13S 
I'Aniii,, 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
of space prevented oiir responding to tlie recpxest to 
lend it our strong aid. Of the Fair held, a lady friend 
writes incidently I was sorry you could not visit us 
last fall, though I sr.spect you would not have heen 
pleased with the fair. The display was said to he very 
.creditable to our young State, hut like Tim Bunker’s 
State Pair, the jyrize money was mostly paid to horse 
racers; and the housewives, to whoso handiwork premiums 
were awarded, are obliged to content themselves with 
paper diplomas instead of the promised premiums. I think 
the effect will not be favorable to future fairs. Many say; 
‘ the horse jockeys take all the prizes; I will not try 
again.’—Last year I made 300 lbs. of premium butter from 
one cow, and husband proposed taking ‘ Cherry,’ her calf, 
and a crock of the butter over to the fair. He was too 
busy, however, and would have lost his laoor.” The peo¬ 
ple were too much occupied with the fast horses to pay 
any attenUon to such trivial matters as 300 lbs. of good 
butter from one cow, besides the family supply of milk.’ 
Xlie Itloaitlily Keport of tlae Agri¬ 
cultural Department for January contains 
several interesting and valuable articles. One on the 
“ Hate of Wages of Farm Laborers in the United States ” 
has been prepared with great labor and pains. There is 
also an important article on wool consumption, and one 
on the Eed Bug or Cotton Stainer, besides minor items, 
tables, etc. Now, why should not the people who are 
taxed for this publication, and are sufficiently desirous to 
get it,write for it and be supplied ?—They will be informed 
that the supply is exhausted. We claim that subscrip¬ 
tions should be taken at cost for this and similar publica¬ 
tions, and so all who wished could be supplied, provided 
they applied in advance ; 5 cents a number or 60 cents a 
year would more than cover the cost of printing, etc. 
I*rescril>iiig at a Distance.— The 
London Lancet- records a case of an Englishman, in this 
country, who, being seized with a renewed attack of an 
illness from which he had suffered at home, consulted his 
physician in London, by means of the Atlantic cable, a 
prescription was returned by the same channel. This is 
as in the olden times, when physicians wrote in cdbcdistics. 
l*eatt as Fad.—A word of caution is neces¬ 
sary to the enthusiastic people who are rushing into peat 
enterprises, buying peat machines and peat bogs at fab¬ 
ulous prices. Kemcmber Multicaulis and Petroleum. 
There is undoubtedly great wealth in our peat swamps. 
It is a question to be solved, whether they are worth 
more for manure, or for fuel. In estimating the value 
for fuel, it will not do to put a cord of uncondensed peat 
higher in value than a cord of wood. Then it is to be 
remembered that peat in drying shrinks into from to 
Ya of its original bulk, and the better the article the more 
shrinkage. If it costs three dollars a cord to manufacture 
peat and two dollars to get it to market, and wood is 
worth only four dollars a cord, you do not gain much by 
buying peat, or putting it into the market. This whole 
business is too much a matter of experiment for farmers 
to venture upon largely. It will be safer for capitalists 
to make the experiments. While the article is so valua¬ 
ble for manure, we should not advise haste in selling 
peat bogs, even at the high figures sometimes reportcch 
<vi.*apes —A Coi*i-ectioM.—^In our cata¬ 
logue of Grapes, in the Horticultural Annual, Roger’s 
Hybrids were omitted by the loss of a slip containing the 
notes. This omission occurs only in the first two thous¬ 
and, and is remedied in those printed since. That which 
Doct. Grant proposed to call “ Washington,” and is so 
recorded in the Annual, is to be known as Eumdan. 
^ Tlie ITIiiier Fliiin.—This variety is adver¬ 
tised as of “ excellent fiavor,” and “ never injured by the 
cxxrculio. ’ Can some one—not interested in its sale- 
give xxs an accoixnt of this plum, and its real valixe ? 
Keeping; Ficlcles in Salt.— M. Roberts. 
A quart of salt to a gallon of water will make a brine 
strong enoixgh. There is no danger of getting them too 
salt, as they will only absorb about so much, and the soak¬ 
ing befox-e putting into vinegar will take.it all out. The 
greening of pickles by putting them in a brass kettle is a 
custom much more honored in the breach than in the ob¬ 
servance. Pickles are made for the stomach rather than the 
eye, and shoxxld not be poisonous, that they may be green. 
Salt ill WHitewasIi.— Salt is a good addi¬ 
tion to whitewash, but if put into that used upon fences 
or buildings xvhich cattle can get at they will be likely to 
lick it off. Wash made of xvater lime is less glaring. 
Sorg-liiim Aiaeg-ar.—‘‘J. W. Y.,” says a 
good vinegar can be made from sorghum juice without 
evaporating, by letting it stand in the sun a few days, 
exposed as much as possible to the air. With the syrup 
at a dollar a gallon it is not a vei'y cheap source of vinegar. 
The skimmings are mixch cheaper as recommended in 
Feb. number, page 48. Why woxxld not the bagasse, or 
pi'csscd cane, treated in a leach like the apple pomace, 
make a good vinegar? Has this ever been tried? 
Hoe Falce. —Hawkey gives thefollowing: Mix 
a little salt with sifted meal, and pour boiling water upon 
it, sxxfixcient to dip the batter out on a common cooking 
stove griddle. This should bo tested by throwing a pinch 
of meal on it, and it is hot enough when the meal begins 
to turn brown. As soon as this is the case, dip the batter 
or mush out of the pan upoix the griddie untii it is covered 
all over exactly half an inch thick. Cook it with a lively 
fire, and when baked enough to turn vdthoxxt sticking, 
tlxm the cake over and bake it on the other side. 
Mice—How to get rid of tliem.— 
“ C. T. P.” Keep a good cat. Color not important. Set 
the common wire spring traps. Use any of the rat poisons 
made of phosphoric paste. Use arsenic spread on a paper, 
and mixed with meal—where nothing else can get it. 
Aemtilation. ia Houses. —Mrs. C. C. Al¬ 
len. See March No. Agriculturist. 1807, and Sept No., 1804. 
Marylawd Hccipe for Hams.— For 
one hundred pounds of hams, eight pounds of fine salt, 
two pounds of broxvn sugar, two ounces of saltpetre, 114 
ounces of potash, four gallons of soft water. The brine 
mxxst be boiled and cooled. The meat must be well 
washed before being cut up, then lie in a cool place for 
some days. Exxb each piece with, fine salt, and pack the 
xvhole doxvn. Let it remain two or throe days, according 
to the weather. The bi-ine should then be poured into 
the cask at the sides. Leave the hams six weeks in the 
brine. Take out and rinse in cold W'ater. Hang up to dry 
four or five days, then smoke with hickoi-y xvood. 
Corameal Hiidding —Mrs. L. A. Muller. 
—Txvo cups of cornmeal, one cup of grated bread, one 
cup of molasses, and one of sour milk, two tablespoon¬ 
fuls of butter, a half a teaspoonful of ginger, do. of cin¬ 
namon, one teaspoonful of baking soda, or a half a tea- 
spoonfixl of saleratus, three eggs ; after the batter is made, 
one cup of sliced apple—the apple must be of a kind that 
will cook quickly—and can be added or left out as prefer¬ 
red. Bake half an hour in a moderately hot oven. Cream 
and sugar for sauce, as any other is apt to alter the flavor. 
Cos-si MiiHins.— One and a half pint of corn- 
meal, a half pint of wdieat flour, one pint of sour or thick 
milk, two pints of sw'eet milk, txvo eggs, a small teaspoon¬ 
ful of salt, do. of baking soda. Bake twenty minutes in 
a tolerably hot oven. To be made up just before baking, 
and must be xvell beaten. If preferred, use an sweet nxilk, 
and raise with a tablespoonful of yeast. 
Newport Calce.— Three eggs, 1 quart of 
flour, 9 teaspoonfuls of cream tartar, 1 of soda, 9 table¬ 
spoonfuls molted butter, 3 of sugar, 1 cup of milk. Bake 
in a long tin pan and cut in slices ; eaten hot xvith butter. 
Corn Hisciiit.— One and a half pint of cold 
nxush, one and a half pint of xvheat flour, one cup of but- 
tei-, nearly a pint of sour cream, a small teaspoonfixl of 
baking soda, do. of salt. First rixb flour and butter to¬ 
gether, then add mush, then the other ingredients. 
Hyc Mread.—“C. H.” wants a recipe. “A 
quart of xvater and as much milk. Txvo teaspoonfixls of 
salt and a teacup of Indian meal. A teacupfixl of home 
brexved yeast, or half as mxxch distillery yeast. Make it 
as stiff as xvheat bread xxdth rye flour.—Jf&s Beecher. 
Xo Keep Smoked Meat— By J. C. E.— 
Make a dark, tight closet in the north end of the garret, 
or in any out-building. If there is any appearance of fly 
or xvorm, dui-ing the summer, dust the hams xvith air 
slacked lime. Some alloxv their hams to hang in the 
smoke-house during the summer, starting a smoke occa¬ 
sionally to keep off insects. The house should be tight. 
Cooking Cakkage— H. B. Stanley.—Cut 
it fine, but not ci'oss exxt it. Put it in the flrying pan, add a 
little salt and popper, xvith some cream and a lai-ge piece 
of bxxtter. Cook it slowly for ten minxxtes. Then add a 
half teacxxpful of vinegar, and tixrn it over immediately 
into the dish from xvhich it is to be sexwed. 
^ fiiaSlaciace of tlie Moon on Meat.— 
“ I. P. C. S.” It is one of the many foolish superstitions 
that the xvoiid has not yet outgroxvn. “Kill your pork 
xyhen the moon is increasing and it xvill sxvell in the pot.” 
Stuff your pigs xvith good soixnd coim, or corn meal, for 
txvo inonths before slaughter, and the mooix can’t help its 
sxvelling in the pot. The meat of lean, half fed animahs 
alxx^ays shrinks in cooking-. 
l*oor Man’s B^ntlilEng. —Set 2 quart 
skim milk ox'er a kettle of hot xvater, until it is scalding 
hot, then stir into it a pint of com meal, and immediately 
after set the pan off; add a teacup of syrup or molasses, a 
teaspoonful of salt, and one of allspice ; put in a buttered 
pan; bake sloxv oixe hour. Good, warm or cold, with 
cold cream or xvithout.— M. IF. C. 
Hiampkin .Fokniiy Cake.— Take 1 boxxT 
of corn meal, teacups of stexved pumpkin; add 3 
tablespoonfuls of sugar, 1 teaspoonfixl of soda, and 9 eggs. 
Mix xvell and bake in a moderate oven.—J/ra. M. E. B.~ 
[We have pleasant memories of this. Hubbard or Boston 
Marrow Squash is an improvement on the pumpkin.— Ed.] 
Frotky Cream and. no ISntter.— 
“ J. E.,” of East Fairfield, Ohio, says: “ Our coxv calved 
about the middle of Fourth month last; xvill calve again 
97th of Fifth month; gave in the summer forty pounds of 
milk per day. We have failed to get butter for the past 
txvo months; nice thick cream, slightly sour and suffi¬ 
ciently warm.^ gets thin and froths in a fexv minutes and 
bids defiance to “patience and perseverence.” We hax'e 
tried all the remedies wm have heard of, both for cow and 
cream. Salted the cow, etc., all to no purpose. We under¬ 
stand that it has been a failing xvith the coxv heretofore. 
We could get good butter in 15 to SO or 45 minutes during 
the summer and fall and early xvinter.” Has not your 
cream frozen occasionally ? Buy a thermometer and be¬ 
gin churning xvhen the temperatxxre of the cream is 65“, 
haxdng scalded out the chum so that it will not cool the 
cream. Peed the coxv a little linseed or cotton seed cake 
meal and some roots if you can. It xvill not do to xvarm 
cream by pouring much hot xvater into it. 
FS'S’s ior Setting.— “ C. E. G.,” Buffalo, 
N. Y. Eggs will often hatch after being transpoi’ted hun¬ 
dreds of miles by rail, at other times a fexx"^ miles of wag¬ 
gon or railroad travel w'ill ruin them. No reliance can be 
placed on eggs transported far, xxnless they be carried in 
the hands, and packed with great care at that. 
"^Vliat are Corn Coks Kood For ?— 
“ L. F. L.,” of Torrington, Conn., asks : “ Are com cobs 
of any use as nourishment for animals, or as a manure 
for X'egetables ? I shell a large amount of corn and have 
tried cobs as manxxre in various xvays, hax'e put them in 
pig-pen for a season, and from thei-e to my gai'den, 
hax'e put them in a heap to heat and rot, and then to the 
garden, and have applied them in a natxxral state xvith bad 
rather than good results. I have used them as fuel, they 
make very strong ashes and xvill form a hard crxxst ox’er 
the ashes in the stove, some of it is xx'hite, some green, 
etc., of xvhich I send you a sample for your opinion ; if it 
is fit for feed for stock of any kind, then our farmers 
shoxxld grind their cobs xvith their corn.”- Ans. We 
suppose they hax'e a little value as manure but are sloxv 
to decompose, and believe it to be much better to burn 
them and apply the ashes xvhich are very x’alxxable. It is 
xvorse than useless to grind cobs xvith the com xxnless the 
coiTi is very soft and immatxxre. After the com ripens 
xvell the cobs contain a vei-y small proportion of nutri¬ 
ment—not so mxxch as straxv. 
Tlae N. Y. Stiate Agr’l Society held 
its Annxxal Meeting at Albany, on the 13th and 14th of 
February, for the election of oflicers, as announced in 
our last issue. The report^of the Treasurer, Luther H. 
Tucker, Esq., shoxved the finances of the Society in a 
healthy condition. There xvas an interesting and instruc- 
tix'e Address by X. A. Willard, on the Agricultxire of 
Great Biitain, and another by Dr. Fitch, on the recent 
discox’eries in Entomology, dxx'elling particularly xipon 
the canker xvorm, the joint xvorm, and the grape-beetle. 
The address of the retiring President, J. Stanton Gould, 
xvas a scholarly pcrfomiancc, full of practical xxdsdom 
xvhich xve hope to see carried out in the futxxre operations 
of the Society. We exeeedingly i-egretted that there xvere 
not better arrangements made for discussion of topics of 
practical interest to farmers and horticxxlturists. There 
xvere present at the meeting a hxxndi-ed or more gentle¬ 
men from x'arioxxs parts of the State, and some from 
abroad, distinguished farmers, nurseiymen, and horticul¬ 
turists, xvhose last year’s experience xve very mxxch xx'ant- 
ed to obtain. Yet there xvere no arrangements made for 
discussions and experience meetings. We had bxxt three 
sessions in the txvo days, xvhen xve coxxld easily have had 
txvice as many of txvo hours each, and have got much 
useful inijjurmation and spread it befoi-e our readers. 
We beg leave to suggest a change in this respect at the 
next Annual Meeting. We knoxv the Committees are 
necessarily busy, bxxt the rest of the members should 
have work laid out for them in meetings for discussion. 
Fateiit Office Heports.—“ W.” asks 
xx'here ho can obtain them. If “ W.” lix’es in a large city 
ho can probably find thtc.ix at any dealers in xx’aste paper. 
