JAN. 43 
2? 
THE BUBAL NEW-YOBKEB. 
we may be prepared for any exigency that I 
would advise cottagers to give it a fair trial, and 
try to acquire a taste for it as an article of food, 
either in tho shape of soup, or boiled plain, like 
Potatoes. 
Its great recommendation is its productiveness 
under almost any conditions; and tho certainty 
of always having a crop superior as regards bulls 
to tho Potato grown under the same conditions. 
1 have hitherto said nothing about its valne to 
the stock farmer, but, judging from its analysis, 
it, should bo superior to tho Turnips or most 
other roots grown for feeding purposes. At any 
rate it is worth a trail for cattle feeding, aa the 
expenses of culture would be small. There is, 
of course, as your correspondent remarks, a 
waste in preparing it for cooking, which, as far 
as I can boo, cannot bo avoided; but where the 
cottager keeps a pig all wusto mutters of the kind 
are utilized in another form, so that nothing 
really is lost. When they are taken up some 
care should be exercised, as every bit loft in tho 
ground will grow. 
STRAWBERRY PROTECTION. 
I think there can bo no doubt that covering 
strawberries before settled cold weather does 
more harm than good. The wet weather and 
extremes c*f heat and cold of early spring do 
more harm to such hardy plants than tho steadier 
cold of early winter. 
Wo havo followed tho plan of covering them 
not until considerable falls of snow—the straw 
or whatever material is used having been put 
aside under cover until that time. While snow 
lasts, of course, there can he no better protection 
than it offers. Hut when nearly gone, melting 
during the day and freezing at night are likely to 
injure tho plants as soon as their leaves and 
stems are exposed. It is hotter therefore, to 
spread tho covering upon tho freshly fallonsnow. 
It then, falling as tho snow molts, llually rests 
evenly and lightly upon the plants underneath. 
Those who, from neglect or want of time, failed 
to cover their strawberry patches as usual, may 
ascertain, by adopting this plan, that it is not yet 
too late to protect them as effectually now as 
at an earlier day. a. o. a. 
jpomfstir (ffonomii. 
ORIGINAL RECIPES. 
I saw in the columns of your valuable paper a 
recipe for Marble Cake wanted. I send mine 
for tho benefit of 4 • Estelle 
Dark Part. —One cap of molasses, one-half 
cup of brown sugar, throe-fourths cup of but¬ 
ter, two-thirds cup of sour milk, onc-haif of a 
grated nutmeg, one teaspoon each of ground 
cinnamon and cloves, one teaspoon rounding of 
soda, yelks of four eggs, three and one-half 
cups of Hour, 
Light Pabt.—T wo cups of white sugar, threo- 
fourths cup of butter, one cup of sweet milk, 
ono rounding teaspoon of Boda, two teaspoons 
cream of tartar, three and one-half clips of 
horn-, whites of four eggs, flavoring to suit the 
taste.—Junta. 
1‘ink and White Marble (Jake. —Whites of 
eight eggs, two cups of white sugar, two and 
one-half cups of hour, one-half cup of butter, 
one-half cup of water, one-half teaspoon of 
soda, one teaspoon of cream tartar. Then take 
tho same proportions, using red sugar sand in 
tho place of the two cups of white sugar. Put 
in tho tin, first, a layer of white, and then a 
layer of pink dough, finishing with a layer of 
the white on the top.—.r. m. c. 
Recipe far baking Beans .—It does seem as if 
every cook ought to know how to bake beans in 
tho very best manner, but it is often proved 
that they do not, and hence the necessity for 
repeating the way once in a while. If one has 
them soaked in cold water over night, all the 
better. Wash well before parboiling. So soon 
as tho skin breaks they should bo put in tho 
baking-pan, with a piece of nice, sweet pork, if 
your family use that article; if not, butter and a 
littlo salt will do as well. Season to your taste. 
Put in a ootmnon dripping-pan of beans about 
one and a half tablespoonful of sirup, cover 
with water, and then bake a long time, not let¬ 
ting them get too dry. If you want them for 
dinner in one and a half hours, they will be 
good, but they will be much better if baked 
three hours.— a. f. 
Pickled Oysters. —Put the oysters on the fire 
in a porcelain-lined kettle, and let them heat 
until the gitlk begin to curl; then take them up 
and wipe the oysters carefully with a clean 
cloth; Btrain the juice and put it on to boil 
with a littlo salt, a dessert-spoon each of whole 
pepper, cloves and mace, a pint of white wine 
vinegar, and one-half pint of Madeira wine. 
The liquor must bo cold before it is poured over 
the oysters. They will be fit for use in twenty- 
four hours.— Mrs. Rustic. 
To Make Good Cider Vinegar .—Take good 
apple cider, new or old; rack off and put in 
clean barrels or tubs, then rinse out the empty 
barrels with clean water and throw away tho 
dregs. Let tho cider stand about, three weeks, 
then draw off again, putting it back into tho 
barrels first used: then put them into a warm 
place, but not a cellar, and you will linvo good 
vinegar In a short lime. 
Another Way .—Boil good cider in a brass or 
copper kettle ; skim it well, and keep it hot long 
enough to rornoYO all imparities ; then put in a 
■warm place as above. All wooden vessels to 
hold vinegar should bo painted on the outside. 
—IVir. Kuykendall. 
Another Recipe. —W., in Rural New-Yokkeii 
of Dec. 2, wants to know how to turn a few 
barrels of old cider into vinegar. In tho first 
place, let him take good, clean barrels, and if ho 
has a ono-story “ell” to his house, put tho barrels 
up stuirs, with the heads up to the chimney. 
Draw tho cider off clear of settings, fill the bar¬ 
rels up and bung tight, and by nexUsntnnicr you 
will have good vinegar. Do not give any vent. 
If you do, tho flies will fill it witn their larva-. 
In warm weather, when one barrel is partly 
drawn out, re-fill with eider not loss than one 
year old and use from tho other barrel, and vie, 
versa .— a. w. h. 
SELECTED RECIPES. 
Balloons .—Ono pint of sweet milk, three oggs, 
one pint of Hour. Separate tho eggs, beat tho 
yelks until light, and mix with tho milk and stir 
into tho flour gradually. Boat it well with ono 
saltrspoon of salt; then whisk tho whites until 
stiff, and stir through tho milk flour and yolks 
lightly. Butter Bmall cups, liil them half full of 
tho mixture and bulco in a quick oven. When 
done, turn thorn out of tho cups on to a heated 
dish and send to tho table hot. Eat with wino 
sauce, or butter and sugar worked to a croarn. 
Jelly Cheese. Clean very carefully two sots of 
pigs’ feet; put thorn into hot, salted water, suffi- 
dcut to cover them ; lot them boil slowly until 
perfectly tender and tho moat falls from the 
bone. Then put tliy feet on a dish and take out 
all the bones; cut tho meat into small pieces 
and return to tho kettle iu which they were 
boiled, with tho liquor ; then season with salt, 
pepper, sago, savory and sweet, marjoram; stir 
all well together and let It, simmer slowly twenty 
minutes; then put into deep dishes. When cold, 
cut into elicos, and warm in a pan with a littlo 
vinegar, or cat cold, as preferred. 
Smyrna Pudding. —Tako tho inside of a small 
loaf of bakers’ bread, put it into a deep dish 
with four ounces of butter; pour over it one 
pint of boiling milk ; after remaining a sufficient 
time to become completely saturated, mash it 
until very smooth and fine. Whisk six eggs 
until thick and light, which stir in gradually; 
then add ono quart of milk. Mix all well to¬ 
gether, and sweeten and flavor to taste. Lour 
tho mixture into a pudding-dish and bake in a 
quick oven. When done and cold, have ready 
some canned peaches, drained from their juice, 
and just before serving place as many on top aa 
the dish will conveniently hold. Sift a littlo 
white sugar over the peaches and send to the 
table. 
Oyster Omelet. —Beat six eggs to a froth, then 
add by degrees one gill of cream; beat them 
well together; season with pepper and salt. 
Have ready one dozen largo oysters; cut them 
in half; pour the eggs into a pan of hot butter 
and drop the oysters over it as equally aa pos¬ 
sible. Pry a light brown aud serve hot. 
Nun's I’utfs. —Ono pint of sweet milk, six 
ounces of flour, four eggs, half a salt-spoon of 
salt. Scald the milk and pour it over tho flour; 
beat it until It is smooth; whisk tho eggs to a 
froth and add them to the flour and milk when 
sufficiently cool; stir in tho salt. Have ready a 
kettle of boiling lard, and (hop ono teaspoonful 
of the batter at a time into the lai'd and fry a 
light brown. When cool, sift whito sugar over 
them. 
. -»-»» ■ - 
USEFUL HINTS. 
A little, carbonate of ammonia, as much as 
can be held on a split pea, when boiled with 
vegetables, will preserve their color. 
Maple sirup may bo mado by boiling maple 
sugar with water until it becomes of the right 
consistency. 
Scoop the core out of a baked apple, fill the 
hole with milk and sugar, and set out doors to 
freeze. 
Quenching Thirst. —We are sometimes placed 
in situations which make it inconvenient to get 
a drink of water when we may want it -yes, 
even suffer for it. At such times 1 have found 
it very useful to know that by gathering all tho 
moisture I could from my mouth and swallowing 
often, that I could finally allay an intenso thirst 
and soon forget that I wanted water. The samo 
effort has many times relieved a hard pain in 
the stomach, caused by some indigestion, the 
knowledge of which has saved me much troublo 
iu getting liniment or hot-drops. A few mo¬ 
ments’ practice is needed to insuro success.— a. f. 
Evidences aro every day accumulating of the 
fact that public opinion, liko chomical combina¬ 
tions, is constantly changing. There aro but 
few things upon which the whole civilized world 
agree for any length of time. Tho facts that 
water, in Its liquid form will seek its level if left 
free to act; that the child, if not Injured, will 
grow to be a man, and that the acorn will grow 
to be a tree, aro universally assented to. That, 
the earth is round and moves upon Its axis and 
in its orbit, are assented to; but mostly with a 
reservation or protest because we cannot soo it. 
Opinions on matters not directly addressed to 
our senses, change with changing circumstances 
oftencr than with chungo of evidence. Creeds 
and constitutions changes, not so much in tho 
words in which they aro written, us in tho con¬ 
structions put upon them. The change* of opin¬ 
ion in matters relating to health and disease, if 
not occurring as often as the fashions in dross, 
uro about as certain to happen in time. 
A few yours since all writers on hygieno, all 
Journals of Health and all the world beside, com¬ 
mended tho frequent cold water bath, and cases 
were cited of Metuuhaleiir and tho Sampsons 
who bad indulged in tho daily plunge bath in all 
seasons and weathers, while tho cases of children 
showered to death by enthusiastic pai-onts, and of 
health ruined by hydromaniao madness, were ig¬ 
nored. At length, Reason began to assume her 
rights: tho goddess Hygieno aroso from her 
slumbers liko a mermaid from tho ocean, and 
people began to think and reason. As in tho 
case of all changes, some lagged behind, either 
in the larva or chrysalis statu. Ono of these log¬ 
gers was extolling to his invalid friend the po¬ 
tency of tho water cure, and advising him by all 
means to adopt it. The friend replied“ There 
is, in my view, tho most positive evidence that 
man is neither amphibious nor aquatic. If the 
former, lie would havo been provided with flip¬ 
pers like the seal or an udder liko the muskrat; 
if tho latter, with paddles liko tho goose." 
A lady vv.us arguing to a friend in favor of hy¬ 
dropathy, and related her perfect success iu the 
treatment of a whole family of children with tlio 
whooping-cough, and in “ bringing them all out 
safely” without any .medicine. The friend re¬ 
plied:—“Your success was truly remarkable, 
and it gives strong evidence in favor of your 
theory; but I was witness to a similar oaso, 
whore the ehildrcu came out all right without 
any treatment." 
Now don’t accuse me of saying a word against 
water. Next to air, it is tlio greatest blessing of 
lifo; it is nature’,') great solvent and cleanser; it 
constitutes more than half the bulk of our 
bodies; its presence iu tho air, either iu the vo- 
siculur or gaseous form, is necessary to our ox- 
i‘ * nco. It is a great medicine, but it is by no 
means the only one, aa aomcyif its crazy wor¬ 
shipers would Jiavo it. If we aro to believe our 
chemists and Hoalth Commissioners, it is—es¬ 
pecially near tlio habitations of man—often 
tainted with the seeds of miasma and other 
deadly malaria not chargeable to nature but to 
the slovenliness of man. Therefore, it is nec¬ 
essary to see that it is not polluted when wo 
would use it for culinary or medicinal purposes. 
One of tho most, conclusive evidences of the 
approach of the millenium, is that theso differ¬ 
ent “ patkies” iu medicine and tlio treatment of 
diseases are approaching each -other and are 
bridging the dividing chasm. The allopathists 
are giving smaller doses, the liomceopathists 
larger; the former use homfcopathie vials and 
tho latter powder; the hydropaths use tinctures 
and pills ; tho Thornsoniuns have studied chem¬ 
istry, and find that the human body contains 
minerals, that they eat Umo in thoir bread, and 
they therefore admit salt iu their porridge. 
I have no doubt that our Maker intonded that 
wo should occasionally get wet, and that if Ho 
gave us any instincts, ono is to use water to cool 
our bodies when overheated; and experience 
certainly teaches us its influence in removing 
filth from our bodies and our garments; but I do 
not think it was over intended that we should 
torture ourselves with water, either cold or hot, 
and I disagree entirely with tho Misaiasippian, 
who contended that although water was a very 
useful element, especially for purposes of navi¬ 
gation, yet it was “poor stuff to drink.” I cer¬ 
tainly think it more healthy, notwithstanding it 
is loss fashionable than whisky and beer, and 
much less expensive. S. B. Peck. 
- 
REMEDY FOR ASTHMA. 
Eds. Rural. New-Yorker : —Seeing an inquiry 
in the Rural for a cure for that distressing dis¬ 
ease, tho asthma, I write to let the inquirer 
know what has almost cured mo. I have had tho 
spasmodic asthma fifteen years, and never found 
any medicine that would provent an attack when 
it was coming on until I commenced taking “ Jo- 
mis Whitcomb's Remedy for Asthma." I com¬ 
menced taking this remedy eighteen months ago, 
aud have not had a severe paroxysm since. 
“ Whitcomb’s Remedy” bas done for mo all that 
it is recommendod to do. Sabah Seely. 
Eddy t own, Yates Co., N. Y. « 
ffljc g$rarratt. 
QUEEN BEES. 
We find in tho London Journal of Horticulture 
tbo following entertaining speculations respect¬ 
ing queen bees: 
The more T learn about bees tbo more convic¬ 
tion forces itself on me, that many statements 
recorded and repeated again and again about 
them »ro fallacious. I do not accuse observers 
of wilfully deceiving, but some new or wonderful 
oocurronco is soon, or believed to bo scon, when 
it is at once recorded as a habit of the hoc. Mrs. 
Tupper bas said “bees do nothing Invariably 
nothing could ho more true, and sometimes they 
do things which at the time aro to us wholly un¬ 
accountable. To exchange a queen is a common 
operation with mo, and my experience is that, 
as a rule, to release ono six or sovon hours after 
caging would bo found a most, dangerous pro¬ 
ceeding. Lust mouth, when the weather was 
very cold and likely to continue so, I risked tlio 
introduction of two queens without any caging 
simply because I did not want tho stocks chilled. 
Tho first stock, which had boon queenless sonio 
time, killed their now sovereign; the second, 
where I merely took out thoir own queen and 
dropped tlio oilier in her place, accepted her all 
right, and she lives still. Now, had my opinion 
been asked as to what would occur 1 should just 
have reversed the events. 
The introduction of a strange queen into a 
hivo where ono already reigns, i dq not helievo 
troubles tho latter whatever. I have put in 
scoros and find tho result as follows:—The first 
bee which discovers Hio intruder seizes her by 
tho leg or wing and holds on, and then conies 
another and another until sho Is covered ; still 
tho boos crowd on, holding to ono another until 
a solid ball as big as a bantam's egg is formed, 
with tho quoon in the midst- A vigorous hiss¬ 
ing is kept up, and so intent, aro the bees on 
their attack that tlio ball of bees may be taken 
up into tho hand without any fear of stinging. 
At tho Alexandra Palace Boo Show I several 
times caused tho formation of such a bee ball, 
which was handed round among tlio spectators 
from hand to hand. I find the workers rarely 
sting a strange quoon: they will keep her en¬ 
cased until she dies or thoir fury abates, and 
then release her. I have known one confined in 
this manner-far a fortnight, when she died; it 
is certain they must, at least sum climes, feed tho 
prisoner, for a quoen will die of starvation iu 
twolvo hours. So eager aro the boos to encase a 
new queen, that if the latter bo held by tlio 
wings with tho thumb and finger, the bees will 
gather there into a ball- 1 have said workers 
rarely sting a quoon, but they do sometimes. I 
have seen almost the first bee that perceived her 
jump on her back and st ing her iu an instant, 
when she would quickly die -not always, how¬ 
ever, for twice have I scon a queen stung and 
the sting left in her, and yet no fatal result oc- | 
currcd. 
Remembering tbo old tale of how tho reigning 
queen would seek out an intruder, some two or 
threo years ago it occurred to mo what an easy 
way it would bo to extract the old queen from a. 
shop to substitute a new one if I first caged tho 
latter in tho hive. I tried it Severn 1 times, but in 
no instance did 1 over find tbo old queen conio 
to my bait. Several times when wishing to 
preserve a queen for a few days 1 have caged 
her in tho midst of a populous Live, where slio 
obtained food and warmth. I never found a 
reigning queen trouble herself, although tho 
cage would l>* sure to be thickly covered w ith 
tlio excited workers. 1 am also skeptical as to 
tho invariableness of fighting to tlio death be¬ 
tween queens which moot. If w e put two queens 
under a wineglass, and watch the result, we see 
them seize each other, wrestle and fight like two 
gladiator*, and sometimes one receives a sting 
and dies, but more often they separate, again 
come together for another battle with still a 
negative result. This is repeated until they get 
til ed of fighting and let each other alone. 
Twice tliis year I came across instances of two 
queens in a hive, but I do nut think in either 
case they were both fertile. In the first in¬ 
stance, the old queen was evidently worn out. 
She had bred an inordinate number of drones— 
no hope of a swarm; yet instinct guided the 
bees to raise a young queen, which soon took the 
place of the old one, which I found thrown out 
of the hivo. I once divided a hivo by a 
diaphragm of perforated zinc, tilled each half 
with combs and awwartn, gave entrance to one 
oolonv in front, and to the other at tbo hack of 
the him It was no u*o. One queen went on 
with her maternal duties, the other was encased 
by her own bees. I caged and released her sev¬ 
eral times but in vain, tho bees had evidently 
made up their minds it was one hive, and there¬ 
fore they would not have two queens. ( 
