•JUNE 30 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
CLAM SOUP. 
First catch your clams- alonjr the'cbbtngr edges 
Of saline coves you'll flnd the precious wedges, Z. 
With bados up, lurking in the sandy bottom; 
Pull in your iron rake, and Io ! you’ve got em. 
Take thirty large ones, put a basin under. 
And water (three quarts) to the native liquor. 
Uring to a boll (suit, by tho way, the quicker 
It boils the better, if you’d do it cutely). 
Now add the damn, chopped and minced minutely. 
Allow a longer boil of Jnnt three minute*; 
And while it bubbles, quickly stir within its 
Tumultuous depths, where dill the mollusks mutter. 
Four tabloflpoOufuln of flour and four of butter, 
A pint of milk, some butter to your notion. 
And dams need salting, although horn of ocean. 
Remove from fire (if much boiled they will suffer— 
You'll find that india-rubber isn’t tougher); 
After 'Ms off, add three fresh egg?, well beaten; 
Ht.ir once more, and it’s ready to ho eaten. 
Fruit of the waves 1 O, dainty and delicious! 
Pood for the rods ! Ambrosia for Apioiim! 
Worthy to thrill the soul of son-born Venus, 
Or tittlato the palate of SflonUS! 
We find the above waif going about, unclaimed as to 
authorship; and more’s the pity, for tho genius who 
coined it deserves credit. 
THE SPARE BEDROOM. 
Persons who have visited among country 
friends will appreciate the following remark of a 
“ Farmer’s Wire” in the Cincinnati Enquirer. 
If any of our readers should ask why tills remark 
docs not apply to residents in a city, we will in¬ 
form thorn that spare bedrooms are uulcnowu 
whero there are sidewalks, for everything of the 
kind is called a “ guest chamber" by city folk—a 
distinction, it is true, without a difference. 
Tho spare bedroom iB usually the criterion of 
the family taste. It is always desirable to have 
a dominant color in each room, and blue or rose- 
color are certainly the prettiest for a bedroom. 
Ditto is probably the better of tho two, ns it is 
more durable, and does not soil so easily. The 
walls may be plain white, or shaded, or hung 
with paper traced iu a small gilt at the top, as it 
adds greatly to the beauty of the window by 
throwing the curtain out from it. Cheap lace 
over v nte or blue muslin lace and a blind, and 
r’ ‘ ’Wiss with a fluted ruffle, are all pretty and 
fi.-iie. Place a puli'over frame; a blue border. 
M blue and buff, and tho furniture may be 
either walnut or oak. 
There is such a variety of window dressing 
th* will give several. ..flever for get the board. 
7T\‘ (ToTUItie ground, wiliTruflietf^gos afthe 
toj.' the curtain, and just w here it opens fasten 
r h i .ant cluster of autumn leaves. The bed 
may . e all in white, or if yon have one of those 
goc 1 old-fashioned white quilts with a blue star 
1 i, niade by a mother or gr.-admotner equally 
as good nd oid-fashioned, by all moans get it 
out aDd put it on. The pillow-sbamB then should 
correspond; and just right here I will tell the 
sisters how to make shams that will stay on. Cut 
a piece of muslin the size of a pillow, allowing 
fur a hem to extend beyond it, then tear off a 
straight piece four inches wide, hem it on one 
side and baste tho other down under the edge of 
tho hem on the sham aud stitch it neatly around. 
Put a row of herring-bone stitching iu bluo cot¬ 
ton around the hem and your initials in tho mid¬ 
dle. A dressing-tablo will be needed, which can 
be a barrel with a board on top, or an old stand. 
Make a long cloth to reach the floor of blue or 
w hite, with lace over it, aud a puff at the top and 
a frill at the bottom. If said cloth is contrary, 
and will not hang right, put some old worn-out 
cover under it, aud the effect will be magical. 
Mako a pretty pin-cushion, hair-pin box, and 
brush-holder, and fasten a mirror on top of the 
tablo. Have the splasher and mats on the wash- 
stand to correspond with the shams, and finish 
off the room with a few pictures and ornaments. 
Another room far fresher and brighter in ap¬ 
pearance than 1 can convey iu a description, may 
be famished at much less coat:—\Vall, white, 
with a plain baud of caloimiue or paper; oarpot 
made of light rags and white chain ; muslin cur¬ 
tains. full and long, with a broad hem where 
they open, and at tho top of pink chambray; 
fasten them back with a band of white muslin 
frilled at tho ends with pink, tied in a neat how. 
The bed-quilt, shams, and washstand mat should 
all be in piuk and white. 
-- ♦ ♦ ♦- 
port wine, stirred in jnst before the butter is 
taken from the fire, or use anchovy sauce. 
French Way of Cooking tomb Chops—Cat a 
loin of lamb into chops. Remove all the fat, 
trim them nicely, and see that they are all the 
same length. Lay them in a deep dish and cover 
them with salad oil. Let them steep in the oil 
for an hour. Having drained the chops from 
the oil, cover them with a mixture of finely grat¬ 
ed bread-crumbs, a little minced parsley, seasoned 
with pepper and salt, and some grated nutmeg; 
then broil them over a bed of hot coals or a but¬ 
tered gridiron, or yon may bake them a nice 
brown in a quick oven. Have roady Borne mashed 
potatoes heaped high on a hot dish, in the form 
of a cone or beehive, and place tho lamb chops 
all round it, so that they stand up and lean 
against it with the broad end of ouch chop down¬ 
ward. Ornament the top of the cono with a 
handsome roso or a hunch of curled parsley. 
Cream Crackers. - One pint of cream, six eggs, 
a little salt, flour enough to form a stiff dough. 
Beat the eggs very light, mix all the ingredients 
together, aud pound the dough half an hour. 
Roll out thin, cut into any fancy shape, and hake 
in a moderate oven. 
Fine-Apple. Pudding.—Taka half a pound of 
grated pine-apple, half a pound of powdered 
sugar, and a quarter of a pound of freHh buttor. 
Stir the butter and Rugar to a cream, then add 
by degrees (ho grated pine-apple. Grate a tea¬ 
cup of sponge-cake, and mix with it a teacup of 
sweet cream; add a little gratod nutmeg for fla¬ 
voring. Add this to tho piue-apple mixture. 
Boat six eggs very light; put all the ingredients 
together and stir tho wholo very hard. Butter a 
deep baking-dish, put in the mixture, and buko 
in a rather quick oven. 
Pine-Apple Marmalade.— Pare, Blice, cone, 
and weigh the pine-apple. Then cut into small 
bits. Allow three-quarters of a pound of loaf 
sugar to one pound of fruit; make a sirup of the 
sugai and beat it to a boil. Heat tho piue-apple 
in a vessel set it within one of boiling water, and 
cover it closely to keep in the flavor ; when it is 
thoroughly heated all through, add to the Birup. 
Boil together until it is a clean bright paste. 
—-♦-»->- 
USEFUL HINTS. 
To Wash Corsets.— Take out the steels; use 
hot water; one teaspoon ful borax to every pail 
of water; place the corsets ou the washboard 
and scrub well with a clean brush, using very 
1it,t!i> soap ; do not boil the corsets, but if very 
bleach in the sun; rinse well; rub |r a 
little starch and iron when unite - 
■ • 1 Cats*:} - ,v 1 cep mold from rising 
on cat i or pickles, add a tablespoonful of 
ground horseradish to every quart. 
Mow to Use Lard. —Lard for pastry may be 
used as bard as it can be cut with a knife, and it 
will make far better paste than if left stand to 
warm. It needs only to be cut through the flour 
—not rubbed. 
The Skin. —A piece of flannel is better to wash 
the fuce with than a sponge. The Blight rough¬ 
ness cleanses tho pores of the skin, and prevents 
those little black specks, which so many people 
complain of, and try every remedy but the right 
one (soap and water and a rough towel) to cure. 
Fly Paper. —Powdered black pepper is mixed 
with sirup to a thick paste, which is spread by 
means of a broad brush upon coarse blotting 
paper. Common brown sirup will answer, but 
sirup made from sugar is preferable, as it dries 
quicker. For use, a piece of this paper is laid 
upon a plate aud dampened with water. The 
paper may also be made directly at the mill by 
adding sugar to the pulp, and afterwards one- 
fourth to one-third of powdered black pepper, 
and rapidly working it into a porous, absorbent 
paper. 
ORIGINAL AND SELECTED RECIPES. 
To Bake Salmon.— It a small fish, it may bo 
baked whole. Stuff it with a force-meat made 
of bread-crumbs, minoed lobster, butter, cay¬ 
enne, a little salt, and powdered mace—all mixed 
well and moistened with a beaten egg. Turn the 
tail to the mouth and skewer it. Put the fish 
into a deep dish, lay bits of butter over it, and 
bake iu a quick oven. While baking, baste oc¬ 
casionally with butter. When one side becomes 
brown, turn it carefully and bake it till tho other 
side is well browned. 8erve with melted butter 
flavored with tho juice of a lemon and a glass of 
SPREAD OP INFECTIONS DISEASES. 
Prof. Tyndall presided at the concluding lec¬ 
ture of a series by Dr. Corfield on the laws of 
health, recently delivered in London. The sub¬ 
ject of the lecture was ‘‘Infectious Diseases.' 1 
In proposing a vote of thanks, Prof. Tyndall 
paid a high compliment to the lecturer for the 
thoroughly sound instruction which ho had so 
clearly conveyed. Referring to the cause of dis¬ 
eases, he had made it plain that the contagion 
consisted of definite particles sometimes floating 
in gas, or in the air, or in the liquid which we 
drank; and that, like organic seeds in the soil, 
they multiplied themselves indefinitely in suit¬ 
able media, tho great probability being that these 
disease-producing particles were living things, 
A close study of tho subjoct, extending now over 
two years, enabled him to agree entirely with 
the lecturer in the parralleliam throughout .which 
he had declared to exist between the phenomena 
of these disease-poisons and the phenomena of 
ordinary putrefaction. Take the case of flies 
communicating disease from one person to an¬ 
other, that was exactly paralleled by phenomena 
in putrefaction. ThuB he had chopped up a 
beefsteak, steeped it in water, raised the tempera¬ 
ture a little above the temperature of the blood, 
poured off the water, filtered it, and got a per¬ 
fectly clear liquid; but that liquid placed in a 
bottle and exposed to the air began to get more 
and more turbid, and that turbid liquid, under 
the microscope, was soon found to be swarming 
with living organisms. By heating this perfect¬ 
ly clear beef tea, it would be sterilized, every¬ 
thing being killed which was capable of produc¬ 
ing those little organisms which produced the 
turbidity, aud by keeping it perfectly stopped 
from the air, and from coming in contact with 
any floating particles, it might be preserved for 
years. Ho had now some Bterilized beef toa of 
this sort, which had been prepared for ] ft months 
in a state of perfect transparency; but if a fly 
dipped its foot into an adjacent vessel contain¬ 
ing some of the turbid fluid, and then into the 
transparent liquid, that contact would be suffi¬ 
cient to infect the sterilized fluid— juBt as a sur¬ 
geon dipped the point of a lancet into vaccine 
lymph to vaccinate—and in 48 houra the clear 
liquid would be swarming with these living or¬ 
ganisms. In this, as in tho case of contagious 
disease, there was a period of incubation. 
In proof of what tho lecturer hail stated that 
here tho contagion of these communicable dis¬ 
eases was not gaseous or liquid, but solid parti¬ 
cles, he would describe an experiment ho had 
made only a few weeks since. Eighteen montliB 
since he had a place prepared from which all 
floating particles of dust were removed, and in 
it he placed a number of vessels containing ani¬ 
mal and vegetable refuse, and also two or three 
vessels containing perfectly clear beef tea, and 
mutton broth as transparent as water, in which 
the Infective particles had been killed by heat. 
Although all these vessels had stood during that 
time Bide by Bide, there had been no communi¬ 
cation of contagion front one to tho other, the 
beef tea aud mutton broth remained as transpar¬ 
ent as when put iu, though the other vessels 
emitted the most noisome stench - but r , i> 
blowascausod in the putrefying masses i v blow¬ 
ing into it. ant that rose to the surface and 
burst, and the spray of the bubble was allowed 
to fall ou the transparent beef tea n? u- (ton 
broth, in forty-eight hours t* c-> became as bad 
as their neighbors. If. y. not therefore sewer 
gas which did the mischief, but tho particles 
which were driven up and scattered bj i ha „ t ncr 
gas. *' 
GARTERS. 
Children should never wear garters, as the 
stockings can be kept up perfectly well by an at¬ 
tachment of elastic Btrips to the waistband. If 
garters are worn, it is important to know how to 
apply them with the least risk of harm. At the 
bend of the knee tho superficial veins of the leg 
unite and go deeply into the under part of tho 
thigh beneath the hamstring tendons. Thus a 
ligature below the knee obstructs all the super¬ 
ficial veins ; hut if the constriction is above, the 
hamstring tendons keep the pressure off the 
veins which return the blood from the legs. Un¬ 
fortunately most people, in ignorance of the 
above facts, apply the garter below the knee. 
Elastic bands are the most injurious. They fol¬ 
low the movements of tho muscles and never 
relax their pressure upon the veins. Non-elastio 
bands, during muscular exertion, become con 
siderably relaxed at intervals, aud allow freer 
circulation of the blood. 
ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
B. Allen .—Why is the atmosphere blue ? Ans. 
We might reply: for the same reason that grass 
is green or a rose red ; hut it may be more satis¬ 
factory if wo give Newton’s reason as quoted by 
Arago“ Puro air is blue besanse the molecules 
of the air have the thickness nocessary to reflect 
the blue raysbut in continuation, Arago goes 
on to say this color is not, however, pure blue, 
but white, iu which blue predominates. 
W. J. A .—Phonography can ho learned from 
books without the aid of a teacher, although 
with this, as with everything else, a teacher is of 
great service. There are several systems, of 
which we believe Pitman's, as improved by Gra¬ 
ham, is said to be the best. 
Susan .—What is the best way to treat a small 
mole on the chin ? Ans.—L 6t it alone by all 
means. 
Insurance .—A general rale for finding the ex¬ 
pectancies of life is this: Subtract your age 
from 80 aud halve the remainder. Thus : 
8(i—50=3C-»-2=18 
This will not agree with the Carlisle’s or other 
tables, but it is pretty nearly correct for ages be¬ 
tween 30 and 55. 
J. M. J.—ln estimating the value of hard¬ 
wood ashes for raising oorn, you must consider 
the value of the crop when produced, also the 
kind of land to which they are applied. In com¬ 
parison with ordinary commercial fertilizers, we 
should consider good bard-wood ashes worth, at 
least, twenty-five cents per bushel. We paid the 
above price for ashes this season, to nse on the 
Rural's Experimental Grounds, and consider 
them as cheap as any commercial fertilizer in 
the market. 
Mrs. C. C.—Yes; ammonia will act as a stim¬ 
ulant to roses grown in pots or in open ground. 
A tablespoonful of spirits of ammonia, put into 
a pailful of water and then applied to the soil 
about the roots or sprinkled over the leaves, will 
be beneficial. Apply two or three times a week. 
If the pot roses are severely pruned after bloom¬ 
ing, it will cause new shoots to push out upon 
which tho flowers are produced. 
E. V. R .—Five feet is altogether too much 
cane to leave upon climbing and other roses 
when transplanted, unless in cases where a ball 
of earth can bo left about the roots. If your 
plants are still green, cut them down to within a 
foot of the ground, and new shoots will probably 
spring out from adventitious buds near the roots. 
In transplanting roses on their own roots, we 
generally cut them down nearly to tho ground, 
depending npon new shoots for our future bush. 
Dr. A. A. A.—So good an authority on fowls 
as Teoetmeir does not mention the Blaek Java 
fowl, but iu one of onr American books we find 
the following brief description of this breed: 
“ This species of birds are said to be among the 
most valuable breeds of this country, and are 
frequently described as Spanish fowls. Their 
plumage is of a black or dark-auburn color; legs 
large and thick ; single comb and wattles. They 
are prolific layers, their eggs being large and 
as well flavored as those of the Black Spanish. 
They are a perfectly hardy breed and easily rear¬ 
ed. 1 ’ The above description points very closely 
to the Black Spanish, and wo conclude that they 
are really not a distinct breed. 
L. J. D .—The sprir or shrub with mu, all white 
flowers, is the common Graceful Dcatzia (Deuf- 
iia gracilis), it m u very pretty, hardy Bhrub, 
seldom growing more than from eighteen to 
twenty-four inch' ? high. It blooms in spring or 
early ru- oner, and in readily propagated by cut- 
I ting or didst'in of the clumps or old plants. 
, J. W. A'.- - You can hasten the decay of the 
illof tl 1 -o whose skeleton you desire to 
pre,"curve, by putting the entire carcass into a 
potash bath or by burying it in moist, or wet ashes 
or lime. Either will dissolve the flesh rapidly 
and not injure the bones, unless they are loft in 
until long after the fleshy particles are destroyed. 
I). J. B .—The grain sent as ** Nevada Rye,” is 
not a rye, but a large, coarse kind of wheat. We 
figured and described this pretended new cereal 
in the Rural New-Yorker for Dec. 18, 1869, 
under the name of “Montana Rye.” We also 
tested it, at tho time, in tho Rural’s Experi¬ 
mental Grounds, and found that it was not 
adapted to this climate, the grain in most cases 
being false or abortive. Of course, the thing 
will come up every year as something new, and 
tho same old stories in regard to its origin will 
be repeated. Sometimes it waB found in the 
craw of a goose, then growing wild iu Montana, 
Nevada, or other out-of-the-way corners of the 
Western country. In fact, almost any marvelous 
or ridiculous story will help to sell the seed 
among farmers who think agricultural journals 
are of no use, and hence neglect to subscribe for, 
or read one or more. 
S. M. JJ. —The leaf and flowers sent were so 
badly broken that we caunot make out the spe¬ 
cies. The cactus is MamtniUaris stella-aurata, 
or yellow “Star-cactus,” because the little white 
spines are star-shaped. 
Wrn. 1\. McK.— Yes, you may well ask, “why 
don't the wanufacturers of the egg-carrier ad¬ 
vertise ?" We might answer the question, if this 
was our conundrum oolumn, hut as it is not, we 
“give it up.” There are men who oan make 
good and useful articles, but fail to sell them 
and get rich, for the simple reason that they fail 
to let the world know what they are doing. 
Mrs. G. M. —The sample of wool sent would 
bo a good merchantable article if cleaned, but 
as it is you would have to sell it very low. Try 
some dealer in Hartford or New Haven, as we 
do not happen to know the address of any one 
in this city dealing in such qualities of wool. 
Willie Griswold. —The temperature of boiling 
water can only be increased by augmenting the 
pressure upon it. Consequently, the heat of boil¬ 
ing water in a vessel, if exposed to the air, iB not 
increased by piling more fuel under it; the only 
effect of this iB to canse a moro rapid generation 
of steam. If the escape of tho eteam is, how¬ 
ever, checked or prevented by a cover, it presses 
more forcibly on the interior of the vessel and 
tho surface of the water, and in consequonce 
the temperature of tho latter rises. But as soon 
as the pressure is removed, the temperature 
sinks to about 212’ , which is the ordinary heat 
I of boiling water at the Bea level. 
