t M * 
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jht RURAL NEW-YORKER 
Tennessee Notes 
The blight sunny days of May, though 
very cool, gave the farmers a chance 
to plant corn, and life as usual has been 
full of busy days tinged with sadness as 
well as gladness. Charlie, the eldest lad, 
has been in the hospital at Detroit for 
several weeks; came very near losing a 
band, but last report was allowed to be 
up. Paul, the Iowa lad, writes he has 
been up above the clouds in an airplane, 
and we here at home have chipped in 
together and purchased a second-hand 
“Tin Lizzie.” Sunday morning we at¬ 
tended Sunday school at Oak Hill, in 
the afternoon at Allegheney, our home 
Sunday school; Sunday night, the Chris¬ 
tian Endeavor at Betheeda. Farm folks 
have not extra time to go many trips in 
daytime, and I am wondering if there is 
anything one can do for a cranker to im¬ 
prove the lights until means permit in¬ 
stalling a starter. Lee, the only lad at 
home, is showing good qualities for a safe 
and sane driver, if we can only keep the 
speed mania from infecting him. 
In answer to many queries, Tennessee 
is a long slim State, varying in tempera¬ 
ture from east to west several degrees, 
and it is quite true that w T e sometimes 
have zero weather, usually in January or 
February ; sometimes killing frost in May 
or as early as September, and again we 
do not have any frost after April until 
October. All varieties of fruits, berries, 
nuts, etc., grow here, with an every-other 
year heavy crop as a general thing. 
Chickens are subject to lice, gapes and 
other poultry ills, here as elsewhere. We 
have some graded roads that are wear¬ 
ing out before paid for. We have some 
honest officials and some not so good; 
some fertile, productive farms, and some 
not so good. Everyone uses fertilizers to 
produce their crops. Beans and tobacco 
are the principal money crops. Timber 
pretty well culled out. It is surely dis¬ 
couraging to see the cut-over hills, so 
many of them fit for nothing after their 
shaded protection is gone, and in conse¬ 
quence our seasons have changed; floods, 
high winds, hailstorms and late and early 
frost. Bird life is not so plentiful, and 
all manner of destructive insects sit 
around and watch for a bit of green to 
put out, that they may devour. Some day 
people will learn that “willful waste 
makes woeful want.” We Americans are 
prodigal wasters. 
A neighbor has just now come with a 
hen to swap for one that is broody, so we 
must go and set a hen, and now that’s 
finished, the light bread worked down, a 
bedspread marked off ready for tufting, 
and not yet eight. I make my own 
starter after begging crumbs from some 
good neighbor ; if I boil potatoes for din¬ 
ner I scald one quart of flour with pota¬ 
to water, or if not cooking them I boil 
three large potatoes until soft and scald 
flour, add the potatoes, two heaping table¬ 
spoons of sugar and one of salt; soak 
crumbs until soft, and after supper beat 
scalded flour, thinning with water if nec¬ 
essary, and softened crumbs together. 
vSponge should be rather thick. Then 
cover with flour and set aside until morn¬ 
ing. If successful the sponge is light and 
flour all crackly on top. Sometimes be¬ 
fore breakfast I sift about three quarts 
of flour, make hole in center, pour in the 
sponge, saving back about one-half cup 
for crumbs. Add two pints of warm wa¬ 
ter, bit of shortening (very good with¬ 
out), stir in flour from edges to make a 
stiff dough. Work and work until a 
lively smooth mass; set aside; let rise un¬ 
til other work is out of the way, then 
work into loaves. Grease well, place in 
roaster, and another small deep pan, six 
loaves altogether. Let rise, and bake 
brown in a moderate oven. Remove from 
pans, brush with melted butter, and they 
are ready to eat. Meanwhile the bit of 
sponge left over is worked in meal until 
all moisture is absorbed. This crumb is 
df-ipd in a cool place and placed in a fruit 
jdr. to be used as needed. 
For dinner very often I work off suffi¬ 
cient of the bread dough into small bis¬ 
cuits or rolls; butter pan well, and top of, 
rolls; bake when light, and eat while hot; 
they are delicious. 
Our family are hearty cake eaters. The 
following makes an extra large layer 
cake, or two medium-sized cakes: One- 
half c*up of shortening, two cups of sugar 
and two eggs creamed together. Meas¬ 
ure four cups of flour before sifting and 
sift with four teaspoons of baking pow¬ 
der. Add one cup of milk and one-third 
of the flour ; then add one cup of hot wa¬ 
ter and balance of flour. Beat well, 
flavor and bake in layers; use chocolate 
filling or soft frosting. MRS. D. B. P. 
The Laxative Diet 
Many a reader who has made a spee- 
al study of laxative foods, supplement a 
little “M. B. D.’s” excellent reply to 
your Delaware correspondent, page 844? 
Such a diet is of special importance to 
prospective mothers, elderly people and 
those who incline to the daily dose : n 
preference to the daily dozen. It in¬ 
cludes all well-known fruits with the ex¬ 
ception of bananas and blackberries, but 
best of all are those eaten with their 
skins like figs, currants and cherries; it 
features all kinds of salads and greens, 
with oil. sour cream or buttermilk dress¬ 
ing, and not only the leafy vegetables, 
fitit those which, like carrots, sweet po¬ 
tatoes and string beans, have a large 
amount of cellulose or “roughage.” Milk 
and eggs are better raw than cooked. 
Buttermilk and bonny clabber are in 
favor, and molasses, honey and the good 
old-fashioned brown sugar are the pre¬ 
ferred sweets. Bye, oatmeal and corn 
bread are good to vary the whole wheat 
loaf, and flaked rye and barley are among 
the best cereals. Meat and cheese, white 
bread, polished rice, and all concentrated, 
over-refined and highly-spiced foods 
should be avoided, or eatexi sparingly 
and balanced by distinctly laxative 
dishes, such as cold slaw with tomatoes, 
figs or prunes in some form, fresh pine¬ 
apple, or bran muffins with plenty of 
raisins (the package brans give recipes 
for delicious muffins, as well as for grid¬ 
dle cakes and cookies). 
Perhaps no point is more important 
than the two glasses of water (hot or 
cold, with or without fruit juice) before 
breakfast. Water is good, too, between 
meals and at bedtime, and not only 
grapes and lemons, but rhubarb and black 
cherries and elderberries make pleasant 
and wholesome drinks. Laxative supper 
dishes are important: salads, vegetable 
chowder, scalloped tomatoes or cauli¬ 
flower, cereal savories and baked apples 
or pears stuffed with raisins help to vary 
the meal. r. f. d. 
Letters of an Indiana Farmer 
Our county is “all het up” over its 
new Historical .Society. It must be ad¬ 
mitted that the warming process was 
long delayed, and not without some back¬ 
sets. It took pressure from outside, a 
change in the plan of organization, and a 
sudden realization of the danger of fur¬ 
ther delay, to get things really going. It 
is already too late to preserve many of 
the incidents and traditions that make 
history so much more human; all the 
people who knew them are dead, and 
their heedless youngsters never thought to 
inquire about such things. Already there 
have been two lost villages in this town¬ 
ship, and argument is abroad about the 
exact location of the old tavern, and the 
birthplace of General Burnside. This 
county boasts the first educational semi¬ 
nary in the State, and perhaps the first 
public school; certainly, one of the first. 
Now the Historical Society is to work 
in connection with the clubs instead of 
as an entirely separate, “oh-dear, an- 
other-club” organization. Several clubs 
will use their very own local history for 
part of the program next year. Out here, 
we are going to mark the stations of the 
“Underground Railroad,” and probably 
the location of the old Lyceum Hall, the 
burning of which remains an unsolved 
mystery to this day. We will study our 
own neighborhood in all its “five insti¬ 
tutional ideas,” but especially the Quaker 
church and schools, and perhaps the Qua- 
ker-Spiritualist conflict, of which few 
survivors remain, though we have all 
heard our elders discuss it. 
It took an outsider to tell us of the In¬ 
dian Treaty Lines, which run through 
our county; we never knew we had 
them! We are, as a settlement, con¬ 
siderably more than 100 years old, and 
919 
our pioneers are all dead. Probably 
still older localities waked up sooner; and 
many younger communities have still a 
chance to get their stories first-hand, 
from their oldest inhabitants. 
We had, years ago, in this county, a 
puzzle to engineers—a watermill that 
turned partly around on its foundations 
in a night. It may have happened else¬ 
where, but I never heard of it. An ac¬ 
count of that strange incident has been 
kept in the State Archives for some 
time. 
The weather has not shared the “all 
het up ’ state of the history enthusiasts. 
Garden operations are running about a 
month behind schedule. The housewife 
is taking stock of her cans, and limiting 
the family consumption of peaches, for 
this is an off’ peach year. It is not only 
that the fruit is dead in the blossom, but 
there is no blossom ! I don’t remember 
another such occurrence. We have put 
out 35 more trees in the fruit plantation, 
all Rochester. If they do well, I shall 
be running around in circles, finding a 
market, when they all come into bearing. 
There is usually a good local demand, 
for large yellow freestones; I like white 
peaches better myself. I wonder whether 
customers will hail these early freestones 
gladly, or insist on waiting for my neigh¬ 
bors’ Elbertas? 
The first blossoms of the strawberries 
were killed, and most apple trees offer 
promise of a scant half crop. e. m. o. 
There are thousands of women who 
are literally slaves to their kitchen 
because the food upon which they 
lavish so much care and attention 
is likely to spoil if the fire is too 
hot, or not hot enough. 
Coal and wood stoves require end¬ 
less attention. They make every 
kitchen hot and difficult to keep 
clean. They mean the heavy haul¬ 
ing of coal or wood and ashes. 
The New Perfection Oil Cookstove 
burns kerosene—clean and odor¬ 
less. It is practically automatic in 
its operation, and delivers a wide 
range of heat—bakes, broils, boils, 
roasts, and toasts. 
It eliminates coal, dirt and ashes. 
It adds immeasurably to personal 
comfort because it keeps the 
kitchen cool. 
Ask your dealer to demonstrate the 
particular model which you like 
best, and which you will find dis¬ 
played in his store. Remember that 
each New Perfection model, whether 
it be the famous Blue Chimney, or 
the fast-as-gas Superfex, represents 
the utmost in cooking satisfaction 
at its price. 
NEW PERFECTION 
Oil Cook Stoves and Ovens 
STANDARD OIL CO. OF NEW YORK 
26 BROADWAY 
