Rensselaer Union, Volume 6, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 January 1874 — USEFUL AND SUGGESTIVE. [ARTICLE]

USEFUL AND SUGGESTIVE.

Charcoal for swine, the Country Gentleman says, is frequently prescribed in agricultural papers, without any directions as to quantity. It should not be given carelessly and at random. Good, lresh charcoal, properly pulverized, may be given at the rate Jof one teaspoonful for every hundred pounds of animal, whatever its size may be, and at this rate will do no ham and may often be very Useful. . The following process will, it is said, afford an unusually adhesive paste, adapted to fastening leather, paper, etc., without the defects of glue; which, if preserved from evaporation in closed bottles, will keep for years. Cover four parts, by weight, of glue, with fifteen of cold water, and allow it to soak for several hours; then warm moderately till the solution is perfectly clear, and dilute it with sixty-five parts of boiling water, intimately stirred in. Next prepare a solution of thirty parts of starch in two hundred parts of cold water, so as to form a thin, homogeneous liquid, free from lumps, and pour the boiling glue solution into it with thorough stirring, and at the same time keeping the mass boiling. A property in glycerine, upon which many uses are now founded, is the facility with which it dissolves a large class of bodies and at the same time preserves them from alteration and decay. One of the most important applications is the preservation of meaL from decay. Natural history specimens and anatomical preparations can be kept in glycerine instead of alcohol. Wood impregnated or washed with glycerine does not warp or dry up, and advantage is taken of this fact to keep butter-tubs, water-pails, barrels and tanks from shrinking. In fact, its uses are almost endless; but enough examples have been given to show upon what principle the applications are founded, and it is easy for an intelligent person to imagine new uses in cases of emergency. A good authority on the culture of peanuts says: “Select a soil which is fertile with sandy loam; plant about the usual time of planting corn; remove the husk from the seed before planting. Plant two seeds in a hill, two -inches in depth, in rows three feet apart and one foot apart in the rows; keep the ground mellow and tree from weeds. Some make ridges like those prepared lor sweet potatoes, but it is not essential. Level deep cultivation will be the best, if the season is a very dry one. The early cultivation may be mostly done with horse power, but the later working must be done with a hand lioe. The yield varies from fifty to one hundred gild fifty bushels per acre. When dug, they should be spread to dry under a roof, and those for planting kept from freezing. A stout four pronged fork is used for digging them. Cure for Boils. —Dr. Simon, a physician of Lorraine, states that, as soon as the characteristic culminating point of a boil makes its appearance, he puls in a saucer a thimbleful of camphorated alcohol, and, dipping the ends of his fingers into the liquid, rubs the inflamed surface, especially the central portion, repeating the operations eight or ten times, continuing the rubbing at each time for about half a minute. He then allows the surface to dry, placing a slight coating of camphorated olive oil over the inflamed surface. He states that one such application will, in most all cases, cause boils to dry up and disappear. The application should be made morning, noon, and in the evening. He avers that the same treatment will cure whitlows, and all injuries of the tips of the fingers. As soon as pain and redness appear, the fingers should be soaked for ten minutes in camphorated sweet oil. The relief is said to be immediate, and three applications are geneially enough to effect a cuTe. The Purification of Tallow and Lard. —Dr. Dotch states that tallow and lard can lie kept from getting rancid by the following process: The tallow or lard is first treated with carbonate of soda in the proportion of 2 pounds of soda to every 1,000 pounds of lard, and is then subjected to a digestion with alum in the following taianner : 10 pounds of alum are dissolved in 500 pounds of water, and 1 pound slaked lime added to the solution and boiled. This solution is stirred well with 1,000 pounds of lard at a temparature of 150° or 200° Fall, lor about half an hour. The liquor is then separated from the lard, and the lard is treated with the same amount of pure water again. This lard will keep for an exceedingly long time. The fact is that the alumina in the alum applied acts very readily in a disinfecting manner upon those compounds which are liable to give rise to rancidity. The lime is added to the alum in order to render the alumina more active by its giving up some of the aeid to the lime..’ This treatment has also the advantages of restoring the original flavor and of producing a lard of a greater whiteness.