Rensselaer Union, Volume 5, Number 52, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 September 1873 — FARM AND HOUSEHOLD. [ARTICLE]

FARM AND HOUSEHOLD.

—Why should not the farmers generally set fruit trees in the fence corners, on each side -of the road ? They will make a much more creditable appearance tfian briars and elders. . > —Sugar Cookies.—One and a-half cups sugar; half cup milk; a small half cup butter; one egg; one teaspoon cream tartar; half do. soda; half a cup caraway seed. Mix pretty well, cut into small cakes and bake. —Oatmeal Porridge,—-Soak six tablespoonfuls of meal over night in a pint and a half of water.; in the morning stir it well, and set it in a pail into a kettle of boiling water, and let it boil hard half an hour; then add a cupful of milk, and let it boil fifteen minutes. Season with salt, and eat with cream and sugar. —Potato Bread.—Take six good-sized potatoes, boil -and mash ven 7 fine. Add three pints boiling water. Stir flour in till it makes a stiff batter. When lukewarm, add your yeast, set it in a moderately warm place. In the morning knead in flour and salt as stiff as you can. Set in a warm place to rise; knead again, adding as little flour as possible. Let it raise again, and then put it into your pans, making them half full. When the loaves have risen to the top of tiie pans, bake them to a good brown. —At a meeting of the Elmira Farmers’ Club, W. A. Armstrong said thqt a cheap ice-house could be made out of a simple well roofed inclosure, .without hollow walls or pits or any costly apparatus; He leaves six inches of space next the side all around, into which he rams clean sawdust closely, and covers the ice when put in with a foot of the dust. The ice is cut into large blacks and made to fit at the joints as closely as convenient; but. where the edges are jagged he fills in with pounded ice or sawdust— the latter being the cheapest. Drainage is important; but, if the house stands on porous soil or is so elevated that the water will run oft readily, it answers every purpose. He has kept ice several years in such a building, nine feet square and the same in height, tiie sides being only of inch boards. When ice is taken out, be careful to keep all the cavities covered witli sawdust, or it will waste away rapidly. In answer to a question as to the cost of a hous6 fourteen feet square, he said that SSO would pay for it and the sawdust ; and, built of cheap lumber, it might cost only $25. In packing, spent tan or cut straw would answer nearly as well as sawdust Country Gentleman.