i89o 
THE RURAL inEW-YORKHR 
43 
one to handle the candy without sticking. 
A deft touch, quick motions and a careful 
eye are essential to success. It is also nec¬ 
essary to have all of the ingredients of the 
best quality. Having conquered the first 
step, which is the making of the following 
described foundation (sometimes called the 
“ fondant ”), the rest is easy and the variety 
of your candies may depend largely upon 
your inventiveness. Some of the following 
I have never seen described. 
Most of the home-made candies are large¬ 
ly composed of “confectioner’s sugar,” but 
I doubt its purity and use only the regular 
granulated sort of the stores. I find it bet¬ 
ter, regardless of the amount of candy de¬ 
sired, to make only about a pound of the 
“ foundation ” at a time. 
The Foundation.—' Take one pound of 
granulated sugar, one half cup of boiling 
water, mix. Boil five minutes without 
stirring, Try it by dipping a straw into 
the mass. A drop will form on the end of 
the straw. After allowing a moment for 
cooling, if by touching with the finger it 
stretches out into a fine hair two inches 
long (called “hairing” or “feathering”) 
it is supposed to be done. Remove the 
sauce-pan from the fire and set it in a basin 
of cold water. Beat for five minutes, when, 
if it has cooked rightly, it should be a 
creamy mass capable of being worked into 
any desired shape. If it should prove too 
hard, add a little water and cook an instant 
longer, applying the same test. If too soft, 
cook a little more without the extra water. 
Flavors.— Any flavor may be easily in¬ 
corporated by simply dropping on the 
foundation and working in well with the 
fingers. 
Coloring.— For pink use a little cochi¬ 
neal coloring prepared by the druggist. 
For yellow, I take some yelk of egg and a 
little lemon juice, the proportions control¬ 
ling the shade. 
Chocolate Creams. —Work the fondant 
into balls of the desired size after flavoring. 
Melt the chocolate by putting in a cup set 
in boiling water. Drop the balls into the 
melted chocolate. Lift out immediately 
with two forks and drop on buttered paper. 
For variety, different flavors, colors and 
bits of nuts may be added to the balls be¬ 
fore dipping. 
Walnut Creams.— Flatten a piece of 
fondant into a circle shape and press one- 
half of a walnut into each side. By using 
the white, yellow and pink fondant a pretty 
variety is secured. 
Creamed Almonds. —Toast the meats in 
a moderate oven for about five minutes. I 
then cover them with the fondant and dip 
in granulated sugar. 
Candy Tarts. —Take balls of the fond¬ 
ant, make a deep indentation with the fin¬ 
ger and fill with any tart red, firm jelly. 
Cherry Drops.— California, large, white, 
preserved, stoned cherries are best for these. 
Flavor the fondant with a little of the 
juice. Fill the insides of the cherries with 
this and dip in granulated sugar. These 
are quite fine. 
Creamed Dates. —Remove the stones, 
fill the cavities with fondant. Roll in 
sugar. 
Pineapple Creams.— Take bits of pre¬ 
served pineapple and inclose in the fondant 
previously flavored with the juice. 
Peppermints.— Before the fondant be¬ 
comes stiff, when stirring, flavor with pep¬ 
permint oil, and drop from a spoon upon 
buttered paper. 
Checkermints may be made in the same 
way as peppermints, by coloring with 
cochineal and flavoring with checkerberry. 
Cocoanut Balls.— Use grated cocoanut; 
mix with the fondant and form into balls. 
All of these candies are better when a 
few days old. annie l. libby. 
A recent guest said that she had found 
vaseline undesirable as a shoe dressing 
from the fact that, let one apply ever so 
little, dust would adhere to the leather, 
thus giving the shoes a dingy appearance. 
She uses kerosene on her shoes and says 
that of all preparations she has tried she 
likes it the best. The odor soon evaporates 
and the leather is left clean and pliable. 
PICKING DUCKS AND GEESE. 
A S a reply to Mrs. H. F. N’s. request 
for plain directions for picking ducks 
and geese alive, perhaps I cannot do 
better than rather minutely to describe 
this process as it is carried on at a certain 
familiar farm where ducks are raised every 
yenr, “ Al\ hfliuts ” are called to drlya tlifi 
flock into the barn. This is a nice job, as 
the suspicious or too-wise old male who 
usually leads, is liable to make a break for 
liberty, when the whole flock will fly in 
every direction. “ Slow and careful ” is the 
word, and the oft-despised skirts of the 
women, and brooms in the hands of the 
skirtless masculines, are great aids to im¬ 
pede the progress of chance runaways. 
The picking must be done under cover, 
sheltered from the wind, or there will be 
great loss of feathers. The legs of the vic¬ 
tim are firmly grasped in tjie picker’s left 
hand, while the right with a skillful twist 
turns the bird’s body, and tucks'its head 
under the left arm. The picker then be¬ 
gins with the soft under feathers near 
the tail, using thumb and forefinger, and 
pulling with a quick motion towards 
himself. The operation is often made 
interesting through being accompanied 
at each Dull by a squawk from the 
imprisoned bird. Besides all the long 
and coarse feathers, a cluster of rather 
long, soft feathers under each wing, known 
as “ bolsters,” is left for its support, and 
one wing is clipped in order to facilitate 
the capture of the bird on the next similar 
occasion, which will occur as soon as the 
feathers are “ ripe ; ” that is, as soon as the 
blood is out of the quills. This will be in 
about five or six weeks, or sometimes a lit¬ 
tle less. 
At the same farm, a New York buyer’s 
instructions for dressing are followed and 
the poultry always sells for the highest 
price, and sometimes for an extra one. The 
flock is confined for 24 hours before killing, 
with water to drink, but without food, as 
food in the crop turns it blue, and spoils 
the sale. After it has been killed each bird 
is plunged into water that has come to a 
vigorous boil and been slightly cooled, and 
is soused under and lifted from the water 
several times to allow the water to pene¬ 
trate among the thick feathers. It is then 
rolled in a heavy cloth for five minutes, 
more or less, when it is ready for plucking. 
The feathers are taken in the same way as 
before, except that an effort is made to take 
all the down possible with them, care being 
taken not to tear the skin or flesh. The necks, 
wings, and legs are picked last. It is very 
slow, tedious work, but it must be well 
done, as upon the looks of the bird depends 
its sale. When clean, the carcass is 
“ plumped ” by quickly dipping it into hot 
and cold water alternately, three or four 
times. This is supposed to finish the pro¬ 
cess, but obstinate specimens which refuse 
to look clean, are sometimes hand-rubbed 
with a little sweet lard to render the down 
invisible. Though not familiar with the 
processes for geese, I should suppose they 
would be much the same. Some, who pre¬ 
fer to keep the feathers “live,” pluck all 
those suitable for pillows, etc., beforescald- 
ing. Judgment and practice must be com¬ 
bined in order to do the work to perfection. 
c. s. valentine. 
WORKING SYSTEMATICALLY. 
A NY business, to be successful, must be 
carried on systematically day after 
day, and although it is often extremely irk¬ 
some to keep this system up it pays in the 
long run. The man who in farming or in 
any other business; or the house-keeper 
who keeps everything done in its proper 
order and time, will never be caught in an 
embarrassing position because of accumu¬ 
lated work, for both have a time to do each 
duty and a place for every article they pos¬ 
sess. The performing of our work sys¬ 
tematically is surely not pleasant at all 
times; but the result is satisfactory, and 
yet how few there are who are willing or 
able to keep that system up day after day— 
to rise early, regularly and to go about their 
duties with unflagging energy. 
A great amount of labor does not always 
give the proper ret urns for the time expend¬ 
ed on it because of a lack of system. Many 
of us spend a great amount of time, energy 
and nerve-force every day on work that we 
might accomplish, and save the wear and 
tear on our constitutions, with half the 
effort by systematizing it. The fi?st step is 
to decide what we shall do, the next to 
plan how the thing we have decided upon 
shall be done to the best advantage, in sav¬ 
ing time ; for to save time is a great object 
with those who have to labor and are am¬ 
bitious beyond their means. 
To work systematically we must concen¬ 
trate our energies and use our strength and 
intellect and whatever powers we possess 
in such a way that we may get the best 
possible results from the least labor, 
whether mental or physical There are t wo 
ways to do everything- a right way and a 
yyfona; way. Take as m\ evample the 
sweeping of a room : one woman—the sys¬ 
tematic woman—carefully pins something 
over her hair to protect it from dust, then 
she covers or removes from the room all 
articles of furniture that dust will injure, 
next she opens the windows, then she care¬ 
fully sweeps out the room, leaving it a few 
moments for the dust to settle, dusts it 
out, and returns the articles she has re¬ 
moved to their places and closes the win¬ 
dows. Compare with this practice that of 
one of the unsystematic women. She hur¬ 
ries into the room with her broom and 
commences in the middle of her work: 
there is no cover over her hair; her win¬ 
dows are closed ; the furniture is all ex¬ 
posed to dust; she sweeps vigorously for a 
time, then she remembers her hair and 
covers it; very likely she has half done 
sweeping before she thinks of opening the 
windows or covering the furniture, so, of 
course, every article is dusty before she 
protects it. And as to the dusting, oh, any 
time during the day will do just as well 
for that. 
As it is with her sweeping, so it 
is with everything else the systematic 
woman does. T be meals are served proper¬ 
ly on time ; she is seldom out of bread or 
family stores of any kind. Her household 
are warmly and comfortably clad—though 
perhaps not stylishly. She has special 
d&ys and hours for certain work. The at¬ 
mosphere around her breathes of peace and 
comfort. But the unsystematic woman, 
dear soul! it makes no difference whether 
she rises early or late, she rushes and hur¬ 
ries and pants through her work; but 
never gets done. Meals on time are the 
exceptions—a happy mistake in fact. She 
is out of bread at the most inconvenient 
times, and as for days for certain work 
they happen any time from Monday to Sat¬ 
urday ; and yet she may be the more lova¬ 
ble woman of the two : but her family 
must take comfort as they can catch it. 
Perhaps there is something of the tread¬ 
mill about the systematic woman’s life, 
yet it is this kind of woman who makes 
every one about her happy. The systematic 
woman is my ideal of a housekeeper. I 
would that I could live up to my ideal. 
Johnsons. N. Y. B. H. G. 
It is predicted that violet, gray, black 
and white will be blended in dress mater- 
als this spring. 
■^ti.sccUancou.si Advertising. 
W R & CO’S 
< M PROVCD 
BUTTER 
COLOR 
If YOU RCALLY Wl 
im th* vwy bMt Bnttei 
SH 
tC «M \ _ _ 
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Sold iTerywher*. 
Mora of It Used than of 
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Send for onr valuable circu¬ 
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& Go., Burlington, Vt. 
^ ^COMBINING 5 ARTICLE^S^J 
HObOF FURNITURE I NONE 
THE WOffOEl 
We retail at tbe lowest 
wholesale factory prices^ and 
ship goods to be paid foi on 
delivery. Send stamp lor 
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Coaehwi FREE 
WHEEL CHAIRS 
TO HIRE. 
SPECIAL FREE 
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Phfliulclphla, Pa- 
Ice Cream at Heme. 
Made cheaply and quickly 
by using a Triple Motion 
White Mountsin Freezer. 
Will freeze in half the time 
of any other Freezer and 
prduct Cream of the finest 
quality. 
White Mountain Treeter Co. 
134 Hollis St. Nashua, N.H. 
AGENTS 
and Farmers with no experience make 82.50 an 
hour duringspare time. A. D. Bates. 1S4 W.Rob- 
oins Ave., Covington, Ky., made 821 one day. 
8*1 one week. So can you. Proofs and cata¬ 
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COLORADO. 
Persons desiring authoritative 
information concerning the 
Aar'cult it re Mines or >1 ■ nit- 
fact urers of Colorado; Ps recourses, advantages, etc., 
with industrial and labor statistics, can receive, 
po s tage free, pamphlets, maps, etc. or answers to 
special inquiries, bv addressing State Bure*u of 
Immigration and Statistics, Dev.cer, Colo. 
L OW-DOWN WAGON on high wheels— only 
Practical. ( omnion Sense Farm Wagon In 
the world. Send for 2« reasons why 
GA K DIN KK IRON WAGON CO.. 
MuIHra Hill. IT. J 
WANTED a-once.-a 
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lour goods by sample to the wholesale 
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FARMERS! 
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Larger sizes lip to 50,000 ft. per day. Also Portable 
Corn and FlourMills, Water Wheels, etc. Send for 
catalogue. DeLOACH MILL MFG. CO.. ATLANTA. GA 
Beecham's Pills a"t like magic on a weak stomach 
VERY OFTEN 
Life has been, saved 
by a bottle of 
AYER’S 
Cherry Pectoral 
The best emergency 
medicine, it should be 
within reach of every 
one, young and old. 
“ Several years ago, 
on a passage home 
fro m California, by 
water, I contracted so 
severe a cold that for 
some days I was con¬ 
fined to my state-room, and a physician on 
board considered my life in danger. Hap¬ 
pening to have a bottle of Ayer’s Cherry 
Pectoral. I used it freely, and my lungs were 
soon restored to a sound and healthy condi¬ 
tion. Since then I have invariably used and 
recommended this preparation, and always 
with beneficial results.” —J. B. Chandler, 
Junction, Va. 
Prepared by Dr. ,T. C. Ayer & Co., Lowell, Mass. 
Prica $1. fsix bottles, $5. Worth $5 a bottle. 
General Advertising Rates of 
TED RURAL NSW - YORKER. 
34 PARK ROW, NEW YORK. 
The following rates are 'nvariable. All are there¬ 
fore respectfully informed that any correspondence 
with a view to obtaining different terms will prove 
futile. 
Ordinary Advertisements, per agate line {this 
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Reading Notices, ending with “Ada.,” per 
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The subscription price of the Rural New-Yorker Is 
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French Colonies. 4.03,29^4 fr.) 
Agents will be supplied with canvassing outfit on 
application. ^ 
Entered at the Post-office at New York City, N. Y, 
as second clae* mail matte’-. 
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0T ANT PATENT MEDICINE IN THE WC2LD. Full directions with each Box. 
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WILL M ML R§F,CHAWS PILLS ON RECEIPT OF PRICE, 25 CENT? ^ BO* 
