Rensselaer Union, Volume 1, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 February 1869 — How to Make Good Bread. [ARTICLE]

How to Make Good Bread.

’ Prof. Hosford recently gave a public lecture in New York upon “The Philosophy of the Oven,” in which, the whole history of bread-making was discussed. We extract fto®» the report of the lecture the following directions for making bread: “Select good, plump,fully ripen ed hard-grained wheat. I lave it freshly ground and not too finely bolted. Prepare the yeast as follows: Boil thorough!ly with the skins on, in one quart of wrfter, enough potatoes to make a quart of mashed potatoes. Peel the boiled potatoes and mash them to fineness: mix intimately with them one pint of flour, and stir the whole to an emulsion with the water in which the potatoes were boiled, ’.. Cool the product to about 80 deg. (lukewarmness), and add a half a pint of the best fresh baker’s yeast, and a table spoonful of brown sugar. Set aside the mixture at an even temperature of about 80 deg. till it works well, or is in active fermentation. Of this yeast take half a pint to a gallon (7 lb.) of flour, mixed with three pints of water, or two of water and one of milk, all at the temperature of about 80 deg.; add a little’ salt, knead thoroughly, and set aside to rise at the temperature men-

tioned. When it has risen to nearly the full volume for the dough, divide it into loaves, .knead again, set it aside at the temperature already named until it attains the full size of the loaf, and place it in an oven heated to not less than 450 deg. Bet the loaves of dough be smaller than the tins. Keep them covered with flat tin plates or stiff paper until the dough is fully raised and the heat carried up to, and sometimes mantamed throughout the loaf at 212 deg. to convert all the starch to the mucilaginous or I emulsion form and destroy the ferment. Then remove the cover, and permit the browning to take place. If the loaves are large, a higher temperature will be required. Seven pounds of flour will make eight loaves of 1| lb. each when baked, or four of 2A lbs. each. Such yeast as is above described, will keep a week in winter and from two to four days in summer. Bread made with it, in faithful obedience to these instructions, will be good.-—American Agriculturist.

How to Make a Cold-Chis-el. —Farmers and gardeners frequently need a good coldchiselfor light work-, such as cutting off rivets, nails, or pieces of hoop-iron. . A piece of bar steel, and the forging it into proper shape,Will cost from fifty cents to one dollar. Those persons-who want to use a cold-chisel only once a week or so, do not always have the money to spare for a tool that they have but little use for. Therefore, to get a cheap chisel, that will subserve all the pur- { loses required, make use of a arge, flat file that has been worn out. Break off one end, so that a piece will be left about eight inches long; heat it in a charcoal- fire near to redness, and let it cool gradually. Then steel will be soft. Now grind one end square and true for the head-end, and form the cutting edge by grinding at the other end. Thrust the cutting end in a charcoal-fire, until one inch in length is redhot. Now cool half an inch of the edge in cold water, which will fender the edge quite too hard. Watch the color of the steel as the different shades appear near and at the cutting edge, and as soon as you see a light straw color on the surface, plunge the chisel into cold water. By this means you will get a cold-chisel sufficiently hard, oc the edge to cut iron, and so soft and tough in the part above the edge that it will bend rather than break. — Hearthand Home.

—A cranberry patch in Center Brook, Ct, produced last season, by actual measurement 160 barrels of fruit on an acre, or one barrel to each square 2**2 1 . .