Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 14, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 December 1876 — HOME, FARM AND GARDEN. [ARTICLE]

HOME, FARM AND GARDEN.

—Every farmer can have a hitching post, safe and secure for a team and also a scraper to clean foe feet. A neglect of these are an index of character, and all men should so regard it. ■'—Any farmer can build a wood-house, and foe saving in time and quality of weed, will pay for foe lumber in one year. It is a convenient place to spend a wet day or be protected from foe storms of > winter. —To Bees-wax Leaves.—First press all leaves .between books or paper till perfectly dry; then iron them on several thicknesses nt brown paper with a moderately hot iron.touching the bees-wax once for every leaf; iron first on the right side, then on foe other, and spread on a table to dry, not letting them touch each other. —Boiled Apple Dumplings. —Take nine ripe sour apples, peel and core them; make a dough of one quart of flour, two teaspoonfuls of baking-pewder, one teaspoonful of salt, one-half coflee-cup of lard, enough lard to make a soft-dough; roll and cut in nine pieces, cook your apples, stick them with a fork, bake, boil, or steam them.

—For Christmas cake three cups light bread sponge, two cups sugar, one cup butter, three eggs, one-third cup of milk in which is dissolved one teaspoonful of soda, two cups currants, one cup chopped raisins, one-quarter pound sliced citron. Mix with the hands, thoroughly. Raise till light, and bake in a moderate oven slowly. There should be no flour added. This is the style of half a century ago, but will be found very good, and compare well with the newer kinds of cake. —Molasses Pound Cake —Rub together one-half pound of butter (or butter and lard mixed), half pound of brown sugar, fourtabiespoonfulsof ginger, one of cinnamon, one-hall teaspoonful of cloves, a pinch of mace, one-half nutmeg grated, and the grated rind of a lemon and the juice; add 8 pint of molasses; beat up well • sift one pound and a half of prepared flour, into which you have put a full teaspoonful of baking powder; beat five eggs very light; stir foe flour and eggs ana one small half cup of milk alternately and gradually into foe other ingredients ; bake at once. —When so many find it difficult to make a mere sufficiency for life’s support, it seems unaccountable that the pleasant and profitable business of poultry raising should be seldom or never resorted to for the purpose of gaining a livelihood, and establishing a paying and permanent business, while an eager, struggling crowd are jostling each other in every other avenue of industry, n» matter how difficult or how meager and uncertain the remuneration promised. Poultry raising for profit is a light employment, requiring no particular adaptability, and but a modicum of real work, with, of course, that regular and ceaseless attention which must be given to any business to insure success, and it pays from foe day of investment. The one secret of success is thoroughness. The chickens must be well and regularly fed with a variety of good food and fresh water. The coops must be kept clean and well ventilated, and the chicks must have more or less room in which to exercise, and, to reap the fullest measure of success, must have comfortable, sheltered and sunny winter quarters.— Poultry Nation. Pan-cakes or Griddle-cakes. —Take as many tablespoonfuls of flour as there are eggs to be used. Beat the eggs (yelks and whites separately), then stir in the flour till smooth; add enough sweet, rich milk to make the eggs ana flour into a thin batter, and a little salt. Grease the pan or griddle, when quite hot, with butter or sweet lard. Stir it briskly to prevent its scorching. Drop in the batter quickly for small round cakes. Turn the cakes as soon as nicely browned, taking great care not to scorch them. When both sides are browned, fold them over, putting sugar or Itoney and butter between. Some think a little nutmeg or cinnamon an improvement. — Christian Union. The present Vermont Legislature is made up very largely of farmers, there being 138 out of the 236 members. .Of the remainder eighteen are merchants, seventeen manufactqjers, nine physicians, five clergymen and three editors, while foe legal profession is represented by only thirteen. All but thirty are natives of Vermont, and only two are foreigners.