Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 June 1886 — FARM AND HOME. [ARTICLE]

FARM AND HOME.

A Budget of Useful Information Upon Industrial and Household Topics. Matters of Interest Relating to Farm, Stable, and Orchard, and to Parlor and Kitchen. THE FARMER. Keep Down the Weeds. If a farmer is obliged to ptent on land not enriched as he ’’would like to have it, he can produce part of the effect of increased manure by thorough tillage to destroy weeds, and give the crop the full benefit of what plant food the soil contains. This is better and cheaper than heavily manurihg land and allowing weeds to get most of the benefit Setting Furrows on Edge. The broad, flat furrow is not adapted for - early spring plowing of heavy land. It turns all the surface soil to the bottom, and this is always the richest The best corn, especially, is grown on land plowed in narrow furrows, set on edge so as to admit most warmth and air to the seed. If the young plants aro stunted at first recovery is difficult and slow. , Manure for Asparagus. Salt has from time immemorial been recommended as a manure for asparagus. Undoubtedly it is good, for one of the effects of salt on rich soil is to make all its plant food available. Market gardeners find that heavv coverings of manure are very important They add salt later, and in doses heavv enough to aid in . repressing weeds. For stimulating rapid growth . nitrate of soda would undoubtedly he helpful, though as an exclusive manure it is too expensive for general Use. Beginners in Fanning. A safe advice to beginners, and one that any agricultural paper could afford to keep always printed in special type, would be, in substance: “Go slow. Do not buy any new implements, if you can get good second-hand ones. “Do not buy anything more than your neighbor, a self-supporting farmer, uses. “Do not do anything differently from what ho does. And after copy.ng him and his ways, say for three years, begin to spend any money yoi may have made in carrying out your ideas of improvement, if you have any left” I write feelingly on this .subject, for I have “been farming now for.five years, and, looking back, regret that I could not have followed such a course.

It takes several years for a person to know his own farm. It takes a beginner several years to know how to avoid wasting money. He may think he knows, but he will find he does not About the only thing he can safely do at first is to haul manure to the spots that need it most. And after one or two seasons’ trial, he will begin to understand these apparently simple things: How much time it takes; how much ground it covers; what increase yield in crops—and consequently what he can afford to spend in making his manure. Besides, what answers in one locality may be disastrous or unprofitable in another. — Cor. Country Gentleman. Practical Points on Potato Planting. The Western farmer who does not plant his potatoes as early as he does his oats, on welldrained and well-enriched and deeply cultivated land, need not look for paying results. The potato thrives best on land abounding in vegetable mold sufficient to give the soil a dark, rich color. Such a soil will become warmed very early in the season, and preserve the proper degree of moisture and coolness at the important period of the enlargement of the tubers. In order to produce the best results, experience has shown that it is necessary that the temperature of the earth should be lower than that of the air. The subdivision into eyes is important. When quartered, halved or planted whole too feebly doveloped'shoota spring therefrom. A single eye, or at most not more than two eyes cut down to an imaginary line passing from the middle of each end of the potato to the opposite end, so as to secure as much flesh to each eye or both eyes as possible, is an essential condition of success. Dr. Sturtevant has shown by careful experiment that if the eye of the potato, is. injured so as to just avoid killing it, a mass of little tubers, fifteen to twenty-five, will form instead Of the shoot, illustrating the fact that a single eye has the capacity of originating all the potatoes that a whole plant ought to oe expected to bear. All new and valuable varieties should be cut so that every eye should be saved. To do this, take the potato ip the loft hand, and hold it in an upright position with tne end down. The eyes will then appear in spiral form, liktr the thread of the corkscrew. Take a sharp, . thin-bladed knife and remove the lowest eye by cutting midway between it and the next above. By the continued cutting from a point midway between the eyes to a central line of the potato, forming wedge-shaped pieces, the potato will soon have tire appearance of a many-sided inverted pyramid. The main care required will be in the subdividing of the closely clustered eyes at the seed end. After they are cut, if not convenient to plant at thetime, they can, if placed on a floor under shelter, after' being rolled in land plaster or airslacked lime, remain there from one to three weeks without injury. — Farm, Stock and Home. _

THE STOCK-BREEDER. Kicking Horse. It is told of a kicking horse that he was cured by Suspending a sack behind him filled with hay. At first his kicking was something terrible, but he subsided entirely when the hay returned toward his heels every time. . Oat-Meal for Cows. Corn-meal is more generally used for feeding cows than oats, partly because corn is abundant, while it is generally thought that our oats are all'required for horses. But last season we had an enormous oat crop, and farmers are beginning to learn that this grain makes superior feed for cows as well as horses. It is not so fattening as com, and where cows already give a large mess of rather poor milk com-meal may be better than oats to improve ite quality. But to make more milk oats are even better , than com, and are probably worth the increased price per pound that they generally command. The albuminoids which are needed to give strength to horses, and in which corn is deficient, are equally required in the composition of milk. As we shall probably have another large crop of oats this year a market may be made for part of our surplus by feeding to mileheowe. Feeding Growing Pigs. The hfig has usually been fed as if he were capable or digesting all that could be crammed into his stomach, and he Has been treated as if he were as hardy as a wild boar, and could endure extremes of heat, cold, filth, and neglect Now, the hog can only digest s certain amount of food within a given time, and when he has eaten too much he suffers in consequence, and especially if the food is of a kind not adapted to his requirement His digestive organs can be disarranged as easily as can those of the - horse, and filth taken into the system will cause him to become diseased the same as is peculiar to humans. The - accepted theory regarding ..cholera nosais that it is a form of typhoid fever, and if this is true there is but one conclusion to arrive at, which is that filth is at the bottom of the difficulty. The eating of filth is bad enough, but the drinking of filthy water is worse, as the animal is then thirsty, and the filth, being in a soluble condition, is at once carried to every portion of the body. The supposition that the Kidneys cause the impurities to be eliminated is true only when the animal is in a healthy condition. If the surroundings are filthy, the pores of the body will be closed. If, in feeding hogs, the farmer will abandon the practice of attempting to keep them in an excessively fat condition while they are growing he will find that they will entail less labor of management and be more thrifty, while the excellent health in which he will «find them- when ready for being fattened will enable them to take on more fat and at less cost than to keep them fat the whole year. . All that is required with grotwing pigs 'is to afford thorn a variety of food and to keep their quarters clean. Above all, give them as much fresh water as thev can drink. If slop is fed, place it in a .trough, where it will be eaten up clean, instead of being Scattered about to fer- ~ ; .» - • ' ——-i-..-........_

monk Slop is not really filthy food. It is only when it is ip a state of decomposition and filled with disease germs that it beoomss injurious; but to compel pigs to eat where they have deposited manure, or to drink water that has been impregnated with the same, will cause disease to break but in any herd.

THE ORCHARDIST. Grafting Fruit Trees. It is important to cut scions of last year’s growth, having well-developed healthy buds, irom healthy trees of the best strain of each variety desired, before the budi swell. I have found it best to tie them in bundles not over two iiiches in diameter, plainly labeled and packed in fresh sawdust just cut from green hard-wood timber. Kept in a cold cellar they are good to use until the middle of June. Last year! set grafts June 28 that did well. I also cut grafts June 2 from one tree and set in another near by, five out of six growing well. The following is the best grafting wax: Resin,.four pounds; beeswax, pounds; raw linseed oil, one pint; melt in a kettle over a slow fira Then pour into a tub of cold water, and with hands well greased work the whole together until wall mixed. I have found it convenient to work'it into about half-pound balls. These, if wrapped in good manila paper, will keep good, ready for use,, for years. It is also a good salvo for wounds or bruises. To cut limbs off, I use a twelve-inch-blade mitre saw, twelve teeth to the inch, each filed sharp to cut either way. This is used left or right-handed, and has a pin in the handle which is often convenient to hang it by. For carrying wax, a piece of tallow to grease the hands while handling it facilitates the business. The ingrafter needs a small hammer and grafting chisel, a blade something like a razor, of best steel, the handle a wedge turned on one side. Up the tree I use an oval pail, size about eight quarts, with a small partition for the grafts and hook on the handle to hang it by. tusually cut each graft with four buds; tlie lower one about the middle of the wedge, when inserted is beloiy the top of the stock, and often grows to a good strong limb even after a graft is broken off. If a scion is crooked I cut so it will curve upward or downward. For a small tree or limb not over one inch in diameter one graft is sufficient All natural or seedling trees have two to three times as many limbs as they should have to bear fruit, and most orchard trees are too thick, hence only the best limbs are grafted, selecting those on the upper and northwest sides, less on the lower sides, to make better balanced tops when necessary.

If a limb is over, three inches in diameter where cut off, it will be apt to decay before the grafts unite solid over the top. Two inches or less is about the right size. If the limb leans, a place is selected that is smooth on both sides so it will split straight, and grafts inserted on the sides, not top and bottom, so the outside wood of each is os near even as possible, and top and sides of stalk, where cut or split, perfectly waxed over. It the work is rightly done, with knife blade for whittling grafts kept with a keen razor edge, and grafts used in a few moments after being whittled, .when the weather is dry, every apple or pear graft set from April 1 to June lb in healthy trees in my locality will grow. So also with every cherry and plum graft set before the buds open. A tree whoso body is eight to fifteen inches in diameter requires eight to sixteen grafts, placed far enough apart to climb among them for the fruit, grafting such limbs so that those left can be removed in a few years,without injury to the tree. Top enough should be left at all times to keep the roots healthy. I have climbed trees this spring where too many grafts were inserted some years ago, say sixty to Seventy in a tree, where twenty to twenty-five would have been much better. These have grown to long, slender limbs, too thick to cut around among them. Such can never be pruned into good shape. The best trees aro those where no large limbs were ever cut, with strong branching tops, so a man can readily climb to all parts without a ladder and pick nearly every apple, or cut any outside scion wanted.— Cor. Wayne Independent.

THE HOUSEKEEPER. Mother’s Cucumber Barrel. A barrel of cucumbers! One often wonders that at the home of the cucumbers nothing is to be found of the pickle kind except the large, coarse, overgrown cucumbers. Upon interviewing the house mother, the fact is learned that she knows what is better, but can not get the cucumbers picked at the right stage, which is now when more than four inches and not less than two and one-half in length, and from one-half inch to three-quar-ters of an inch in diameter. “Father hates to lose the growth and will not pick them daily, as they approach the right size. I tell him over afrd over to bring me homo the ‘gherkins’ every day, whether there is one or half a peck; but he will not; but- just before they get ready ‘to go to seed’ he comes in with a half bushel, perhaps, of great, fat ones, and he looks so proud, as if now I must bo convinced of his superior judgment! So I find a big job on my hands, just when I don’t know how to attend to it—usually. If the garden was near the house I could get them myself, but I can’t find the time to get away over those fields every day.” But if the wife could have a cucumber barrel, or two of them, in a sunny spot at the back door, she could, with small outlay of tipio or strength, have a thrifty lot of vines. «A couple of potato barrels can bo brought from' the cellar in tho spring and set so near the back steps (if it is a sunny location) thatmother can water and pot them without stepping down off the steps. (Every step down or up, unnecessarily forced upon the active house-mother, is ah incalculable burden. The man who, through laziness or niggardliness, arranges his house so that there -is one. two and three steps difference in the level of the floors, should bo condemned to an endless treadmill of stair climbing for life for first offense, and twice as long for each repetition of the crime!) - To prepare the barrels; Fill themmlf full of any rubbish—sticks, stones, bricks aro each and all good for the purpose; then fill within an inch of the top with good soil and scatter in two dozen cucumber seeds; when they have sprouted and grown to the height of three inches pull up the weakly looking plants, leaving five or six of the thriftiest ones to grow and yield an unlimited quantity of small pickles, which, of- course, are best Being at the door they can easily be kept watered; it would be begt to water well early in the morning and at sunset Tho rubbish in the lower part of the barrel gives good drainage. When the pickles (?) are of the right size pick them off each night and put in an earthen dish with small peppers (grown also in a jar or box in the back yard), small green tomatoes and tiny onions, nasturtium seeds, or any other substance liked. In its season cauliflower, cut up in walnut-sized pieces to match onions and tomatoes, will be found excellent Scatter salt over this pickle material and let it stand over night; dram in a colander in the morning and put into pint or quart jars with such whole spices as aro liked, fill up with strong vinegar, put the top on and set away for the next summer. As these vegetables are in their prime at the same time, one can easily fill a jar each day, and soon the pickle closet will be supplied without the usual great rush, and two or three days of tiresome labor. We have seen preserves, jellies, and marmalades, as well as pickles, made in this same easy way, without a single family jar! But “easy ways” are not approved of by the class that keep house like Dinah (in Uncle Tom’s 0 ibin) through the week, and make as much fms over the weekly sweeping as they would of “moving.” To return to the pickles; if they are to be eaten “right along” and not kept for use next spring, they need not be placed m glass jars, but packed simply in an earthen crock with a weight on them to keep them under the vinegar. Do I heat the vinegar? Never. So the plan is simply this: Vegetables to be washed and salted fiver night, drained in the morntng, and put with whole spices into clean eatbenware or glass, filled with cold vinegar until covered.— AcsidA AAriton, in t>ur tejunfry Zfonu.

Nice Cak* One cupful of sugar miked with two tablespoonfuls of butter: add one cupful of flour -with one tablespoonful of baking powder, half a cupful of corn starch, half a cupful of milk and tho whites of three eggs, flavoring with vaniiia. Bakgin a good oven. ' -—■* Experiments are being made with toeainte, a South American grass, for ensilage.

THE DAIRYMAN. . Winta on Mi/fcinp Com. There is no part of the work on the farm which causes the proprietor greater trouble and anxiety than, the employment of hired help - in the milking of his cows. This applies with increased force to extensive dairies. The great bulk of the hired help of the day consists of fpreignefs, few of whom ever learned to milk in thtur native lands, for the reason that in those foreign countries milking the cows is done almost entirely by the women. Hence in many cases the American dairyman is forced to break in now hands to the business. Milking demands the exercise of gentleness and patience on the part of the milker. In Order that a cow be made fairly profitable to her owner it is important that sue should be made to feel that her milker is her friend, from whom she has nothing 1 to fear. She should be taught to anticipate nothing but kind treatment each and every time he approaches her. Undbr such proper conditions the cow will never get excited, apd will be ready to yield her milk freely and without restraint, always presuming the milker’s ability and disposition to draw the fluid smoothly and rapidly. Unless this is accomplished the cow will not yield her full quantity of milk. In practice, there are many bad workers among the-hired help, who are capable of doing well were it not that they are indifferent, work leisurely, stop and talk one with another or with a caller, and finally spend as much time in milking one cow as should be consumed m milking two animals. Far better that the milker should apply his mind and hands vigor-' ously to toe work’before him for the needed time to milk the cow, then take a rest if necessary, and a time for talk, rather than to allow either to interfere with regular and swift milking. All talking should be omitted while drawing the milk. Even under the most favorable conditions, and with the most capable help that can be secured, dairymen sustain considerable losses in the possible product of their cows. But when the negligence, temper and passion of hired help intervene, still greater losses must be incurred. Cows should never bo vexed or worried by man, boy, or dog. The surroundings of a cow should be such as to make her comfortable and free from any annoyance or excitement— E. D. Jlichards, in American Cultivator. Dairy Notes. Kindness in the care of cows and cleanliness in the care of milk aro fundamental axioms in dairying. The Dairyman says it is an open question whether yellow skin in cows indicates yellow milk. It says white butter is not usual, however, from yellow milk. Milk rich in fat (butter) is not necessarily the most nutritious as food. It is milk rich in the nitrogenous compounds that gives it feeding value, a point of importance, whether it be infants or young animals fed. How milking is done in the Island of Jersey is thus described: “Tall backets narrowed near the top with widened mouths, are used. A linen cloth is tied over fixe top; then a smooth sea-shell Is pushed down in the depression to receive the milk. The shell prevents the wearing of the cloth by the streams of milk. When the milking is done the straining is also completed” Thp causes of the superior milk-producing or/beef-producing qualifications of certain pastures are at present but imperfectly known, though they consist principally in favorable conditions as to soil, situation, or herbage, or a combination of these. In order to throw light upon the subject, the British Dairy Farmers’ Association invites farmers to send to its consulting botanist, Professor Fream, specimens of the herbage of any meadow or pasture Which may have attracted their attention on account of some special feature connected with it, and at the same time to send information on certain points in answer to a list; of questions printed onaoircular now being distributed.

THE FLORIST. The Window Garden. “How do you manage to have so many beautiful plants?” is a question often asked of successful window gardeners, and we feel inclined to answer as did the doctor in the case of the old lady who had been taking too much medicine, that all that is needed is, “Light, and water, and air.” But there are so many things involved in these three that it is well, perhaps, to be a little more explicit. A window facing the south is best, with a glass door or a curtain to shut off draughts and exclude dust. Sprinkling the leaves with a fine brush, if a syringe is not practicable, will help to keep the breathing pores open _ and healthy, which every plant requires. Injudicious "watering often destroys plants. No rule an be given, but the first thing is to see that they are kept moist but not saturated, and that" the water used is about the temperature of the room. For the green fly and all other common ini sects thereto nothing so effectual as a mixture of hellebore and soap-suds, to which is added a lit de kerosene that has been first mixed in milk, as it will not combine with water. All soft-wooded plants should be placed nearest the light; the harder ones in the rear. -In potting see that there is good drainage of broken pots or any rough material that will not clog and sour the soil. Too much heat is often given, and many plants, as roses, azaleas, camellias, aloysia ci triodora, the various lycopods, hyacinths, and other bulbs of that sort, will thrive in a room without a fire if there is no frost The best sod is one-third leaf mold, two-thirds good turfy sod, well rotted, and a little saifd added to the mixture. Fine manure is beneficial to geraniums and to bulbs, but most plants thrive best on manure water Saxifraga unbrasa and the Lysimachia nummularia are safe basket plants, while" the -ivies stand cool treatment if given shade and water. It is agreed that the gas from a furnace is more injurious to plants than illuminating gas, but by proper attention to moistureand the screening of the window from dust and excessive beat, it to possible to be -successful in window-gardening. Keep a thermometer n the room, never more than 75 degrees by day and 45 degrees at night Tais will be the best guide. Gobea scandens on one side and Sophispumum on the other, trained on a wire across to meet in the middle, will bloom with ordinary care. A calla makes a good center plant Do not give it too. large a pot, and see that it has plenty of warm water. Carnations and Chinese primroses are usually successful; the latter in partial shade will bear neglect bravely. Sow in small pots the seed of mignonette and sweet alyssum nr August, and the sweet fragrance will repay you in February; so will petuipa and any of the fancy chrysanthemums'that are now so fashionable and so beautiful in autumn and early winter.' When they must be moved away you can bring forward the hyacinths that "have been rooting in the cellar, or a plant of Deutzia, or Spirea that must be kept dormant and cool till then. Fuchsias are ornamen'al when in bloom, but there are only a few real winter bloomers, and these must be selected with care and judgment If the room is cold, a few out-of-door things S’ ve great pleasure. I know a young lady who kes in a clump of dandelions' every tall, and their golden-rayed flowers and ripening puff ball afterward afford her friends great amusement 'Wild flowers from the woods blossom in such a temperature, and the only way to success is to study the requirements of our favorites. Children should he taught to care for a few plants: in the home life there is nothing more beautiful and instructive. I know girls who wear large corsage bouquets, yet if they are spoken to regarding the growth and culture of the flowers they tell you, with an air of pride, and almost scorn, that they do not know anything about it Buch people may make a flower display, but the love of flowers is a sentiment they have never felt It is always a good sign when a bey is fond of the beauties of nature and becomes a student of botany, for it indicates real refinement And “as the twig is bent,” so can our children be taught by a window to loye and revere the beautiful works of nature.—Annie L. Jack.

THE APIARIST.. Consumption of Honey by Bees. ~7.77 In the absence of brood less than one ounce of honey will sustain a pound of bees for twenty-four hours. A pound of empty bees, /when thoroughly filled with honey, will'weigh two pounds. They should carry honey enough at one aggregated load to sustain life over sixteen days, if they could utilize the honeyin the absence of some place besides their honey sacs to store it The ordinary package of bees called a pound can be shipped to almost any point in the United States or Canada on less

than half a pound of properly made soft candy. ■ Introducing Queens. Success in this, as in all other details Connected with bee keeping, depends largely Upon the care exercised, and the chances are greatly improved by experience. “Some persons fad in introducing queens ” says Mrs. L Harrison, in the American Bee Journal, “from not bearingin mind that the first requisite to success is that there is no other queen or oell from which one is expected, in the hives. A queen not more than an hour or so old may be allowed quietly to run into the top of a hive where tbere are sealed cells and be received, the bqes not knowing but she came from their own cells;• but when the queens are older, or have been in the hands of the operator acquiring the scent of the person, they will be destroyed. If there are no eggs or young: larv« in a hive, it is positive that there is no laying queen (there might be a young one); if eggs and larva: are given to such a colony, if queenless, cells will be started within forty-eight hours. If a queen is to be introduced,, the comb containing the cells might be removed, and tbe bees, finding all sourtes for a queen gone, will accept the one offered. Cages which can be pressed into the comb, cohering brood and honey, are much used tor introducing queens, they are covered with wire gauze, through which the bees can feed the queen, cross their antennas, and make her acquaintance. She can be liberated by cutting a hole through the comb back of the cage, or letting tho bees gnaw her out Mailing-cages are furnished with tin points for fastening them upon the comb. Small cages, the size of an old-fashioned tin pepper-box cover, are made of a rim of tin with a wire gauze top, and can be pressed into the comb, to cover a queen, or.to protect a queen-cell ready to natch. Many persons having black bees are desirous of Italianizing them. It is often difficult to find a black queen, as these bees do not cling to the comb like the Italians, but gather in clusters on tho bottom of it; falling off they creep Up under the operator’s clothing, and are a pest generally. I have taken out the frames of a black colony several times, and careful, observation failed to find the queen. Once I brushed all the bees off the comb and placed them in a clean hive; then removed the hive from its former stand the length of a sheet spread upon the ground, placing the hive with the comb upon its place, then drove tho bees back to it with smoke; when the bees were apparently all back, I had not found the queen. On stretching out the sheet a few bees were seen clustered together, and poking among them I discovered her. When I wish to remove a black queen I brush off all the bees from the combs, place them in an empty hive, and put in front of it a bee entranee-giffird. This is a piece of zinc having perforations large enough for working bees, but not for drones and queens. I remove the old hive and put this prepared one in its place. The queen to be introduced should lie caged on one of the combs. The bees in the old hive are then poured down in front of it, and may be allowed to enter it at leisure.— Afnerican Cultivator.

THE NURSERY. More Water for Infants. A distinguished children’s doctor believes, from his practice, that infants generally, whether brought up at the breast or artificial, are not supplied with sufficient water, the fluid portion of their food being quickly taken Up and leaving the solid too thick to be easily digested. In warm, dry weather healthy babies will take water every hour with advantage, and their frequent fretfulness and rise of temperature is often directly due to their not having it— Demorest's Monthly. Nursery Cookery. Mothers err most innocently in trying to tempt the child’s appetite with dainties wliich are wholesome enough for the stronger stomachs of his elders, but almost as deleterious as pounded glass to his. These recipes have been tried and found to be trustworthy. Blit, while the food cooked in obedience to the directions here furnished is simple and digestible, it must be remembered that no change should be made in the diet of a delicate or ailing child without the consent of the physician. BICE JELLY. One-half cup of raw rice. Three cups of cold water. One cup of fresh, sweet milk. One-quarter teaspoonful of salt Bit of soda,'not larger than a pea, dropped into the milk. Wash the rice, and then soak it for four hours in just enough water to cover it Add, without draining, to the cold water; bring to the boil in a farina kettle, and cook until the rice is broken all to pieces, and the water reduced to'half the original quantity. Add the milk and simmer, covered, for half an hour. Strain through coarse cheese doth, pressing and twisting hard. Sweeten slightly, and feed to the child when it has cooled sufficiently. is ntode BAkLEWVATfIfc. Three tablespoonfuls of pearl barley. Three cupfuls of boiling water. Just enough salt to take off the “flat” taste. Pick over and wash the barley carefully. Cover with cold water and soak four hours. Put the boiling water into a farina-kettle, stir in the barley without draining, and cook, covered, for an hour and a half. Strain through coaree muslin, salt and sweeten slightly, and give when it is cool enough to be drunk with comfort. ~~ ~ - -■ TOAST-WATER. Two thick, crustless slices of stale, light bread. Two cups of boiling water. . , Toast the bread to a crisp brown, but do not let it get charred. Lay in a bowl, cover with boiling water, fit on a close top, and steep until cold. Strain through muslin without squeezing, and give, a teaspoonful at & time, when tne child’s fevered system demands water. It is more palatable if sweetened slightly. For children two years old and upward you may add a bit of ice to the toastwater, fir keep it on ict. BtaED FLOUB POBRIDGE. "" Two cups of flour. Three quarts of cold water. Tie up the dry flour securely in a stout, clean bag of muslin or linen; put it into the water and let it boil, after the water begins to bubble, for at least four hours. Open and remove the cloth, turn out the ball of flour op a flat dish, and dry all day in the hot sun, or four hours in an open (moderate) oven. Or, if it is made in the evening, leave it in a cooling oven until morning. It should not be at all browned by the heat v To make the porridge, grate a tablespoonful from the ball, wet into a paste with cold water; mix up with a cupful of boiling milk, salt very lightly, boil five minutes, and it is ready for use. Keep in a cool, dry place. An excellent preparation in cases of “summer complaint,” or weak bowels from any cause. — Babyhood.

THE COOK. Beef Cakes. Mince one pound of steak and add to it three chopped onions, pepper and salt and two beaten eggs. Form into small cakes, roll in cracker crumbs and fry in hot lard. Seasonable Brink. The juice of a lemon, mixed with fogr timea as much water, unsugared, and drank just before bed-time, will do more to counteract malarial influences and correct a surplusage of bile than a dozen blue pills. Muffins. Cream together one cupful of butter and one cupful of sugar; add three eggs and ohe pint of milk, stirring well; then add one quart of -wheat flour with two teaspoonfuls or baking Sawder and one cupful of yellow Indian meal ake in muffin rings in a hot oven. Bried Apple Cake. Two cups of sweet dried apples, soak over night and chop; two cups of mplaases, and let it simmer over two hours; wfien celd add one cup of sugar, two eggs, one-half cup of sour cream, sour milk and butter, two teaspoonfuls of soda, four cups of flour/four teaspoonfuls of cinnamon, et.e teatpoonful of cloves and one nutmeg. Thickened Milk. Two quarts of milk, -three eggs, one and one-half cups of flour, one cup of sugar, a little salt, and flavoring to taste. Mix the flour smooth in a httle cold milk. Beat the eggs and mix them wiih tlie sugar and flour, beaung all weH, Set the milk on the range in a saucepan, and as soon as it boils pour in the mixture. stirring until it ‘Hckena.