lomrslxc fficoncmg. 
CONDUCTED BY MARY A. E. WAGER. 
EGGS: 
How to Cook Them. 
BY JULIA COLMAN. 
Eggs have two advantages over all other 
animal food. One is, that they contain all 
the elements of perfect nutrition. The 
“ meat ” commonly eaten is only the muscle, 
and if it contains any of the elements neces¬ 
sary for the nourishment of anything but 
muscle, it does not contain them in the pro¬ 
portion best adapted to our needs. But the 
elements of the egg contain the possibilities 
of a complete animal structure, hones and all. 
Again the egg contains these elements only 
in a fully vitalized form. The tissues of ail 
active animals are undergoing constant 
change. New matter is assimilated by 
them, gradually used up, worn out, cast 
again into the blood and so carried away and 
thrown out of the system. Whenever we 
eat muscle we must take it with all these 
gradations of change. The stale matter with 
the fresh, the dead and the lmlt-worn with 
that which is still endowed with the highest 
vitality. But in the egg all is fresh and fully 
vitalized. None of its force has been used 
up for any purpose whatever. It is the gem 
of a new being, and it contains the initial 
nourishment of that being in as pure a form 
as the parent can produce it. In these re¬ 
spects it is very similar to the seeds and 
fruits of the vegetable kingdom. They are 
all the depositories of the highest and purest 
form of nourishment endowed with the 
highest vital power, stored up to permit, a 
new starting point iu the continuation of the 
species. 
It does not follow, however, that we are 
to live on eggs. Our digestive apparatus 
demands, also, more bulky material. But 
those we do cat should be so prepared as 
not to injure their digestibility. Taken raw, 
they are by no means unwholesome. I 
should object to swallowing them whole, 
and therefore without insalivation; though 
they are so nearly liquid Unit this is not so 
serious an objection as it, would he in the 
case of solid food. Beaten up and min¬ 
gled with sugar or with milk or cream, or 
with a little boiled corn starch, or all these 
together as a dressing, or as ice cream, they 
are quite digestible as well ns agreeable. A 
very slight cooking of this mixture, a mere 
scald into the milk will not injure it serious¬ 
ly; but, when it is boiled or steamed or 
baked from ten to thirty minutes or more, 
the texture of the egg is greatly changed. 
The albumen is hardened, and the oil of the 
yolk is cooked into the other materials so as 
to seriously impair the digestibility of the 
mass. It is a generally understood thing 
that hard-boiled eggs are difficult of diges¬ 
tion; and yet we bah- them in custards and 
puddings and cakes without stopping for a 
moment to reason about the matter. 
Even the common method of boiling eggs 
to the exactest point of three minutes, or 
“ three and a half,” gives to that portion of 
the albumen nearest the shell a leathery con¬ 
sistency that is quite objectionable. Dr. 
Beaumont, the great authority on gastric 
digestion, says, “ Albumen, (white of egg,) if 
taken into the stomach either very slightly 
coagulated or not at all, is perhaps as rapid¬ 
ly cliymified as any article of diet we possess. 
If formed into hard coagula, by beat or 
otherwise, and swallowed in large solid 
pieces, it experiences a very protracted di¬ 
gestion.” The cause of this is the greater 
difficulty of giving the gastric juice access to 
every part. The risk would be diminished 
by very careful mastication, hut a better 
way is to prepare it eo that it will need no 
special attention of that kind. This is the 
proper province of the cook. 
“Curdled Enirs.” 
To do this in the best manner, eggs should 
never be boiled. If they are plunged into 
boiling water and permitted to stand in it 
from seven to ten minutes, the whites will 
he entirely coagulated j r et perfectly tender, 
and the yolk will he liquid or set, as may be 
preferred. The time required will vary with 
the size of the eggs, the relative proportions 
of eggs and water, as a large number of eggs 
will cool off a given amount of water faster 
than a small number; the kind of dish used, 
as a thick iron or porcelain kettle, will retain 
the heat longer than a dark tin saucepan, 
&c., <fec. Each cook must fix the rule to 
suit, her own utensils. 
A new article just making its appearance 
in common use, the wire egg holder, is well 
adapted to this kind of cooking, and looks 
well on the table besides. Its peculiar adap¬ 
tation consists in the fact that by using it 
the eggs may be plunged in the hot water or 
removed so promptly and uniformly, and 
without risk of fracture. The weather must 
also be taken into consideration in cooking 
eggs, as the boiling point of water is one or 
two degrees lower in foul weather than in 
fair, and the eggs will require a little more 
time. For distinction, these may be called 
“curdled eggs.” The operation admits of 
much nicety, so that the amateur may pique 
herself on its proper performance as much as 
she pleases, while the overburdeued cook 
may console herself with the fact that a 
minute too much will not so utterly ruin 
them as when boiling. The white will still 
be as delicate as a custard. 
I do not think the digestibility of the yolk 
so quickly ruined by over-cooking as that of 
the white. As to its enjoy ability, the preva¬ 
lent taste,(with which I entirely coincide,) is 
fully in favor of having it, at most, but very 
slightly stiffened,—hardly enough to prevent 
its breaking at once when turned out. Even 
those who are prejudiced agaiust the liquid 
yolk, commonly need but a few trials to con¬ 
vince them of its superior delicacy. It is 
now considered the most delicious part of 
the egg, while with the old hard boiling, it 
was often left uneaten; and among the Dutch 
of the Mohawk Valley, I have often seen the 
children roll the hard yolks about the floor. 
If any wish to acquire the better way, let 
them begin by cooking them iu the hot wa¬ 
ter bath until so stiff that, they can relish 
them, and they will soon be able to come 
down gradually to the liquid form. 
Errs as a DrcsatuR for Other Dishes. 
In our manner of eating boiled eggs, we 
are singularly monotonous, and we lose 
much thereby. Instead of dressing and eat¬ 
ing them by themselves, if we should break 
them upon our plates and cat them with 
other food we would find that they are 
themselves a most delicious dressing for 
many other dishes, besides making an excel¬ 
lent substitute for hurtful melted butter, 
sirups, &c. When eaten thus with well 
cooked hominy or samp, oatmeal mush, 
oaten grouts, or simple boiled potato, they 
make a most enjoyable breakfast, and leave 
a very comfortable feeling after them, unless ( 
spoiled by something else. With samp they 
may be broken in, two or three to the quart, 
and stirred up thoroughly, just after it is 
taken from the fire. If returned to the fire 
to be cooked in, it will be less rich and less 
digestible. 
Eggs, when fried, are subject ed t,o a higher 
degree of heat, than when hard boiled, and 
the white is rendered proportionately more 
tough and leathery, besides the injury done 
by having the tat fried into it. The same 
objection must be made to omelettes and all 
similar fried dishes. 
Bunt* broken luto Hot Water 
are of course unobjectionable on the score of 
wbolesomeuess, if uot cooked too hard; but 
they are no more so than when “curdled” 
in the shell, and they are less toothsome. 
Broken into hot milk and allowed to stand 
without boiling, from seven to ten minutes, 
they are more agreeable though not quite so 
wholesome as when cooked in water. Still 
they are much more allowable than many 
things we eat. Skim them, and when done 
place each egg on the half of a wheat meal 
biscuit, previously steamed or dipped in 
boiling milk, and you have a showy and not 
a very indigestible dish. It will not require 
much coaxing to render this a favorite. Our 
fried potatoes and griddle cakes could pro¬ 
fitably and pleasantly give way to this as well 
as to several of the dishes already mentioned. 
-m- 
CONTRIBUTED RECIPES. 
Cooking Cranberries. 
Pour over them boiling water, about two 
quarts; add half a teaspoonl'ul of soda; boll 
three minutes; change the water and pro¬ 
ceed as usual. They will not be bitter.— 
Mbs. L. J. K. 
Packing EtCgM with the Small EihIm Down 
is a practice approved to reasonable knowl¬ 
edge of the construction of the egg, when 
simply the preservation of the egg for culin¬ 
ary use and not for hatching is desired. The 
shell at the largest end of the egg is the 
most porous; the fluid or contents of the 
egg, if turned upon it by setting the egg on 
its broad end, will assist in filling and closing 
the porous parts of the shell and the vacuum, 
if any, will be at the point, or thickest part. 
Try this again, all ye experimentalists, and 
report results to the Rural. — Katie. 
Pie Plant Pie. 
Peel and cut up the stalks tolerably fine 
and spread in the pie. Then dust over it a 
single handful of flour. Over the flour 
strew a small teacup of sugar and put on 
the top crust. Be careful to press the edges 
of the crust well together, and press back 
the dough in the middle of the pie, so as to 
leave a small valley for the juice to boil up 
into instead of bursting out at the sides and 
wasting the best part of it. As the sugar 
dissolves the juice add flour to thicken it. 
The same directions apply to cherry and all 
other juicy fruit pies.—A Pie Maker. 
Scald the pie plant first, and pour off the 
water after standing a few minutes. This 
rule holds good in all pie plant eatables. 
-- 
Carpet Hooks, -Wo hope the enterprising 
readers of tins department will not overlook 
the advertisement in regurd to SNYDer's patent 
carpet hooks. Anything that facilitates the 
putting down and taking up of carpets is to be 
nailed with general appreciation. Carpets In 
every day use really ought to be taken up and 
dusted every month. Try their “ new fangled” 
mode. It is cheap and simple. Report the suc¬ 
cess, or failure, to this department. 
anir ofeffrrL 
HOW NITRO-GLYCERINE IS USED. 
It is a curious property of many, perhaps 
of all explosives, that when merely burned 
without, concussion, they do not give use to 
those tremendous detonations that they 
otherwise produce. Ten grains of fulmi¬ 
nating mercury laid loosely ou the naked 
hand, may be exploded without dnnger if it 
be simply touched with some red-hot arti¬ 
cle ; but if detonated by the explosion of a 
small quantity of the same substance closely 
confined and then fired, the action may be 
so sharp as to cause severe injury. Bo, too, 
a large flock of gun cotton may be laid on 
the pan of a delicate chemical balance and 
quietly exploded without affecting it in the 
least, while the same gun cotton, if laid on 
a board and detonated by the sharp explo¬ 
sion of a cartridge containing fulminating 
mercury, will break its support to fragments. 
Even gunpowder obeys the same law, and 
it makes a great difference in the results 
whether the explosion of the powder he pro¬ 
duced by simple ignition or by the detona¬ 
tion of some powerful fulminator. Advan¬ 
tage has been taken of this fact in war, and 
light cartridges arc now prepared which, 
when laid against a heavy door or even a 
brick wall, and jyropcrly exploded, produce 
an immediate breach. The terrible, effects 
produced by the explosion of a shell are 
due, not so much to the flying fragments of 
metal as to the superior activity imparted to 
the powder by the manner in which it is ex¬ 
ploded. During the early days of submarine 
blasting the powder was confined in canis¬ 
ters made of common sheet tin. Heavy cast 
iron bombs are now used ; those employed in 
blasting for the excavations of the caissons 
of the East, River bridge, resemble huge 
cast iron soda water bottles of the old form, 
with rounded ends. 
That which is true of gun cotton, gun¬ 
powder, and similar substances, is equally 
true of nltro-glycerlne. This liquid has been 
burned quietly iu a lamp without exploding, 
and the ordinary means used to explode gun¬ 
powder cither fail entirely or become very 
uncertain when applied to nitro-glycerine. 
In order to obtain the full effects of this 
agent, it must be exploded by a powerful 
blow affecting its entire substance, and for¬ 
tunately that property of liquids whereby 
pressure on any one transmitted 
equally iu all directions, enables us to effect 
this very perfectly. A small but powerful 
cartridge, of a mixture of fulminating mer¬ 
cury and gunpowder is enclosed in the car¬ 
tridge of nitro-glyccrine and exploded by 
electricity or any other appropriate means. 
A powerful blow is thus given simultane¬ 
ously to every portion of the nitro-glycerine, 
and the whole is exploded at once, A blow 
at any mere point is not sufficient, as nitro¬ 
glycerine poured ou an anvil and struck 
with a hammer frequently fails to explode, 
except at the point of contact. 
- ■ 
USEFUL AND SCIENTIFIC ITEMS. 
Ki<i>pinR Tire on Wnitons. 
A mechanic gives the following method 
of so putting tire on wagons, that they will 
uot get loose and require re-settingI 
ironed a wagon some years ago for my own 
use; before putting on the tires, T filled the 
felloes with linseed oil, and the tires have 
worn out, and were never loose. My method 
is as follows; I use a long cast-iron heater,. 
made for the purpose; the oil is brought to 
a boiling heal, the wheel is placed on a stick, 
so as to hang in the oil, each felloe an hour. 
The timber should be dry, as green timber 
will not take the oil. Care, should be taken 
that the oil is not made hotter than a boiling 
heat, or the timber will be burned. Timber 
filled with oil is not susceptible to injury by 
water, and is rendered much more durable 
by this process.” 
Shoe Bench for Farmers. 
Enclosed find sketches of a shoe bench 
and chair which has proved very conven¬ 
ient. Any man, with a practical eye, can 
which can be drawn out at the side or made 
available by lifting the top till. The size of 
mine is eighteen inches square; sixteen 
inches in height from the floor to the lop of 
the seat,; four turned legs two inches square; 
pine sides; hard wood plank bottom one 
and a half inches thick; one pair four Inch 
butts. Almost every mechanic can make 
one. Farmers ofl.cn need an awl and wax- 
FARMER'S SHOE BENCH—CLOSED. 
see at a glance its use—especially for farmers. 
It is ready at any time for use; is out of the 
way of children when not in use, answering 
every purpose of a chair. With a lock and 
set of castors l do not see how it could he 
improved. A till for pegs, &c., is made so as 
to lift out. Immediately below it is a drawer 
for all necessary traps for a farm cobbler, 
PARMER’S SHOE BENCH—OPEN. 
end to mend their harness; and such a con¬ 
venience often enables them to make good 
use of their raiuy days instead of loitering 
around saloons, &c. No one would take 
mine for a shoe bench when sitting in a room 
as a chair. It is quite tidy and many of our 
friends have laughed heartily on having the 
mystery unfolded.— J. 0. Bowman. 
To Prevent Decay of Shingles. 
The following is said to effectually pre¬ 
vent the decay of shingles ;—Take a potash 
kettle, or large tub, and put, into it one bar¬ 
rel of lye of wood ashes, five pounds of white 
vitriol, five pounds of alum, and as much 
salt as will dissolve in the mixture. Make 
the liquor quite warm, and put as many 
shingles in it as can be conveniently wet at 
once. Stir them up with a fork, and when 
well soaked, take them out and put in more, 
renewing llie liquor as necessary. Then lay 
the shingles in the usual manner. After 
they arc laid, take the liquor that was left, 
put lime enough in it to make whitewash, 
and if any coloring is desirable, add ocher, 
Spanish brown, lampblack, etc., and apply 
to the roof with a brush or an old broom. 
This wash may be renewed from lime to 
time. Salt and lye are excellent preserva¬ 
tives of wood. It is well known that, leach 
tubs, troughs, and other articles used in the 
manufacture of potash, never rot,. They 
become saturated with the alkali, turn yel¬ 
lowish inside, and remain impervious to the 
weather. 
Uoiliuir Seeds for OH. 
In a late article In tin; Rural Nicw- 
Yorkkk, some one says lie boiled flaxseed to 
extract the nil for painting; that it was a satis¬ 
factory success to him, (so much so that he 
was at the trouble to tell others his belief in 
the process) and I must acknowledge that a 
new idea took hold of me, that if oil can he 
extracted from flax seed by boiling water, 
cannot other oil seeds he thus Operated 
upon with equal success—hemp, cot ton, cas¬ 
tor bean, sunflower, pumpkins, squash, all 
kinds of melons, and the seed of all kinds of 
burdock, which our farms are so well filled 
with ? I don’t want, the man that made the 
discovery should get out a patent, but try 
other oil seeds with the same process, and 
see if he and others cannot give to the world 
vegetable home-made oil, (free from the 
merchant’s adulterating animal oil, which 
has so long been imposed upon us. If there 
are any kinds of vegetable oil that will not. 
cousolidate enough for common painting, 
they will be wanted to oil machinery and 
leather, and to burn, anti some may be good 
enough to substitute for lard and butter. 
Could not. the gum of the white poppy be 
thus extracted ?—M. It. Burnham. 
The use of water and heat in the extrac¬ 
tion of vegetable oils is not new, as our cor 
respondent seems to suppose. 
Telegraphing Without Wire*. 
It has long been known that telegraphic 
messages could lie transmitted without the 
use of wires, and many years since signals 
were sent across the Bristol Channel by the 
use of the water as the conducting medium; 
but in that case the water through which the 
signals passed was inclosed iu a tube, so that 
it was, in truth, only the substitution of a 
wire of water, if the terra can he used, for 
the metallic wire usually employed. Prof. 
Loomis now proposes to go further; lie 
claims to have discovered a mode of trans¬ 
mitting messages by electrical air currents; 
and is seeking an opportunity for making 
experiments on the summit of Mont Blanc. 
To Mnke Mucilage. 
E. A. Farnum, Park county. Col. Ter., 
writes:—Take gum arabic and dissolve in 
warm water to the thieknessofghie. Increase 
or decrease the thickness by increasing or 
decreasing the amount of water. 
To Whiten Straw lints. 
Scrape stick sulphur with a knife, mix 
the powder to a mush with water, plaster it 
thickly over the straw, and place in tlie hot 
sun for several hours; brush off when dry. 
An easy and effectual plan. 
Whitewash for Oiit*Buildiugh. 
In reply to “ R. A’s” question, I can only 
say that L have bad no trouble, nor has my 
wash scaled oft’, until after two seasons, 
when I have had ready, say four quarts of 
salt dissolved and the brine strained clear, 
and mixed it before my lime wash from 
reduction of one peck of lime could possibly 
get cool.—A. T, 
axm (fcnriurmjL 
ECONOMICAL NOTES. 
Burning Apple Tree Bruiih. 
In riding through the country one may see 
in every orchard the limbs of apple trees, 
taken off in pruning, thrown in the fence 
corners, or piled in a huge pile, to remain 
two or three years before burning, most 
farmers thinking it an impossibility to burn 
green brush. 1 have just finished trimming 
ten acres of orchard. J picked up a wagon- 
box half full of broken rails and chunks, 
took them to near the center of the orchard, 
where there was a tree missing, and throw¬ 
ing them in a pile, for a foundation, set fire 
to them; commenced drawing the limbs. 
They would burn as fast as we coulcl draw 
and throw on; in half a day all I had to 
show for my apple tree limbs was a large 
heap of ashes, which will pay me for the 
time and trouble of burning, as I shall put 
them ou my corn after planting.— Lyman 
Cate, Oakland Go., Mich. 
How to Get IMil of Weevils In Barns. 
E. Sleight, Adrian, Mich., writes:—“A 
little more than forty years ago, in Duchess 
Co., N. Y., the black weevil got in my 
father’s barn. YVe got some red cedar 
houghs and laid upon the scaffolds, all over 
the barn, before putting in wheat at harvest, 
then packed the grain on the cedar. The 
thrashing was not. done until winter. I 
never saw any more weevils in the barn. I 
Cannot see why any kind of cedar would 
not answer just as well. I should cut it and 
put it, in the barn three or four weeks before 
harvest, or before the grain is stored. I think 
they will leave before the grain arrives.” 
Sending and Ditching. 
Why is it so many of our farmers still ad¬ 
here to the old plan of sowing broadcast out, 
of a sack fastened over the shoulder, and 
trudge along over the heavy soil, sowing 
with one hand, when it is so much easier to 
use both V My plan Is this: I have a seed 
hopper made of heavy tin, shaped almost 
like a stove wash-boiler, only made a little 
rounding to fit the body, and a broad strap 
of leather to go over the shoulders, and a 
narrow one, with a small hook attached, to 
pass round the body and hook into a ring 
fixed to the side of the hopper. Willi this 
arrangement 1 not only sow double the quan¬ 
tity, hut sow belter and easier than those 
with one hand, thus saving much valuable 
time. I have been seeding in this way for 
eighteen years. 1 have also remarked that 
a great many farmers, in spring usually 
quit the field before the work is all done, es¬ 
pecially the oat field; they often entrust the 
harrowing to a hoy who performs the work 
very poorly. They think because the weath¬ 
er is fine then, it will continue so, and often 
neglect to even strike the water furrows; 
and seldom, with a spade, cut, out short 
trenches to lead the water into the main 
ditch; thus, every wet season, hundreds of 
bushels of oats are lost, not mentioning, po¬ 
tatoes, corn, &c.— Clermont. 
lien Manure and AnIich. 
In reply to W., Rural Hill, Jones says: 
“ Put, one part hen manure in a box or bar¬ 
rel, slightly dumpen, chop fine with a shovel, 
add four parts of ashes and t.liorougly mix.” 
We doubt, if this is the best advice that 
could have been given. The great value of 
hen manure consists in the ammonia it can 
furnish to the growing crop. The effect of 
applying ashes while damp would he to 
bring the alkali of the ashes in contact with 
the ammonia and set it. free. Being thus 
rendered volatile, it will escape, us would 
be made unpleasantly obvious by bringing 
the nose near the compound. Used in this 
free state, it resulted in killing the com 
spoken of, and the same result was only 
warded off, in his own case, by covering 
with soil before planting. We should have 
a decided preference for adding four parts of 
dry muck and plaster to the lion manure, 
and applying the ashes at the first hoeing of 
the corn.—u. u. 
The Valuo of Artificial manures 
To the farmer who purchases them, depends: 
First., largely upon the honesty of those who 
manufacture them, the elements employed 
in their manufacture, and then (supposing 
the manufacturer honest and the constit¬ 
uents good,) upon the condition of the land 
and the manner in which it is cultivated. 
The soil must be put in condition to be 
benefited l>y such applications ; the me¬ 
chanical preparation is as important us it is 
to secure manures of good quality. Failure 
to realize profit from the application of arti¬ 
ficial manure as often results, perhaps, Iroin 
lack of skill or knowledge ou the part of 
the farmer as otherwise. 
Guru-I)Vyina Houses. 
We see it stated that at Clienoa, 111., ex 
peri men ts have been made in drying corn 
by hot air, with a view to put the new crop 
in market early, and thereby secure first 
prices; th at these experiments have proved 
successful and profitable. Two of these 
houses have been in operation, and another 
is to be erected the present season. 
