Democratic Sentinel, Volume 2, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 August 1878 — AGRICULTURAL AND DOMESTIC. [ARTICLE]

AGRICULTURAL AND DOMESTIC.

Around the Farm. Apples and pears will keep and color better and bring a higher price if pickled a few days before they are quite ripe. Manure from a fattening cow is superior to that of a milk cow. There is a deficiency of the phosphates in the milk cows’ droppings. For some sorts of vegetables, as lettuce, cress, radishes and others, the Chinese system of keeping the soil continuously wet is the best that can be adopted. It produces a crispness in the vegetables that is obtained only when there has been no check in the growth. Farmers should be advised not to try to economize by mowing too close. An old farmer of our acquaintance used to say that he thought “it was better to leave the lower joint for the old brindle cow than to save it for herand we wonder that all sensible farmers do not heed this advice. Fruits gathered in the afternoon are less acrid than when gathered in the morning, because fruits are ripened by the conversion of the acid they contain into sugar, and, since this requires the aid of light and heat, the intervening hours between morning and afternoon produce the difference in their ripeness. It is computed that in the year 1875 there were 10,000,000 cows kept for dairy purposes in this country, which, at $45 per head, were worth ?450,000,000. The land needed for their support represents $900,000,000 more, and the capital invested in teams, dairy implements, etc., $100,000,000, making a grand total of $1,450,000,000 invested in this single industry. To render timber fire-proof : Saturate it as far as may be with strong aqueous solutions of sodium tungstate (crude), silicate (water glass) or sulphate ; ammonium sulphate has also been used. Wood thus preserved is not ignited by sparks, or transient contact with flame. Unaltered woody fiber cannot, however, be rendered, by these or other simple means, incombustible. The Philadelphia Farm Journal goes for a man who cuts firewood in harvest time, but advises the good wife to stick to cobs, chips, old broom-liandles, buckets, etc., until the last sheaf of oats is in the bam. Gome “ Wect, young man,” where coal is mined from under a soil whose surface, tickled with a hoe, laughs with golden crops. If not, cut your fuel when the snow flies. To exterminate red ants on the lawn, the best thing is cycnide of potassium, about one ounce to a pint of water. Trace the ants to their nests and then pour the cyanide in. It will not hurt the grass, but rather help it. As it is a most deadly poison, no more should be bought than will be used up at once, or if more is procured it should be kept in a corked bottle and plainly labeled.— Toronto Globe.

The washing of stems and large branches of trees with a solution of carbolic acid soap dissolved in lukewarm water, and a portion of the flour of sulphur mixed with it, is a good method for destroying the insects. The best time to do the washing is after the spring opens. It will then stick to the trees, and when the insects come out the poison kills them in their infant state, and by that the foliage and fruits of tho trees may be saved. Sowing Wheat.—Experiments at different depths favor, in ordinary soils, one or two inches. Samples of pure seed sown one-half inch in depth came up in eleven days, seven-eighths of the seed germinating; that sowed one inch in depth came up in twelve days, and all germinated; two inches deep, seveneighths of it came up in eighteen days; three inches deep, three-quarters of it came up in twenty days; four inches showed a growth of one-half, that came up in twenty-one days; five inches, only one-half grew and c,*me up in twentytwo days, while that planted six inches deep came up in twenty-three days, but pnly one-third germinated. —Practical Farmer. To Kill Wild Oats.—There is probr bly no plant that a thorough summer fallow will not kill in time. By perseverance the ground may be totally freed from vegetation of all kinds. But there are some plan'.s the growth of which is actually encouraged by partial summerfallows, badly conducted. A summerfallow, to be effective, must kill every sprouting root or seed while it is in its early, tender stages by constant plowing. harrowing aud cultivating. Biennial roots must be harrowed out, and those that possess great vitality must be picked off and removed from the land. Such a summer-fallow is costly, and it is almost equally effective to grow a succession of hoed crops, such as tatoeg or roots alternated with crops «& quick and close growth, such as peas£ buckwheat, flax or clover. To grow fall wheat upon fßul laud is only to perpetuate the weeds.— An&riean urist. y About the House. The Western Rural says that ripe tomatoes can be kept fresh* a year by immersing them; with the stems on, in brine composed of a teacupful of salt to a gallon of water.

Enamel cloth cau be kept fresh for years by using proper care. If water fall upon it, it should be quickly Wiped off with a woolen cloth, and grease spots should be removed with soap and water. Oil-cloths can be easily'and quickly spoiled by cleaning them with hot water, and not wiping them properly. They should be washed with lukewarm water, and wiped perfectly dry with a soft flannel. The following wash will renovate gilt frames : Take sufficient flour of sulphur to give a golden tinge to about a pint and a half of water, and in this boil four or five bruised onions, or garlic; strain off the liquid, and with it, when cold, wash with a soft brush any gilding which requires restoring. To make Scotch shortbread, rub together into a stiff, short paste two pounds flour, one pound butter and six ounces loaf sugar; make it into square cakes, about a half inch thick, pinch them all along the edge at the top, over the whole surface of the cakes sprinkle some white comfits, put the cakes on tins so as to touch each other on their edges, and bake in a slow oven. Cream Beer. —Two ounces of tartaric acid, two pounds of white sugar, the juice of half a lemon; boil five minutes, and, when nearly cold, add the whites of three eggj well beaten, one-half cup of flour, one-half cup of wintergreen essence. Take a table-spoonful of this sirup to a tumblerful of water, then add one-half teaspoonful of saleratus and drink at once. Apple Dumplings.— Quarter and core one apple for each dumpling; then put the parts together, with sugar in the middle; surround each apple with piecrust; if you wish to babe them, put them on a pan like biscuits, and set them in the oven. If boiled, tie each in a separate cloth, and boil for half an hour. Serve, both baked and boiled, with liquid sauce. Light Bread. —Two quarts of flour, one teaspoonful of salt, half a tea cup of yeast, one egg, well beaten, one pint of water. Sift the flour and divide it into three parts. Mix one-third in the batter, one-third in the jar to rise in; and pour the other third over the baiter. Let it stand two hours, and then work it well, adding a small piece of lard before baking. Idyl of pastoral life in Jack county, Texas; Nine cattle-drovers, while making up a jierd, include steer of old gentleman, Old gentleman tliid attendant undej'jifike to rescue steer Old gentleman

is killed, aud attendant goes off for reinforcements. Reinforcements come np. Nine little cow-boys, bnt the Jack Regulators killed seven of ’em, then there were two. They were tracked by the blood from their wounds a distance of ten miles, bnt escaped.