Rensselaer Union, Volume 12, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 September 1879 — HOME, FARM AND GARDEN. [ARTICLE]

HOME, FARM AND GARDEN.

—To polish steel, rub it with a piece of emenr paper from which you have removed some of the roughness by rubbing an old knife with it —Potted Beet—Boil a round of beef well, and cut very fine, as fine as for mince pies; season with sage, allspice, salt and pepper; melt butter enough to knead it all together, pack it closely in bowls, and pour melted butter over it It will keep a week in cool weather. —Delicious Cake.—Take the whites of six eggs, two cups of white sugar, one cup of butter, one cup of sweet cream, one-half teaspoonful of soda, one teaspoonful cream of tartar, and two tea-cups of flour; rub cream of tartar in the flour, stir butter and sugar together, and dissolve the soda in the cream. Then add the flour and flavor with lemon or vanilla. —Sponge Drops.—Mix half pound powdered sugar and the yelks of four eggs well together, add quarter pound flour, the iuice of one lemon and half the grated rind; then add in small quantities the well beaten whites; drop on battered paper two or three inches apart. Try one, and if it runs, beat the mixture well, and add a little flour. The oven should be very hot—the cakes delicately browned.

—Cinnamon Cake.—Whites of five eggs, one and a half cups of white sugar, three-quarters of a cup of butter, one cup of sweet cream, once teaspoonful of essence of cinnamon, three teaspoonfuls of baking-powder, enough flour to make it the consistency of jelly cake. Bake in two loaves, in square bread pans. Bake thirty minutes, and then turn out on a table. Grease the top with butter. Then sift powdered cinnamon over them, and then white sugar. —lt is not good luck that makes good crops, but it is good work. Some farmers always have good crops, good stock, and get good prices, it is because whatever they put their hands to they do well. They have clean fields, good fences, and do good plowing, cultivating and seeding. Tney farm with brains as well as nands. If other farmers would imitate their example they would have better crops. Success does not depend so much upon good luck as it docs upon good work.— Coleman's Rural World.

—Farms are valuable only as labor makes them so. Brains are worth more than muscle on a farm, but both are necessary. Cultivate the mind and you strengthen the muscle by increasing its capabilities. Plan in the house; work in the field. All hesitation or apparent doubt weakens the influence of the “ boss” with the men. See that ditches are cleaned out to their natural depth, and that watercourses are all clear during the dry weather of autumn. Underdrains are preferable and less exSensive than open ditches, though the rst cost is greater. Old rails, poles, common brush, answer a good purpose for several years, but are dearer than tile in the long run. —Ohio Farmer. —No fowl over two years old should be kept in the poultry yard, except for some special reason. An extra good mother, or a finely feathered bird that is desirable as a breeder, may be preserved until ten years old with advantage, or at least so long as she is serviceable. But ordinary hens and cocks should be fattened at the end of the second year for market. Feeding for this purpose may be begun now. When there is a room or shed that can be closed, the fowls may be confined there. The floor should bo covered with two or three inches of fine sawdust, dry earth, sifted coal ashes, or clean sand. The food should be given four times a day, and clean water be always before the fowls. A dozen or more fowls may he put at once in this apartment, so that there may not be too many ready to sell at one titne. The best food for rapid fattening, for producing well flavored flesh and rich fat, is buckwheat meal, mixed with sweet skimmed milk, into a thick mush. A teaspoonful of salt should be stirred in the food for a dozen fowls. Two weeks’ feeding is sufficient to fatten the fowls, when they should be shipped for sale without delay, and another lot put up for feeding. If the shed is kept dark and cool, as it should be, the fowls will fatten all the quicker for it. —Cincinnati Times. . :