426 
March 17, 1917 
CVic RURAL NEW-YORKER 
Things to Eat 
The Muskrat as a Source of Food 
On pufre 202, there is a sneering allu¬ 
sion to the muskrat as an article of food, 
and the remark that it is considered a 
great delicacy in certain parts of the 
South. We are supposed to possess cer¬ 
tain organs, located along the line be¬ 
tween the lips and the stomach which are 
believed to guide las in the selection of 
our foods. As a matter of fact we ha\e 
formed the habit of placing fully as much 
dependenc(! upon our eyes and the heredi¬ 
tary traditions taught us in childhood, 
and. in consequence, we often miss many 
delicious morsels. 
A good many years ago, while living 
in Minnesota, I became quite intimately 
associated, for a few weeks, with a small 
would he glad to buy a dainty farm 
product first hand. 
Could a large signal be hung over the 
road 5(X) yards each side of such a 
booth, and only homemade things of¬ 
fered for sale, the question of how many 
a farm woman can earn some money to 
call her own, would be solved. Perha{)s 
ice cream, iced milk and buttermilk, home¬ 
made candies with nuts. Many tourists 
lunch beside the road; advertise a rest 
spot beneath a nearby tree and make It 
attractive. Eggs, butter, cottage cheese 
balks, each with a walnut meat on top, 
or many a dainty that only a farmer’s 
home revels in would quickly loosen the 
strings of the tourist's money pouch, 
and in passing that w.ay again he would 
Old Print of a Southetn Barbecue 
baud of Indians who were camping and 
trapping on the Rock River, and some of 
its tributaries. Muskrats were plentiful, 
fat, easily caught, and they formed with 
us, a staple article of food. I am not 
going into ecstasies over their flavor, for 
it was nothing out of the ordinary. But 
when killed, and bled, and immediately 
dressed, muskrat meat makes a very good 
food, and compares very favorably with 
rabbit meat or the meat of other animals 
of a similar size. If caught in traps and 
allowed to drown, and remain for several 
hoiu’s or days, without the blood or intes¬ 
tines being removed, it is quite likely that 
the results might have been different. We 
killed an antelope, which, unfortunately, 
was old, and the meat was lean and 
tough, and we found the muskrat meat 
preferable. We also ate a badger, a 
couple of prairie wmlves, which closely 
resemble the I'ed fox of the East, made 
one meal of the common house rat, and 
ate several skunks. When a sufficient 
amount of the oil had been removed, the 
skunks were very fine. The badger meat 
had a strong, though not particularly dis¬ 
agreeable flavor; the wolves were lean 
and there was but little meat on their 
bones, and extra fat was necessary in 
cooking. As for the house rats, I will 
defy any person to detect the difference, 
when cooked, between their flesh and the 
gray squirrel, which is esteemed as a 
great luxury. *C. o. o. 
plan to stop at the shady tea room, at 
least he wouldn’t be a very dolicho¬ 
cephalic (long-headed) tourist if he 
didn’t. 
If Dr. Kellogg of Battle Creek farm 
can buy balsam boughs for wholesale 
pillow making, to be shipped from 
Northern New York, why not tempt the 
tourist with some neat balsam .sofiu pil¬ 
lows at from 50c to .$1.50 each’? While 
stopping, tell them your neighbors knit 
hundreds of pairs of homespun mittens 
and stockings each Winter; then solicit 
their order, having sam])les on hand. A 
lucrative commission can be charged by 
Reproduced From the New York Evening Telegram 
The Farm Woman and the Sale Booth 
When one drives the highways and 
State roads 10,(X)0 or 12.000 miles a 
yeai'. especiall.v in the mountain Sum¬ 
mer resort sections, the wonder is that 
farm women living near our State- roads 
do not take advantage of the markets 
for home products at their very doors. 
The writer has stopped at several 
houses in a dairy section, without being 
able to buy two quarts of milk, or get 
buttermilk for love or money. On a 
hot day ‘in a car many a tourist would 
gladly pay in cash for cold buttermilk 50 
times what the hog returned. To get it 
he must go to a high-class soda fountain 
in a city where “Fresh Buttermilk from 
Tuberculin Tested Cows’’ is served, or 
to some country club to dinner where 
$1.50 a plate will put buttermilk on 
the bill of fare. A tourist will look 
over the store counters for a souvenir 
to take home from a certain place, and 
then put up with a pennant, when he 
the farm woman, and by thus playing 
the middleman, she may be able to keep 
her daughter on the farm instead of her 
seeking a city job, perhaps shut up In 
some commission man’s office. 
Buckskin gloves, where the genuine 
hide is tanned, cut and made up. is a 
home product in this section. Snow 
shoes are also completely fashioned iind 
finished in' some homes. Quilts might 
be pieced or ajjrons made in Winter for 
the Summer trade. Every section has 
its products. Homemade jams and 
jellies; are there not opportunities 
along this line? Think on the.se things 
these Winter and Siu-ing evenings, and 
if you are located on an auto route, be¬ 
lieve in yourself and begin. 
BERT .S. VAX VI.EET. 
Boston Baked Beans 
Will you give the real way of making 
Boston baked beans? k. a. ktss. 
New .Jersey. 
We have a domestic science library in 
the house, but I am .sending the recipe 
we have used since childhood. The two 
most important points are not to boil the 
beans too long, only until the skins crack 
easily, and the long baking. As a student 
in Boston, we liked the flavor be.st when 
the beans were baked over night in the 
.Maddin oven. The professional bakers 
told me they baked them from 14 to l-S 
houns many times. Our old recipe gives 
more than twice as much pork as any 
new one I can find, but I like a lot of 
pork, though it makes the beaus much 
harder to digest. Our recipe gives one 
pound of salt pork to one quart of dry 
beans; the new recipes suggest half or 
even (piarter of a pound. Local stores 
sell a special “bean pork,” which is prac¬ 
tically all fat. 
Examine arid wash one quart of dry 
beans, the pea bean is the best, and put 
them in a pan with six quarts of cold 
water; let them soak in this over night. 
In the morning wash them in' another 
water, and place them on the fire with 
six quarts of cold water and a pound of 
.salt pork. If they are the present year’s 
beans, they will cook enough in half an 
hour; if older, they will require one hour. 
If your water is hard, be sure to put a 
teaspoon of baking soda into the water, 
both when boiling and soaking, because 
the lime of the water unites with some 
mineral in the coating of the' bean, and 
forms an insoluble compound, so that the 
beans cannot absorl) the water and cook 
soft. Score the pork and put one slice in 
the bottom of the bean-pot, drain the 
beans and put half in the pot, put in the 
I’est of the pork, add the remainder of 
the beans, one tablespoonful of molasses, 
one of salt and cover with boiling water. 
Bake from 10 to 12 hours, you must watch 
them carefully and do not let them cook 
dry. The pork should have just a bit of 
the rind exposed. For the last hour, bake 
uncovered to let both the beans and pork 
brown. edna s. k.xapi’. 
A Florida Barbecue 
A Southern re.ader sends us the pic¬ 
ture reproduced abo\e. It is said 
that this picture was dr.awn from life 
by Jacob Le Moyne in loGo, and shows 
an Indian barbecue in Florida. The In¬ 
dians cooked meats and fish over a fire 
in this manner and the white settlers im¬ 
proved the process. There is little of 
art in the picture, -but perhaps it illus¬ 
trates a trait of human nature as old 
as the human race—that is. the inclin¬ 
ation of the wife to boss her husband 
whenever he undertakes to help at a 
church social or a picnic. More than 350 
years have passed since this picnic “hap¬ 
pened,” yet do we not know that about 
this conversation is going on : 
“Get 'down closer and stir up that 
fire!” 
“My eyes are full of smoke.” 
“Why don’t you do it right?” 
“Who’s doing this anyway?” 
“Nobody, as near as I can make put.” 
“You can do it yourself then.” 
“John Henry, you just get in and 
make that fire hum. Not another word 
from you, sir!” 
And .Tohu Henry will do it! 
S EVEN A. M—BIG 
BEN at his best — 
opening little folks’ 
eyes—there’s a race to 
hush him—a pillow bat¬ 
tle — merry laughter — 
and mother to tidy the 
kiddies for school. 
For the rising generatioa 
there’s no better get-up. Big 
Ben’s little men bubble health 
and cheer, and they feel as big 
as Daddy with a clock all 
their own. 
He gets ’em to school long 
before the last gong and this 
habit lingers when the chil¬ 
dren grow up. 
You’ll like Big Ben face to 
face. He’s seven inches tall, 
spunky, neighborly — down¬ 
right good. 
At your jeweler’s, $2.50 in 
the United States, $3,50 in 
Canada. Sent prepaid on re¬ 
ceipt of price if your jeweler 
doesn’t stock him. 
Western Clock Co. 
La Salle, Ill., U. S. A. Makers of W^tckw 
Other Westclox: Baby Ben. Pocket Ben, Bingo, 
America, Sleep-Meter, Lookout and Ironclad 
Give Your Wife a Square Deal! 
LLJl 
Provide Running Water in Your Home 
You demand the best equipment for field and barn. Give 
your wife a square deal. See that her workshop Cthe home) is 
equipped with running water. You can easily have plenty 
for kitchen, laundry bath, garden and lawn. The whole 
family will enjoy city conveniences in the country home. 
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V/ t='OR EVE R'V SERVICE 
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Main Office and Works: 
Seneca Falls, N. Y. 
BRANCHES: 
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) IU11 Boston New York 
11^ III Pittsburgrh 
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'Pyramid’ Pump 
for air pressnr* 
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