W —-- 
JUNE § 
MOORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
367 
Jlomestui (B^ouontu. 
ABOUT COOKING PEAS. 
The Science of Health for this month has 
an excellent article on “The Pulse Family- 
Peas,” by Julia Coljlan, whose name is 
familiar to Rural readers who have perused 
her contributions to its pages. Omitting 
what is said of the history and cultivation 
of the Pea, we give Miss Co lmax’s recipes 
for cooking, etc., as they are now in order in 
some parts of the country aud soon will be 
in others ; 
Green Peas. — Have the hands and the 
dishes clean in shelling, so that the peas need 
not be washed before cooking. If the pods 
are very nice and sweet, they may be cooked 
in the water before the peas are put in ; but 
usually this does not pay. Have the peas a 
little more than even full of water and cook 
them twenty minutes after they begin to 
boil. As the. season advances, cook them 
longer. Bo sure to have them tender, but 
do not cook tfiem after they are tender. If 
done too soon, lot them stand hot without 
cooking. Serve warm, full of juice, and if 
you wish for the full benefit of the sweet pea 
flavor, serve without seasoning. 
Green Pea Soup .—Thicken the waterwitli 
green peas run through a colander, with or 
without vegetables. Turnips, carrots, pota¬ 
toes, parsley and tomatoes are the vegetables 
that best harmonize with green peas. 
Split Peas .—This preparation of peas dif¬ 
fers much in quality. It is often badly mixed 
with oats and various foreign seeds, green 
peas and peas with dark skins, which dis¬ 
figure the cooked article very much. Some¬ 
times some of the peas are of a dark coffee 
color throughout, evidently imperfect or 
decaying. Good split peas are of a clean, 
bright and uniform yellow, including very 
little else but a few of the white skins. If 
mixed with other matter, like the first de¬ 
scribed, they will nob be very likely to be 
good when cooked, and the fewer you have 
of that sort the better. 
Polled Split Peas .—Look over them care¬ 
fully and put to cook with about three parts 
water to two of the peas. Boil up and then 
eook slowly for three hours, or until perfectly 
soft, so as to mash readily with a spoon. If 
cooked very gently, they may not need any 
more water. Have them when done of any 
consistency you choose—say about like mus|j 
—if they are to be served with vegetables for 
dinner. They may bo cooked smooth or 
mashed by stirring, but it is better to let 
them remain partly in shape, though tender. 
Very good with potatoes, turnips, rather acid 
fruit sauce and oatmeal breakfast cake, or 
oatmeal baked in other forms. It is almost 
as good as fresh when warmed by putting 
into a pan with a little water aud heating 
slowly without much stirring. 
Split Pea Soup. — Prepare and cook the 
peas as above, precisely. When done, add 
water to taste, or make rather thin, and then 
thicken to taste with a little wheat meal 
braided with water added to the soup and 
boiled five minutes. Use not more than half 
a gill of meal to one quart of soup. A small 
proportion of stale bread may bo added in¬ 
stead and allowed to cook very gently until 
soft. Be careful not to make this too thick. 
Another thickening is a very small propor¬ 
tion of potatoes - not more than a gill of po¬ 
tatoes t.o a quart of soup, and boiled to pieces 
in the soup. Split peas may also be used to 
thicken other soups. 
Peas Cake.— Cook the split peas as above 
directed, being sure to have it thick. Strain 
through a colander while warm into a flat 
dish with straight sides, making it at least 
an inch deep. Let thisstaud until quite cold, 
then cut it out in slices like cheese, say one- 
fourth of an inch thick by 1 inch or \y inches 
square. If thick enough, it will cut solid. 
Serve this with bread and sauce in place of 
cheese or other relish. Good for supper or 
cold lunch, harmonizing with cold gems, oat¬ 
meal crisps, and tart stewed fruits. 
Peas Pie-Crust.— Stew the split peas as for 
dinner. Strain through a colander or coarse 
sieve. Then add equal partsgood wheat meal 
and fine corn meal sufficient to make a soft 
dough. Knead well for fifteen minutes, add¬ 
ing mixed meal enough to make a moderately 
stiff dough, then roll out and use as any other 
pie-crust. As it cooks very quickly, it is not 
best to put in for a filling any fruit that re¬ 
quires long cooking. 
- -—■ 
EATING ORANGES POLITELY. 
A writer in the Homo Journal gives in¬ 
struction in the difficult matter of eating an 
orange without detriment to hands or nap¬ 
kin : 
Always, on a southern gentleman’s table 
the dessert of oranges is furnished with 
small.silver fruit knives and spoons. The 
orange is held in the napkin—just as you 
hold an egg—and With t he slender point of 
the knife a circular incision is carefully 
made in the stem end of the orange, and the 
stem core is nicely cut out, leaving an orifice 
large enough to admit an egg spoon. The 
orange is held and eaten then, just as 
gourmands eat an egg, in its own shell ; and 
the skill and grace with which this is done— 
that is, without soiling the fingers or napkin 
arc, as in the same process with the egg, a 
test of good breeding. I have known the 
most inexpert persons to manage the few 
difficulties in the way after two or three 
efforts ; and their satisfaction was an in¬ 
finitely pleasant sight. To hostesses who 
like to have their tables preserve in some 
degree, at the close of an entertainment, the 
beauty which dazzled the guests upon enter¬ 
ing,'this method is desirable. Servants—let 
me put in a pica for those silent ones whose 
interests are seldom regarded—are spared 
| the tedious duty of fragments ; and guests 
who look with dismay at this tempting 
apple of the Hespcrides, can thus enjoy it as 
they never did before. Only the delicious 
necter of the l’ruit is eaten, with the. more 
delicate pulp; the tough fiber—of which 
indeed, there is very little in an orange 
plucked from the tree under its own skies— 
being left in the shell. 
-♦*-*- 
SELECTED RECIPES. 
Pie Crust. —The most healthy pie crust is 
made of thin, sweet cream and flour, with a 
little salt. Don’t knead thin. Bake in a 
quick oven. Another way is sift a quart or 
two of llour in the pan. Stir in the center a 
little salt, and half a teaspoonl’ul of soda well 
pulverized. Now put in the hole a cup of 
soft (not liquid) lard, or butter and lard mix¬ 
ed, st ir it, thoroughly with the flour ; next 
add two scant cups of good sour milk or 
buttermilk. Stir all quickly with the flour, 
in such a way that you need hardly touch it 
with your hands till you can roll it out. 
Bake quick. This will make three or four 
pies. 
Scrambled Haas. —Have a spider hot and 
buttered ; break the eggs into a dish, being 
careful not to break the yelks ; slip them in 
to the spider, add a very little salt, with 
butter the size of a nutmeg for a half 
dozen eggs, or three tablespoonfuls of rich 
cream. When the eggs begins to whiten, 
stir carefully from the bottom, until cooked 
to suit. The yelks and whites should lie 
separated, though stirred together. 
|§]jghtnu[ Information. 
USEFUL HYGIENIC HINTS. 
The Herald of Health for June contains the 
following hints and suggestions in the “Ed- 
itor’s Studies in Hygiene,” a department al¬ 
ways replete with information : 
MORBID APPETITE. 
Is there any cause and cure for a morbid 
appetite ? 
Axs.—A morbid appetite is one that craves 
unnatural foods, or excessive quantities of 
them. It may be, and often is, inherited. 
The only cure is in a strict discipline of the 
appetite, restricting it to wholesome food in 
reasonable quantities. The worst morbid 
appetites are those that crave liquors. They 
are really the result of disease. The next 
are those appetites that can only oat the 
most stimulating foods. The discipline of 
the appetite should begin in youth. Feed 
your children on abundance of nutritious 
but plain and wholesome food, aud morbid 
appetites will not, trouble them. Allow them 
candy, highly seasoned food, much meat, tea 
and coffee, and they arc sure to have as a 
result a crop of morbid appetites that will 
lead to serious results. 
PUTTING HEART INTO SICK PEOPLE. 
What is the best use of a physician ? 
Axs.—Aside from putting them on the 
right way of living, the best use of a physi¬ 
cian is to put heart into sick folk, and one of 
the worst uses of a doctor is to take heart 
from them by discouraging them. Quack 
nostrums would not have any sale if tempo 
ranly they did not make the patient think 
there was hope of recovery. The charities 
of the world take heart, out of people. True 
charity puts heart into people by rousing 
them to self help. One of the great errors 
of parents is the taking of heart out of chil¬ 
dren by discouraging them. Put heart into 
your children, oh ! you parents who would 
see them make their way in the world. 
SUN BATHS. 
What is a sun bath ? 
Axs.—A sun hath is a bath of the surface 
of the body in the direct rays of the sunshine, 
omitting the face and head. It is taken 
nude, in a glass room or its equivalent, and 
may be continued from fifteen minutes to an 
hour or more. 
VEGETABLE DIET AND GRAVEL. 
Would it be safe for a person who suffers 
yearly attacks from gravel to live largely on 
vegetable food ? 
Axs, -One of the chief causes of gravel is 
the deposit of uric acid in the kidneys and 
bladder. This comes from some defect in 
the liver aud other organs to fully oxidize 
the albumen of the blood and convert it into 
urea, which is perfectly soluble, while uric 
acid is not. One of the best remedies is the 
total abandonment of flesh and the adoption 
of a vegetable and fruit diet. Dr. (Jheneyo, 
more than 100 years ago, declared that a 
milk aud seed diet, with Bristol water, would 
cure gravel. 
HOW TO GOUGH. 
Is there any easy way of coughing for 
those who must ? 
Axs.—Where there is anything to raise 
from the lungs, the easiest way is to cough 
it out by a sort, of half blow, letting us much 
air escape as possible with the mucus. As¬ 
sume a position in which the lungs cun ex¬ 
pand freely, fill them witli air and then 
cough as a horse eoughs, if you know how 
that is. On the other hand, if the cough is a 
nervous one, or caused by some irritation of 
the air passages, then don’t give way to it at 
all, but resist it with all your will. 
-♦ — — 
ONIONS FOR SLEEPLESSNESS. 
Frank Rucki.and gives a London paper 
quite an essay on Insomnia, and among the 
remedies named is (lie following :• “ I now 
venture to suggest a new but simple remedy 
for want, of sleep. Opiates in any form, 
even the liquor opii sedat. and chlorodyne, 
will leave traces of their influence the next 
morning. I therefore prescribe for myself 
aud have frequently done so for others 
onions, simply common onions, raw, blit 
Spanish onions stewed will do. Everybody 
knows the taste of onions ; this is due to a 
peculiar essential oil contained in this most 
valuable end healthful root. This oil lias, 1 
am sure, highly soporific powers, i n my own 
case they never fail. If I am much pressed 
witli work and feel 1 shall not sleep, I eat 
two or three small onions, aud the effect is 
magical. Onions are also excellent things to 
eat when much exposed to intense cold. Mr. 
Paknaby, Troutduio Fishery, Keswick, in¬ 
forms me that, when collecting salmon and 
trout eggs in winter, ho finds that common 
raw onions enable him and hi* men to bear 
the ice and cold of the semi-frozen water 
much better than spirits, beer, etc. The 
Arctic expedition, just now about, i,o start, 
should therefore take a good stock of onions. 
Finally, if a person cannot sleep, it is because 
the blood is in the brain, not in his stomach ; 
the remedy, therefore, is obvious ; call the 
blood down from the brain to the stomach. 
This is to be done by eating a biscuit, a hard 
boiled egg, a bit of bread and cheese, or 
something. Follow this up with a glass of 
wine and milk, or even water, and you will 
fall asleep, and will, I trust, bless the name 
of— Frank Buckland.” 
NEW CURE FOR WOUNDS. 
Mr. S. W. IIemknway writes to the Scien¬ 
tific American that, he wishes to publish the 
following cure for punctured wounds for the 
benefit of all who may need it: 
“ As soon as such a wound is inflicted, get 
a light stick (a knife or file handle will do) 
and commence to tap gently on the wound. 
Do not stop for the hurt,, but continue until 
It bleeds freely and becomes perfectly numb. 
When tliis point is reached you are safe ; all 
that is then necessary is t,o protect it from 
dirt. Do not stop short, of the bleeding and 
the numbness, and do not ou any account 
close the opening with plaster. Nothing 
more than a little simple cerate on a clean 
cloth is necessary. I have used and seen 
this used on aLl kinds of simple punctures for 
thirty years, and never knew a single in¬ 
stance of a wound becoming inflamed or 
sore after the treatment as above. Among 
other eases, a coal rake tooth going entirely 
through the foot, a rusty darning needle 
through the foot, a bad bite by a sucking 
pig, several instances of file shanks through 
the hand, and numberless cases of rusty 
nails, awls, etc.; but 1 never knew a failure 
of this treatment. 
Jfrmtraitce .Seprfmimt. 
INSURANCE NOTES AND NEWS. 
Taxing insurance. The Senate of Con¬ 
necticut has referred to the Committee on 
Insurance a bill providing for the levying of 
a tax of two per cent, of gross premiums re¬ 
ceived. This refers, wo presume, to pre¬ 
miums received in the State. A bill to 
tax insurance capital was defeated recently 
in the Assembly of this State (New York). 
Why should not money invested in insurance 
be taxed as other property ? It is invested 
for the benefit and profit of the investor 
precisely as money is invested in land or 
farm property, yet the latter does not escape 
the tax gatherer, while the former is practi¬ 
cally exempt. A thousand dollars’ worth of 
insurance capital escapes intact, through the 
same sum loaned on a mortgage of farm 
property pays double, being taxed twice, for 
taxes must be paid ou the mortgage also. 
Tuxes of insurance capital should be levied 
directly. There is no sort of equity in as¬ 
sessing taxes upon premiums. They should 
he laid only upon that, part of the premiums 
and their accumulated interest which are 
held by the companies us deposits. Under 
the present practice money laid by iu a life 
policy is exempt from nearly every tax that, 
would fall heaviest, upon it, if laid out in 
farms, stock and implements of husbandry. 
Carling it Around .—When it was an- 
nounced that the business of the Merchants’ 
Life Insurance Company of this city was 
about, to bo transferred to the Atlantic In¬ 
surance Company of Albany, we very natu¬ 
rally supposed that, the matter was disposed 
of and republished the item. Wo were 
wholly unprepared to learn, a fortnight 
later, that the affairs of the Company had 
been, at the instigation of the stockholders, 
placed in the hands of a receiver, for wo had, 
and have, an impression that, as regards its 
policy holders, the Merchants’ was a solvent 
Company, having a clear surplus of $78,600 
on the first of January last. Now wo learn 
that the. Globe Life Insurance Company, 
having bid $5,000 more than the Atlantic, 
proposes to reinsure the Merchants’, and only 
awaits the consent of the courts to begin a 
process with which the public has become 
painfully familiar. We state this as u mere 
rumor and do not vouch for its correctness. 
Tf true, it adds to the mysteries of this pecu¬ 
liar business the possibility that a solvent, 
company may, at, the option of its stock¬ 
holders, be put Up at auction aud the rights 
and sureties of its policy holders knocked 
down to the highest bidder. 
Give It a Wide Perth —We had supposed 
that the disastrous ending of similar experi¬ 
ments would have prevented the formation 
of any more co-operative life insurance so¬ 
cieties, but it seems that the good people, 
not the wise people, of Ohio are destined to 
purchase for hard cash an opinion which it 
is Our duty to give them gratuitously. The 
latest offender is the Ohio Life Insurance 
Company, which has been condemned by the 
leading journals of insurance, not, perhaps, 
because it ft either worse or better than its 
kind, but because it is of a bad kind. The 
experiment of insuring life by “ passing the 
hat around after the man is dead ” has been 
tried every few years since A. D. 1600, and 
invariahly with the same results. Those 
who are so unsound that they ought not to 
be insured at all die first and profit at the 
expense of those who have more brawn than 
brains and less experience and caution than 
ready cash. No company of this kind ever 
has succeeded, or can by any possibility suc- 
oeed, in insuring human life safely, perma¬ 
nently or cheaply. 
Odd, Isn’t It ?—A year since the Insurance 
Commissioner of Connecticut (apparently of 
his own volition, for it seems that no policy 
holders petitioned to that effect) dragged the 
American National Life Insurance Company 
of New Haven before the courts, and, after 
loug, tedious and expensive litigation, came 
out second best. Now it appears that the 
action of the courts is not final, but is to Vie 
reviewed by the Committee ou Insurance. 
Here is a company transacting its business 
to the entire satisfaction, so far as it appears, 
of several thousand members, conducted by 
a President who has so deserved their confi¬ 
dence that, they send their money to him 
personally ; a company paying its claims as 
promptly as it did nearly a generation before 
there was an insurance Department or Com¬ 
mittee to meddle with itsaffairs, yet dragged 
into unwelcome litigation with itself and put 
to perhaps $30,000 expanse. Why'( Is an 
insurance Commissioner so far above the 
law t.liat, ho may call for the impairment, or 
regulation of private contracts between mu¬ 
tual insurers ? 
