Rensselaer Union, Volume 8, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 September 1875 — GRICULTURAL AND DOMESTIC. [ARTICLE]

GRICULTURAL AND DOMESTIC.

—The best way to catch hawks or owls is to set up a high pole with a steel trap on the top. The birds often alight directly in the trap. —There is said to be no cure for contracted hoof resulting from laminitis or fever of the feet, otherwise known as “ founder.” The change is in the structure of the hoof and therefore beyond remedy. —Butter Cakes.—Take one-half a tincupful of melted butter, two cupfuls of sugar, five eggs, one teaspoonful of soda, and flour enough to roll. Cut with a cakecutter and put in a dripping-pan. Bake in a pretty quick oven. —Cider may be preserved sweet for years by putting it up in air-tight cans, after the manner of preserving fruit. Tlie liquor should be first settled and racket! off from the dregs, but fermentation should not be allowed to commence before canning.—Scientific American. —All farm machinery should receive two good coats of paint whenever it has been sufficiently exposed to cause the paint to scale off and lose its glossy appearance. A few quarts of tlie prepared article is economical, and will go a long way in protecting machinery during the exposed period; and there is no doubt that when unprotected by paint when in use and by shelter when not in use more injury is done than by ordinary wear.— Agricultural Exchange. * —Windgalls are the result of inflammation of the sheaths -dt' the tendons, by which is caused an excessive secretion of -the synodial fluid. The inflammation is generally caused by over exertion, sprains, or strains in driving or drawing. They ctonot be permanently removed when once they are formed. They may lie temporarily removed by pressure arid cold b:mdages, or by careful blistering; but as they return on the first occasion of extra exertion the treatment is scarcely worth while.—W. F. Herald. —Green Tomato Pie.—Take about half a dozen of tomatoes about the size of a walnut in the hull; wash them, if you want clean pies, slice them in a dish and pour halt a teacupful of sharp vinegar over them and let them sit until you want to make your pies; put in one layer of tomatoes, then strew a little flour over them and a pinch of cinnamon and sugar, and I put a tablespoonful of molasses to each pie if I have it, and about a half teacupiul of water to each pie. Try them. Some of our folks think there is no better pie than good tomato pie.—Gor. Gin. Times. . ■

—Cracknels.— To one pint of Canada oatmeal add one half-pint, lacking about two large spoonfuls, of boiling water. Let stand about five minutes; then take out on the molding-board, make in a compact mass, and roll out carefully (with plenty of flour) so as to prevent eracking at the edges. Make a little less than one-fourth of an inch thick. Cut with a knife into diamonds and bake slowly in a moderate oven. Dry them thoroughly, but do not brown them. They will heed io be watched very closely. If not wanted for immediate use let them stand exposed to the dry hir for a day or two, and then cover close in a tin box or pail, or in a stone jar, or pack them away in oatmeal as the Scotch do their oat-cake. To freshen them heat them up slightly in the oven. ✓ —The results of a single top-dressing on eight plots of nearly half an acre each of sandy, warm soil of our State Agricultural College farm exhibited the following facts at the end of thrqe years: The topdressing was applied in 1864 and the grass was cut twice each season in 1864 and 1865 and once in 1866. The produce ot each cutting and of each lot was weighed separately and a perfect record kept. The results for the four seasons were as follows: On the plot to which no manure or fertilizer was applied the total weight of hay yielded per acre was 8,740 pounds. Where two bushels of plaster per acre were applied the yield per acre was 13,226 pounds, a gain of 4,484 pounds. Where five bushels of wood ashes were applied the yield per acre was 12,907 pounds, a gain of 4,165 pounds. Where three, bushels of salt were sown per acre the yield was 13,969 pounds, a gain per acre of 5,227 pounds. Where twenty loads of muck per acre were laid on the yield per acre was 13,816 pounds, a gain of 5,074 pounds. Where twenty loads of horse manure were laid on the yield was 14,686 pounds, a gain of 6,224 pounds. These are results which indicate that there are fertilizers which will produce as good results as plaster. For instance, the plaster yielded a gain of. 51 per cent.,_ while the horse manure gave an increase of 71 per cent., or nearly a ton more grass per acre in the three 'years.— Michigan Farmer.