233 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
OCT.43 
Bomfstir (f ronomi). 
s ^ 
CONDUCTED BY EMILY MAPLE 
PITHS. 
Don’t brag. 
Be attentive to the aged. 
If you make a promise, keep it. 
Church is not the place for display. 
Hard water become* nearly soft by boiling. 
Do not eat pie with a knife. 
An untidy person cannot, make good butter. 
Never condemn until both side* of a story 
are heard. 
Chairs were made to stand upon four legs 
not upon two. 
Tea or coffee should be drank from the cup 
not from the saucer. 
If those persons who use hair-oil would sit 
upright instead of resting their heads against 
the wall-paper, much mortification and trouble 
might bo spared their friends. 
DOMESTIC RECIPES, 
Oj'StRI*. 
We presume there is Jittlc need of giving 
any recipes for stewed or fried oysters—the two 
commonest ways of cooking—yet, let us say that 
if Btewed in their own liquor without milk or 
water the flavor of the oyster is best preserved. 
If milk is liked in the Soup it is better nut to 
boil it with the oysters, but put into the tureen 
a few spoonfuls of thin cream or milk before 
pouring in the oysters. Seasoned and gently 
simmered in their own liquor until almost dry 
and served with catsup makes a nice change, 
or cook until about half of the liquor is ab¬ 
sorbed ; toast well some thin slices of light 
bread, butter and cut into Jittlo squares, pour 
over them the liquor, lay an oyster on each 
piece, garnish with parsley and serve very hot 
To Fry. c 
Pom- the oysters and liquor into a pan of 
cracker crumbs, season, mold into little cakes, 
dip into a beaten egg and fry. 
Cooked on the Hall-Shell. 
Open and remove any bits of shells, season 
with peper, salt, butter and one-half teaspoon- 
ful of catsup : bake in a hot oven from twenty 
minutes to one-half hour and serve on the 
shell. 
s, -“~ ! Oyster Short-Cake. I 
k. This is very nice, and the pastry can be made 
as for any other short-cake- While the cake 
is baking, boil one quart of oysters with half 
a cup of water, half a cup of miik and half a cup 
of butter, season with pepper, salt and thicken 
with a spoonful of corn-starch. When the cake 
is done split open and *prcad the oysters between 
tho pieces and some on top. 
Oyster Omelet. 
This differs from egg omelet only by adding 
one dozen of finely chopped oysters with a little 
parsley to every half-dozen of eggs used. 
Beans and Oysters. 
Boil beans until ready for baking, season 
plentifully with butter, pepper, salt and little 
bits of pork if liked; put a layer of the beaus 
into quite a deep baking dish, then a layer of 
raw oysters and so on uutil the dish is nearly 
full ; pour over ateacupfnlof the oyster liquor 
and bake one hour. 
Oyster Pie. 
Make pastry and lino a deep dish ; put a layer 
of oysters at tho bottom, season with bits of 
butter, salt, peper and catsup, then a layer of 
cracker crumbs; so continue until the dish is 
filled; pour in the strained juice and cover with 
pastry leaving an opening in the center to allow 
the steam to escape. 
—* Picklud Oysters. 
Simmer over a gentle fire, in their own liquor 
■with a small piece of butter, five minutes; 
skim out the oysters and add to the liquor an 
equal quantity of good cider vinegar, put a 
layer of oysters into a stono jar, sprinkle with 
spice, then oysters and spice until all are used ; 
pour over the boiling vinegar and keep in a cool 
place. 
Farmer's Wife, Elkhorn, Wisconsin, ploaso 
accept thanks for tho three following : 
Baked Pork. 
Soak a piece of nice fat pork, either in sweet 
or sour milk over night; then rinse off the 
milk, boil it a few minutes to freshen it, and 
chock off the riud with a knife; place it in a pie- 
tin in the oven on a couple of sticks; pom a 
little water iu the dish and baste it now and 
then; bake slowly two hours. This makes a 
nice change from fried pork, and is good, either 
warm or cold. 
Droppod Eggs. 
Place a Ehallow dish on the stove, with 
enough boiling water to cover the eggs ; remove 
the shells and drop the eggs in carefully so that 
they will not touch ; leave them in the water a 
longer or shorter time, as they are liked cooked j 
hard or soft; this is easily told by the looks; take 
them out with a skimmer bo as to keep the eggs 
whole; butter, salt and pepper each and you 
will have a nice-looking and ■wholesome dish. 
The dish the cggB are cooked in must not bo set. 
where the water will boil after the eggs are in, 
aB the agitation of tho water will tear the eggs 
Into pieces. These directions seem simple, but 
I have seen so many who could not do it that I 
thought I would give my way. 
To Polish Plat-irons. 
When the irons are quite hot rub a piece of 
beeswax lightly over the surface of each iron, 
then rub smartly on a woolen cloth. This re¬ 
moves all rust and makes the iron work smooth¬ 
ly. Many keep a flannel cloth at hand and 
polish their irons weekly before commencing 
to iron. 
Will Emily Maple please tell me bow to make 
pot-pies with light dumplings ? I am partial to 
pot-pies but Lave never been able to make dump¬ 
lings fit for my family to eat.— F. J. G. Jhms- 
vUle. 
I DO not know that my recipe is better than 
any one’s else, but I do know that if carefully 
followed tliere is little need of failure. Cook 
any moat suitable for a pot-pie until quite ten¬ 
der, then season, add the potatoes and see that 
there is water enough to keep from burning; 
when the stew again boils add tho dmnplmg 
made as follows : Sift two and one-half heaping 
teaspoonfuls of baking-powder and a little salt, 
with one quart of flour ; mix with milk only stiff 
enough to handle, and form into a round roll 
almost as t hick as the wrist. Wipe tho kettle at 
tho top of the stow with a clean cloih to remove 
tho grease and press the roll, of dough tightly to 
all sides of the lot He just at the top of the liquor; 
the dough must not go under, and it must be 
put into the kettle as soon as made; cover and 
cook one-half hour. Rural friends will oblige 
by giving the above recipe a fair trial and writ¬ 
ing to us just what they think of it. 
NEBRASKA. 
Orleans, Neb. 
Glad to welcome you upon Nebraska soil. 
You are welcome to an aocount of my six years' 
experience, to aid yon iu starting. Your first 
care is the selection of a location. The eastern 
part of the State has been tried and proven to 
lie well adapted to agriculture. My Nebraska 
Farmer advertises a farm for sale having 
'• forty acres iu bearing orchard.” It has 
yielded “nine thousand bushels of fruit in a 
tiuglo season.” The western portion of the 
State, however, lias not been thoroughly tested 
for fruit. If you are ono of those unfortunates 
who cannot handle stock with any degree of 
success, yon may desire to make grain raising 
a specialty, iu which case you will probably buy 
a partly Improved farm lying contiguous to a 
railroad. Graiu can be raised with profit here 
as far from the seaboard as one can get. Dis¬ 
tance from market is overbalanced by ease of 
production. 
The most profitable branch of industry is 
stook raising. If you want a stock farm, you 
can afford to drop back from the railroad, for 
the cost of transporting a thousand dollars in 
beeves, mutton, pork or wool a hundred miles, 
is very small indeed. A farm “ every foot of 
which you can plow” is not the best for stock. 
Let some of it bo broken land. The draws and 
valleys form tho richest pasturage : the bluffs 
and timber afford natural protection, agreeable 
both in summer and winter. Let your stock-range 
lie along a stream of water whose banks are 
fringed with timber that beside shelter for stock, 
will furnish you fuel and numberless conven¬ 
iences. Tho stream may, some day, be utilized 
for working up your wool, as it is now for manu¬ 
facturing native lumber and grinding your 
grain. Our advantages for stock raising are: 
first, cheap lands: second, abundance of rich 
pasturgo: third, cheap graiuB : fourth, good 
hay at tho cost of cutting : fifth, stock need but 
little feeding: sixth, a climate so adapted to 
stock that there is a wonderful immunity from 
virulent disease. 
On Senator Paddock’s farm, a flock of 1,500 
sheep are carried through the summer at a cost 
of $30 per month, iucludiug everything but shear¬ 
ing. The av erage price of wool in the State, the 
past season, has been twenty cents per pound in 
the dirt. Hay cents $2 per ton and corn Jobs 
than 25 cents per bushel. Mr. A. D. R., au 
experienced llock-master, believes that ho can 
get his money back every year and have the 
fiockou which he Btarts beside. In this cattle¬ 
growing region there are almost daily inquiries 
by customers for young stock. 
Let me suggest a new branch of industry 
to eastern capitalists. “ There’s millions in it.” 
Fanning implements, from a corn-plow- costing 
$25, to a header costing $300, are sold to our 
farmers on. time, on notes accompanied by 
property statements. Let capitalists import 
sheep from Iowa and Missouri, and sell them 
on time in small Jots to farmers. I am con¬ 
fident I conld sell $100,000 worth of sheep 
within the next six months, and get ample se¬ 
curity for every Jot sold. Do yon ask what you 
could do with twenty-five sheep? Let eight or 
ten small lots be thrown together and attached to 
a cow herd for summering. When the herd 
break* up late in the fall, take your sheep home 
and enjoy them until after they have dropped 
their lambs, aud you have taken the coupons 
from their backs. What shall you do with your 
Block where fences are unknown ? Rejoice that 
breachy cattle cannot annoy yon. Ample oor- 
rals are not very expensive. These are used 
during nights, storms, and on some day* in the 
winter. If yonr Btock is too small to warrant 
employing a herder, keep your cows, that are 
to furnish milk and butter for the family, re¬ 
strained by sixty-feet lariat ropes, changing 
their pasture ground once a day. It is less 
work than hunting the bush pasture for them. 
Put young stock in herd*, paying $1 00 per 
bead for the season. If you have fifty head, 
or more, make it the nucleus of a herd ; gather 
in others in sufficient numbers to pay all ex¬ 
penses of herding : put a wide-a-wako boy on a 
mustang, give him a sharp dog and sing “ Be¬ 
gone dull care.” No fences to make or repair. 
It does not follow that because you area stock- 
man you shiftild not raise grain. Quite the re¬ 
verse. As your stock increases, you will need to 
increase your acreage of grain for home con¬ 
sumption. ITog* are profit* Mo here, as well as 
sheep and cattle. Hogs demand grain. It i* 
estimated that under favorable circumstances, 
when corn is worth 25c. per bushel, it can be 
turned into pork at tho rate of So. per pound. 
But you must have a house. Build a cheap 
one for the present, putting tho surplus funds 
in stock ; then build a belter one at your leisure. 
Build a sod house, will you? Select some low- 
ground where the sod is tough, put two teams 
to the breaking plow-; put it down four or five 
inches, and turn sods evenly ono foot in width ; 
also a sharp upade, aud cut tho sods into strips 
three feet in length. Commence your wall by 
laying sods (always turf-side down) crosswise of 
your wall until your have gone once around. By 
paring and beating with the spado, make the top 
uniformly smooth ; fill tho interstice* with loose 
earth; then lay soils lengthwise of your wall, 
three abreast; alternate break joints, especially 
at the corners ; keep the top always smooth until 
the wall has been completed ; then smooth both 
the out and inside. Plaster tho inside with clay; 
whitewash, and you have a comfortable, neat, 
and cheap room. For a cheap roof, cover with 
boards—cottonw-ood are as good as any—then 
put on about three or four iuches of clay. Let 
vines clamber over tbe walls and portulacaa cover 
the roof, and your aesthetic,al taste will not suffer 
for a year or two. If you can afford shingles, do 
so, aud build a capacious cistern before your 
wife thinks of it. For this, use a barrel of ce¬ 
ment—plaster on the earth walls. For a perma¬ 
nent house, use lumber, brick, ooncrote, or stone. 
Granite, limestone and sandstone are abundant 
here. 
Now-for opening up tbe farm. If you intend 
to run two teams, get a gang-plow aud discharge 
the hired hand. For once discard the old adage, 
“ Plow deep while sluggards sleep,” etc. Two 
inches is deep enough. Alternate wetting aud 
drying, together with baking in the sun, will rot 
the sod on shallow plowiug aud kill tho roots 
sooner than on deep plowing. If it is buffalo- 
grass sod, break any time when the ground is 
wet enough. 1 f blue-joint, break arter the grass 
has well started iu tho spring uutil July. Ground 
broken early may be planted to vines or to corn, 
ueeding no care until gathered. Fifteen bushels 
is a good yield of 6eed corn. Ground broken as 
late as August should be planted to corn without 
re-plowing tho ensuing season. Tut in a variety 
of crops, for if you fail ip ono you may succeed 
in another. If your breaking has been done iu 
May aud Juno, in September yon may rebrealc, 
putting tbe plow an iuch or two deeper than at 
first. When you harrow-, drive one team aud 
lead tho other. Put iu grain with a seeder or 
drill, ride the drill or seeder, and lead the other 
team attached to a harrow. At the third plowing, 
use the stirring plows aud go deeper. In har¬ 
vesting, use a self-biuder, and yourself and hoy 
will get away with a hundred acre harvest with 
but little commotion, either in the field or house. 
It. H. Crane. 
--—-— 
Humboldt, Tenn„ Oct. 3, 1877 . 
We are still having rain suflicient to keep the 
ground in good plowing order, and more wheat 
will be sown than usual. The new- cotton crop 
is beginning to come into market at 10 to 11 
cents per pound. Wheat $1 per busheL Apples 
scarce, 50 cents to $1 per bushel for common to 
choice. Sweet and Irish, potatoes, a fair crop, 
50 cents per bushel. Country bacon, 7 to 9 cents. 
Corn shelled, 50 cents; new- crop will sell from 
25 to 35 cents per bushel. Hay $10 to $12 per 
ton. Tobacco crop good average. Cotton later 
opening than usual, considered hardly an average 
crop. Too much rain, and bad cultivation. The 
weather is now favorable: if frosts keep off 20 
days—will probably make a fair average. The 
sorghum crop will save several thousand dollars 
to our county; 30 to 40 cents per gallon. Stock 
peas very line, will yield 5 to 10 tons per acre 
when cut for hay. Turnip crop promises well. 
B. F. Farmer. 
-»-«■■»—-- 
Rural Grounds, Oct. 6. 
A lively frost last night—the first. 
m 
u 
(Qumsf, 
ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
Philip Esob, New York. —I find in one of 
your last papers, an advertisement of cheap Rail- 
Itoad Lauda to sell. I sent for their circulars, 
and got a paper, map, Am., and in the Pioneer I 
find something about Homesteads. Now-, will 
you please lot me know how I am to apply, to 
whom and when; and will there bo any other 
expenses than tho paper says? I mean the 
ground that tho Government gives away for 
nothing. Is it a good thing to go aud work it? 
Would the risk he too great ? By answering 
these questions you will greatly oblige. 
Ans.—T be advertiser is an agent for a rail¬ 
road company who have most likely received 
their grant from the government. Tho advan¬ 
tage of buying such land* i* that you enjoy any 
facilities that a rail-road offer*. The companies 
are liberal as to terms, because tbe more thickly 
they can colonize their territory, the greater will 
be tho profit yielded by the road. It is usual to 
offer a free passage to those who propose to 
settle, and if yon will make direct inquiries of 
tho advertiser you will, doubtless, receive the 
most complete information attainable. The 
government demands no payment for its lands, 
Stipulating only that the pre-emptor shall fence 
and work his claim. The department of the In¬ 
terior, Washington, will send you information on 
the subject free. Aa to the rixk, Hint depends 
altogether upon your judgement in selecting 
good land in a desirable locality. 
JJ. It. 8., Fort Hunter, Pa. —1. Can I feed 
a cow on the produce of three-fourths of an acre 
by soiling ou good ground ? What and when 
slionld I sow, the land being moist aud sandy ? 
How often should a cow bo fed each day, and 
how much feed should be duily given to her? 
Perhaps I could keep her on less laud ? 
2. Is there a mill made to grind corn fine 
enough for family use, also to do chopping for 
stock feeding, and if so. by whom is it manufac¬ 
tured ? 
Ans.—T o carry on soiling successfully the laud 
must bo in the richest possible condition so as to 
insure quick and large growths. Three-quarters 
of an acre might be made to keep a cow by soil¬ 
ing with an additional feed each day of shorts ; 
this would be found to be economical, as the 
cow would do enough better to pay for the extra 
expense. 
Preparations should be made this fall for next 
year’s experiment by putting in one-fourth of an 
acre of rye. This can ho fed in tho spring as 
soon aB large enough to be cut, and as fast as a 
portion of tbe patch has the crop taken off, it 
should be sowed with oats which, in turn, can 
bo fed before corn could be large enough ; and 
the ground upon which the oats grew should, as 
fast as the oats are removed, be put down to 
millet for fall feeding. The balance of tho piece 
—the remaining two quarters of an acre—should 
be planted with coru sowed in drills, which 
should bo cut immediately following tho cats, 
aud which Bhould last until the millet is grown. 
As fast as tho corn ia cut np, flat turnips and 
rutabagas should be put in to succeed the millet. 
The corn will produce the largest amount of 
feed for tho ground occupied. If any should he 
left by the time frost cornea, it should he cut and 
carefully dried, or it will be nearly worthless. If 
cured before the frost touches it. it can he fed 
any time with profit. The same ia true of mil¬ 
let. Tho rutabagas aud turnips can be fed in 
tho later autumn or housed and fed in the win¬ 
ter. A cow would do well on shorts and turnips, 
with a very small allowance of hay or other for¬ 
age. How much shorts or meal the farmer of 
three-fourths of au acre should feed to his cow-, 
depends upon the amount of his crop and the 
degree of production which he desires from his 
cow. 
There are some burr-stone mills which will 
grind corn tine enough for family use ; aud there 
are also several kind* of machines made espo- 
cially to cut forage for stock. They can be had 
of almost any dealer in agricultural implements. 
The burr mills can be run by a two-horse power 
and the cutting machines by horse-power or by 
hand. Small-sized machines are mac’e to run 
P 
