Rensselaer Union, Volume 11, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 January 1879 — HOME, FARM AND GARDEN. [ARTICLE]

HOME, FARM AND GARDEN.

-*Thto is about the time for peddlers of new and marvelous kinds of fruit* at fabulous prices. Those who have tx on only bit a few times can try again ,anti! they are satisfied— Exchange. ,i —Fattening beef animals pays; but trying to fatten inferior animals is a waste of energy, time and labor. The animals should be selected with special reference to the rapidity with which they will fatten; to the qualityof the beef, fineness of bone, compactness of body, and small amount of offal which the carcass will yield.— American Agriculturist. ; ' ' i —Don’t buy any patent “ drinking fountains” for your fowls. I bought two and one, and I would sell the whole lot for one good three-cent postage stamp. Common wooden buckets are the best things for fowls to drink from that I can find; they are, 'high enough to keep the hens from acralching them full of dirt. and. y®t not too high (ortho fowl’s convenience, and, beside, they are easily kept rieflt; an old broom and some hot water will, make them as/’cleau as a whistle” in a few minutes.—Cor. Prairie Farmer: —A contemporary says: “ There is no reason why farming may not be made to pay much oftener than it does. Very few have learned to regard it as a business. It is a sort of chance work all round. Most men look on it as a sort of real estate transaction. They hope one day to sell out at a big figure, hence are afraid to improve their rarms with a view to agricultural operations, fqr fear that whoever buys the land will not care for these little things. We have often heard some improving farmer ridiculed for his expenditures by some knowing ones, who were very sure so-and-so would get no more for his place than if he bad thrown the money in the dirt.” —A Virginian writes in praise of corn not only as the best food for laboring men, but foi domestic animals Of all kinds. He states that the usual ration for a negro laborer, for a week, i«i one and a half pecks of corn, three pounds of bacon and a little molasses. They thrive on it, and are healthy and strong. Southern horses and mules, as anile, have only corn for grain, but they live longer and do more work than Northern horses that feed on oats. In that part of the country dogs are fed almost exclusively on cornmeal, and they not infrequently eat corn in the ear, while wandering curs devour it oq the stalk. Even cats eat corn-meal stirred up with water, as is done in the case of chicken feed. —To fry oysters, draw the juice from the oysters, and season them well with pepper and salt. Let them stand for an hour, then dip each one separately into rolled cracker crumbs, afterward into an egg beaten with two tablespoonfuls of milk, then in cracker crumbs again. The latter must be seasoned with pepper and salt.. When ati are ready, set them one side, to be cooked just when wanted, as they; should be eaten as soon as done. To' cook them, have a kettle of boiling hot', lard, into which plunge a frying basket with a few oysters in it; when cooked a light-brown color, lay them on a piece of whitish-brown paper and set them in the open oven for two or three minutes to drain, then serve on a hot platter accompanied by cold-slaw or celery-salad.