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FRUIT CULTURE IN' MASSACHUSETTS. 
At a recent meeting of the Legislative Agricul¬ 
tural Society of Massachusetts, the subject of 
11 Fruits and the Culture of Fruit Trees,” was dis¬ 
cussed. Hon. Marshall P. Wilder being called 
to the chair, opened the discussion by saying that 
Fruits, as articles of market value, were among the 
most important of the products of the farm, and 
as much so to the country as to the Commonwealth. 
Their cultivation had made great progress among 
us within the past fifty years. The crop in this 
State, in 1845, was valued at $700,000. In 1855 its 
value was §1,300,000. In 1860 it could not be less 
than two millions of dollars—more than the value 
of the wheat, oats, rye and barley in the State.— 
Such had been the results of pomological science 
in Massachusetts that her exhibitions sustained the 
highest rank. One gentleman who had had oppor¬ 
tunity of judging said that he saw more choice 
fruit at one of our exhibitions here, than he saw at 
twenty in Europe, where, as in Germany, the great¬ 
est encouragement had been given to pomology by 
the government. The pear crop in this State was 
valued at §100,000 per annum, and also demanded 
a full share of attention, with respect to kinds best 
suited to our soil, and to the most approved man¬ 
ner of cultivation. We had among us many vari¬ 
eties of pears adapted to our climate and soil, and 
of these varieties the Bartlett, Vicar of Winkfield, 
and others which he named, were well adapted. 
The following were recommended as the six best 
varieties of apples The Williams, Early Bough, 
Gravenstein, Fameuse, Hubbardston Nonsuch and 
the Baldwin ; and if twelve varieties were desired, 
the Red Astrachan, Rhode Island Greening, Ladies’ 
Sweet, Porter and Tolman Sweet might be added. 
' For pears on their own roots the following were 
recommended: 
Best six pears on their own roots —Bartlett, Urban- 
iste, Vicar of Winkfield, Buffinn, Beurre d’Anjou, and 
Lawrence. 
For the best twelve, add—Rostiezer, Merriam, Doy¬ 
enne, Boussock, Belle Lucrative, Flemish Beauty, and 
Onondaga. 
Best six on quince roots—Louise Bonne de Jersey, 
Urbaniste, Duchess d’Angouleme, Vicar of Winkfield, 
Beurre d’Anjou, and Glout Morceau. 
With regard to the conditions of proper cultiva¬ 
tion of fruits, no great success could ever attend 
the labor of producing them unless it was conduct¬ 
ed with a care equal or superior to what was spent 
on any other kind of production. One of the pri¬ 
mary and most essential conditions had proved it¬ 
self to be thorough draining, as through its opera¬ 
tion the more troublesome diseases and parasites.^ 
affections were obviated. This thorough drainage, 
Col. Wilder insisted, was an absolute associate of 
success. He then made a few remarks on the great 
necessity of keeping the soils of orchards in a rich 
condition by manuring, and of planting the vari¬ 
ous descriptions of trees in the soils best suited to 
them. He repudiated the fashion of adopting too 
many foreign trees; for, as a general principle, 
trees and plants flourished better on the soil of 
their origin than they did in localities foreign to 
them. Col. W. recommended raising seedlings, as 
on them we would ultimately have our surest de¬ 
pendence for good, reliable fruit trees. We had, 
doubtless, a number of fine fruits already native 
to the soil —at the head of which stood the Bald¬ 
win apple of which 50,000 barrels were last fall ex¬ 
ported, from this city. At a late meeting at Roch¬ 
ester, N. Y., the Baldwin had two marks of merit 
to one for any other kind, and the others which re¬ 
ceived the next highest commendations were the 
Rhode Island Greening, the Russett and the Tomp¬ 
kins County King. 
He concluded by saying that he hailed with 
pleasure the wide-spread interest now manifested 
in relation to the cultivation of the Grape. The 
time, he said, was within the recollection of some 
present, when the Catawba and Isabella were first 
brought into notice. Hundreds of cultivators were 
now raising seedlings, and the day would soon 
come when our markets would vie with those of 
Italy, Sicily, and other grape-growing countries, 
where this luscious fruit is not only a luxury to the 
opulent, but the food of the humblest peasant.— 
Our native wines were attracting attention in Eu¬ 
rope, and at a late convention in Belgium, our 
Catawba was pronounced superior to the best va¬ 
rieties of Rhine wine. Our own Concord grape, 
also, had attained great estimation among wine 
growers. For the substance of this report we are 
indebted to the New-England Farmer. 
GRAPE CROP OF 1858, ON THE HUDSON. 
Messrs. Editors: —The year 1S58 will long be 
remembered by the farmer and fruit grower, as an 
uncommonly fruitful year in this section of New 
York. Corn, rye, oats, potatoes and hay never 
yielded more abundantly, and at the same time 
sold at remunerating prices. Apples, cherries, 
peaches, pears, grapes, &c., we have had in abund¬ 
ance—that is, all persons who gave their fruit 
trees anything like decent treatment. 
No kind of fruit, however, makes such quick and 
sure returns for money and labor expended as the 
grape. When properly planted, pruned and cul¬ 
tivated, it is, in this part of the State, as certain a 
crop as Indian corn. It costs no more labor to 
attend an acre of grapes than of potatoes, and is 
far more pleasant to any one who loves good fruit 
and certainly pays much better. Unlike most 
other kinds of fruit, it will hang for a long time, 
gradually improving in flavor, and suffer no injury 
from high winds, wet weather, birds or insects, 
which affords the grower ample time to pick and 
send it to market at his leisure. A mistaken no¬ 
tion seems to prevail among people, that the 
grape requires a great deal more care and atten¬ 
tion than any other fruit. This is not so, unless 
in cases where they practice the renewal mode of 
pruning with mathematical accuracy, which I 
hold to be unnecessary to produce grapes of good 
quality, and at prices within the reach of the mid¬ 
dle classes of society, of which seven-eighths of 
the people who buy grapes are composed. 
The grape, when planted in a soil of moderate 
fertility, is easily kept in proper shape, the wood is 
generally short-jointed and firm, which enables it 
to resist the intense cold which we sometimes ex¬ 
perience in this latitude. I prune in November, 
put the vines down in a horizontal position, when 
a few shovelsful of earth is all that is needed to keep 
them down, as the snow generally does that effect¬ 
ually. About the first of May the buds will be 
pushing briskly and uniformly all over the vines; 
they should then be taken up, and tied with care 
to a wire trellis in such a manner as to give the 
vine all the room that the trellis will admit of. I 
find the wire trellis the best adapted to the wants 
of the vine, as the wires are just the thing for the 
vine to cling to, which it does effectually. About 
the 1st of July the berries and clusters will be 
large enough to thin out the superfluous shoots and 
branches, and it is not uncommon to see from two 
to three fruit-bearing branches start from a bud. 
The weaker ones should be broken off about two 
inches from where they are united to the vine, 
leaving only one fruit-bearing branch at a place, 
and none should be allowed to ripen more than 
three clusters. 
The bearing shoots or branches will generally 
sustain themselves without any support except 
from the vine, and need not be stopped or broken 
off, as is sometimes recommended. Nothing more 
is needed to ensure a good crop of grapes, but to 
work the ground enough to keep down the weeds 
and grass. 
I commenced planting the grape for marketing 
about the year 1847, and have made annual addi¬ 
tions to my vineyard, until now I have about four 
acres occupied mostly with grapes. The most of 
the vines produce annual crops of good grapes, 
which sold in the New York market last fall at 
prices sufficiently high to nett me §160 per tun.— 
Perhaps you will say that 8 cents per pound is a 
small price compared with what some of your 
western grape growers sold theirs for,—but 1 wish 
to have it expressly understood, that I pick and 
send the grapes to market directly from the vine¬ 
yard, in boxes which contain about twenty-five 
pounds, and that 8 cents is the average price, in¬ 
cluding both first and second quality. You will 
observe that we run no risk in having any of them 
spoil on our bunds; neither do we lose any by 
assorting and storing, as those who practice that 
method, as a natural consequence must lose quite 
a percentage. 
September 10th commenced picking the Isabellas, 
and sent to market three times a week, for about 
three weeks, which closed the season for that 
variety. October 1st commenced picking and 
sending Catawbas to market, and continued to pick 
and send the same as Isabellas up to October 20th, 
when we had the first frost sufficiently hard to 
injure grapes. The Yalley of the Hudson seems 
to be admirably adapted to the j^-ape, both in its 
fine soil, and peculiar exemption from late spring 
and autumnal frosts. w. t. 
Germantown, N. Y., 1859. 
Inquiries anb Answers. 
Vegetable Physiology. —I noticed in your paper of 
February 5th, in remarks on planting fruit trees, the 
statement that the roots of a tree were the feeders. I 
ask, inquiringly, if the roots have mouths, or how do 
they feed the tree ? I thought the leaves fed our trees. 
—Perky, Edinboro, Beim., 1S59. 
Vegetable physiology is a very interesting 
study, one in which the wisest can engage with 
pleasure and profit. Young men, who think there 
is nothing about the farm worthy of the great 
powers which they imagine themselves to possess, 
would do well to turn their attention to this sub¬ 
ject, and they will find they have work for a life¬ 
time,—an opportunity for honorable fame. By 
what process moisture is taken from the earth, 
and made to ascend the tallest trees, even to the 
most remote leaf, is a question which will furnish 
matter for investigation, and after this is settled to 
the satisfaction of the world, there are a score of 
others equally interesting, awaiting investigation 
and elucidation. 
A tree is composed of several parts, roots, 
branches, leaves, buds, blossoms, Ac., and all these 
have their several offices to perform. We give an 
engraving from Barry's Fr uit Book, to aid in illus¬ 
trating the few remarks we intend to make. 
A, the collar. B, the main root. C, lateral root. D, 
fibres. E, stem or trunk. F, main branches. G, 
secondary branches. II, shoots of one year’s growth. 
Tiie Root is composed of several parts. The 
collar, (letter A,) in the point of union between roots 
and stem. The miin root, (B,) usually penetrates 
the earth in a vert cal direction. It is sometimes 
called the tap-root. The lateral roots (C,) are the 
principal branches or divisions of the main root, 
and grow in a more spreading, or horizontal posi¬ 
tion. Theyi’Jres, or rootlets (1),) as they are some¬ 
times called, are the fine htjir-like roots. The ex¬ 
treme points of these are called spongiolcs, and 
they are porous, and through them the food of the 
tree, derived from the soil, is mainly absorbed — 
they may be said to be mouths. They are composed 
of soft, newly-formed, delicate tissue. 
In addition to these spongioles, the surface of 
newly formed roots abound with hair-like roots, in 
most cases invisible to the naked eye. These are 
so well described by Prof. Gray, that we quote a 
paragraph : — “ The absorbing surface of roots is 
very much greater than it appears to be, on account 
of the root-hairs, or slender fibrils, which abound on 
the fresh and new parts of roots. These may be 
seen with an ordinary magnifying-glass, or even 
by the naked eye in many cases; as in the root of 
a seedling Maple (Fig. 2 and 3,) where the surface 
is thickly clothed with them. They are not root¬ 
lets of a smaller sort; but, when more magnified, 
are seen to be mere elongations of the surface of 
the root into slender' tubes, which through their 
very delicate walls imbibe moisture from the soil ! 
with great avidity. They arc commonly much 
longer than those shown in Fig. 3, which repre¬ 
sents only the very tip of a root moderately magni¬ 
fied. Small as they are individually, yet the whole 
amount of absorbing surface added to the rootlets 
by the countless numb£t£ of these tiny tubes is very 
great.“ 
WwB EK 
Fig. 3. j Fig. 2. 
A piece of the end of the | Seedling Maple, of natural 
root magnified. | size, showing root hairs. 
The leaf stalk and the veins of the leaf are tubes, 
similar to the woody parts of the tree, and inside 
of these tubes is a pith similar to the pith in the 
branches, and connected with it. The upper and 
lower surfaces of the leaves are furnished with 
small pores. The pores on the under surface are 
the largest and these are the ones principally em¬ 
ployed in absorbing from the .atmosphere, while 
those on the upper surface are supposed to be 
principally employed in exhaling. It is the mois¬ 
ture exhaled from the leaves that causes a plant or 
branch to wilt when kept in a warm room, while 
the absorbing power of the leaves enables the plant 
to recover when sprinkled with water. A field of 
corn wilted in a hot day will revive in an hour 
under the rkfreshin^#^fnce of a shower. It is 
generally meliovti^l^Sthe sap is taken up by 
the roots in a crude state, and passes into the 
leaves, where it receives certain modifications, be¬ 
comes digested,..and tprepWed to form the new 
wood required for the growth of the tree. We 
have not space at present to discuss this subject, 
but at some other time we will give it further at¬ 
tention. 
The Winter and Dwarf Bears.—I set out a large 
lot of Dwarf Pears last fall, and on pruning the same 
a few days since, I find that about one-third are black 
at the heart. Will such trees do any good ? Would it 
not be better for me to pull them up and place good 
ones in their places ? Would coal ashes be of any ben¬ 
efit to fruit trees ? 
I have some idea of taking fresh stable manure, 
placing the same in a hopper, and taking the drippings 
to. place around my dwarf pears. Would it be of any 
benefit to the trees, and what quantity should I p:mr 
around each tree, and what season of the year? — A Sub¬ 
scriber, 'Walnut Bottom, Ohio, 1S59. 
It is the unripened wood, we presume, that is 
most injured. In this the pith, which is the part 
blackened, is much larger than iu the older and the 
more matured branches. Early in March, or as 
soon as the hard frosts are over, prune the trees 
again, cutting one or two buds closer than before, 
and we have no doubt they will come out all right 
next summer. The best way to apply manure to 
young fruit trees is to place a heavy coating on the 
surface. The soluble portion is washed into the 
ground by the rains in sufficient quantities to fur¬ 
nish sustenance as fast as the roots can appropri¬ 
ate it, and the balance may be forked in occasion¬ 
ally, and a new lot supplied. 
Fruit and Tree Culture, &c.—Will you please in¬ 
form me what books I need to give a thorough knowl¬ 
edge of Fruit Culture and the Nursery Business in 
general ? Also, can you, or any of the readers of the 
Rural, give me any information in regard to the cul¬ 
ture, in this country, of the Chinese Poppy, from which 
opium is made? Has any one succeeded in raising it? 
I believe seeds of it were distributed through the Pat¬ 
ent-Office a few years since.—A Subscriber, Canan¬ 
daigua, N. Y., 1859. 
Barry’s Fruit Book will give more practical in¬ 
formation about raising stocks, the propagation of 
trees, and the nursery business generally, than any 
other work. The history, description and quality 
of the different varieties of fruits may be best 
learned by studying Downing’s Fruits and Fruit 
Trees in America. But after all, no reading will 
make a nurseryman, any more than the same 
course would make an editor or a builder. Obser¬ 
vation and practice is necessary. The best nurs¬ 
erymen find that they are constantly learning.— 
The Poppy is not cultivated in this country or Eu¬ 
rope for making opium, that we are aware of. 
Cutting Grafts.—I am a subscriber of your paper, 
and weuld like to be informed through it when the best 
time is to cut cherry grafts, and how keep them after 
they have been cut, and the proper time to set them ? 
Some say that they must be cut in February, some in 
March, and some say that they must be set in March. 
How should apple grafts be kept after they are cut, and 
when should pear grafts be cut ? Last spring I set one 
pear graft in a Mountain Ash. It lived and did well on 
the start, but about the middle of the summer it dried 
up and died.—V. A. E., Kelloggsville, N. Y., 1859. 
Grafts maybe cut any time in the winter, or be¬ 
fore the buds start in the spring. They may be 
kept in a cool, dry cellar, by placing the cut ends 
in sand, or they may be buried in a cool place, in a 
sandy soil, drawing the earth over them in a 
mound to throw oft the water. The object is to 
keep the buds dormant, and yet not so dry as to 
shrivel up the scions. The stone fruits, as the 
cherry and plum should be grafted first, and as 
soon as possible in the spring. 
Wiiat Pear Trees are Best for a General As¬ 
sortment.— I have been much pleased with the discus¬ 
sion about pear trees in your paper. I live in the ex¬ 
treme nortiiern part of Illinois, near the southern 
boundary of Wisconsin. In the spring I wish to set out 
one hundred standard pear trees. I wish to get those 
that will supply me with pears as near the year round 
as possible. I, of course, want the earliest and the 
latest. I live near a good railroad depot, and of course 
must have some regard to those kinds that will sell the 
most profitably. My land is new, and I want to set out 
a durable pear orchard. I want no dwarfs. What kind 
of soil is best? My place for an orchard is a sandy 
ridge, where oaks and hickory were found by the first 
settlers, and where oaks and hickory would soon cover 
the land again if left uncultivated. I have an abund¬ 
ance of clay near by, and also manure. Now, how 
should I fix my soil to set out my trees, and what varie¬ 
ty of trees, and what number of each should I set out 
to get my orchard of one hundred trees?— A Beginner. 
Nothing but actual experience would enable us 
to say for a certainty what will succeed in your lo¬ 
cality. We will name a few sorts that we know to 
be the hardiest, and just what we would plant were 
we in your circumstances, and with good hopes of 
success. 
Of Summer Sorts we would have the Beurre 
G-ijfard and Tyson. The former is very hardy, and 
productive, and will endure as much cold, perhaps, 
as any early sort. The Tyson is one of the finest 
summer varieties, not quite as hardy as Beurre 
Gifard, but well worthy of a trial. 
Autumn Varieties— Buffum, ripe about the first 
of October. Tree vigorous and hardy, remarkably 
upright in growth. Flemish Beauty, a large, beau¬ 
tiful, melting pear. This is represented to us by 
letters from fruit growers at the West as being the 
most hardy variety ever introduced. Swan’s Or¬ 
ange is a large, high-flavored pear; tree very hardy. 
One gentleman writes that out of a dozen varieties, 
(which we are sorry lie did not name,) this is the 
only one which endured Hie past severe winters 
without injury. The Seckel is a slow grower, hardy, 
and we think well calculated to endure a Western 
winter. The fruit is the standard of excellence.— 
Sheldon is a most excellent pear, equal in quantity 
to the Seckel, and four times as large. Tree very 
hardy; think it would do at the West. 
For Winter, we can name only the Lawrence, 
with confidence. The light, oak ridges, we think, 
the best for fruit trees, at the West, and the only 
manure we would use, for a season or two at least, 
would be a dressing of the clay which you have 
near by. 
A Grape for Name. —Can you, or any Grape Cul- 
turist, inform me the name of a grape of the following 
description ? Bather small in size, round, pulp tough, 
closely packed to the stem. Juice as black a red as red 
could be made black, pretiy tart, and when bespattered 
on linen, turns to a purple, quickly.—W. II. It. Barton, 
Rochester , N. Y., 1859. 
This is some little native, very evidently, but 
from the description furnished, could not give its 
name, if it has one. 
CULTURE OF THE GRAPE.—NO. n. 
What form is best for Grape Vines? Young 
vines should always be pruned back to two buds 
every autumn, until they get sufficient root to make 
a growth teu or fifteen feet in a single season. I 
have over the front door of my dining-room, on a 
flat, a vine that has been loaded with fruit for 
many years. Pass out at the back door of the 
cook-room to either the wood-house, well-house, 
or barns, and you pass under a thick sheet of 
Catawbas, Clintons, and Isabellas. These vines 
stand close to the walk, or over the fences. They 
rise with straight standards till they reach the flat 
made of wires, stretched from the house to the 
wood-house and well-house, on posts set firmly in 
the ground for them. They give beauty to the 
homestead, and profit, and are out of the way. I 
have vines set and coming along to cover all the 
space about my buildings, and the sidewalk in the 
highway also. Vines set under the eaves of the 
out building, or about the house, with proper care, 
bear bountiful crops of fruit. 
But, What form is best for the Vineyard ? I 
believe no one sets less than 160 vines to the acre. 
At the age of 16 years the root of each vine covers 
four rods of ground, but the vine is dwarfed back 
to one rod. Don’t reason teach any one that plants, 
with such an unequal balance between roots and 
branches, will be injured. The demand for sap 
must be nearly equal to the supply to keep the 
vines thrify. My two old vines covers one-six¬ 
teenth part of an acre; at that rate requiring only 
32 vines to the acre. I recommend setting vines 
thick, as the land gives a full crop as soon as they 
come into bearing, but shape them to meet their 
wants as needed. When vines begin to make a 
thrifty growth, I let a single sprout grow from 12 
to 16 inches from the ground, and I also let a 
sprout remain. These two sprouts are shaped, 
by a stake with a strip across the top of it, for the 
base branches on the lower wire of the trellis. 
They extend to within a foot of the next vines, and 
are then bent and go to the top of the trellis. All 
the vines in the vineyard are treated in the same 
way, which makes two base branches on all the 
trellises. The advantages of this arrangement 
are—First, you can get your uprights with more 
accuracy from two base branches than you could 
from one. Second, if your vines are becoming too 
thick (as they will,) you can remove every other 
vine in the vineyard, with no alteration to make, 
only to fill up the trellis by new uprights from the 
base branches that are to remain. This will give 
two rods of ground for each of the vines left. 
Should the vines still become too thick, again 
remove them from every other trellis in the 
vineyard, and let the vines that remain extend on 
the flat over where they stood. That leaves 40 vines 
to the acre, eight more than my old ones require, 
at 16 years of age. In pruning and shaping base 
branches, let the laterals get a foot in length be¬ 
fore you take them off If they are pruned closer, 
the next year’s fruit buds will be pushed forward, 
and the chance to get the uprights iu their proper 
place be lessened. Alvin Wilcox. 
West Bloomfield, Ont. Co., N. Y., 1859. 
DOMESTIC RECIPES AND HINTS. 
Messrs. Eds.: — Believing anything that will 
make pleasant and lighten woman’s work ought 
to be made public, I send the following recipes and 
hints for your excellent paper: 
CnE.\p Cookies.—O ne cup of cream; half a cup 
of butter; one and a half cups of sugar; 2 eggs; 
1 teaspoonful of saleratus—mould as soft as you 
can ; roll and bake i • a quick oven. 
Miss Filicia’s Sponge Cake. —Two eggs; 2 cups 
of sugar; 2 cups of flour; half a teaspoonful of 
saleratus dissolved in two-thirds of a teacup of 
water, and a teaspoonful of extract of lemon; 1 
teaspoonful of cream of tartar. 
Yankee Yeast, without Hops or Milk. — Take 
1 quart of warm water, stir iu flour enough to 
make a thick batter, and set in a warm place to rise. 
It is an excellent substitute for sour milk in winter. 
Cheshire Corn Griddle Cakes. —To 1 quart of 
sour milk, add 1 egg well beaten ; 1 teaspoonful of 
salt; 1 of saleratus,— thicken with Indian meal to 
the proper consistency. Bake them until they are 
done brown. Serve with butter and maple honey, 
and they are good enough for our President. 
A Nice Mode of Scouring Cutlery. — Take a 
good sized potato, wash it, and cut off one end, 
shave off your brick, have your cutlery perfectly 
dry, dip the cut end in the brick and scour with it 
instead of using a cloth. This mode will impart a 
lustre equal to whiting, and the daintiest lady can 
scour her own cutlery without soiling her fingers. 
Fried pork is better for greasing griddles than 
butter, as the salt burns, and produces a disagreea¬ 
ble smoke. 
Crockery, of all kinds, looks brightest washed 
in hot suds, rinsed in hot water, and drained in a 
wooden tray or bowl. It is economy also in saving 
of time. 
Tin ware should be washed in the same way, 
and dried by the stove. 
Tumblers should be washed in cold suds with the 
hands, and rinsed in cold water, then turned on a 
cloth to drain. 
It is good economy to put sugar skimmings into 
the vinegar barrel. The milk and eggs used in 
settling the sugar is no injury to the vinegar. 
Mrs. A. H. Lincoln. 
Bowe, Franklin Co., Mass., 1S59. 
PUDDINGS, CAKES AND COOKIES. 
Eds. Rural : — Having read and tried many 
valuable recipes from your paper, I thought to 
reciprocate the favor by sending a few in return: 
Steamed Pudding. —One quart buttermilk; one 
heaping teaspoon of soda; a little salt; flour 
enough to make a very stiff batter; steam over 
boiling water an hour and a half. Serve with 
cream, sugar and nutmeg, or lemon. This makes 
a plain, good and cheap dish. 
Rice Pudding. — One teacup of rice; one of 
sugar; one of raisins ; two quarts sweet milk; nut¬ 
meg; stir frequently while baking, until it begins 
to thicken,—this makes an excellent pudding. 
Graham Cake.— One cup and a half sugar; a 
piece of butter the size of a butternut; one teacup 
of sweet milk; one-fourth of a pound of raisins, 
chopped ; one teaspoon of soda, one and a half cups 
of flour,—bake in rather a quick oven. 
Cookies. —Oue cup of butter; two of sugar; one 
half cup of sweet milk; one teaspoon of soda; half 
nutmeg. M. E. Peck. 
Port Byron, N. Y., 1859. 
To Dye Pink on Cotton.— To every pound of 
goods take one ounce of lime, water enough to 
cover your goods, boil several hours, then take it 
out and drain. Take three-fourths of a pound of 
alum to two pounds of goods, water sufficient to 
cover it, boil one hour, then drain again. Soak 
one and a half pounds madder in vinegar over 
night, then put it into three pails of soft water, boil 
one hour, put in your goods, boil one and a half 
hours. If you wish it darker, let it remain in the 
dye longer. Your color will be much improved by 
putting six or eight quarts of wheat bran in a tub 
of soft water,—let it stand for eight or ten days, then 
take the clear liquor, and boil your madder in that. 
— Libbie W., Suspension Bridge, If. Y., 1859. 
Printing Flannel for Embroidery.—D raw ..he 
pattern on paper, then lay e pattern on a pillow, 
take a small needle, fasten the end of the needle 
in a cork, then prick the pattern where it is traced; 
lay it on the flannel. If the cloth is white, take 
Prussian blue and lay it on the pattern, and rub 
it hard with the hand—raise the pattern carefully, 
take a small camel’s hair pencil to finish the 
work, using a paint composed of one teaspoouful 
of yellow gamboge, one teaspoonful white gum 
arabic, and one of rain water—mix thoroughly. 
If the flannel is colored, use the gum arabic for 
tracing.—N. M. T. M., South Alabama, If. Y. 
Soft Soap.— As I have seen many good recipes, 
I send an aid iu soft soap making, which I have used 
for several years:—Add five pounds of rosin to 
every barrel of soap—the stronger the ley the bet¬ 
ter— the rosin will prevent the hands from being 
sore when the soap is used. — Caroline, Empire 
State, 1859. 
Inquiry Answered.— H. L. N.—A spoonful of 
whiskey to two pounds of flour of grown wheat will 
correct it. If much grown, use more whiskey, but 
no strychnine. —O. T. Hobbs, Randolph, Crawford 
Co., Fa., Jan., 1859. 
Excelsior Corn Bread.—S even cups corn meal; 
seven cups buttermilk; one cup wheat flour; half 
cup molasses; one tablespoonful ginger; one tea¬ 
spoonful saleratus.—L ibbie W., Suspension Bridge, 
N. Y, 1859. 
