DEO.'<2 
OOBE’S BUBAL NEW-YOBKEB. 
gomefitic (ftfoitomg. 
A MODEL BILL OF FARE. 
As a school teacher in a Western State, T 
was obliged to take board in a farmer’s fam¬ 
ily, and as the people were well-to-do and 
seemed to bo surrounded by most of the 
comforts and conveniences of life, I thought 
the bill of fare for a single day might be of 
interest to your readers. It was on one of 
the last days of November, and a few days 
before Thanksgiving that, after finishing the 
third meal of the day I bethought myself 
that its cuisine deserved to be embalmed 
where treacherous memory could not lose 
its hold upon it. 
Imprimis. — The Breakfast. This con¬ 
sisted of a supply of saleratus griddle cakes, 
utterly t asteless and insipid, a cup of coffee, 
some sorghum molasses, and a dish of cherry 
preserver,, also a plate of apple pie. Then 
The Dinner, —Cold bread and butter, a 
glass of cider as cold as ice, some plain cake, 
cherry preserves and apple pie. 
The Suffer. —Gold bread and butter, a 
cup of tea, a bit of stewed apple, t he same 
cake, cherry preserves and apple pie. 
This seemed to me to be such a “ ne plus 
ultra” of economical diet that I should bo 
recreant to ray duty if 1 failed to make it 
public for the benefit of impecunious or par 
situonious housekeepers elsewhere. To mor 
alize upon this a little. First, all meats are 
dispensed with and the advantages of an 
exclusively vegetable diet are secured. Sec 
ond, the cooking of any kind of vegetable 
and the boiling of pots or kettles are entirely 
dispensed with. Third, the injurious effects 
of warm food are entirely avoided, and, 
barring the one cup each of tea and coffee, 
there was nothing to heat up the system and 
create “a fever in the blood.” Fourth, all 
highly spiced food, condiments and seasoning, 
which so soon destroy all relish for whole¬ 
some food, are left out. Such a diet must 
commend itself to every thinking man or 
woman, and when economy rules also in 
table manners, and moistened fingers are 
used to “slick up your plate” and carry the 
last crumb to the mouth, at the close of the 
meal, it would seem t hat the acme of per¬ 
fection had been reached. 
This is no fancy sketch. It is the genuine 
days’ fare of a Western family consisting of 
the farmer, his wife, an adopted child and 
the lucky boarder and pedagogue who fur¬ 
nishes the schedule, and it comprises all that 
these four human beings had to eat for 
twenty-four hours. I don’t know what a 
steady perseverance in such a diet might be 
able to accomplish, but should imagine that 
it would be a " mortification of the flesh,” 
which would result in great saintliness of 
life eventually. Yet such was not its best 
effects on one of the subjects of the experi¬ 
ment, as he deemed it almost sufficient, pro¬ 
vocation to make one swear who never 
swore before. Many would imagine that the 
housekeeper who prepared so very modest a 
series of repasts would have plenty of leisure 
during the day, but such was not. the case, 
for she seldom aits a moment from daylight 
until dark, except at meals, and is about as 
dull and ignorant as a woman who has had 
the advantages of a fair education could 
well be. 
But this “day’s fare” has, I find, been far 
from an intellectual stimulant ; and with 
these meager outlines of a household picture 
I must close. Pkdagogicus. 
-4-4-4- 
PICKLED PORK. 
Lysandek W. Babbitt of Council Bluffs, 
Iowa, in a communication to the Western 
Rural, saj r s the first essential in pickling pork 
is a good, sweet barrel—not a molasses bar¬ 
rel, but a new barrel, made from well sea¬ 
soned white oak staves without any sap in 
them. If there is any sap in the staves the 
brine will leak through and the pork will be 
spoiled with rust. Good salt is another re¬ 
quisite for pickling pork. Salt known in the 
West as “ground alum,” or the salt made 
at Syracuse, N. Y., is good. 
When the hogs are killed and the flesh per¬ 
fectly cold (not frozen), lay the liog on his 
side and cut straight down the center of the 
back, until the knife strikes the bone. Then 
turn him on his back and cut through the 
ribs close to the backbone, so as to meet the 
cut made from the other side. Cut off the 
head, and your pig will be in halves ; cut the 
leaf lard from the ribs ; cut off the shoulder 
and ham ; .cut out all the lean meat from the 
side ; then cut the side in strips about three 
inches wide, cutting across from back to 
belly. When you have your sides all cut in 
this way, take your barrel and cover the 
bottom three-fourths of an inch deep with 
salt ; then take your pieces of pork and set 
them on edge, the skin next to the barrel, 
and bind them round in the barrel, making 
the circle smaller and smaller, until yon have 
a perfect layer, and as close together as you 
ean well press each piece with the hand ; 
then till all open spaces with salt. Then, 1 
with a square-ended stick or maul pound the J 
pork down until it is smooth on the top. 1 
Then cover with salt about five-eighths of an 
inch deep. Then proceed with another layer, ' 
as before, and so on till the barrel is filled to 
within three or four inches of the top. Then 1 
make a brine as strong as can be made with 
salt and boiling soft water ; skim the brine 
and let it cool. When cold, pour it on the 
meat until the barrel is filled to within two 
inches of the top. Put a board, cut to fit the ' 
inside of the barrel, on top of the pork, and 
lay upon it a “ nigger-head ” rock weighing 
about forty pounds. ICeep the barrel in a 
cool place if you have one ; if not, keep it 
almost anywhere out of the sun, and you 
will have good pickled pork as long as you 
keep it completely covered with brine. I 
have never lost any pork put up in this way, 
and 1 have kept it in cellars, on the first 
floor, and in the garret. 
-» « ♦ - 
TO BOIL A HAM. 
Take a bam weighing about eight or ten 
pounds, soak it for twelve or twenty-four 
hours in cold water, then cover it with boil¬ 
ing water, add one pint of vinegar, two or 
three bay leaves, a little bunch of thyme and 
parsley (the dried and sifted will do, or even 
the seeds of parsley may be used if the fresh 
cannot be procured) ; hoil very slowly two 
hours and a half, take it. out, skim it, remove 
all the fat, except a layer about half an inch 
thick—cut off with a sharp knife all the 
black looking outside—put the ham into 
yom’ dripping pan, fat side uppermost, grate 
bread crust over it and sprinkle a teaspoonful 
of powdered sugar over it; put it in the oven 
for half an hour, until it is a, beautiful 
brown. 
Eat cold ; cut the nicest portion in slices; 
the ragged and little odds and ends can be 
chopped fine, and used for sandwiches ; or 
by adding three eggs to one pint of the 
chopped ham, and frying brown you have a 
delicious omelet for breakfast or iuuch. The 
botte should be put into the soup kettle. The 
riud and fat should be rendered and strained 
for frying potatoes or crullers. A ham pre¬ 
pared in this way will “ go ” twice as far as 
when cooked and carved in the ordinary 
manner, besides the conviction it gives the 
housekeeper of being economical, and at the 
same time placing neat and palatable dishes 
before her family. 
-» ♦ » .. . .. 
TO MAKE SUPERIOR MINCE MEAT. 
A Boston lady sends for publication in the 
Germantown Telegraph the following recipe 
for making mince meat, which is now in 
season. She informs us that she has tried 
various modes but finds the following to be 
the best: 
Take seven pounds of currants, well picked 
over and cleaned; of finely-chopped beef 
suet, the lean of a sirloin of beef minced 
raw, and finely-chopped apples, (the golden 
pippin or Smith’s eider preferred,) each three 
and a half pounds; citron, lemon peel and 
orange peel cut small, each half a pound ; 
fine moist sugar, two pounds ; mixed spice, 
an ounce ; mix well and put in a deep pan. 
Mix a bottle of brandy and white wine, the 
juice of the lemons and oranges that have 
been grated together in a basin ; pour half 
over and press down tight with the hand, 
then add the other half and cover closely. 
This will keep a whole year or longer, and is 
frequently made one season to keep over for 
the next. 
- 4 4 4 
HOUSEKEEPING HINTS. 
Never put a particle of soap about your 
silver if you would have it retain its original 
luster, When it. wants polishing, take a 
piece of soft leather and whiting and rub 
hard. The proprietor of one of the oldest 
silver establishments in Lhe city of Philadel¬ 
phia says that “ housekeepers ruin their sil¬ 
ver by washing it in soup suds, as it makes 
it look like pewter ! ” 
Stove luster, when mixed with turpentine 
and applied in the usual manner, is blacker, 
move glossy, and more durable than when 
mixed with any other liquid. The turpen- 
1 tine prevents r ust, and when put on an old 
rusty stove, will make it look as well as now-. 
To extract ink from cotton, silk and wool- 
en goods, saturate the spots with soirits of 
turpentine, and let it remain several hours ; 
then rub it, between the hands. It will 
crumble away without injuring either the 
color or texture of the article. 
igg^iti([ Jnflmmticm. 
ABOUT THE PUL8E. 
A healthful, grown person’s pulse beats 
seventy times in a minute; there may be 
good health dow-u to sixty ; but. if the pulse 
exceeds seventy there is disease ; the ma¬ 
chine is working too fast.; it is working itself 
out; there is a fever or inflammat ion some¬ 
where, and the body is feeding on itself, as in 
consumption. When the [lulse is quick— 
that is over seventy—it gradually-increases 
with the decreased chances of cure until it 
reaches one hundred and ten or one hundred 
and twenty, when death comes before many 
days. When the pulse is over seventy for 
months, and there is a slight cough, the lungs 
arc affected. Every intelligent person owes 
it to himself to loom from his family physi 
chin how to ascertain the pulse in health, 
then by comparing it with what it. was when 
ailing, he may have some idea of the urgency 
of his case. Parents should know the healthy 
pulse of each child, as now- and thenaperson 
is horn with a peculiarly slow or fast pulse, 
and the case in hand may be of that peculi¬ 
arity. An infant’s pulRe is one hundred and 
forty; a child of six, about eighty ; and 
from twenty to sixty years, it h seventy 
beats a minute, declining to sixty at four¬ 
score. There are pulses all over the body, 
but where there is only skin and bone, as at 
the temples, it is most easily felt. 
KEEP THE FEET WARM. 
Many of the colds which people are said 
to catch, commence at the feet. To keep 
these extremities warm, therefore, is to 
effect an insurance against the almost inter¬ 
minable list of disorders which spring out of 
a “slight cold.” First, never be tightly 
shod. Boots or shoes, when they fit closely, 
press against the foot, and prevent the free 
circulation of the blood. When, on the con 
trary, they do not embrace the foot too 
tightly, the blood gets fair play, and the 
spaces left between the leather and stockings 
are filled with a comfortable supply of warm 
air. The second rule is—never sit in damp 
shoes. It, is often imagined, that unless they 
are positively wet, it is not necessary to 
change them while the feet are at rest. 
This is a fallacy ; for when the least damp¬ 
ness is absorbed into the sole, it is attracted 
further to the foot itself by its own heat, and 
thus perspiration is dangerously checked. 
Any person may prove this by trying the ex¬ 
periment of neglecting the rule, and his feet 
will become cold and damp after a few 
moments, although, taking off the shoe and 
warming it, it will appear quite dry. 
-4-*-4.- 
LOOK AFTER THE EYES. 
Multitudes of men and women have made 
their eyes weak for life by the too free use of 
eyesight, reading small print and doing fine 
sewing. In view of these things, it is well to 
observe the following rules in the use of the 
eyes : 
Avoid aU sudden changes between light 
and darkness. 
Never read by twilight, or on a very cloudy 
day. 
Never sleep so that on waking the eyes 
shall open on the light of the window. 
Do not use eyesight by light so scant that 
it requires an effort to discriminate. 
Never read or sew directly in front of the 
light of a window. 
It is best to have the light from above, or 
obliquely, or over the left shoulder. 
Too much light creates a glare, and pains 
and confuses the sight. The moment you 
are sensible of an effort to distinguish, that 
momeut stop and talk, walk or ride. 
As the sky is blue and the earth green, it 
would seem that the ceilings should be a 
bluish tinge, the carpet greeu, and the walls 
of some mellow tint. 
-♦4-4- 
EATING BEFORE SLEEPING. 
It is a common mistake to suppose that 
eating before sleep is injurious. Not at all 
unfrequently does it happen that people are 
sleepless for want of food, and a little taken 
either when they first go to bed or when 
they thus awake sleepless, will be generally 
found far more efficacious, and of course 
infinitely less injurious than any drug in the 
chemist’s pharmacopeia. These are the phy¬ 
sical remedies for sleeplessness which have 
the best recommendation. As for the moral 
ones, there is certainly a good deal more to 
, be said. Perhaps the most stringent of all 
rules are “ Avoid anxiety I” and “ Don’t 
go to bed owing anybods a grudge 1” Chew¬ 
ing the bitter end of a quarrel is a thousand 
fold more injurious to repose than swallow¬ 
ing a whole teapotful of the very greenest of 
tea ! 
- ■■ 4 “ »4 - 
Candy Injurious.—' 'l’he Brooklyn Health 
Board in their report upon the subject of un¬ 
healthy candy say that it would be an impos¬ 
sibility for them to examine all the candies 
sold in the city, but recommend people to 
avoid eating any kind, stating that at Its 
best candy blunts the appetite for nutritious 
food and impairs digestion. 
TO STUFF BIRDS. 
John Culver asks in Rural New-Yorker 
of the 18th how to stuff birds. When you 
shoot them, do not let the feathers get soiled 
or rumpled, To skin them, go to a table, or 
stand ; lay down a sheet of paper to work 
on, ‘and keep the feathers clean. Lay the 
bird on its back ; then, with the point of 
your knife, split, the skin from the neck 
down the breast, to the tail bone. Now skin 
carefully down one side to the wing and leg ; 
cut these off at the first joints ; lay a piece 
of paper inside to keep the feathers from 
sticking t,o the body, and proceed in the 
same manner on the other aide. Now bend 
back the tail and cut, the bone where it joins 
the back ; turn out, the skin until you come 
to the head ; cut the neck out, of the head 
arid take out the brains. Now take a small, 
wide-mouthed bottle, put in some arsenic, 
with a little water, and with a. small cotton 
mop rub the skin with the solution. (This is 
to preserve t.he skin, and it also keeps out the 
moth.) Now take some tow ; roll it up to 
the size of the. body, and wind with thread 
for small or cord for large birds ; take fine 
wire for the neck, double it, put the ends 
through the tow, and draw back until you 
have the length of the neck ; bend the ends 
over and cover the neck wire with a very 
little cotton on tow ; put the end into the 
skull and carefully turn back the skin. 
Then sharpen wires and push up through 
the feet into the body and bond over the 
ends ; the wings the same way. Now care¬ 
fully sew up the breast, take out the natural 
eyes and put in the artificial ones, with a 
little cotton behind them. Then mount your 
bird on a perch and bend the wires at the 
bottom of the feet around it, and dress up 
the feathers. Now all you want, to make a 
good job of it is plenty of patience. 
F. Thko. Miller. 
A FISH THAT TAKES HIS OYSTERS IN 
THE WHOLE-SHELL. 
We are Heated in a boat, and, gliding 
through the phosphorescent sheen, soon near 
the oyster-bed. It, is a moonlight night, 
about the dose of summer. Hark ! what 
singular sound is that ? Boom ’ boom ! boom 
Almost sepulchral, and, strange to say, it 
comes up from beneath the waters. One 
would think they were Nereids’ groans. The 
oystermep, whose capital lies invested there, 
hear it with sad forebodings of loss, which 
they cannot well sustain. It is one of a 
school of visitors who come with marauding 
purpose, The fishermen call it the big drum. 
This drum fish is known among naturalists by 
the name Pogonias chrortils. The acknowl¬ 
edged beat of this scamp is the Gulf Stream, 
from Cape Cod to Florida ; and a terrible 
fellow is this Pogonias, for he is recorded as 
having attained the great weight of eighty 
pounds. One of twenty-five pounds would 
be but an ordinary affair. Their mouths are 
furnished with pavements of hard teeth, a 
little rounding on the top, and set together 
exactly as are the cobble-stones of the old 
city highways. The function of these dental 
pavements is to crunch the young oysters, 
which after being crushed are thus swallowed 
shells and all. As these monsters come in 
-heals, they sometimes inflict serious damage 
on an oyster-bed. Not long ago, at Kbyport 
New Jersey, a visit of this character cost 
the oyster-planters some $10,000. Said an 
eminent naturalist, “No fish has teeth 
strong enough to crush oyster-shells.” This 
is certainly a mistake. 1 believe that oyster 
men regard a three-vcar-old oyster ns com¬ 
paratively safe in this respect, and their 
apprehensions appertain to the younger 
beds. — Pm/, Lockwood, in I'opulnr Science 
Monthly. 
■ ---4“4~*- 
Watch-Dog.—k have a very valuable watch¬ 
dog which has a trouble in his kidneys or 
spine, which prevents him from jumping or 
stepping up with his hind legs. Do you 
know what is the trouble or what will cure 
him (—Constant Reader. 
Wf. do not. Rub him over the kidneys 
with spirits of turpeutine. It may relieve 
t, i him. 
