Democratic Sentinel, Volume 1, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 October 1877 — Around the Farm. [ARTICLE]

Around the Farm.

To make cabbages head properly, a pinch of salt to each head, or a slight watering with weak lime, is very beneficial.

The swamps are now dry, and work on them should not be neglected. Getting out muck for use in winter and digging ditches can be better done in August than at any other time. Gather and put in the compost heap all the weeds that have not yet seeded. Burn all that have ripe seeds. This work should not be neglected. Upon many farms the roadsides, barnyard fences and the sites of old grain-stacks are most prolific nurseries for weeds. These should be cleared up at once. “Pusley,” or purslane, anathematized here as a pest by our farmers and gardeners, is carefully cultivated and considered a veiy choice and delicious vegetable by those of Europe. Prejudice alone prevents people in every part of the world from using many edibles highly prized by those equally civilized elsewhere. A Manlius, Onandaga county (N. Y.) fanner writes that last fall he sowed twenty acres to wheat, applying 225 bushels of damaged salt, and this season he has harvested from the same land 1,120 bushels of fine wheat, averaging forty bushels to the acre. He keeps eight horses, twenty-five cows, a large flock of sheep, and forty-seven hogs, and believes in genuine grain-growing, stockraising husbandry. Fabm horses in the fall are often ungratefully neglected. Their hard toil in helping with the heavy work of the season once over, when only odd jobs await them, it is too frequent a custom to dock them of their grain and allow them to shift for themselves on the pastures, often without needed shelter from the bleak winds and early frosts of autumn nights. After feeding a while the poor animals get chilled, and run about in the dark in search of warmth, which they often find only at the cost of a stumble or fall, resulting often in a sprain or a cut that disfigures them for life. Then, when warm and tired they lie down to rest, what wonder if they rise up stiff, spiritless and not rarely suffering from a severe cold after their heated blood and relaxed sinews have been exposed to the blasts and frosts of a chilly night! When the days are not stormy, it is well enough to let horses run in the pasture, but every autumn night should find them comfortably bedded and fed in the stable. Ingratitude to our fellow men is justly considered an odious vice, but is there not often a strong taint of it also in the treatment of these noble animals, to whose faithful help in all kinds of drudgery farmers are deeply indebted for full barns and comfortable homes ? Care of the privy is by far too rare on the farm. By a little management, however, the premises might be kept from disagreeable odors, the contents of the vault utilized for garden purposes, and “ night work” done at one’s leisure in the day-time, without offense to the most sensitive nose in the neighborhood. A correspondent of the agricultural department of the Weekly Tribune tells how this can be effected : First, allow no slops to be poured into the vault; otherwise you will have a nuisance in spite of all you can do. Second, have some other place of deposit for broken dishes, bottles and other rubbish that will not decay ; if put into the vault these must eventually be sorted out again, and they hinder the action of absorbents. Third, have on hand, for use from time to time, some roaddust, dry loam, hard-wood sawdust, or sifted coal ashes. There is no disinfectant or absorbent better than road-dust gathered in dry weather, though many other materials are almost as good. If these be frequently and liberally sprinkled into die vault, there will never be any bad odor, and the vault need not be emptied oftener than once in two years. The composted deposit can be removed without offense to the eye or nose, and, with a little diluting with dry earth, is excellent dressing for almost any crop. About the House. Small Beer.—A handful of hops to a pail of water. 1 pint of bran, 1 pint of molasses, 1 cupful yeast, 1 spoonful of ginger. Harvest Drink. Five gallons of water, | gallon of molasses, 1 quart of vinegar, and 2 ounces of powdered ginger. Remedy for Poison Ivy. —E. A. Blood, of Bloomington, 111., says that bran poultice is an infallible cure for poison ivy. Ginger Beer.—One cup of ginger, 1 pint of molasses, 1’ pails of water, and 1 cup of lively yeast, slightly warm ; bottle and cork securely. White Spruce Beer.—Three pounds of loaf-sugar, 5 gallons of water, with essence of spruce to -taste, 1 cupful of good yeast, and some lemon peel. To Remove Fruit Stains —To remove an apple stain on cloth: Dampen the spots and hold them over a lighted match; the sulphur smoke will bleach it out. This will also remove apple and berry stains from the hands.— Of io Farmer. Good-Templar Beer.—One pin. «f bran, a handful of hops, some twigs of spruce, hemlock, or cedar, a little sassafras, roots of burdock, plantain, docks and dandelion ; boil and strain, and add a spoonful of ginger molasses and a cupful of yeast. The above will make a gallon. Relief for Frosted Feet.—For frosted feet, take pure flaxseed oil, bathe your feet, and heat in by the fire well before going to bed; wrap some old clothes around the feet to keep the oil from rubbing off, and bathe again in the morning. A few applications will remove all soreness and itching.—American Farm Journal. Home-Made Ink.—Take half an ounce of extract of logwbod and ten grains of bichromate of potash, and dissolve them in a quart of rain water in a bottle kept uncorked. The bottle should be perfectly clean and free from any other ink. Running the logwood through a fine strainer will remove all sediment.— Evening Wisconsin. Mote from the Eye.—Take a horsehair and double it, leaving a loop. Ts the mote can be seen, lay the loop over it, close the eye, and the mote will come out as the hair is withdrawn, If it cannot be seen, raise the lid of the eye as far as possible, and place the loop in it as far as you can, close the eye and roll

the ball a few times, then draw out the hair. The substance which caused so much pain will be sure to come out with no. - xxj itHow to Tend A Co At Ftrw.—Replenish a coal fire as soon as the coals begin to show ashes on the surface; then put oh merely enough to show a layer of black coal covering the red. This will soon kindle, and, as there is not much of it, an excess of heat will be given out. Many persons almost put out the fire by stirring the grate as soon as fresh coal is put on, thus leaving all the heat in the ashes when it should be sent to the new supply of coal. The time to stir the fire is* just when the new coal laid on is pretty well kindled. This method saves fuel, gives a more uniform heat, and prevents the discomfort of alternations of heat and cold.— Housekeeper. Artificial Lemonade. —Loaf sugar 2 pounds, tartaric acid J ounce, essence of lemon 30 drops, essence of almonds 20 drops. Dissolve the tartaric acid in 2 {lints of hot water, add the sugar, and astly the lemon and almond ; stir well, cover with a.cloth, and leave until cold; put 2 table-spoonfuls into a tumbler, and fill up with cold water. The drink, it is said, will be found much more refreshing and more palatable than either ginger beer or lemonade, and costs only 30 cents for 10 pints. The addition of a very little bicarbonate of potash to each tumblerful just before drinking will give a wholesome effervescing drink.—Scientific American.