REVIEW OF THE AGRICULTURIST. 
85 
I am not even ugly enough to make me odd. 
Though “ comparisons are odious,” I will not 
think your correspondent so, if he will make the 
comparison between tallow, stearine, wax, &c., in¬ 
cluding lard, if you please, in the common house¬ 
hold lard lamp. 
Smoke Houses. —The grand secret in smoking 
meat is to apply it to the hams cool, and never so 
intensely hot as to destroy the vitality of the at¬ 
mosphere. Give the smoke room a free vent at 
all times, and don’t smoke in damp weather. This 
idea is not original, but I have proved it good. 
November Number — Sour Kraut. —“ If any be 
left it is equally good warmed over.” Hai-yah, 
too muchia true. And so is 
Texas Enterprise , as in this short article set 
forth, where “ they have a most luxuriant soil and 
proverbially healthy region.” Through all time 
and space, the first breaking up and cultivation of 
luxuriant soils in a mild latitude have, and ever 
will, produce bilious or aguish diseases; and all 
who desire to emigrate from an old worn-out, or 
sterile soil, to a luxuriant one, should be made 
acquainted with this inevitable law of nature. 
“ Excellent land,” says the Texan writer, £: well 
watered and timbered, can be had for one dollar an 
acre.” Better land for the growth of health and 
happiness, and increase of all the domestic comforts 
of life, can be had within half a day’s ride of your 
office, Mr. Editor, for less money, taking into 
account the cost of emigration, and making that 
cheap land into a farm. Heaven knows that Texas 
land ought to be cheap, for an awful quantity of 
human blood has already been poured out to pur¬ 
chase it. 
, Western Agriculture—Corn Cobs. —I am glad to 
see that Mr. Robinson is still flying about among 
the pigs, and giving us interesting descriptions of 
the manner of making them into pork and other 
matters. Some of the things here stated are in¬ 
structive, and others quite amusing. That about 
corn cobs being good feed, made me involuntarily 
begin to hum that elegant extract from the poetic 
writings of old Mr. Yankee Doodle, in which he so 
earnestly calls upon the aid of corn cobs" to screw 
another idea oift of his head; for he says, 
“ Corn cobs twist my hair, 
Mortar pestle pound ye !” 
What hearty food I liere will add, 
The corn cobs when ground be! 
But ridicule is not the best way to arrive at truth, 
and therefore I forbear: and if there really is any nu¬ 
triment in corn cobs, I hope it will be ground out, so 
that if any of the family of Yankee Doodle should 
ever come this way again, they would have to look 
for something else to twist their hair with besides 
corn cobs. [Mr. Reviewer had better be quiet, as we 
shall soon have a corn-cob story to tell him which 
will make him stare, and prove that Messrs. Rob¬ 
inson and Ellsworth are right]. 
As for the matter of a square barrel offour , which 
1 am invited to discuss, I think, Mr. Editor, that 
you have rolled the argument so far, that I need not 
give it another kick. 
Long Island Lands , No. 2.—Another most inter¬ 
esting article. The analysis shows how easily these 
lands may be improved. As the natural fertility of 
the Hempstead plains is sufficient to produce a good 
crop at first, it is evident, that by turning in green 
crops and manuring moderately and using lime and 
ashes, the fertility can be kept up and increased. But 
let us hear further. This is a very important dis¬ 
cussion. None more so. 
Granger's Cooking Stove. —My wife says that 
the one figured in the October number is much the 
best. She is very anxious to try the new plan of 
a brick oven in a stove. If it will save cooks the 
sin of so much bad baking, as is now done in com¬ 
mon stove ovens, Mr. Granger will deserve a gold 
medal for his invention. 
Buckwheat Cakes. —Of course Mr. Granger’s stove 
will bake them if well mixed, which el dear Jane” 
is poetically called upon to do in the Ladies’ De¬ 
partment of this number. But no mixing of batter 
will make the best cakes, unless the meal is right* 
and this cannot be right, unless the grain is clean, 
and this cannot be, unless the mill has a. good smut 
machine, and then it must not be ground too fine, 
nor the shorts rejected ; but mix them with the 
flour, or add a little wheat shorts or com meal; and 
although the cakes are not so wdiite, they will be 
more light, more tender, and exceedingly palatable. 
December Number — Farmers' Winter Work . 
-^Surely, my dear sir, in this article you have for** 
gotten the wood pile that should always be got up 
while the sledding is good. What greater pest to 
a farmer can be conceived of, than the constant call 
through the busy season of seed time and harvest, 
of “ we must have a load of wood to-day.” What 
bad economy, too, to say nothing of burning green 
wood, and the necessity of sacrificing a few dry 
rails every now and then for “ oven wood.” It is 
a great mistake to say that at this season farmers 
and their teams have but little to do. You might 
have said that many of them do little. But really, 
there is no waste of time upon a well-managed 
farm. Even in stormy days, there will always be 
found plenty of work in the shop; a room that 
every good farmer will have, where the sled can be 
made or shod while the snow storm is howling out¬ 
side. An ox yoke made, or plow mended, and 
where a stock of axe handles, hoe handles, ox 
bows, beetles, gluts, &c., &c., should be made 
in stormy days and laid up until needed. Here too, 
may the winter evenings often be spent, though 
never to the neglect of plenty of good reading, 
social chat, and “Winter Evening Fireside Tales.” 
Such are blessings of a farmer’s life, and never 
should be bartered away for an Increase of wealth. 
It is upon such an evening that I am holding con¬ 
verse with the readers of the Agriculturist. May 
their number be legion. 
American Fresh Meats in England. —If you 
please, Mr. Editor, you have not stated the u only 
objection to an extensive business of this kind.” 
The grand objection is, a want of permanency in 
the market. If I adapt my farm and stock to the 
purpose, and invest a few thousand dollars in the 
business of supplying the London markets with 
American fresh meat, how am I to be assured that 
the market will continue open to me 1 Any busi¬ 
ness to be good, must be permanent. But when¬ 
ever our only or principal dependence is upon a 
foreign market, for our agricultural productions, 
then our independence is at an end. There is no 
market for the farmer equal to a home market. 
