Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 September 1876 — HOME; FARM AND GARDEN. [ARTICLE]

HOME; FARM AND GARDEN.

—Let your readers try this for ridding sleeping apartments of the pesky mosquitoes : Place s small quantity (about a tablespoonful) of “ insect powder” in the middle of a plate or other vessel and saturate the powder with essence pennyroyal; place it in the room, and set fire to it. The alcohol burns, carrying with it the odor of pennyroyal and afterward the smoke from the insect powder, which, together, is “too many” for the little terrors, and they skip without settling their little bills.—Got*. Indianapolis Journal. —The Practical Partner says: ‘‘The only cause for streaky butter ever occurring, in our experience, is the insufficient working of the salt through the mass. Unless great care is used, butter is always of different colors before the first working (after salting). Some portions will have little or no salt, and be of a lighter color, and the dairy woman should work so as to mix these portions with that thoroughly salted, or she will have streaky rolls or tubs of butter. A very little care, when working the second time, will prevent this result.

—Apple tapioca pudding: Boak one large cupful of tapioca until soft in water enough to cover ft; butter the pudding dish, and have sliced into it some nice jiiicy apples, more than half filling the dish. Then add some sugar, and a bit of butter. Over this pour the soft tapioca that has been previously well soaked in either milk or water. Add a little salt, and sprinkle over the top a light grating of nutmeg. Bake until the apples are well done. Eat with cream and sugar (or sauce of any kind, if preferred), and I think you will call this, as I have heard it called, ‘‘The Queen of Puddings.” Sago can be used the same way.— Cor. Chicago Tribune. —Peach cobbler is made In this way: Pare nice, ripe, juicy peaches, lay them in a deep baking dish, with plenty of sugar, and a tablespoonful of flour rubbed smooth in a little cold water. Cover the top with a crust made of one teacup of sweet milk, a little salt, one heaping tablespoonful of butter, one heaping teaspoonful of baking powder, worked thoroughly through flour enough to make a soft dough. Rub the butter through the flour; add the milk; mix quickly; roll out an inch thick, and bake in a moderate oven. To be eaten with cream and sugar. A crust made as the above is far more wholesome and digestible than ordinary paste made of water and abominable lard. — Cor. Enrol New Yorker. —lt is generally conceded that chickens merely split open and broiled are dry and unsavory eating. I therefore give to the housekeepers of the Rural my recipe, which has been pronounced good by many. Clean the chickens nicely; cut them down the back ; break the breast bone; wash, and wipe them dry; season them both in and outside with salt and pepper; place them in a dripping-pan with a little water; put it in a quick oven until they are a delicate brown on both sides; baste them frequently with butter; renew the water as it evaporates. When the chickens are done, remove to a hot dish; add a little more water and a teaspoonful of flour to form the gravy. Serve the gravy in a sauce-tureen, or in tiie dish with the chickens. — Mrs. Eristic, in Moore's Rural. —For yourwinter wear don’t think of bleached muslin, but instead buy substantial unbleached and whiten and soften it with chloride of lime before making up. Then by next summer it will be whiter than though the garments had been made of snow-white bleached muslin. For fifteen yards of muslin take half a pound of chloride of lime, tie it up in a bit of cloth and put it in a tub with three pails of cold water. With a stick move it about until it is dissolved, then take it out and Eut your unbleached muslin, which has een wet through and through, into the tub, and let it stand an hour, moving it about occasionally that it may be thoroughly soaked through with the lime water. Then wring it out and rinse thrbugli two or three warm waters and it is toady for the line. —Ohio Fanner.