled milk increases. 
Milk Porridge.— Make a quart of milk boil¬ 
ing hot; make a tablespoonful of wheat flour 
a smooth batter with cold milk; add a tea¬ 
spoonful of salt, and stir it into the boiling 
milk ; continue to stir it for five minutes, then 
put it into a basin or tureen ; sweeten to taste; 
flavor with nutmeg or cinnamon. This is very 
nourishing and agreeable either for children or 
adults. Sweetened with loaf sugar, and nutmeg 
grated plentifully over it, will make it a most 
excellent remedy for looseness or dysentery. 
Or, boiled milk without the thickening, sweet¬ 
ened with loaf sugar, and flavored with grated 
nutmeg, has the same effect. 
Buttermilk Pop. —Make a quart of buttermilk 
boiling hot; wet a tablespoonful of corn meal 
or wheat flour, and make it a smooth batter 
with water, and stir into the milk, with a tea¬ 
spoonful of salt; continue to stir it for five min¬ 
utes when wheat flour is used, or fifteen when it 
is made with corn meal. Sweeten to taste w ith 
sugar or syrup, and add nutmeg or ground cin¬ 
namon, if liked. This is eaten with bread 
broken into it. 
Pineapple Jelly. —Pare and grate the pine¬ 
apple, and put it into the preserving pan, with 
one pound of fine white sugar to every pound 
of the fruit; stir it and boil it until it is well 
mixed and thickens sufficiently ; then strain it, 
pour it into the jars, and when it has become 
cool, cover the jars tightly, and treat them as 
apple jelly. 
