Rensselaer Union, Volume 10, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 November 1877 — HOME, FARM AND GARDEN. [ARTICLE]

HOME, FARM AND GARDEN.

—Pumpkin pies are luxuries. It is stated that pumpkins can he kept until next spring by placing thein on a high shelf in a dry cellar, where the temperature does not get below 82 dogs, nor above 50 degs. —lowa State Register. —A reader of tho Maine Farmer makes a statement respecting the value of ashes as a fertilizer; and says he is acquainted with an instance in his own vicinity where unleachcd ashes wore liberally applied to a field more than twenty years ago, and their good effects over surrounding land, to which they were not applied, are still plainly visible. —To Cook Egg-Plant.—Pare tho plant, being careful to remove all tho skin; cut in thin slices, ahout half an inch thick; then salt each slice; lay one on top of the other and let them stand under a weight eight to ten hours; pour off the water from the dish, wipe the slices dry, dredge with flour, and fry in half lara and half butter (which should be boiling hot), until they become a dark brown color. Servo at once. —The following is said to be an excellent remedy for the croup: “Take one teaspoonful of pulverized alum, one of sulphur and the whites of two eggs. Mix all well together and put in a small piece of muslin, and hold it up and let tho water drip from it; and give to a child, say ten years old, one teaspoonful in a little mint tea, or any pleasant tea; and smaller children less, say half a teaspoonful for five years old, and less for younger, all in tea.” —Carrots make an appetizing dinner dish when prepared as follows: Wash, scrape, cut the carrots lengthwise and boil until very tender, which will take from an hour and a half to two hours. When done, slice the carrots very thin into a sauce-pan with one or two tablespoonfuls of butter and a small cup of cream—if milk is used, thicken a very little with corn starch, add pepper, salt and cook about ten minutes; serve in a covered vegetable dish. —Exchange. —Underdraining is a measure of economy, and it is in eyery way important that it should be done economically. If made to needlessly cost twice as much as it ought, it will pay only half the profit it should, and the farmer is proportionately discouraged in his good work. By being careful to dig when the ground is in the best condition, doing as much as possible with horse-plows and sub-soil ditchers, the cost of making underdrains may be reduced to the smallest possible amount. —Rural New Yorker.

—Farmers who hold back their wheat, hay and other products, because they will not sell for the prices they think should be obtained are generally, in the end, losers. They do not take into account the risk they incur by withholding their crops. There is no truer axiom than that a “ bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.” As a rule the most successful farmers dispose of their crops as soon as they are ready for the market, at current prices. The mind is then relieved of anxiety and all chances of loss are removed, with the doubtful chance, it is true, of higher prices.— Germantown Telegraph. —A common fault of high-spirited colts (or rather habit, forntris often only the result of habit, and no result or proof of viciousness) is kicking. We should remember that a colt kicks naturally; that is, he does it in shlf-defense, and also in the way of play. It is as it were his birthright, by which lie exEre.sses his physical spirits, imself. The fact is, no colt should ever bo put between the shafts without a “ kicking-strap;” that is, a strap buckled to either shaft, and passed over the haunches in such a way as to make it impossible for him to get his heels over the cross-tree. This is the only safe way to pursue. Generally speaking, a slight twitch on the reins, just as he is on the point of “lifting,” will check the effort; but it needs a quick eye and hand to catch the .colt soon enough to keep his heels out of the dashboard; and not over two in ten men would be sure to do it. But by using the kicking-strap all danger and risk are averted; and therefore we invariably insist on it in educating colts. After two or three attempts to “ lift,” the youngster finds he cannot; and is thereby, as the Irishman said, “ cured of the disease before he had it.” In the case of colts, as of men, an “ ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” —Golden Rule.