Rensselaer Union, Volume 6, Number 3, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 October 1873 — FARM AND HOUSEHOLD. [ARTICLE]

FARM AND HOUSEHOLD.

—Dry paint is removed by dipping a swab with a handle in a strong solution of oxalic acid[ It softens it at once. —Drilling is better than sowing wheat broadcast. It deposits the seed more evenly, and deposits it in the moist earth. —Salt on rich land frequently proves 1 a good fertilizer for wheat. Sow two to five bushels per acre before putting in wheat. —The best season for pruning to promote growth, theoretically, is in autumn, sqon after the fall of the leaf. Next to this, winter pruning performed in mild weather is best, and in orchards this is the season usually most convenient.

—To prevent a horse pawing in the st able, tie or strap the legs together just above the knees so they will stand about natural, say six or eight inches apart. It will not in the least inconvenience the horse in lying down or rising, and will prevent this annoying habit. —Draining causes the rain to sink through considerable thickness of soil before it runs off, and lienee it causes less loss of nutritive matter than is occasioned by rain washing soil, as it does in undrained lands, carrying off to the streams and rivers much of the valuable nutritive matter that abounds on the surface. —Mince Meat.—Three and a half pounds of good chopped beef, a pound of suet, three and a half pounds of raisins, •half of them stoned and chopped, the other half left whole; the same quantity' of currants as of raisins, seven pounds dr chopped apples, one pound of candied citron cut in thin slices, two pounds of sugar, one ounce of nutmegs, three pints of cider or canned grape juice, one pint golden syrup or best molasses. These ingredients, put down in a close jar, will last all winter. —Lazy Farmers.—Laziness prevents a man from getting off his horse to put on the first rail that gets knocked off the fence, and through this lazy neglect a whole field of corn is seriously damaged. Laziness keeps a man from driving, one nail when one would do, and finally costs a carpenter’s bill for extensive repairs. Laziness allows a gate to get off the hinges and Be in the mud, or stand propped by rails—or a stable or a barn to leak and damage hundreds of dollars’ worth of provender. Laziness, in short, is the right and proper name for nine-tenths of the Excuses given for bad farming. But by far the most prolific of the many wastes that are due to laziness is the waste of ignorance. r =? —To make Grape Wine.—Express the juice from twenty pounds of grapes; rinse the pulp and skins in as much water as will cover them; mash them and strain through a coarse cloth; add to this the juice, and put in two pounds of brown sugar to each gallon. When the sugar is dissolved, pour the whole into a keg, having the bung open, and let it stand where the lemperature will be about seventy "degrees until fermentation ceases; then bung tight and let it rest for a month to settle, when it should be drawn off quietly, the keg well washed, and the wine returned to it, adding one pound of good raisins; and if theme does notseem sweet enough, two pounds of sugar may he added to the whole. The necessity of doing this depends upon the kind and quality of the grapes. The wine should remain until the keg is wanted the next season, when it may be bottled for use.