1230 
THE RURAb NEW-YORKER 
December 7, 
out. The pickle is made as follows: 
Four gallons of water; \/ 2 pounds of 
brown sugar; two ounces of saltpeter; 
eight pounds of coarse salt. Boil and 
skim until clear. This is enough for 100 
pounds of meat. 
Do not put on the meat until it is cool. 
Leave in the pickle for 10 days and then 
smoke. c. h. j. 
Take nine pounds salt, four pounds 
brown sugar, two ounces soda or salera- 
tus and one ounce saltpeter to 100 pounds 
meat. Take all of the formula and put 
in kettle of water. When boiling hot 
skim and add boiling water to brine so 
it will just hold a peeled potato the size 
of a hen’s egg to the surface—thatjs, 
just covered—and pour over meat boil¬ 
ing hot. Weight down meat solid, to 
keep under brine. Let stand four weeks, 
then take up and dry in warm place, not 
too hot, as this makes beef “chippy.” 
To dry liver, boil and when cold grind, 
salt and pepper to taste, pack in sugar 
sack, and smoke or not. Liver fixed this 
way will keep a long time. These have 
been family recipes for 60 years. 
h. w. 
The dried and smoked beef liver I 
never tried, but here is a tried recipe 
for dried beef that cannot be excelled. 
It is considerably better than the com¬ 
mercial dried beef that you buy. Make 
a brine of coarse salt and cold water 
strong enough to carry an egg, add 
about one-half pound sugar to every 
gallon of brine, and if desired a little 
saltpeter may be added, but not neces¬ 
sarily. Place the beef in an ample sized 
stone crock or wooden vessel, pour in 
the brine to cover the beef, let stand 10 
days (no longer). Remove at the ex¬ 
piration of 10 days, hang up to drip for 
a day, then smoke. A very good plan is 
to wash the beef twice with patent 
smoke (liquid), then smoke for several 
days and the beef is ready for use, and 
very delicious after smoking. It should 
be hung in a cool, dry place. 
MRS. A. E. H. 
^'^%^'IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!llllllllllllllllll f %^'^ 
!«# WHICH ^ 
ARE YOU 
m 
One person exposed to cold jj| 
§j and draughts will contract a se- 1 
H vere cold and suffer uncertain || 
§j results, while another, similarly 1 
g exposed, will benefit physically H 
1 from the fresh, clear air. 
During the fall and winter jj 
1 reinforce your strength with g 
H nature’s best health-maker— || 
1 Scott’s Emulsion; it creates J 
g body-warmth, increases blood- 1 
M quality, builds resistive power §j 
H and strengthens the body to j 
H avoid winter sickness and = 
H rheumatism. § 
No Alcohol in SCOTT’S. ‘ | 
p Scott & Bowne, Bloomfield, N. J. 12-119 ^ 
%/jlllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll^^ 
i“ Maple ” Evaporators « 
Onr “Maple Evaporator’* is the most durable and most 
economical oil ihe market, only selected materials being: 
nsed in its construction. Heavy cast-iron frame, rein¬ 
forced sheet steel jacket, extra heavy specially rolled tin 
or galvanized iron pans. 
Easily erected, uses very little fuel either 
wood or coal, works smoothly and evap¬ 
orates quickly, producing very fine sugar 
and syrup. Hundreds in use giving 
Splendid service. Moderate in cost. 
We carry a full lino of sugar camp sup¬ 
plies. 
McLane- 
Schank 
Hard¬ 
ware Co, 
LlnesTllIe 
r». 
I Send Tor catalog 
Land price lint. 
Barueit"—by Vincent Aderente. 
Prosperity 
Woman and the Home 
From Day to Day. 
A CAROL. 
Good King Wenccslaus looked out 
On the feast of Stephen, 
When the snow lay round about, 
Deep and crisp and even ; 
Brightly shone the moon that night, 
Though the frost was cruel, 
W r hen a poor man came in sight, 
Gathering Winter fuel. 
“Hither, page, and stand by me, 
If thou know^t It, telling, 
Yonder peasant, who is he? 
Where and what his dwelling?” 
“Sire, he lives a good league hence. 
Underneath the mountain ; 
Right against the forest fence, 
By Saint Agnes’s fountain.” 
“Bring me flesh and bring m c v.ine, 
Bring me pine logs hither; 
Thou and I will see him dine, 
When we bear them thither.” 
Page and monarch forth they went, 
Forth they went together; 
Through the rude wind’s wild lament 
And the bitter weather. 
“Sire, the night is darker now, 
And the wind grows stronger ; 
Fails my heart I know not how, 
1 can go no longer.” 
“Mark my footsteps, my good page, 
Tread thou in them boldly; 
Thou wilt find the Winter’s rage 
Freeze thy blood less coldly.” 
In his master’s steps he trod, 
Where the snow lay dinted; 
Heat was in the very sod 
Which, the saint had printed. 
Therefore, Christian men, be sure, 
Wealth or rank possessing, 
Ye, who now will bless the poor, 
Shall yourselves find blessing. 
—John Mason Neale, D. D. 
* 
Smoked sturgeon, which used to be 
nicknamed “Albany beef,” is usually 
fried or broiled, but it is much nicer 
baked with dressing. Skin a piece of 
sturgeon, soak in cold water half an 
hour, then parboil to remove the oil. 
Make a dressing of bread crumbs, finely 
chopped salt pork, powdered herbs and 
butter. Gash the upper side of the fish 
deeply, rub the dressing into these gashes, 
put in a baking dish with a little water, 
and bake slowly for an hour. Serve 
with drawn butter, to which has been 
added some capers or chopped pickles 
and a flavoring of catsup. 
* 
Pound cookies, made as follows, are 
excellent: Cream together three-quar¬ 
ters of a cup of sugar and three-quarters 
of a cup of butter until smooth; add a 
little flavoring, if desired, and then knead 
in three-quarters of a cup of sifted flour. 
It requires some knack to get the flour 
kneaded in at first, but is not really 
difficult; no liquid is used. Roll out the 
usual thickness, cut with cooky cutter, 
and flake quickly to*a light brown; a 
very hot oven is likely to burn them. 
These cookies are very much like Scotch 
short bread in flavor and we think them 
delicious. * 
Among very fashionable furs this Win¬ 
ter one may notice a combination of 
black and white having a marbled effect, 
as though the white formed spots and 
bands through the black ground. This 
is civet cat, and it is made up very at¬ 
tractively into large pillow muffs and 
collars, also into cogjs. The civet cats 
are carnivorous animals found in Asia 
and northern Africa. The true civet, an 
animal two to three feet long, possesses 
a perfume pouch somewhat like the 
muskrat, and the highly scented sub¬ 
stance it secretes, somewhat like musk, 
is used as a basis for perfumes, though 
too strong to be agreeable in an un¬ 
mixed state. Sets of civet fur, consist¬ 
ing of large muff and scarf, cost from 
about $30 to $85, while a full-length coat 
with shawl collar of skunk costs $250. 
The perfume of the civet was used in 
the Middle Ages quite freely, as may 
be noted by references in old literature, 
and the animal itself appears in heraldry, 
from which it was adopted as a com¬ 
mercial signboard. An old friend tells 
us that 75 years ago there was a famous 
toy shop, beloved of all children, in 
Worcester, England, which bore the 
name of “The Civet Cat.” 
* 
One of the experts of the Department 
of Agriculture, George K. Holmes, has 
issued a report on domestic conditions 
on the farms, which takes a different 
view from that ordinarily given. We 
are usually told by their critics that 
farm women are slaves and drudges, 
whose whole life is spent in hard work. 
Mr. Holmes, on the contrary, says that 
their social activities are beginning to 
hinder their household tasks. He says, 
in part: 
Country girls, as Well as city girls, seem 
to regard household labor for hire as un¬ 
desirable. Joined with this fact is the 
other one, that the women of the farmer’s 
family are neither able nor willing to re¬ 
peat tlie manual labor performances of 
their grandmothers on the farm. Besides 
this, the farmer’s standard of living has 
risen, certainly on the medium and better 
sort of farms in the North and West; and 
in a perceptible degree the women of the 
farmer’s family have engaged in social 
functions, which are beginning to be in¬ 
compatible with the performances of house¬ 
hold labor without the aid of a servant. 
The social obligations undertaken by them 
are for the Grange, the women’s clubs, the 
Maccabees, the Woman’s Christian Temper¬ 
ance Union, the local church, the farmers’ 
clubs, and a list that might be much ex¬ 
tended. 
The old-time domestic industries are all 
but forgotten. The women. of the farm 
make no more soap, candles or lye, and 
so on with a long list of domestic prod¬ 
ucts of former days; it is rare that one 
of the younger of the women knows how 
to knit. Throughout large areas the pride 
of the housewife in a great store of pre¬ 
serves, dried and pickled fruits, berries 
and vegetables exists chiefly in history, and 
dependence is placed mostly upon the local 
store for the products of the cannery and 
the evaporator. 
It is protested that the frequently pub¬ 
lished statement that farm life has made 
the women of the farm especially prone 
to insanity is a calumny. There is no 
statistical authority for the assertion, and 
the author of this bulletin has endeavored 
for nearly 20 years to discover the origin¬ 
ator of the fabrication, with indications 
that the irresponsible author was for many 
years a popular writer on domestic sub¬ 
jects. 
Perhaps one of the best evidences of 
the farm woman’s sanity is the fact that 
she demands something more of life 
than mere drudgery. Making soap is 
only an economy in a family where 
there is a great deal of waste grease, 
and the making of candles and lye is 
obsolete. Candles are merely an orna¬ 
mental accessory to other methods of 
lighting, and wood ashes give better re¬ 
turns as fertilizer than as lye. As for 
knitting, plenty of women still do it, but 
they do not knit stockings for the whole 
family because the family won’t wear 
them. Changed ideas of dress have very 
largely done away with these heavy 
woolen stockings, except in sports and 
athletics, in our temperate regions, 
though we can understand their com¬ 
fort in a rigorous climate. As for home 
canning, we think Mr. Holmes is mis¬ 
taken, if we may judge, not only from 
observation but also from the constant 
and increasing demand for recipes and 
instruction on this subject. We think 
farm women are becoming more and 
more the aekuowledged business part¬ 
ners of their husbands, fathers and 
brothers, and that there is no place in 
the world’s economy where they have 
a better chance for “breaking into the 
human race.” 
More About Dried Beef. 
Seeing request for drying beef by N. 
W. D., page 1145, I will send our recipe. 
Use chunks taken from ham and shoul¬ 
der. Fasten stout strings to one end of 
each piece to be dried, so it may be 
hung up. Prepare other pieces for cover¬ 
ing and pack in bottom of barrel or 
jar, placing drying pieces on top. Pre¬ 
pare pickle as follows: For each 100 
pounds of beef use eight pounds salt, 
two pounds brown sugar and one ounce 
saltpeter. Dissolve these in water and 
bring to boiling point. Then cool, and 
when cold pour over meat, having 
enough liquid to cover it. Leave the 
drying pieces in this pickle four weeks. 
Then take out and hang in a cool, dry 
place to dry out. Do not smoke it. This 
is our method, and we think it far sur¬ 
passes the dried beef sold in market; 
in fact, so much so that we expect to 
prepare in this manner all that is avail¬ 
able from a two-year-old which we ex¬ 
pect to kill this Winter. c. T. s. 
The following method has been used 
in our family for more years than I can 
remember: After cutting the beef in 
the proper pieces we soak it for one 
night in weak brine to draw the blood 
There has been a bumper crop. 
This is because the tillers of the 
soil have been industrious, and the 
rain and the sun have favored their 
plantings. 
There has been industrial activity. 
The makers of things in factories 
have been busy. They have had 
work to do and pay for doing it. 
There has been commercial 
success. 
The people who buy and sell and 
fetch and carry have been doing a lot 
of business and they have been paid 
for doing it. 
The country is prosperous because 
all the people have been busy. 
Good crops and good times can be 
enjoyed only when the Government 
maintains peace and harmony. 
This task of the Government is 
made comparatively easy because 
the American people have been 
enabled to become so well acquainted 
with each other. They know and 
understand one another. They are 
like one family. 
The producer and consumer, no 
matter where they live, are close 
together. 
This is largely due to our wonder¬ 
ful facilities for intercommunication. 
We excel in our railways, our mails 
and our telegraphs, and, most of all, 
in our telephones. 
The Bell System has fourteen mil¬ 
lion miles of wire spread over all 
parts of the country. Each day there 
are twenty-five million telephone 
talks all the way from twenty feet to 
two thousand miles long. 
The raiser of crops, the maker of 
things, and the man of commerce, all 
are "helped to co-operate and work 
together for peace and prosperity by 
means of the Universal telephone. 
American Telephone and Telegraph Company 
And Associated Companies 
One Policy One System Universal Service 
