0 
I emus tic teronomn. 
CONDUCTED BY MARY A. E. WAGER. 
HOW TO MAKE COFFEE. 
Your coffee paragraph in Rural of Au¬ 
gust 7, is a good one, but not perfect. Tin 
ware, as is remarked, is not good for tea or 
coffee, particularly coffee. Boiling is not to 
be thought, of; so earthen answers the pur¬ 
pose. You can draw the strength, as the 
French do, in cold water; you can do it 
more thoroughly that wav than when heated. 
The heating gives you the extract, and that 
adds body to your coffee. But you can 
secure this protty well by keeping at the 
boiling point, just stirring the water a little 
fiy the heat, not boiling up or bubbling. 
Here then is the whole secret: soak in cold 
water in an earthen dish; heat till up to the 
boiling point; keep there a few minutes — 
five is about, right — and then setoff; from 
five to ten minutes more will settle it, 
whether in a bag or out. of it. A little stir¬ 
ring of the top, when the coffee is on the 
stove, and at its greatest heat, while there is 
a scum on the surface — which rises there, if 
loose, from the bottom, then precipitates 
again —is recommended by Lacoro, and we 
are practicing it with good success. 
But now for another tiling which is sadly 
overlooked : we grind our coffee too coarse 
—altogether too coarse. The great German 
chemist recommends it pulverized. This 
we have practiced for years, and by careful 
testing have found that from a quarter to a 
third of the strength of the coffee is lost by 
coarse grinding. The idea that it. will not 
settle when ground, or, better, pounded, tine, 
(in a mortar is our plan,) is all “ in your eye.” 
It will settle readily and clarify itself. All 
it wants is a little time to stand. Grind 
3 *our coffee fine, powder it, and then you 
will have these two important advantages : 
you will get a stronger cup of coffee (from a 
quarter to a third,) ami yon will get it the 
quicker. This last is important, 1 find 
It takes but a few minutes to make my 
coffee now I can make it in a tin dish, and 
you cannot tell the difference; only I do not 
let it soak in a tin dish. But a few minutes 
in it on the stovo will affect it so little that 
It cannot be perceived. 
Another tiling:—First try your coffee be¬ 
fore you buy ; then, if good, buy enough for 
a six-months or a year, and keep in pure air, 
else you will have the odors absorbed by it, 
whether in the green or browned state. But 
never buy in the browned state if you can 
avoid it. If you do, heat over. It will much 
improve the coffee. 
It is not necessary to brown evenly ; a lit¬ 
tle variety imparts variety of flavor, and 
seems more pleasant. Use only pure cream 
or milk, free from odor; but, better, none at 
all. Learn to drink your coffee like } r our 
tea.—you can—and then you will get the 
full, perfect benefit. f. o. 
-■ ■ 
CANNING TOMATOES. 
How it is Done on a Large Scale. 
I recently visited the factory of G. & J. 
D. Sickles of Shrcwsburytown, Monmouth 
Co., N. J. They, by careful selection of va¬ 
rieties and seed, grow none but the large, 
smooth, solid varieties, thereby getting u 
large yield, with less labor in gathering the 
crop, ami less time in skinning. The fruit 
is less watery and more solid when canned. 
They raise all their plants in hot-beds, and 
have forty acres growing on their own farm, 
and buy largely of the surrounding farmers, 
who contract to raise them at thirty-five 
cents per bushel, delivered at the factory, 
the plants being furnished them. The yield 
is from two to four hundred bushels per acre, 
according to the amount of manure used and 
the cultivation. 
Upon entering the building, the first thing 
that attracts notice is the extreme cleanliness 
aud order of everything, without noise or 
confusion, each person having his or her own 
work to do. The cans are all made on the 
premises, and got ready previous to the can¬ 
ning season. The tomatoes are brought in 
from the fields in bushel crates. After being 
washed, they are scalded so as to crack and 
loosen the skins. They are then carried to 
the tables, around which are seated women 
who takeoff the skin, and stem and cut them 
up; twenty women and girls are employed 
at skinning. 
From these tables they are carried to the 
l ' tilling box,” on each side of which is a row 
office large funnels, underneath which there 
is a drop platform. Upon this platform cans 
are placed in ledges for that purpose, by two 
boys—one on each side the filler, who stands 
at one end of the box, steps on a lover which 
raises the cans up under the bottom of the 
funnels. The filler, with a dipper, holding 
sufficient prepared tomatoes to fill a can, 
fills In each funnel, which is forced down in 
the cans below by the boys, who use plung¬ 
ers for that purpose; the platform is dropped 
and the cans removed and replaced by empty 
ones. The filling is all done by one of the 
owners, as that enables him to see that the 
tomatoes are properly skinned and all the 
stems taken off 
From the fillers they are taken by girls to 
a table adjoining, where all cans not per¬ 
fectly filled are filled up and put in trays 
holding ten cans; thence they are passed to 
a woman who wipes the top of the can clean 
and dry, and they are then passed to the 
cappers’ bench, who put the caps on and 
solders them up tight. This operation re¬ 
quires great care, as the least hole left in 
them lets in the air, and the whole would be 
worthless. 
After being soldered they are taken to the 
boiling tanks, of which there are two, one 
being filled while the other is boiling. These 
tanks havo false bottoms, which are fitted 
with a halo and book fit the top, which is 
attached to a rope and windlass overhead, 
for raising them out of the tanks, and are of 
a size to hold ten cans each way, or one 
hundred in a course; they hold five courses, 
or five hundred cans. The tanks are con¬ 
nected by steam pipes with a twenty-home 
power boiler to furnish steam for boiling. 
When the tank is tilled the steam is turned 
on, and the cans are boiled thirty minutes. 
The steam is then turned off and particular 
notice taken of the cans as each layer is 
removed; for while 1 ho cans are covered 
with water, if there are any leaky ones, they 
w ill he discovered, as the expanded air in 
the can forces itself out through the leak or 
hole and bubbles up through the water, 
which is the test of the work being thor¬ 
oughly done. If there are any leaky ones 
they are scut back to the cappers and re- 
soldered. This part of the operation is 
attended to personally by one of the firm, as 
proper attention at this point prevents a 
great deal of loss hereafler. 
The cans, while hot, are bulged out or 
rounded at both ends from the expansion of 
the heated tomato inside. They are then 
removed and piled away, ready to be labeled 
and boxed for shipment. Upon cooling the 
cuds of the cans lose their rounded form, 
and sink in from the vacuum formed by the 
process. The Messrs. Sickles are now put¬ 
ting up 0.0U0 cans per day, and have one 
contract with a New York house lbr 200,000 
cans. 
There is also a factory on the old Ameri¬ 
can Phalanx Farm, owned by Mr. Buoklin, 
who puts up 100,000 cans for the house of 
Coiiem & Co., New York; also a factory at 
Port Washington, owned by Mortimer 
Bergen, who puts up for the house of Dud¬ 
ley & Co.; and tills firm have also a factory 
at Keyport and another at New Brunswick 
all in full operation. New-Yorkers are like¬ 
ly to be well supplied from this section with 
canned tomatoes. S. Barker. 
-<M~®- 
COOKING CAULIFLOWERS. 
A Michigan correspondent asks how to 
cook Cauliflowers. Most people boil them 
as they do cabbaga (in water alone, or equal 
parts of milk and water), aud prepare for the 
table in the same way. Others parboil them, 
then immerse in cold hard water for some 
time, boiling them again a few minutes just 
before serving. A French way is to boll 
them until three parts done, drain them well, 
toss them for a moment in some thick melted 
butter, and set them by to cool. When quite 
cold dip them separately in a batter, (which 
is made as given below,) fry them a light j 
brown, and serve very hot. 
The batter alluded to is made by putting 
into a stew-pan one pound of fat bacon, 
rasped, one pound of beef suet cut small, ouo 
pound of butter, the juice of tw® lemons, a 
couple of bog-leaves, three clove9, three car¬ 
rots, three onions divided into slices, and less 
than a half pint of water. Simmer these 
gently, stirring often, until the fat is well 
melted and the water has evaporated ; then 
pour in rather more than will be required for 
the dish which is to be cooked in the hlanc; 
boil it softly until all the ingredients have 
given out their full flavor; skim it well, salt 
if needed, and strain it off for use. A calfs 
head is often boiled in this. 
•— -4-f*- - 
GOOD WASHING FLUID: 
nail the Labor Saved in Wnshiut, 
One of the lady readers of the Rural 
had occasion recently to expose a “ Chemi¬ 
cal Washing Compound ” recipe as a “ hum¬ 
bug.” W e have one we have used for years, 
and think it indispensable; aud, for tho ben¬ 
efit of Mrs. Garrett and many overworked 
housewives, I will give it through your ex¬ 
cellent columns. It is as follows, visSal 
soda one pound, stone lime, one-half pound, 
water five quarts; boil a short time, stirring 
occasionally; then let It settle, and pour off 
the clear fluid into a stone jug and cork it. 
Soak white clothes over night in cold 
water (or an hour in warm suds in the 
morning will do as well,) wring out, and 
soap dirty and stained pieces. Fill a boiler 
half full of water, and when at scalding 
heat put In a common teacupful of the 
“ fluid,” stirring it, and put in your clothes 
and boil for a half hour, then rub slightly 
through one suds only, rinsing well in | 
blueing water, as usual, and all is complete. 
For each additional boiler of clothes add 
half a cup only of the fluid, using the same 
water through the whole washing. If more 
water is needed in the boiler for the last 
olothes, add it from the sudsing tub. Soak 
woolens and calicoes in the suds from 
which you have washed white clolhes, while 
hauging the latter out, dipping in some of 
the boiling water from the boiler if neces¬ 
sary; then wash the woolens aud calicoes 
as usual — the woolens before the calicoes. 
This “ fluid" brightens instead of fading 
calico. It docs not rot clothes, hut makes 
them wash fully one half easier, and is a good 
article to remove grease from floors, ceiling. 
<fco., and tar, pitch and grease from clothing 
or hands. It is taken from “ Dr. Chase’s 
Recipes,” and is accredited to Prof. Liebig, 
of Germany. W. Hanks. 
Middle Granville, N. Y. 
-- 
EATING WITH FORKS. 
I wish the editor of “ Modes and Manners ” 
would tell us whence, why ami wherefore 
the custom of laying down your knife after 
cutting up meat, etc., and feeding yourself 
with a fork. To me, it is one of the absurd¬ 
ities of fashion, and no more indicative of 
good breeding than the wearing of crinoline, 
chignons or striped pantaloons. 1 have 
hoard people say that conveying the food to 
the mouth liy tlie knife risked cutting; hut 
I think the most critical epicure of fashion 
would havo a good hunt to find record where 
any one was ever injured by eating with a 
knifo instead of a fork. A. Thorn. 
- *-■*-+ - 
To Pickle Pears. — Steam your pears until quite 
done; iheu to three pounds of pears add one 
pound of sugar, and vinegar enough to cover 
them; put the vinegar on cold; mace, cloves, 
and cinnamon to your taste .—Ohio Farmer. 
Toronto Ketchup.—On® bushel ripe tomatoes 
—boil until soft—squeeze through a sieve, and 
add oue quart vinegar, hail' pint salt, one ounce 
cloves, on® ounce allspice, half ounce cayenne 
pepper, two ounces mustard seed, and boil the 
whole three hours. - Exchange. 
Toronto Catsup.— A correspondent, of the Ger¬ 
mantown Telegraph gives the following:—Take 
one bushel basket of tomatoes, skin and boil 
until they are soft, squeeze them through a fine 
wire or hair sieve, add half a gallon of vinegar, 
salt, to taste, one ounce of doves, one of allspice, 
one-half ounco of blaok pepper, three pods red 
pepper, two heads of garlic skinned aud separ¬ 
ated. twelve bay leaves, (leaves you find'packed 
between licorice,) two ounces of mustard mixed 
with cold vinegar bofore pulling In —boil until 
reduced to about one-half, them bottle without 
straining. 
-*♦«-- 
Preserving Tomatoes and Lima Bean* for Win¬ 
ter. — Tho editor of the era(|*ttrnii.fWti Telegraph 
recommends this mode: Simply prepare a 
strong brine — pure salt and water—In a proper 
vessel, into which the tomatoos or beans, having 
been picked unbroken, are dropped and kept 
beneath the pickle by a board and weight, until 
wanted. W© know, for we have eaten beans 
preserved in this way as late as February, that 
they are nearly. If not quite as good us when 
picked from the vinos tho day they are cooked.” 
Paring Penehen. — A lady correspondent of 
Western Rural does it In this way:—Have some 
water over the Are, boiling; drop I n a fow peuobes 
at a time, let them remain about twelve or fif¬ 
teen seconds; take out aud let cool a little, and 
the skin will eomeofT as handsomely as anything 
you over saw. If you have a largo amount, take 
a box with no bottom and nail some lath aoross 
it. Put In a quantity, pour over them a kettle 
of boiling water. 
-h*—- 
Trouble In n Pork Barrel.—Will you, or any of 
your subscribers, please Inform me the cause 
and cure of my pork barrel trouble? For two 
years In succession the barrel, where not covered 
with brine, will be Infested with great numbers 
of white worms, about au eighth of an Inch long, 
and the largest not larger than a pin. The pork 
is perfectly sweet and good to every one’s taste, 
except the one who eooka It.—3. D. C., Fpatlan- 
K, Malt. 
To Seed Grapes.—Mrs. Artemesxa Kent says, 
in Western Rural“ Boil them uutll they burst, 
theu part or loosen them gently with a wooden 
fork, or otherwise, so the seeds can sink to the 
bottom; then with a spoon in your hand pour 
and scrape out of the vessel, leaving the seedsat 
the bottom. Then spread a few of the grapes on 
a flat dish, and with a teaspoon remove tho re¬ 
maining seeds. Then re-heat and cam 
- ** * - 
Roasted Green Corn.—Strip off all the husk 
from green corn, and roast It on a gridiron, over 
a bright fire of coals, turning It us one side is 
done. Or, if a wood fire Is used, make a place 
clean in front of the Ore: lay the corn down, 
turn It when one side Is done ; serve with salt 
and butter— j. 
->»« 
Buleratus Cake—Ona pound of flour, one 
drachm Chemical Salcratus, half a pouud of su¬ 
gar, and a quarter of a pound of butter. Mix 
the soda with the flour, then rub in the butter, 
add the sugar, and mix with a pint of milk. 
Bake immediately. 
--- 
For Mosquito Bites—With the finger put one 
or two dropsof hartshorn or spirits of ammonia 
on the bite, and the Irritation is allayed and the 
poison neutralized. Use the same remedy on a 
bee sting, after plucking out the stinger.—w. u. 
-*♦«- 
Wax Flowers.— Will some of the readers of 
the Rural please inform me how to make wax 
flowers, or where I can procure the book ** Wax 
Flowers: How to Make Them ?'*—A Subscriber. 
Coloring Brown.— Does the recipe for coloring 
brown, in Rural of Aug. 14, apply to woolens 
as well as cottons ?—Mrs. J. A. B. 
How to Pickle Blackberries Is Information 
asked for by Lottie Hall, 
[Question* to be answered In this Department, when accompanied 
by tpecimene, thould be sent directly to C. V. Riley, 'i’.'l North 
Main Street, St. Louts, Mo.] 
KILLING THE CURCULIO. 
There is no other insect with so wide a 
range of destructive power as the Curculio. 
There is no portion of our country where 
the fruit, grower does not suffer from this 
most persistent and hardy foo. The growing 
of plums has been abandoned as hopeless in 
most sections because of tbo curculio. The 
poach interest is rapidly following suit. The 
cherry crop is extensively damaged; while 
in large districts at least, neither apples nor 
pears can be grown in perfection for the 
blemishes loll by the sting of the curculio 
early in tho season, although the lftryga sel¬ 
dom ripou in these fruits. 
Wo not only suffer the direct damage of 
worminess in our atone fruits, but the dread¬ 
ful scourge of rot is, in most cases, directly 
traceable to the mechanical injuries of this 
omnipresent destroyer. Between the worms 
and the rot our peach crop, in the Southwest 
particularly, has often proven a sad failure, 
and is now justly regarded as precarious, 
even after the damages of winter and spring 
frosts are passed. 
Every peach or plum punctured by curcu¬ 
lio is sure to rot in certain conditions of 
weather; and the rot once developed is fa¬ 
tally infectious. It spreads by contact, by 
the drip and spatter of the rains, and by the 
winds. Other injuries to the fruit win 
equally induce it, but the wounds matte 
by “ the little Turk” so far outnumber all 
others that,, practically, our peach rot in its 
inception is coincident with the work of the 
curculio. 
The killing of the insects, in both tlieir 
larva; and perfect states, is essential to any 
successful plan of protection. If we destroy 
the larva? alone, by keeping hogs in the 
orchard in sutlicient numbers to consume all 
the fallen peaches—and this is very effectual 
so far as it goes—or by pio.king up and boil¬ 
ing, we have done a good tiling, for we have 
cut off the homo supply of the insects for 
next year, and shall be pretty ft’ee from them 
during the cool weather of spring; but with 
the warm days will come tho curculio from 
neighboring orchards which have been neg¬ 
lected, or from the forests which furnish a 
perpetual supply. And If we destroy the ma¬ 
tured beetles, however faithfully, and neglect, 
the worms, there will certainly enough of 
them grow to generously perpetuate the race. 
The destruction of the worms is easy 
and inexpensive; and this is compatible 
with the views of the most lazy orchardists. 
Two or three hogs to the acre, with a full 
crop, and fewer with a light one, will do this 
work honestly and well. But the destruc¬ 
tion of the perfect insects has been regarded 
as an exceedingly tedious and expensive 
process, and by the old, and oft commended 
method, of jarring them on to sheets spread 
under the trees, and killing the “bugs” 
singly with the thumb and finger, it undoubt¬ 
edly is so. Having seen this old fogy opera¬ 
tion described ami recommended in a doz.cn 
or two of papers this season, and having 
learned experimentally soma years since 
how utterly futile it is for the protection of 
an orchard of only moderate size, I would 
call the attention of fruit growers agaiu to 
our Western method, the entire practicability 
of which has been well demonstrated during 
this and former years. The plan is not new 
to the Horticultural public, for Dr. Hull, 
of Alton, III., adopted it some dozen years 
ago, has often called attention to it, and has 
used it every season with great and paying 
success. The machine known as <l Hull’s 
Curculio Catcher” has been so frequently 
described that it would seem needless to do 
more than name it, but that the old-fashioned 
sheet-spreading seems yet to held possession 
of the pomological mind, especially in the 
East. 
The Hull machine consists of a stoutly 
made wheel about three feet high, with fixed 
axle,, which Is geared to a surrounding frame 
of three-inch square wood, to which are 
bolted handles like those of a wheelbarrow. 
To ibis frame are attached the arms or ribs, 
twelve in number, which support the can¬ 
vas. These arms should be an inch by an 
inch and a half square, tapering towards the 
outer end; should be made of tough ash; 
should be six feet long for a large machine, 
and so arranged as to radiate from the frame 
around the wheel, like the arms of an in¬ 
verted umbrella, but with an opening in 
front to admit the trunk of the tree when in 
operation. A frame is raised over the w heel, 
which is the center of the machine, and the 
whole covered with canvas or other strong 
cloth. The arms should be set at an angle 
of thirty or forty degrees from the horizon, 
or steep enough to insure the insects rolling 
down the canvas sides into the depressions 
on either side of the wheel, whence they can 
be brushed out into a hag or covered pall at 
the end of the row, or say even twenty trees. 
Tho frame in front of tho wheel serves as a 
ram, and should be padded with stuffed 
leather or old felt. A fuller doscription is 
given in tho July number of the American 
Entomologist. 
The machine is operated like the wheel¬ 
barrow, and is run against the tree three or 
four limes with sufficient force to jar it ef¬ 
fectually, then backed to the middle of the 
row, and turned to the corresponding tree in 
the opposite row. For it to work effectively, 
the trees should lie branched rather high: 
say three to four feet, and the ground should 
be harrowed down reasonably smooth and 
kept free from high weeds. Experienced 
men say that one active man will jar three 
hundred trees in an hour. It is safe to say 
that one thousand trees can be jarred daily 
by ono man. About two months' steady 
labor will be needed in the best of seasons; 
sometimes this must be continued at inter¬ 
vals through the third or fourth month. 
Tliis amount of labor, at, $130 per month, 
will bring the cost of jarring trees in quan¬ 
tity up to tho enormous sum of six to eight 
cxnts each / It need not exceed that to give 
very faithful attendance, when the conditions 
for easy working are secured. 
But a large portion of our peach trees are 
gvown with low heads. This is a great mis¬ 
take in every sense, and very inconvenient 
in “ killing bugs;” but this obstacle can be 
surmounted. When the trees have a clear 
trunk of fifteen or eighteen inches, the Hull 
Machine can still be run, but not so easily. 
If they are much lower, a different plan 
must be adopted. The one generally used 
hero is this:—Make two light frames about 
six by twelve feet square each, covered with 
cloth ; fasten by hinges to each side of a 
light joist tho length of the frames, with 
handles at each end for the two men or boys 
to carry it by. The canvas-covered frames 
Will be supported when lying flat by the 
handles and by pins in the piece of timber 
Ono side should be divided to receive the 
trunk of the tree when in use. The trees 
may be jarred by swinging the machine 
laterally—in which case the central timber 
should be padded where the opening is made 
for the tree—or a mallet may he used on the 
stump of a limb, or on a spike driven into 
the body of the tree. This machine folds 
up like the covers of a book, and after jarring 
as many trees as possible before the fallen 
insects get restless, which depends upon the 
temperature of the day, fold up the two sides 
of tho machine, shake down the “ bugs ” into 
tho central strip or gutter, and sweep off into 
a bag or covered pail. 
This plan 1ms been largely used here for 
three years, and where careful accounts are 
kept of t,hc cost,, and where the work is sys¬ 
tematically done, the expense averages less 
than twenty cents per tree, for the season ot 
two months or more. One orchardist who 
is noted for his thoroughness, assures me that 
he has kept an exact account of the labor 
used, and that it cost him a trifle less than 
eight cents per tree. The labor in this case 
was much greater than would have been 
necessary had surrounding orchards been 
“bugged” likewise, and was sufficiently 
faithful to secure a heavy crop of fair peaches. 
Peach growers must decide whether their 
crops are worth saving at this trifling ex¬ 
pense. But those who think it won't pay, 
owe this duty to their neighbors, to cut down 
their orchards and not continue to breed 
worms, when they will not save peaches. 
One fact should be kept in mind, that to in¬ 
sure success, work should commence when 
the “ bugs ” first appear on the trees, which 
is generally as soon as they bloom; and it 
should continue every day, except in rain or 
high wind, as long as they can be found, or 
whenever, after a short “ recess ” in mid¬ 
summer, they again appear in numbers. An 
occasional jarring, when other work don’t 
press, won’t do. This must be the work — 
the first duty every day of a sufficient num¬ 
ber of bands to jar all the trees while the in¬ 
sects drop easily and fly slowly, which is all 
day in cool weather, and morning and even¬ 
ing in warm weather. 
In connection with the destruction of the 
curculio, all peaches commencing to rot 
should be picked from the tree and destroyed 
—not thrown on the ground, This work 
should be done daily aud faithfully when 
tho rot sots in. Eternal vigiluuce is the 
price of peaches. It is easy for horticultural 
writers to undervalue and scout the efficiency 
of all this insect fighting, as many do, but it 
is a more grateful duty to report its complete 
success wherever it has been rigidly carried 
on. I can point to several good and profita¬ 
ble peach crops saved only by this persistent, 
faithful work, where surrounding neglected 
orchards are filled only with rotten peaches 
and worms. "We have a few men out here 
of the “ unconditional surrender ” style, who 
have " fought it out on this line,” although 
it has taken all summer, and who have won 
a golden victory in the harvest. 
After years of trial, observation aud in¬ 
quiry, I have come to the joyful conclusion 
that pomological pluck has triumphed. The 
curcutio can be mastered ! p. e. 
South Pass, Ill., 1869. 
