58 THE CULTIVATOR. Jan. 
DOMESTIC ECONOMY. 
Method of Curing Prize Hams. 
embellished with a - frontispiece, and several other en¬ 
gravings’. A new volume commences with the present 
month, (January.) Terms—three dollars a year—two 
copies for five dollars, payable in advance. Business let¬ 
ters should be addressed to the Proprietor, Luther 
Tucker, Albany, 1ST. Y. ; and communications to A. J. 
Downing, Newburgh, N> Y. 
The Farmer’s Guide to Scientific aNd Practical 
Agriculture. This is an elaborate and most valuable 
work by HenrV Stephens, athor of the Book of the 
Farm., with notes by Prof. J. P. Norton, of Yale Col¬ 
lege, designed to adapt the work to the United States. 
It is published by Leonard Scott & Co., 79 Fulton-st., 
New-York. It is issued in numbers, at 25 cents each, 
or $5.00 in advance for the work, which will be completed 
in 22 numbers, 13 of which are already issued. It will 
form one of the best and most comprehensive treatises 
on agriculture that has ever been published. 
British and Foreign Medico-CpiirurgicalReview; 
or Quarterly Journal of Practical Medicine and Surge¬ 
ry. This valuable publication, which should be in the 
hands of every medical practitioner, is republished by 
Messrs. It. ScG. S. Wood, 261 Pearl-street, New-York, 
at three dollars a year. 
Jlttu-^urk Unit agricultural iDrirttf. 
Annual Meeting. 
The Annual Meeting of the Society will be held at 
the Capitol, on the 3d Wednesday, 15th of January. 
Premiums will be awarded on Farms, Essays, Dairies, 
Butter, Cheese, and Farm products generally; and an 
exhibition of Fruits will be held at the Society’s Rooms. 
It is desired that there should be an extensive compe¬ 
tition for the premiums offered by the Society,- and a 
full representation of farmers from every county in the 
State. 
Persons sending fruits are requested to have the va¬ 
rieties properly labelled and named, with the name and 
residence of the exhibitor; securely packed and directed 
to the Agricultural Rooms, and forwarded as early as 
practicable. It is desirable that the character of the 
soil, the exposure of the orchard, and its management, 
and the habits of the tree, as to its thrift and bearing 
character, be given. 
The following committees have been appointed for the 
Winter Meeting:— 
Management of Farms. —A. Van Bergen, Coxsackie; Hamilton 
Murray, Oswego; James Kelly, Rhinebeck. 
Essays , Draining , and Agricultural Work for Schools. —John Dcl- 
afield, George Gedcles, and J. P. Beekman. 
Butter and Cheese Dairies. —B. P. Johnson, S. A. Law, Meredith; 
George Brayton, Oneida. 
Butter and Cheese on Exhibition. —Henry Wager, Oneida; Plii- 
neas Rumsey, Orange; J. W. Ball, Otsego. 
Fruit. —Herman Wendell, M. D., Albany; Hon. Samuel Miller, 
Rochester; R. L. Pell, Pe ham; Hon. Theron G. Yeoman?, Wal¬ 
worth ; Charles Lee, Penn Yan; Mr. Tibbits, White Plains. 
Wheat , Rye and Oats. —J. B. Burnet, Onondaga; D. S. Curtis, 
Canaan ; Hon. Lorenzo Rouse, Oneida. 
Indian Corn. —Boswell M. Reed, Coxsackie; Hon. Orlando Allen, 
Erie ; Lewis E. Smith, Half-Moon; Mr. Beers, Somers. 
Barley , Buckwheat , Peas and Beans. —Benjamin Enos, Madison; 
Stephen Haight, Dutchess; Thomas Bell, Westchester. 
Potatoes and Root Crops. —James M. Ellis, Onondaga; E. N. Pratt, 
Greenbush; Henry Miller, Hudson. 
Madder , Corn Fodder , Flax , Hops , Tobacco, Broomcorn. —Hon. 
James Farr, Washington; James Macintyre, Fonda; A. Osborne, 
Watervliet. 
Pomological Exhibition. —J. McD. McIntyre, J. J. Viele, Sanford 
Howard, B. B. Kirtland, James Wilson, 
Treasurer' 1 s Account. —Lewis G. Morris, and President and Secre¬ 
tary, and Corresponding Secretary. 
Cammittee to Arrange for Winter Meetings. —E. P. Prentice, Lu¬ 
ther Tucker, B. P. Johnson. 
Agricultural Survey of Seneca. —J. P. Beekman, George Vail, Z. 
C. Platt. 
The hams of Maryland and Virginia have long 
enjoyed a wide celebrity. At the last exhibi¬ 
tion of the Maryland State Agricultural Society, 
four premiums were awarded for hams. We are 
informed by those who had the opportunity of ex¬ 
amining them, that they were of first rate quality. 
The following are the receipes by which the hams 
were cured; 
T. E. Hambleton’s REciPE—lst 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 1000 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,) hangup to smoke, hock up; smoking with green 
hickory wood. I have put up hams fbr the last 12 or 15 
years by the above recipe with uniform success, 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 re¬ 
quired 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. 
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 es¬ 
cape of their juices by dripping. Small hams, wanted 
for immediate use, will answer with two weeks’ smoking, 
but larger ones, and those wanted for keeping, should 
be smoked four weeks or more. 
-- 
Fried Potatoes. —The French method of cooking 
potates affords a most agreeable dish. The potatoes are 
peeled, wiped, and cut into thin slices, then thrown into 
a frying pan containing an abundance of hot lard. As 
soon as they become brown and crispy they are thrown 
into a collandcr to drain, then sprinkled with salt, and 
served up as hot as possible. 
