30 
PICTORIAL CULTIVATOR ALMANAC. 
COMBINED THRESHER AND WINNOWER. 
The above cut represents a very simple, compact, and 
efficient apparatus for threshing and cleaning grain at 
one operation. The winnowing apparatus may be fitted 
to powers of either one or two horses; the cut represents 
the latter, and with this power the machine is capable 
of getting out 150 bushels of wheat, or 300 bushels of 
oats in a day. The number of hands required depends 
much on the facilities for working the machine, the 
convenience of feeding, and the room for disposing of 
the straw. At a trial lately made with mowed oats, 
which were not in the best order, it worked at the 
rate of 40 bushels an hour—cleaning the grain in a 
thorough manner—the number of hands employed be¬ 
ing four men and two boys. It is made by Messrs. 
Wheeler, Melick & Co., Albany. 
METHOD OF CURING PRIZE HAMS. 
The hams of Maryland and Virginia have long enjoyed 
a wide celebrity. At the last exhibition of the Mary¬ 
land State Agricultural Society, four premiums were 
awarded for hams. We are informed by those who had 
the opportunity of examining them, that they were of 
first rate quality. The following are the recipes by 
which the hams were cured: 
T. E. Hambleton’s Recipe —1st premium. To every 
100 lbs. pork, take 8 lbs. of G. A. salt, 2 oz. saltpetre, 
2 lbs. brown sugar, 1^ oz. of potash, and 4 gallons of 
water. Mix the above, and pour the brine over the 
meat, after it has laid in the tub some two days. Let 
the hams remain six weeks in brine, and then dried 
several days before smoking. I have generally had the 
meat rubbed with fine salt when it is packed down. 
The meat should be perfectly cool before packing. 
J. Glenn’s Recipe —2nd premium. To 1,000 lbs. of 
pork, take half a bushel and half a peck of salt, 3 lbs. 
saltpetre, 3 lbs. sugar, and 2 quarts of molasses. Mix; 
rub the bacon with it well; keep on for three weeks in 
all, but at the end of nine days take out the hams, and 
put those which were at the top, at the bottom. 
R. Brooke, Jr’s, Recipe— 3d premium. One bushel 
fine salt, half bushel ground alum salt, one and a half 
pounds saltpetre to the thousand lbs. pork, left to lie in 
pickle 4 weeks, hung up and smoked with hickory wood 
until the rind becomes a dark brown. 
C. D. Slingluff’s Recipe —4th premium. To 100 
lbs. green hams, take 8 lbs. G. A. salt, 2 lbs. brown 
sugar or molasses equivalent, 2 oz. saltpetre, 2 oz. pearl 
ashes, 4 gallons water, dissolve well, skimming off the 
scum arising on the surface. Pack the hams compactly 
in a tight vessel or cask, rubbing the fleshy part with 
fine salt—in a day or two pour the above pickle over 
the meat, taking care to keep it covered with the pickle. 
In four to six weeks, according to the size and weight 
of the hams, (that is to say, the longer period for heavy 
hams,) hang up to smoke, hock up; smoking with 
green hickory wood. I have put up hams for the last 
12 or 15 years by the above recipe with uniform suc¬ 
cess, equal at all times to the sample now presented. 
To the above we add the following, which we, as well 
as many others have satisfactorily proved; 
For every one hundred pounds of meat, take five 
pints of good molasses, (or five pounds of brown sugar,) 
five ounces saltpetre, and eight pounds rock salt—add 
three gallons of water, and boil the ingredients over a 
gentle fire, skimming off the froth or scum as it rises. 
Continue the boiling till the salt, &c., is dissolved. 
Have the hams nicely cut and trimmed, packed in casks 
with the shank end down, as the pickle will thus strike 
in better. When the pickle, prepared as above, is 
cooled to blood heat, pour it over the hams. They 
may lie in pickle from two to six weeks, according to 
the size of the pieces, or the state of the weather, more 
time being required in cold, than in warm weather. 
Beef or mutton hams, intended for smoking and drying, 
may be cured according to this mode, and will be found 
excellent. 4 
Much of the goodness of hams depends on smoking. 
They should be hung at such a distance from the fire, 
as not to be heated. They should also be hung up with 
the shank end downward, as this will prevent the escape 
of their juices by dripping. Small hams, wanted for 
immediate use, will answer with two weeks smoking, 
but large ones, and those wanted for keeping, should be 
smoked four weeks or more. 
CREAM CHEESE. 
Take one quart of very rich cream, a little soured, put 
it in a linen cloth and tie it as close to the cream as you 
can. Then hang it up to drain for two days—take it 
down, and carefully turn it into a clean cloth, and hang 
it up for two more days—then take it down, and having 
put apiece of linen on a deep soup-plate, turn your 
cheese upon it. Cover it over with your linen; keep 
turning it every day on to a clean plate and clean cloth 
until it is ripe; which will be in about ten days or a 
fortnight, or may be longer, as it depends on the heat 
of the weather. Sprinkle a little salt on the outside, 
when you turn them. If it is wanted to ripen quick, 
keep it covered with mint, or nettle leaves. The size 
made f; om a quart of cream is most convenient, but if 
wished larger, they can be made so. 
Bitter and useless experience is too little for the mind, 
but too much for the heart. 
