Democratic Sentinel, Volume 2, Number 25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 August 1878 — AGRICULTURAL AND DOMESTIC. [ARTICLE]

AGRICULTURAL AND DOMESTIC.

A round the Item. Farmers, if they did but know it, are under lasting obligations to the unassuming sub-soiler, the angle-worm. According to the Toronto Globe, the simplest way to waterproof muslin or canvas, for hay-caps or similar purposes, is to give it, on one side only, three or four coats of a dressing composed of a quarter of a pound of soft-soap and a gallon of linseed oil. Fertilizer fob Wheat. —One of the best artificial fertilizers for wheat, to be applied in the spring, is nitrate of soda. One hundred pounds of this per acre should be sown evenly over the wheat as soon as it begins to grow in the spring. —American Agriculturist, No one, a German writer says, succeeds well with bees who keeps them with only large profits in view ; for it is especially true here that “he who makefch haste to be rich” will surely fall into a snare. There must be a genuine enjoyment of the business and a real love for bees. Sulphur for Cattle Vebmin.— Let every man that keeps a cow sprinkle an ounce of sulphur along the back of the animal from the horns to the tail twice at least during the summer, and rub it well with a corn-cob so as to work to the skin; then the animal will not be troubled with grubs in the back or vermin of any kind, and will be more quiet every way. — Semi- Tropical. Cheese, as met with in the market, varies greatly in composition. Good binds contain from 30 to 35, and inferior kinds 38 to 45 per cent, of water; rich sorts include from 25 to 30 per cent, of fats and about the same proportion of albuminates. Poor cheese often contains only 6 per cent, of fat, and 40 to 50 per cent, of water. The amount of ash varies from 3 to 10 per cent.

. Simple Test for Milk.— The Milch Zeitung communicates a plan for testing milk which possesses the merit at least of simplicity. A well-polished knittingneedle is dipped into a deep vessel of milk and immediately withdrawn in an upright position, when, if the sample be pure, some of the fluid will be found to adhere to it, while such is not the case if water has been added to the milk even in the smallest proportions. Mr. Wm. Sanders, Superintendent of the Agricultural Grounds at Washington, says he has been experimenting a long time to try to prevent blight, and whether or not he has an infallible remedy he is unable to determine—he only knows that for ten years he has painted or washed apple and pear trees once or twice a year with a lime whitewash strongly impregnated with sulphur, and such trees have thus far escaped the blight, though it has appeared in the adjacent orchards. Apple Worms. —An extensive fruit grower of Western New York states that while scraping his apple trees he found lodged in the crotch of nearly every tree a nest of worms identical with those found in an apple; that the worm was safely secreted beneath the bark, where washing the surface of the tree over its bed would not affect or even disturb it. By removing the scaly bark and applying a coat of we>>k lye, the insects were at once killed, and thereby, in his opinion, an immense army of worms indirectly exterminated.— Exchange.

Currants and Gooseberries. —Much pruning in the fall may be avoided by removing shoots which push now where stems are not needed; they are easily pulled out. Generally the bushes are too full of wood and leaves for the most abundant fruit. In some markets both these fruits bring a better price when picked green—indeed, gooseberries are rarely sold otherwise. By heavy mulching, the fruit of the currant may be kept on the bushes a long while in good condition for table use. For jelly, currants should be gathered as soon as fairly colored. Charcoal in Turkey-Feeding.— An old turkey-raiser narrates the following experiment: Four turkeys were confined in a pen, and fed on meal, potatoes and oats. Four others of the same brood were also, at the same time, confined in another pen, and fed daily on the same articles, but with one pint of very finely pulverized charcoal mixed with their food—mixed meal and boiled potatoes. They had also a plentiful supply of broken charcoal in their pen. The eight were killed on the same day, and there was a difference of one and a half pounds each in favor of the fowls which had been supplied with charcoal, they being much the fattest and the meat greatly superior in point of tenderness and flavor.— Cultivator.

About the House. Beef Liver. — Cut it in slices half an inch thick, pour boiling water over it, drain, and broil it with thin slices of pork dipped in flour; cut it .in mouthfuls, and heat it with butter, pepper and salt for three or four minutes. Breakfast Cakes. —Two cupfuls of sour milk, half a cupful of molasses, a teaspoonful of soda, a heaping cupful of flour and Indian meal to make a stiff batter. Add a little salt, and fry as griddle cakes. Deodorizers.— A pail of clear water in a newly-painted room will remove the sickening odor of paint. Coffee pounded in a moitar and roasted on an iron plate, sugar burned on hot coals, and vinegar boiled with myrrh and sprinkled on the floor and furniture of the sickroom are excellent deodorizers. For Burns. — Strong, fresh, clear lime water mixed with as much linseed oil as it will cut; shake the bottle before a Pplyi n g; 'wrap the bum in cotton wadding saturated with the lotion; wet as often as it appears dry, without removing cotton from bum for nine days, when new skin will probably have formed.

Citron Cake.—l£ cup butter, 2 cups sugar, 6 eggs, 1 teaspoonful “royal baking powder,” or J teaspoonful of soda and | ditto cream of tartar, 1 pint flour, 1 cup citron, cut in thin slices. Rub, the butter and sugar to a smooth cream, add the eggs two at a time, beating five minutes between each J§ift the flour nnd baking powder, add it tothe butter and sugar with the citron. Onion Toast. —Boil some small onions, changing the water twice, and salting the last time. When done, take the onions up with a skimmer. Thicken the water, which should be boiled away to about a pint, with a very little corn-starch; add butter, pepper and salt to taste. Have toasted some thin slices of bread, lay them in a dish, put the onions on the slices, and pour the gravy over. Celery Leaves.— Most housekeepers throw away the leaves and green tops of celery. There is a better way than this. Dry them thoroughly in the oven, then pulverize to a fine powder, and they make a very delicious seasoning for soup, the aroma and strength of the celery being remarkably preserved. After being pulverized, the powder should be kept in a jar or closed" bottle to preserve the strength. Cooking Calf’s or Pig’s Liver.— Put a little lard into a sauce-pan, and when hot throw in onion chopped fine, and the slices of calf’s liver floured. Turn the liver several times, allowing it to cook well and imbibe the *aste of the onion. When done, drain out the liver, and put into your pan a piece of buttea the size of a large hickory nut and a heaping teaspoonful of flour, stir it until it assumes a fine brown color, then pour in a cupful of boiling water, stirring it

[well with the egg-whisk, add pepper, salt, and a heaping table-spoonful of vinegar; put the liver slices into the sauce, ana let them remain at the side of the fixe until ready to serve.