Rensselaer Union, Volume 8, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 September 1876 — HOME, FARM AND GARDEN. [ARTICLE]

HOME, FARM AND GARDEN.

—Persons who are not successful in propagating vines by cattings should try their hand at making layers. Any shoot of one year’s growth which can be bent down and covered with earth can be used for this purpose. Strong and vigorous [ilants can be produced the first season by aylng, which Is not always true of cuttings.— Semi-Tropical. —The following is an excellent recipe for a lemon pie: Orate the rind of one small lemon, or half a large one; beat the yelks of two eggs; four tablespoons of sugar; beat altogether; add to tills half a pint cold water, with one and one-half tablespoons of flour In It; rub smooth so there will be no lumps; beat the whites of two eggs to a stiff froth; stir this in your pie-custard before you put it in the pan. Bake with one crust, and bake slow. — l The manner of cultivating asparagus by annually adding a layer of rresli dirt is a success. If these layers are made alternately of clay loam and sand ioam, I suggest that it would be an improvement. There is a mulching power in clay on sand and sand on clay that is not half un derstood nor but very little practiced to what it should be on our light sandy soils where clay knolls abound so plentifully. —Gardeners' Monthly. —Mr. Bell, in the Gardener's Monthly, gives these directions for destroying the rose slug: Dissolve; one tablespoonful of white hellebore in two gallons of boiling water. When cool enough to use, apply to the rose bushes with a whisk broom, bending the plants over so as to reach the under as well as the upper side of the leaves, dashing the water on in a fine spray. One application is generally sufficient for the season. —“How to make walks about the house hard without much cost” is a question which we have often asked ourselves without ever receiving a satisfactory reply. Coal ashes, sand, such as is used for making mortar, and clay in the proportion of rather more sand than coal ashes—the difference made up with the clay—all well mixed together and laid at least four inches deep, will become very compact and hard. Macadamized paths are to be recommended in point of cheapness. Collect all the stones you can. Place the large in the bottom and fill in with the smaller ones, covering, as above, with Sand, ashes and a little clay.— Moore's Rural. —A reader of Scribner Irving in New Jersey writes to know if strawberries planted in the early part of September will bear a crop of fruit next year. To this inquiry I would say—yes, under the following conditions: Ist. The soil must be rich, deep and mellow. 2d. The plants must be of this year’s growth, with healthy roots and plenty of them, and must be transplanted in moist or damp weather, and if the weather continues dry, must be watered freely a few times, always in the evening when the sun has gone down. 3d. The [strawberry-bed must be mulched before cold weather sets in, with yard manure, to be left on until spring. With such treatment, abed of strawberries may be set out in September that will yield, not quite as much fruit as if put out in the spring, but enough for family use; and the berries will be, on the average, of larger size than those of the spring planting. — P. T. Quinn, in Scribner for September. —An English butter-maker of large experience, who is now on a visit to this country for the purpose of looking over our cheese and butter dairies, gives us the following information concerning a method in practice among the best butter makers of England for hardening or rendering bhtter firm and solid during hot weather. Carbonate of soda and alum are used for the purpose, made into a powder. For twenty' pounds of butter one teaspoonful of carbonate of soda and one teaspoonful of powdered alum are mingled together at the time of churning and put into the cream. The effect of this powder is to make the butter come firm and solid, and to give it a clean, sweet flavor. It does not enter into the butter, but its action Is upon the cream, and it passes oft with the buttermilk. The ingredients of the powder should not he mingled together until required to be used, «r at the time the cream is in the chum ready for churning. —Watertown (N. F.) Times.