Rensselaer Union, Volume 11, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 January 1879 — FARM AND HOUSEHOLD. [ARTICLE]

FARM AND HOUSEHOLD.

—Every fall, about the time the pumpkin crop is being gathered, some bne will set a paragraph afloat in' the columns of the agricultural press, warning farmers not to feed the seed of pumpkins to their cows, unless they Would nave them dry up and cease to! give milk. Now. we will venture to say that those fanblriWho neyef heard that pumpkin seeds had a tendency to dry up cows have fedjUßuiright along for years, obtaining J»st the opposite results. This influence of pumpkin seeds on cows, hogs and other animals is a good deal like that of the moon on vegetables.— N. Y. Sun. '■ , ■ Now that the season for celery has arrived, the Journal of Chemistry comes forward and tells us that this luasious vegetable ft «h excellent remedy for nearly all nervous disorders. This is good news to all wjio have a full supply of celery laid in for winter, or neer 'a gootf Market. ‘ Everybody engaged in labor, weakening to the la advised to partake of celery freely; old people should eat it “to steady their nerves, and young people to strengthen them, and the ladies should foqdiit to their canary birds to prevent them having fits. (kxxi, tends* >eH- ' blanched celery is oflrtainly/a‘must agreeable medicine, and one that few parqens willxefnafl to take,'—#. Y. Kwn. —Everyone must remark that a favorite article of winter clothing for .children ja a-comforter swathed around the neck. This is a great error; the jfeqt and WjristK. flPVthe proper mem-1 bers to keep warm; the face and throat will harden into a healthy indifference to cold; but that muffler, exchanged for an extra pair of thick SQPks and knitted gloves, would preserve a boy or-.girl really warm and well. Bronchitis and sore throat have declined 50 per centum since the absurd use Of high collars and twice round hdUlEßfChie fs weht out of fashion; and if the poor would take better care of their children’s feet half the infantile mortality would disappear. It only costs’-a trifle to put a piece of thick fait or cork Into the bottom of a boot or shoe, but the difference is often considerable between that and a doctor’s bill/ with perhaps the beside-— Green Mountain Freeman. —For preserving hams or beef, the Farmer's Home Journal says: Take six gallons of. wafer., nine pounds of salt, three pounds of sugar, one gallon molasses, three ounces saltpeter and one ounce of saleratus. Mix these ingredients and heat Jx> a boiling point, skimming off all the impurities. When cold, pour it on the meat. Do not rate the amount of materials according to the amount of meat; but mix in the proportion given and use- 1 enough of the mixture to cover the meat This method cures the hams and leaves them tender and juicy. They never get hard. Leave the hams in the pickle from f ou; to six weeks, according to their eize. It takes longer to cure large hams than it does small ones. Always move the hams after they have been in the pickle ’three days- Take them out and pack them over. This is necessary, for when they are closely packed , together some parts of the hams do not have a chance Sbe penetrated by the pickle. Keep es in the same way, except boil ofer the pickle before Warm weather in the spring.