THE BUBAL WEW-YOBKEB. 
©8T. 2? 
CONDUCTED BY EMILY MAPLE 
THAT VEXED QUESTION—THE FEATHER 
BED. 
A Correspondent writes as follows:—" I al¬ 
ways fool like protesting when I read anything 
against the health!illness or cleanliness of feath¬ 
ers. Having been brought up upon a farm, I 
have helped to pluck feathers many times, and 
have always considered that beds made from 
clean geese feathers, when not too full and when 
frequently well sunned and aired, wore perfectly 
clean. At all events, they are the beds for me. 
I never liavo had the curiosity to try any other, 
except during the Centennial time, and thou I 
could not bo a chooser. I am afraid that feath¬ 
ers are rather scarce with those who write ao 
much against them.”— Mrs. C. M. C. 
Tins communication recalled a discussion not 
long since, between a mother, her daughter and 
myself, upon the cleanliness of “ forty-year-old 
feathers.” I am not an advocate of feather beds 
neither myself nor any of my family sleeping 
upon them. My household boftste of hut one, 
and that is held sacred to Grandmamma's com¬ 
mand. 
“ There is no uao of talking, Mrs. Maple," 
said the mother, iu reply to something I said 
opposing the cleanliness of long-used feathers, 
I toll 3011 that my hods, with the care they have 
received, are perfectly neat., although many have 
been in use well-high forty years. The tickings 
upon some are now, others have been used 
eighteen years. Examine for yourself. Are 
they soiled—are they musty ? Caii you perceivo 
any unpleasant odor about them?" 
“And," said the daughter, "as far as tlieir 
healthfidnoss is concerned, do wo look as if wo 
had suffered from lying upon them those forty 
years ? Where can you dud more robust persons 
than father, mother, and myself?" 
These questions and many others followed in 
rapid succession, so earnest and eager were the 
questioners to convince me of my ignorance and 
foolish fastidiousness. Now, I was obliged to 
confess that to the 'naked eye, those beds were 
clean—to the sense of smell, odorless, and I am 
not aware that either my sight or olfactory powers 
have failed me. 
What cared they for a microscopic examina¬ 
tion ol the interior of those beds, or to compute 
mathematically the amount of impurities thrown 
off from the body during the night-timo of those 
forty years—a part of which must unavoidably 
be retained iu the beds. 
They were clean to their eyes — thev have 
sharp ones too—and the microscopic examina¬ 
tion they thought had best not he con lined to 
feather beds alone; it was too much like " strain- 
iug at gnats and swallowing camels." 
While decidedly agreeing with many of the ' 
Ruuai/s esteemed correspondents, upon the no- J 
oessity of cleaulinoss and purity m our sleeping < 
apartments, I cannot accept the cast-iron rules 1 
laid down by many of our hygienic writers. I * 
do not believe that feathers have wrought the * 
injurious effects attributed to them, or straw 1 
beds tho almost miraculous cures we read of. n 
Now, I believe that every woman seeB that her 1 
beds and bedding are kept clean, whether of 1 
straw', mattresses or feathers. 
If a larson has been accustomed to feathers 
all of his life, ho finds it difficult to rest if fur¬ 
nished with a hard bed and, vice versa. As the 
majority of persons now-a-days, 6 leep upon hard 
beds, would it not be as well to banish feathers ° 
from tho guest-chamber, where they have so ° : 
long held reign in many of onr country homes, ° 
to the garret to romain until called for ? Should 81 
this be acted upon, I believe there would ho less a 
grumbling and fault-finding over uncleanly 
feather beds. 
Mutton Chops. 
irim neatly, season, and dip each chop in¬ 
to a beaten egg and then in cracker crumbs ; 
— put into the oven in a dripping-pan with two 
spoonfuls of butter and a little water; baste 
frequently and bake until well browned. 
Breakfast Dish. 
I- Chop fine as much cold beef or mutton as is 
g required ; add a pint, moro or loss, of good soup- 
stock; season with popper, salt and ground 
I cloves; thicken with browned flour and pour 
d boiling hot over little bits of nicely toasted 
a bread. Garnish with shoes of lemon and 6erve 
1 at once. 
■’ Carrot s. 
This wholesome vegetable makes an appetizing 
j dinner dish when prepared as follows: Was)” 
scrape, cut the carrots lengthwise and boil 
until very tender, which will take from an hour 
‘ I and a ,,alf to two hours. When done, slice the 
! carrots very thin into a sauce-pan with one or 
- two tablespoonfuls of butter and a small cup of 
I cream—if milk is used, thicken a very little with 
[ corn-starch, add pepper, salt and cook about ten 
minutes ; serve in a covered vegetable dish. 
Cranberry Sauce. 
Wabh thoroughly and remove any imperfect 
f 1 nit; pour boiling water over the berries and 
lot them stand ten minutes, thon pour off the 
water, and to each pound of fruit add three- 
quarters of a pound of sugar and a half pint 
of watei ; cook iu porcelain over a moderate 
fire for fifteen minutes, or until soft ; keep the 
dish well covered and do not rtir the fruit 
but occasionally shako ; turn into a deep dish 
and set aside to cool. 
Potted Beef. 
Take a piece of lean beef weighing five pounds 
and free it from the skin and gristle; put in a 
covered stone jar with a half teacupful of 
water and stand the jar into a kottlo of boiling 
water to boil from live to six hours; see that 
the water docs not boil into tLo jar. When 
done, take it Up and cut into shreds; then pound 
in a mortar with a seasoning of pepper, suit and 
ground cloves. Whon smooth and like paste, 
mix with it ten ounces of clarified butter; press 
into little jarR, pom- butter over the top and 
tie down for use. 
Baked Apple Dumplings. 
These wo think very nieo and superior to those 
boiled or steamed. Itoll thin any nice puff 
paste and cut into Equate pieces. Pare and re¬ 
move the cores from nice stowing apples and 
roll an apple in each piece of paste; put them 
into a baking dish, brush them with the white 
of au egg beaten stiff and sift sugar over them. 1 
Bslio about three-quarters of an hour and serve 
with wine sauce or milk and sugar, flavored 
with vanilla. 
Lemon Cake. 
One enp of butter; two cups of sugar; five 
eggs beaten separately; the grated rind and 
juice of one lemon; one enp of sweet milk; I 
ono-half teaspoonftil of soda ; one of cream of 1 
tartar and three cups of ilonr. Beat the butter 1 
and sugar together, add the juice and rind of 1 
the lemon, then the yelks, milk and flour with 6 
tho cream-of- tartar; stir all well together and B 
add the whites and soda dissolved in a teaspoon- ^ 
fu! of water, the last thing. Bake iu rather a 
hot oven. n 
of citron; two and one-half pounds of raisins; 
two and one-half pounds of enrrants ; one-half 
gill of brandy and one-half teaspoonful of sal- 
eratns. 
A Bad Recipe. 
The recipe " How to make buckwheat cakes,” 
was placed in this department last, week without 
having been submitted to Mrs. Maple. She 
writes that she has tried the recipe and finds it 
worthless and begs us to make the above ex¬ 
planation.— Eds. 
jlrifnfiftr anti feful. 
SOMETHING AEOUT LIME. 
BY ENOCH SPENCER. 
DOMESTIC RECIPES. 
Baked Potatoes 
Lake as many potatoes as are required, and 
when done remove a small piece from one end 
to allow them to stand, and from the other end 
quite a slice; carefully remove the inside with 
a spoon and mash thoroughly; put into a stew- 
pan, on the back of the range, with pepper salt, 
a spoonful of butter and one of grated cheese 
to every three good-sized potatoes and add boiling 
nulk as for those mashed; when heated re¬ 
fill the potato shells, grate cheese over tha»top 
and placo iu a hot oven to brown. 
Sweet Pot at 00s. 
These we find excellent roasted with beef. 
First steam until almost done; remove the skins 
hahe if large, and bake in tho pan with the 
roast meat; baste often with the drippings. 
Stuffed Cabbage. 
Cut out the heart from a good-sized cabbage 
and fin with a stuffiing made of any nice cooked 
moat, lmeiy chopped and highly seasoned ; tie 
a cloth around the cabbage and boil iu slightly 
salted water about two hours. 
We are indebted to Miss Alice Demarest, 
River Edge, N. J., for the following: 
Remedy tor a Cough 
One ounce of elecampane root; one ounce 
of wild cherry bark; one ounce of comfrey root; 
one ounce of hoarhound. Boil welliu two quarts 
of water ; add one pound of brown sugar; strain 
and add one pint of the best spirits. Take half 
a wineglass three times a day. 
Piccalilli 
Slice one peck of green tomatoes and stew 
a pint of salt through them; let this stand 
twenty-four hours, then drain, and add three 
heads of cabbage, twelve onions and six green 
peppers all chopped fine. Boil three quarts of 
vinegar, one pint of molasses, one pint of sugar, 
one cup of whole mustard, one tablespoonful 
each of ground cloves and allspice together and 
throw hot over the above. 
French Toast, 
Beat four eggs until very light and add one 
pint of milk ; slice thin some bakers' bread; dip 
each piece into the egg and milk and fry brown ; 
sprinkle powdered sugar and cinnamon upon 
each piece and serve hot. 
Cream Sponge Cake, 
Beat two eggB iu a coffee cup until light and 
then fill the cup with sweet cream ; add one enp 
of sugar; one-half teaspoonful of soda; odo 
oi cieaiu-of-tartar and one and one-half cup of 
flour. Should sour cream be used, omit the 
cream-of-tartar. 
Fruit Cake 
Three-fourths of a pound of butter; one 
pound of sugar ; one pound of flour; eight eggs 
one cup of molasses; two teaspoonfuls each of 
cinnamon, cloves and allspice ; one-half pound 
>r Lime has been know from the remotest ages, 
if and has long been used in agriculture, although 
h it was not until the commencement of this cen- 
n tury that it was shown by Sir Humphrey Davey, 
to be a compound of oxygen and a metal to 
which lie gave tho name of calcium, in tho 
t proportion of 28.09 parts of the former to 71-01 
d of the latter. Neither the metal ncr its oxide 
e occurs in nature, in au unoombined state, but 
compounds, or salt:-, are found abundantly, 
^ and are, all of them, of more or Jess importance 
e to Uw practical farmer. Combined with sul,- 
e plniric acid, it becomes a sulphate and it is called 
gypsum or plaster of Paris, so that this is made 
^ up of sulphur, oxygen and calcium. When in 
a crystalline form it is named alabaster, and 
when combined with carbonic add it becomes 
a carbonate and is chalk in one form and vaiiou 
8 forms of limestone in another, and wlrencrys- 
a Utilized, it is marble. 
f When heated in a properly constructed kiln, 
' carbonate of lime is decomposed, its car- 
1 bonic acid being driven off in the state of gas. 
1 and tho lime left as a porous mass. Lime so 
j burned is calb-il " quick" lime. If brought in 
• contact with water, it rapidly absorbs and unites 
1 with it, forming a definite compound to which 
| chemists have given the name of hydrate of 
l lime,—from the Greek word bydor, signifying 
water,—but w hich is ordinarily known as slacked 
lime. In the combination of water with lirno 
a heat of 300° Ccntegrade is produced, a 
heat sufficiently intense to char or ignit e many 
combustible bodies. The quantity of water 
that actually combines with lime in slacking is 
nine parts to twenty-eight and a half parts°ol' 
lime. Consequently in the process, lime be¬ 
comes heavier by rather more than one- 
third its original weight. Whon lumps of quick 
lime are exposed to tho air, they gradually ab¬ 
sorb moisture from it, and fall to pieces’ and 
in course of time, the formation of the hydrate 
is complete, or, in ordinary language, the lime 
is slacked, 'i bis spontaneous slacking is a slow 
I process, but the product is much more finely 
j pulverized than when water is thrown on the 
burned lime, and on this account it is always 
the best method of applying lime to the 
soil. Tho rlucked lime is very sparingly 
soluble iu wa ter, and cold water solves more 
of it than warm, as water at 32 c , the freez¬ 
ing point, is capable of dissolving twice as 
much lime as water at 212°, [ho boiling point. 
When lime is mixed with water, it has the 
property of absorbing carbonic acid gas from 
the atmosphere, which is known by a scale 
forming oil the vessel that contains it. It is 
I this quality of the hydrate of lime that makes 1 
it a good disinfectant; for it gives up its oxy- , 
gen and embraces the injurious carbonic acid , 
gas. Quicklime loses its property of mixing well , 
with water to form a mortar, when it becomes j 
old, if it has been exposed ; for tho carbonate of t 
lime thus formed, is wholly or only very , 
slightly soluble in water. 
Lime in its different forms, is a great civilizer, „ 
and it is kind in Providence to have made it so 
abundant, it is used for building our houses, j 
raising our food, bleaching our clothes, and £ 
dyeing some of the most beautiful colors. It v 
is uned as a (lux in tho sepai at ion of metals from y 
their ores, and the glass-maker uses it in his art. 
As a carbonate it comes out from the artist’s 
studio a thing of beauty, or an enduring repre¬ 
sentation of those who are or have been, while as 
a sulphate and phosphate, it is a beneficent 
godsend to the tillers of the soil. 15 
bone of the tail which plumbs the line with 
the hinder part of the buttock; direot the lino 
along the back to the fore part of the shoulder 
blade; take the dimensions on tho foot rule as 
before, which is the length; and work tho fig¬ 
ures in tho following manner: Girth of the 
bullock, say six feet four inches; leDgth, five feet 
three incites ; which multiplied together, make 
31 square superficial feet; and that mul¬ 
tiplied by 23 (this number of pouudB allowed 
to each superficial foot of cattle measuring less 
than seven and more than five feet in girth, j, dm ko 
1 13 pounds. Where tho animal measures less 
than 9 and moro than 7 in girth, 31 is the num¬ 
ber of pounds to each superficial foot. Again 
suppose a pig or any small beast should measure 
two feet iu girth, and two nlong the back 
which multiplied together, make 4 square feet- 
that multiplod by 11 , the number of pounds 
allowed each square foot of cattle measuring 
less than 3 feet iu girth, make 41 pounds 
Again, suppose a calf, a sheep, Ac., shonld 
measure 4 feet G inches in girth, and 3 feet 
9 inches in length, which multiplied together 
make Vo}i square feet; that multiplied by 
10, the number of pounds allowed to alt cattle 
measuring less than five feet, and moro than 
3 In girth, makes 2G5 pounds. The dimensions 
of tho gn th and length of black cattle, sheep 
calves, or hogs may be as exactly taken this way 
as it is at all necessary for any computation or 
iiny valuation of stock, and will answer exactly 
to the four quarters, sinking tho offal, a sum 
which every man, who can get even a bit of 
cnalk can easily figure. 
IX L 
’ RURAL SPECIAL REPORTS. 
i Dei-'t. of AGMCTLTtjRE, Atlanta, Ga. 
, Crossino of tho common sheep with the Mer- 
< ino wiu abou t double tho weight of fleece, and 
1 add fl % Per cent to the maikct value, tusk¬ 
ing it much more salable. 
Judicious crossing on our Georgia hogs with 
l approved breeds, such as the Bcikehire, will 
greatly improve their fattening qualities, induc¬ 
ing more rapid growth and earlier maturity. 
Unremitting attention shonld bo given to the 
bogs intended for killing this winter. They 
should low be rapidly fattening and the "find 
goeid cold spell ” should find them ready for tho 
hog killing. ’ Any stinting now is the poorest 
sort of economy. 
(Htor lc of all kinds should be in good condition 
at the beginning of winter. It is very difficult 
and expensive to bring them into good flesh in 
cold weather. Let them have access to the 
gleanings of the fields as promptly ns possible. 
In tho moan time every effort t-houM be made to 
postpone the continuous daily drafts on tho corn 
and fodder already housed, or to be gathered, as 
long as possible. When fields cannot bo pas¬ 
tured by mules and cattle, let pea vines from tho 
fields and the luxuriant gra-.se* that spring and 
glow in waste places, Ac., bo cut and fed regu- 
laily to them in their stalls and feeding places. 
Economize now, while plenty is around you, 
by consuming with your stock, that which will 
otherwise soon go to waste and decay. 
■- - 
El Dorado, Cal., Oct. S. 
Everything is very dry in California, dryer 
than any one has known it for years. Last win¬ 
ter was almost tt drought and as a consequence, 
wells aud streams which were never dry before 
aro all dry now. It is impossible to get irtiga- 
ting water. Fruit lias only turned out half a 
crop. Peaches however, were fiuo, and a good 
crop. Pears were extra good. Bartletts are 
tbe favorite pear of California, we had many 
weighing a pound and over this summer. Apples 
aro nearly an entire failure as were cherries. 
In the flower garden I never saw such poor 
flowers. They are literally dried up even when 
watered. We will soon commence to gather iu 
what few apples there are this year: 
w. c. L. D. 
TO ASCERTAIN THE WEIGHT OF LIVE 
CATTLE. 
It is often important for those who are not 
experienced judges by the eye, to have some 
mean* beanies the scales of ascertaining the 
weight of cuttle while Jiving, and by following 
these approved directions this can bo done 
within a mere trifle. 
Take a string, put it around the breast, 
stand square, just behind the shoulder blade ; 
measure on a foot rule the feet and inches the 
animal is in circumference; this is called the 
girth; then, with the btirng, measure from the 
Grand Island, Neb. Oct. 11 . 
Grand Island is situated on the Union Pacific 
R. R., 153 miles west of Omaha, near the Platte 
River. Crops are very fine. Wheat averages 
about fifteen bushels per acre; corn is a very 
large crop. At the Fair, held last week at this 
place, the premium corn was twenty ears of 
Dent, which weighed thirty-five pounds. Oats 
are a large crop; so are rye and barley. Pota¬ 
toes, a fair crop. Market pi ices arc as follows : 
Wheat, 75 to 85o.; potatoes, 20 to 25c.; corn, 15 
to 20c. for 79 lbs., on cob; oats, 20c.; butter, 18 
to 20c.; eggs, 15c. h. e. 
--- 
Bellefonte, Pa., Oct. is. 
In the Bellefonte, Rep. of Oct, 17th, I sec an 
article taken from your paper, the subject of 
which is " Walking Horses," at the end of which 
