798 
"Uhe RURAL NEW-YORKER 
June ITv, J917. 
Polite Cure for the Trespassing Hen 
A maiden lady owned a piece of ground, 
And morn and eve in Summer she was found 
Within her garden. But her neighbor kci)t, 
A flock of hens, and while she worked or slept, 
With busy feet they dug her finest seed. 
In vain she chased them at her utmost speed, 
And “shooed” and stoned them, quite undignified. 
The while her neighbor laughed until he cried. 
But women who can foil the wiles of men, 
Will not be daunted by a Leghorn hen. 
The hand that rocks the cradle, still can block 
Man’s ridicule, and give his nerves a shock. 
Our lady cried a bit—as was her right— 
Then took some cards and on each one did write: 
“Please keep your hens at home!” A seed of corn 
She strung to each. With early break of dawn 
Back came the hens; they gobbled grain and string, 
I'hen back for home they started on the wing. 
And lined up in their owner’s yard that he 
The friendly greeting which they bore might see. 
“Please keep,” he scratched his head—his heart was hard 
From every mouth they dragged the lady’s card. 
But shame cut through it like a knife, and hence 
Ilis hens no more flew o’er the lady’s fence. 
Evaporating Sweet Corn 
Evaporatod .sweet corn is a pivxluct 
that will commend itself to all, and in 
view of the increasing cost of tin cans 
used in the canning factories, and other 
factors reckoiK'd in the cost of factory 
processing, there should be a permanent 
demand for evaporated corn, once its 
merits are firmly established. In Eau- 
caster County, I’a., last season about a 
dozen new plants evaporated $70,000 
worth of corn, which was sold both 
direct to consumers and through the com¬ 
mission houses. The result has been 
that a steady demand has been created 
in that section for evaporated corn. 
Though the industry may yet be said 
to be in its first stages it has been de¬ 
veloped rapidly and the experiments have 
brought about a system of sweet corn 
culture, which by careful fertilizing and 
selection of seed has developed a pro¬ 
lific type of coim with heavy saccharine 
content. The development has led to the 
production of ears of corn that .are so 
large and the kernels so fine in shape 
and size that many not familiar with the 
new industry would say that the corn 
is not true to type. 
Most of the people engaged in the 
evaporation of corn in Lancaster County 
grow a largo portion of the corn dried, 
but during the past season many farmers 
grew corn for the plants on contract 
price. The business is rather exacting, 
and requires close attention to details. 
The corn must be planted in succession, 
one following the other sufficiently close 
so as to mature in time to keep the 
plant busy. The best condition for the 
corn before being pulled, lasts but a few 
day.s, or the corn becomes too hard, and 
does not produce as good a quality of the 
finished product as it otherwise would. 
The evaporating season, by proper plant¬ 
ing in season, can be extended to about 
10 weeks. The corn is pulled and thrown 
on a wagon and delivered to the plants 
with the husks on. It is bought by the 
ton. A good average yield of corn per 
acre when evaporated aixT ready for the 
market is twenty-two bu.shels. 
A. H. PIir.VER. 
Drying Fruits and Vegetables 
There is an extra demand this year 
for information about drying vegetables 
and fruit for Winter use. The heavy 
cost of jars or cans will make the cost 
of ordinary preserves high, and many 
housewives will attempt drying in place 
of canning. One of the most practical 
bulletins on this subject is issued by the 
Tuskegee Experiment Station at Tuske- 
gee, Ala. Prof. Geo. W. Carver tells how 
to dry certain fruits and vegetables so as 
to make them available, and the follow¬ 
ing extracts are made from this little 
pamphlet. We have tried some of these 
methods on the farm, and find them very 
satisfactory. 
Begin drying fruits just as soon as the 
seed mature.s, or as soon as the fruit is 
two-thirds ripe, and continue as long as 
you can handle it without mashing to a 
pulp. 
Caution.—In drying either fruits or 
vegetables in the sun screen wire or mos- 
(luito netting should be stretched over .a 
suitable frame to keep out the flies and 
other insects; and everything, of course, 
must be scrupulou.sly clean if a superior 
flavored, healthy and wholesome product 
is desired. 
Strawijerky Leather.' —Take thoi’- 
oughly ripe strawberries, mash to a pulp, 
spread on platters, and dry in the sun 
or oven ; when dry, dust with powdered 
sugar, and roll up like a jelly cake, cut 
into suitable sized pieces and pack away 
in jars. This may be eaten as a confec¬ 
tion or soaked in water and u.sed for pies, 
short cake, sauce, tarts, etc., etc. The 
powdered sugar is a matter of taste and 
may be left out if desired. To dry straw¬ 
berries put the berries in a moderate 
oven, heat through thoroughly, but not 
enough to become soft and juicy, spread 
out in the sun or finish in the oven. 
Treat blackberries and dewberries exact¬ 
ly the same as recommended for straw¬ 
berries. If a seedless roll is desired, this 
may be done by pressing the pulp through 
a fine sieve before drying. 
Dried PLuars, No. 1. —Select medium 
ripe plums, cover with boiling water, 
cover the vessel and let stand 20 min¬ 
utes; drain and spread in the sun to dry. 
Stir occasionally; when dry examine 
them frequently and at the first appear¬ 
ance of worms put in the oven and heat 
for a few minutes. In cooking, .soak in 
cold water for a few hours the same as 
for other dried fruit. 
Dried I*i.uyrs, No. 2.—After peeling 
the plums, allow half i)ound of sugar to 
one pound of fruit. Put fruit and sugar 
in layers in a preserving kettle. Heat 
slowly until the sugar is dissolved, then 
boil until clear. Sjiread the fruit on 
platters in the sun and turn over until 
quite dry. Pack in layers with sugar in 
stone or glass jars. I'lums dried in this 
way are extra fine. 
PE.\cirE.s.—ff’ake ripe, firm peaches, 
peel, cut from the .seed if cliugstoues, 
break open if freestones. Quarter or 
cut in slices, spread in the sun or dry 
in the oven. The peelings may be left 
on if desired; the product of course is 
jiot so fine. To make peach leather se¬ 
lect over-ripe peaches and make exactly 
as recommended for strawberry leather. 
Peel, core, slice and dry pears the same 
as recommended for peaches. 
String Beans. —^5elect very young 
tender beans, wash and cut oil' both the 
stem and blossom ends. Gut into one- 
inch lengtlus, .steam until about one- 
fourth done or until they lose their grass 
green api)earance. Spread on trays and 
dry as any other fruit or vegetable. Soak 
for several hours in cold water before 
cooking. 
In this climate in.sccts are very trouble¬ 
some to dried fruit or vegetable.s, I 
have had excellent succe.ss by putting the 
dried fruit or vegetables in the oven and 
heating them hot, sufficient to kill any 
lurking insects or their eggs; then pour¬ 
ing them into clean j)apcr bags, tying the 
mouth tightly and suspending the bags, 
Furnace.s For Di{yin*g. —There arc 
several inexpensive and sati.sfactory fur¬ 
naces for the rapid drying of fruits and 
vegetables, which any farmer can nuike. 
One of the simplest is a furnace made 
just like one for making syrup. Cover 
with a heavy i)iece of sheet iron; cover 
this three or four ihche.s deep with clean 
sand; put on a very open slatted cover 
jusv above it. The fruits or vegetables to 
be dried may be placed in separate slatted 
trays and one set above the other, if suit¬ 
able framework is made so they may be 
pushed in and pulled out, like bureau 
drawers. If the sides are walled up with 
brick or tin so as to keep in the heat, 
the drying will be very fast. Several 
small openings .should be left in the sides 
to carry off the moist air. A bushel or 
more of fruit or vegetables may be dried 
at one time in this way. 
Farm Woman’s Exchange 
The Farmer i.v W.\r Time. —It is 
amusing and somewhat exasperating to 
read in almost every i)aper one picks up 
Avhat the farmer’s duty is in war time. 
Many of these noisy, eleventh-hour pa¬ 
triots forget that farmers and their 
wives and children have been at this 
same business of wresting food from 
Mother Earth for years, working long 
days (no eight-hour labor on the farm) 
and going without many of the comforts 
that town-dwellers have as a matter of 
course. It is one of the gocxl points of 
farm life that all the family can work 
together, and yet the 35-cent dollar would 
dwindle still smaller if the labor of the 
farm women and children were given due 
credit. The farmer cannot do very much 
more than he had been doing right along, 
but everywhere we see that he is making 
an extra effort this year. One thing that 
may not be noticed is the patient way in 
which he is trying to utilize the city 
school boys and teach them how to work 
on the farm. Forty-eight boys left a 
nearby high school, and only one found 
farm conditions t<x) hard. Some of these, 
however, were farmers’ sons. It is one 
thing for a city man to sit in an office 
chair and tell farmers to rai.se larger 
crops, but quite another and better move 
to send his own boys out to learn from 
the farmers themselves. To be sure, the 
boy.s are often unbelievably awkward, 
and break costly machinei'y, dry up the 
cows and smoke in the barn, but still they 
ai'e trying and learning, and may under¬ 
stand farm conditions better than their 
city fathers some day. One of the most 
annoying things about all this talk of pa¬ 
triotism is the incon.sistency of news¬ 
papers and of people w'ho are supposed 
to be running the government. A paper 
has stirring editorials on how to show 
patriotism, and on another page runs a 
large adverti.sement for the Brewer.s’ As¬ 
sociation. While there is occasionally a 
farmer who likes booze, as a class they 
see the foolishness of it, and have little 
faith in those so-called leaders who do 
not come out .s<iuarely again.st the liquor 
interests. There is no use for public men 
to talk i)atriotism and at the same time 
give the middleman and the big dealer a 
chance to make unearned money out of 
the farmers’ hard-won produce. Farmers, 
like other hard-working people, hate 
hypocri.sy and selfishness, but can be de¬ 
pended upon to be loyal and to do their 
best 
Overloaded Plates. —Sometimes chil¬ 
dren and older people take more food on 
their plates than they can eat. To dis¬ 
courage this habit in little children, we 
give marks for the appearance of each 
place at the end of the meal. If no food 
is left on or around the plate, and the 
knife, fork and spoon are in good order, 
not scattered about or smeared with food, 
the child gets a mark of 100 or ne.ir it. 
according to the general neatness of the 
tablecloth, etc. After the habit of taking 
only what one can eat is established, the 
“mark.s” are dropped until needed again. 
The children’s efforts to be neat have a 
good effect on careless older people, and 
it is much less work to cle.ar up the 
dishes. There is also a considerable sav¬ 
ing of food—and the cat still thrives. 
Poor Man’.s Omelet. —When you have 
only half as many eggs as you need for 
an omelet or a dish of scrambled eggs, 
try this way of cooking them. Beat uj) 
light a.s many eggs as you wish to use, 
then stir some flour and milk together in 
the proportion of a rounding tablespoon 
of flour to a cup of milk, using a very 
little milk at fir.st so as to make the mix¬ 
ture very smooth. Mix the egg with the 
flour mixture, add salt and pepper and 
turn into a hot, buttered frying-pan. It 
is good stirred often like scrambled eggs, 
or with one-half turned over like an 
omelet. Chopped ham may be added if 
desired. bertha e. doren. 
