MOV. 4 
WOOBE’S BUBAL NEW-YOBKO, 
I HAVE read with great interest the articles 
printed in the Rural New-Yorker, and 
have obtained muny valuable and gratifying 
suggestions therefrom. But- it luts occurred 
to me, in reading them, to ask how many 
American farmers’ wives, who road the Ru¬ 
ral New-Yorker there are, who habitually 
ornament their tables with flowers and fruit, 
I wonder If you were to ask for it, Mr. Edi 
tor, if you could get a vote showing that 
more than one in a thousand did so, unless 
on exceptional and especial occasions. 
I desire it to bo understood that I make no 
criticism upon the fact that we are advised 
to decorate our tables, and am grateful for 
any suggestion that helps us to do it graeo- 
fully. But can we afford to do it as a habit l 
That is the practical question. 1 should like 
the vote of busy American farmers’ wives 
who do it, (if any) as to whether it is appre¬ 
ciated in the family. Tell us whether it 
seems to lift the souls of any of the family 
up higher—whether it softens and relines 
rough natures, or whether it makes more 
content the sensitive souls who shrink from 
our materialistic, and too often uiuesthetic 
life. Will not some of the lady readers of 
the Rural give us their experience— Dore 
Hamilton, Mrs. Brown, Rum Lee, Hour 
Evermore and others whose thoughts and 
experiences grace your columns. But be¬ 
cause I have, named these let no one shrink 
from giving the results of this practice. 
Facts are of more value than the e pretty 
theories—such as can only lie wrou lit out in 
the life of a dilettante. You wi I pardon 
this, and believe that I am not unapprecia¬ 
tive of all you are doing to make Horne a 
a bright, attractive and happy place. 
Esther Allen. 
-♦♦♦- 
DOMESTIC BREVITIES, 
Mrs. Browne's Recipes .—I only write, as a 
young housekeeper, to thank Mrs. Browne, 
who gave of her store of recipes in the Rural 
New-Yorker of Oct. 18, for the benefit of 
such inexperienced persons as I. I am sure 
if older housekeepers knew how much ser¬ 
vice they thus rendered, they would gladly 
fill a whole page of the Rural New-Yorker 
each week with practical suggestions. No 
department is of more interest to me than Do¬ 
mestic Economy ; and the suggestions and 
experiences I have derived from it have 
enabled me to avoid many mortifications. 
Will not the Rural New-Yorker sisters 
remember tlus '(— A.Young HOUSEKEEPER. 
-♦-*-*- 
SELECTED RECIPES. 
Veal (lurry. —RAcnEL writes t he German¬ 
town Telegraph: One pound and a-half of 
veal cutlet from the neck, two tablespoonfuls 
of curry powder, two tablespoonfuls of flour, 
a little, salt, pepper and cayenne, u largo acid 
apple, one small shall it, stock sufficient to 
cover it. Cut the meat into cutlets; take 
care to have a bone in each, and frv them a 
light brown with a little butter. 'The shalot 
should be fried at the same time. Peel and 
core the apple, and cut. It up ; stew the meat, 
shalot and apple in the stock for half an 
hour, very gently ; then add the curry 
powder and llour, having previously mixed 
them with half a cup of stock. * Pass it 
through a sieve. Let it boil up twice, dish 
up the cutlets, and pour the sauce over them. 
This curry is excellent. It rnay be made in 
the same’manner with chickens or rabbits; 
and should apples not be in season, a little 
lemon juice may be added just before it ia 
boiled up. In India, the pleasant acid of 
fresh tarmarinds is used. As well-boiled rice 
is so essential with curry, I will add the re¬ 
ceipt for it here : Put on a saucepanful of 
water, let it boil fast ; sprinkle iu a little salt, 
and then the rice, dropping it into the water 
with the hand, I)o not cover the saucepan. 
When the rice is done, strain off the water, 
and set it on a cloth before the fire to drain. 
Toss it up a litt le with two forks, and serve 
it in a dish separate from the curry. Select 
large rice to boil for the Curry, and of the 
best description only. 
Bean Porridge. —Boil a fresh beef bone (I 
think salt beef would answer if sufficiently 
freshened, though 1 never tried it,) in a large 
quantity of water, and use the meat for any¬ 
thing you choose. Let the liquid become 
cool, aiid remove all the grease. Boil a. tea- 
cupful of beans in three quarts of this 
Honor until thoroughly soft and in pieces; 
aud a little rice, the necessary amount of 
salt, and just before taking froin the stove, a 
little thickening of some kind of meal. We 
use it about the thickness of gruel or gravies 
and add a little milk when wo eat. 
Buckwheat Cakes. —A correspondent, of 
the Germantown Telegraph says:—If you 
want to have buckwheat, cakes at a mo¬ 
ment’s warning, at any and all times, miv iu 
a large stone or earthen pot. When you 
take out quantum sufficed for breakfast or 
supper, mix as much in another vessel as ■ 
you take out. and pour it into the large pot, 
stirring it well. By observing this rule you 
will always have nice light cakes and plenty 
of them when you want them. The large 
pot must be kept in the cellar. 
Snp%o-Ftake Cream.— Take four heaping 
tablespoonfuls of rixena, three of sugar, a 
few drops of essence of almonds or other 
flavoring extract, with two tablespoon fuls 
of fresh butter ; and one quart of milk ; boil 
from fifteen to twenty mi Mites, until it 
forms a smooth substance, though not too 
thick ; then pour in a mold or cm is pre¬ 
viously buttered. Serve when cold, with 
cream, or any kind of stewed or preserved 
fruits 
To Vickie. Meah—V. bushel of line salt, 3 
lbs. brown sugar. S' . lbs. saltpetre, gallon 
best molasses. . bx the*.• ingredients t.<.gath¬ 
er, then rub each piece well with the mixture 
until Jill be. absorbed. The meat must be 
taken out of the pickle once a week dor six 
weeks ; l b • first two times the meat is taken 
out, there is ho be a. plate of alum salt added 
to the pickle once a week for six weeks.— 
Mrs. Win. II. Marriott, 
Tomato Catsup.— To one peck of ripe to¬ 
matoes boiled and strained, take 4 table¬ 
spoonfuls of salt, 1 of ground pepper, 4 of 
ground mustard, 3 of ground allspice, 3 of 
ground cloves, 1 of cayenne pepper, l quart, 
of strong vinegar. Boil si.ft, and strain 
through a sieve that will let a little of the 
pulp through, .lien add. the spice and boil 
gently for several hours ; cool, and bottle. 
Sluffed Cabbage — Take a large fresh cab- 
bago andcut nut. the heart, till the place 
with stuffing made of cooked chicken or 
veal, chopped very fine, and highly seasoned, 
rolled into balls v. ith yolk of egg. Then tie 
the cabbage firmly together, and boil in a 
covered kettle for two hours. It, makes a 
very delicious dish, and is often useful for 
using small pieces of cold meat. 
In the Rural New-Yorker of August 30 
a correspondent, D. S. ROBLYER, speaks of 
the virtues of “crawley” in consumption, 
fevers, etc.; and as the editor says it is un¬ 
known to him, I'have been waiting, hoping 
Mr. R. or some one else would enlighten him 
concerning it; but as no one responds I offer 
the following : 
“ Crawley,” or Dragon’s Claw, is the plant 
Ptcrospora andromedea, known also by the 
names Pine Drops and Fever Root. It is a 
peculiar plant, resembling the Beech Drops, 
growing from eight, to twenty inches high, 
without leavens ; flowers pale yellow or red¬ 
ish-white ; producing an oval-shaped Beed 
capsule. 
The stalk is straight, purple, becoming 
brown, said to be sometimes covered with a 
sort of short, sticky wool, but I have never 
seen it thus—and a few scales aswering for 
leaves. The root is a bunch of fingor-like 
protuberances of a brownish color, resem¬ 
bling the claws of a hen. It grows in the 
hilly parts of the Northern States and Canada, 
on barren uplands, pine hills and hard clay 
soil. 
It is one of the best sweating medicines 
known in all cases of low, typhoid and in¬ 
flammatory fevers, as a cooling, non-exciting 
diaphoretic. It promotes perspiration with¬ 
out increasing the heat of the system or 
action of the heart, being sedative and dia¬ 
phoretic but not stimulant. It is not a plen¬ 
tiful root, scarce everywhere; but it can be 
recognized now by its dead top and gathered 
before deep snows come. The dose is 20 to 
30 grains for an adult, or from one-fourth to 
one-half of a common level teaspoonful of 
the 'powdered root in warm catnip or other 
herb tea, repeated every hour or two. 
Mr. Rohlykr is justly sensible of the vir¬ 
tues of “ crawley” and blue violet—the kind 
whose leaf-stem comes direct, from the root 
without branching—is one of the best loosen¬ 
ing demulents, and in coughs or fevers is 
very much better than many things given 
therefor. 
Last fall rny little four-year-old girl was 
taken with pneumonia, which made its ad¬ 
vances so insiduou sly—much resembling the 
then prevailing epizotic—that she was com¬ 
pletely under its control before I was aware 
that the ease was at mil Important. 1 tried 
my usual remedies without avail, until vom¬ 
iting had so set in that everything given 
would Vie thrown up, and I began to fear she 
would not live through it. But at this criti¬ 
cal juncture 1 thought of ‘Crawley,” and 
supposing that its sedative and anti-spas¬ 
modic properties would assist, its remaining 
in the stomach, it. was administered, and ful¬ 
filled my expectations perfectly, throwing 
out a copious perspiration ; and we. kept her 
well covered up and continued the medicine 
until the disease was Broken, and she re¬ 
covered. But before she got around my 
wife was taken with the same complaint; 
and as T was away from home much of the 
time and she, exposing and neglecting her¬ 
self, was inadvertently reduced to almost 
the. despairing point. Her constitution is 
such that it is impossible to get her into a 
sweat by ordinary means; therefore the dis¬ 
ease progressed until effusion had taken 
place, and for three nights I should not have 
been surprised had she died before morning. 
But I gave “Crawley,” in half tea spoonful 
doses ; aud as often as the sweat would dry 
up through the. stubbornness of her Const i¬ 
tution I would bend my energies unto the 
work aud restore it, and the result was she. 
too, recovered. “Crawley” was the princi¬ 
pal instrument in saving these two lives ; it 
did a work which [doubt any other known 
medicine would have hone. 
Perry Center, N. Y. It. Andrews, M. D. 
■-- 
THE INFLUENCE OF CLIMATE UPON 
LIFE. 
An interesting article appears in the Ga¬ 
zette de Medical TJ Algeria on the influence 
exerted by climates in regard to health and 
life nf foreigners. In that article wo arc 
reminded that t he negroes of Senuar recruit¬ 
ed by Mehemet Ali for Ids army, speedily 
succumbed after arriving in Egypt; that 
negroes of Central A frica rapidly dio if trans¬ 
ported to Arabia, and that if sent to Europe 
they perish by phthisis. Of 1,800 negroes 
sent to garrison Gibraltar in 1817, nearly all 
are said to have been destroyed by pulmo¬ 
nary consumption in fifteen months, and of 
the negro convicts sent, from the French 
colonies to the hulks at Brest, one-fifth die 
each year. In Mexico, the Egyptian contin¬ 
gent suffered by disease and death in larger 
proportion than did the regular troops from 
France; whereas Algerians and Arabs in 
France enjoy relatively better health than in 
their native count ries. During the Russian 
War the Zouaves and Tureoa resisted the 
climate of the Crimea, bettor than t hamen of 
the French heavy cavalry and it is said that 
on the same occasion the Algerian horses 
withstood the severe winter even better than 
those of the English Cfi.valry. With regard 
to the. power of resistance of Arabs, as illus¬ 
trated in the war of 1870-71, it is observed 
that if in battle they become excited to par¬ 
oxysms of fury, once wounded, or taken 
prisoners, they find in their complete belief 
in fatalism a source of moral calm and resig¬ 
nation. The Arab moreover is less sensi¬ 
tive to pain than the European ; hence, in a 
great measure, the principal cause of the 
facility with which wounds received by the 
former heal. 
In the question asked then :—Is man cos¬ 
mopolitan ; Certainly not ! Man does not 
perpetuate his species iu all climates. He 
may live, if transported after having attained 
adult age, but he often becomes sterile, or if 
he has children they do not attain manhood. 
Michael Levy rightly observed that “To 
change the climate is to be born to a new 
life.” 
HYGIENIC NOTES. 
Stiff ^aturalifit. 
HOW TO PROTECT FRUIT FROM BIRDS. 
A correspondent of the London Field 
says that his method has proven entirely 
efficacious. “ And what, you will think, is 
my l aflsman } Simply a ball of gray orwhity- 
hvowu linen thread. I take u ball of this in 
nn hand, fasten the end of it to one. of the 
twigs of the gooseberry or currant, bush, and 
then cross the thread backwards, from twig 
to twig in perhaps a dozen different direc¬ 
tions, fasfceu off, and the thing is done ; and 
it, will last two years—the thread on the 
trees, l mean. Tt Is npt necessary the thread 
should be white or coarse; it ought rather 
to ho lino and dark- a thing to be felt not 
seen. I have watched the birds after per¬ 
forming the operation ; they come boldly to 
settle on the trees, and they st rike against 
these to them, invisible snares, for such no 
doubt they deem them to be ; they fly off in 
a terrible hurry, and settle on the walls and 
trees around about, longing and getting hun¬ 
gry, till at last they disappear, and you will 
sec them no more. 
A s regards peas and other seeds which I 
always sow in drills, 1 simply stretch a 
thread, sometimes two, along each drill at 
about two inches from the ground, support¬ 
ing it at that bight by little forked sticks. If 
you put it much liigher than this the birds 
do not seem to care for it, it does not touch 
thorn ; that is the grand secret, something 
they do not well see, nor know what It means, 
.! have seen people put a thick white string 
with feathers tied to it, and perhaps two feet 
from the ground. The birds soon understand 
these, and care little for them ; in short, I 
know to my cost it. sometimes acts as a lure, 
«s a notice to the birds that there is some¬ 
thing to lie had worth looking after. 1 will 
answer for it, any one adopting the plan I 
recommend will never have cause to com¬ 
plain of the birds, however numerous they 
may be. 
-V-*-*- 
AN INDIAN BIRD SCARER. 
A poor Koonbee, away off in an Indian 
jungle, Washington Teasdale says, in¬ 
vented oue of the most effective and least 
objectionable contrivances he ever met with 
for keeping birds from fruit. The sketch 
almost explains itself. An empty bottlo 
suspended from a pliant branch or twig, the 
bottom being cut off by drawing a, heated 
wire round from a file mark ; the. suspending 
Xc.w Method, of Making Beef Tea. —Dr. 
H. 0. Wood says: — In order to meet the 
daily felt want of concentrated lluid meat 
food, a want not supplied by beef essence as 
ordinarily made, 1 have, invented the follow¬ 
ing process, and found in practice that it 
works well. Take a thin rump steak of heef, 
lay it upon a board, and with a case-knife 
scrape it. In this way a red pulp will be ob¬ 
tained, which, contains pretty much eveiy 
thing in the steak, except the fibrous tissue. 
Mix this red pulp thoroughly with three 
times its bulk of cold water, stirring until 
the pulp is completely diffused. Put the 
whole upon a moderate fire and allow it to 
come slowly to a boil, st irring all the time to 
prevent the “ caking” of the pulp. In using 
this do not allow the patient to strain it, but 
stir the settlings thoroughly into the fluid. 
One to three fluid ounces of this may bo 
given at a time. 
Chapped Jlands.—Foe chapped hands we 
advise the free use of glycerin and good olive 
oil In the proportion of two parts of the 
former to four of the latter ; after this has 
been well rubbed into the hand-sand allowed 
to remain for a liltle time, and the hands 
subsequently washed with castile soap and 
tepid water, we recommend the belladonna 
aud collodion flexile to be painted, aud the 
protective film allowed permanently to re¬ 
main. 
A Weak Son.—A subscriber writes;—“I 
have a son, lull-grown, who has been for 
years so weak in the small of his back and iu 
his lcnccs that if lie Stoops or sits down he 
cannot get up again without pulling himseff 
up by ROmcthing; and sometimes has the 
crick in the back so that he cannot get about 
the house. Can any one tell what will help 
him ?” 
string passing through the cork terminates 
in a nail, button, or pebble, which thus be¬ 
comes the tinkler or clapper of a bell which 
the slightest breeze sets and keeps in motion. 
If the suspension of the bottle is effected by 
means of wire instead of twine, the effect is 
much better. Twine is too limp ; wire or 
watch-springs give a sort of rigid elasticity. 
--- 
NOTES FOR NATURALISTS. 
Snails for Market ,— Iu the district of 
Champagne, in France, the cultivation of 
snails for the Paris market has latterly be¬ 
come a profitable product, they bringing 
about fifty cents per hundred, and are in 
great demand as a delicacy. During the 
summer, after a heavy dew or rain the peas¬ 
ants catch the snails as they crawl out, with 
house on hack, for a promenade ; contractors 
buy up the molluscs, inclose them in a kind 
of park, fatten them on salads, thyme, mint, 
parsley, &o. When large enough to pass 
through a ring of a certain size they are fit 
l’or the table—or are supposed to be. 
Ants on La/wns have been checked by 
using flour of sulphur where boiling water 
cannot be used. 
