THE CULTIVATOR. 
199 
the operation. I wish the whole process of distillation was of as great va¬ 
lue to the world. ■ 
As “ economy in the house,” is the active partner of“ industry out of 
the house,” I will add one more to your valuable list of cooking recipes. 
Though perhaps it is out of character for a “ Hoosier ” to tell a Yankee 
how to make 
PUMPKINS PIES. 
“ Grease the pie plate evenly and well, and - sift line dry corn meal, 
about as thick as you would make a flour crust, evenly over it, and then 
spread the prepared pumpkin over the meal crust, bake in the usual way, 
eat it warm, or before it is many days old.” Be assured that such a pie 
is-truly good, rich, healthy, economical. It can be prepared ready for the 
oven (the pumpkin being pVeviously stewed,) in five minutes, when “ 1 
wish we had a pie for dinner,” is expressed. As “ nothing to shorten pie 
crust ” is required, it can be made after the “ lard tub is out,” and also 
when the good woman “ wishes we had a little flour to make pies of our 
sweet pumpkins,” and when the good man replies “my dear we can’t 
afford it, flour is $10 a barrel.” I beg of you to try it. If you do not pro 
nounce it valuable knowledge, cheaply acquired, I never will trouble you 
again. 
ON FEEDING MILCH COWS WITH RUTA BAGA. 
J. Buel, Esq.—Dear Sir,—I forward you, w-ith this, two small rolls 
of butter, produced from the milk from my Durham cows, which are fed 
half a bushel ofruta bagas each per day, with cut hay. My object is to 
asceitain whether you can discover any disagreeable flavor caused by the 
roots, for as I am in the practice of using it daily, my taste may be so far 
vitiated as not to notjce it. 
Many farmers have avoided feeding cows in milk with ruta bagas, sup¬ 
posing they gave to the milk a nauseous or disagreeable taste; in fact, I 
must confess I was among the number. My conclusions were drawn 
from the fact of feeding the tops in.the fall, which imparted such a disa¬ 
greeable flavor to the milk, that we could not use it. 
On the first of November last I commenced feeding my cows with car¬ 
rots, which increased the quantity of milk at least one-third, and gave to 
the butter a beautiful rich flavor and color. After the carrots were fed 
out, I commenced feeding with the ruta bagas, which was about the 10th 
December last, since then they have rather improved in flesh and quanti¬ 
ty of milk—and the butter retains its beautiful rich color, which, IBelieve, 
is uncommon in winter. 
From the above facts, I am well convinced, that ruta bagas may be fed 
to milk cows with safety; that they will not vitiate the flavor of the milk; 
and that they are as valuable for milk cows as for other stock. I would 
observe, however, that the roots are cut fine with a machine, and on each 
mess after being deposited in the mangers, a small quantity of fine salt is 
sprinkled on them. 
Since the 10th of November I have fed my breeding sows and store 
hogs, exclusively on ruta bagas, with the exception of a small quantity ot 
buckwheat bran. 
The plan of feeding which I have adopted is this: in the morning we 
feed them raw, cut up the same as for cattle; at noon we give each full 
grown animal a bucket containing ten quarts of boiled ruta baga, with a 
small quantity of buckwheat bran, say one of bran to six of roots, mixed 
and made thin with water. At night we give another feed of them raw. 
On this feed they have not only improved in flesh, butsome of them are 
actually fat. 
I occasionally feed them to my horses who become remarkably fond of 
th em Very respectfully yours-. 
C. N. BEMENT. 
[The butler sent us by our neighbor is a beautiful sample, wholly free 
from turnip flavor. We can add our own experience for sixteen years, that 
milk and butter are not, to our taste, injured in flavor by feeding .milch 
cows with the roots of ruta baga, accompanied with the free use of salt. 
— Conductor .] 
WHEAT AND WHEAT BREAD. 
One of the chief appendages of a well ordered table, is a conical pile of 
fine wheat bread. A table, however gorgeous as to furniture, cannot be 
considered in complete order, without some of the precious loaf some¬ 
where near it. Nothing has been found as a substitute, either in gust for 
the palate, or in properties of nutrition for the stomach. It is most easy 
of manufacture; will keep longest without acidity, and even when a little 
sour, is not considered entirely lost. It is said that a virulent spirit will 
grow mild, and a surly temper become agreeable, by frequent labors in 
rolling, folding and shaping the uneasy dough. How this may be, I can¬ 
not decide; one fact, however, is clear, awry face is seldom observed, 
while the hands are employed in kneading the precious dust. Who, at 
table, after a ride of sixteen miles, on a winter morning, is not touched 
with a spirit of gratitude, towards his hostess, if, as he takes his second 
cup of Mocha, he sees approaching some dozens of smoking loaves of 
choice wheat bread? In quality, other bread holds no comparison, even 
with butter and honey. Wheat, alone, is a luxury. 
But let me not disparage all other grain, from which bread is made. 
Corn bread is a staple article in New-England. Many have attained their 
manhood on it. Rye, barley, oats, buck and tea wheat possess many 
valuable properties, and with the aids of a keen appetite, are not to be re¬ 
jected. We will not spurn what is, and must be, in daily use. Probably 
not more than one-fourth of all the bread, consumed in New-England, is 
made from wheat. Fevv families, located on old farms, use it all the time, 
and many have none the year round. 
Mr. Buel, do you ask why a man writes in this manner, and for what 
purpose, what is thus written is offered to you for rejection or publication? 
I answer, my small family are freely battening on fine wheat of my own 
raising; a thanksgiving is enjoyed every day. That exorbitant duty I 
have assisted to pay to the flour dealers at the south and west for ten years 
past, is not likely the present year to be exacted. I have obtained one 
complete victory over the secret, and hitherto, successful enemy, the 
weavel, and hope, erelong, that starvation may effect what contrivance 
and force have attempted in vain. 
The writer of this article is a reader of the “ Cultivator,” and lives in 
the eastern part of an eastern town, in an eastern county in Vermont. 
Distant place! a good ways off! The very focus between Portsmouth, 
Boston, Hartford, Albany and Montreal; light freight on all goods of 
course. So you may infer I am on the banks of the Connecticut, where 
the devastations of the weavel have been more entensive than in any other 
section. 
My last experiment in 1S2S proved abortive, as from six bushels sow¬ 
ed, nothing but straw was harvested. Field after field has been sowed at 
the usual period of early sowing, say April 20th, yet the greatest effort, 
both in preparation of seed and soil, have availed nothing; and until the 
past season, on the banks of> the Connecticut and its larger tributaries, I 
have not known, for eight years past, a single instance of early sowing that 
proved successful. 
On the 30th day of May last I sowed three bushels of clean wheat with¬ 
out any preparation by brine, lime, ashes or vitriol. The soil was clayish, 
had been well manured the preceding season, and produced a light crop 
of frost bitten corn. A light fog of plaster was thrown over one part of 
the field, and a thick one of lime over the other; yet no benefit from 
either was perceptible. .My harvest was not so abundant as some of the 
western fields produced, where forty or fifty fold are gathered; I shall be 
satisfied with twice ten, for one; and may not get quite that. But the 
quality is beyond any thing harvested on my premises at any former pe¬ 
riod. 
Now, Mr. Buel, this is the effect of late sowing. The soil was like 
other soils; so also was the seed. The same wind fanned my field fanned 
my neighbor’s. One duty, however, the year previous, was omitted in 
my husbandry, which another man would have done; after the frost nip¬ 
ped my corn, hoeing was neglected altogether. One-half mile, both above 
and below my farm, and near the river, good wheat of late sowing was 
harvested, while two miles below, and four miles above, on similar soils, 
large fields, of early sowing were entirely destroyed. 
Since the ravages of the weavel, I have frequently come to the conclu¬ 
sion, that my farm must be abandoned for the wheaten soil of the west, 
or a hopeless conflict with that invisible enemy of the palate, be encounter¬ 
ed. The empty barrels with Rochester, Bloomfield and Troy brands had 
multiplied, and almost the entire income of a small stock w r as required to 
purchase flour. How frequently has Dorothy gently tapped my arm, and 
with smiling countenance but irresistible eloquence said, “Albert, ano¬ 
ther barrel of flour, the bowl touched the bottom this morning.” “ O, 
Dorothy! what shall we do? Not a dollar has been received since the last 
barrel was purchased, and then only three remained in the box.” 
How different and delightful the antithesis of the foregoing request. 
“Dorothy, when shall we send George to mill with another grist of 
wheat? We have plenty,-and you may use it freely, though prudently; 
and be sure to send a moiety of every grist to widow B. wddow W. and 
old Mr. C. ALBERT. 
Thetford , Vt. December, 1837. _ 
RELIEF FOR CHOAKED OR HOVEN CATTLE. 
Cobleski/l, December 14 tli, 1837. 
Jesse Buel, Esq.—Sir,—Having seen the request of your correspon¬ 
dent, Mr. Pliny L. Evans, in the last number of the Cultivator, that some 
one would communicate a remedy for bloat, or as I suppose he means 
what is called hoven in cattle, I hereby make known to the community, 
should you think it worthy of publication, the following derived from ex > 
perience. 
Five years since, in feeding a pair of fatting oxen, ithappened that one 
of them became choaked by a potato, and it could not be removed with¬ 
out, as was supposed, endangering his life. He, in consequence, in a day 
or two, became so extremely swollen and distressed, that it was apprehend¬ 
ed he would die, and to protract life, he was tapped on the left side.* 
* By tapping is meant the thrusting a knife or any other sharp pointed in¬ 
strument, not less than an inch and a quarter in width, between the last 
long, and the first short rib, on the leftside, through the hide, directly into the 
paunch, with the back of the knife, as low as the end of die short rib, the 
edge being upwards, towards the back, and the point towards the centre of 
