The Placer herald., 1871-09-23
HOUSE AND FARM.

the Farmers Club, N. Y, the following
communication: On shipboard at New Or
leals,- in the year 1849, in charge of one
hundred marines, with cholera among them,
1observed that those who ate freely of onions,
supposing them to be healthy, were attacked
certainly and fatally. Onions and salt cured
the bite of ra,tlesnake on my son, and are
considered specific in all snake bites. have
found four separate witnesses of phenomena
connected with smallpox aud fevers:
/. Onions in rooms with smallpox rot
rapidly
2. Blisters rise in them.
3. They retain and communicate the virus
many weeks after the epidemic has subsided.
4. Applied to the feet of fever patients they
rapidly turn black.
5. They prevent the spread Of smallpox
in thickly populated tenements by absorbing
the virus.
6. A man with hydrophobia, in his frenzy
ate voraciously of them and recovered.
From all these facts may be deduced:
l. That onions should not be eaten when
there is prevailing epidemic.
2. That onions sliced ard frequently
changed are good disinfectants.
3. That experiments should be made to
test their usefulness. For many years
have opposed vaccination as ordinarily done,
and hence hail with satisfaction any means of
mitigating the virus of this distemper.
Curious DISCOVERY. Some years ago a
curious discovery was made by gentleman
of West Roxbury, Mass, and from it fan
ciful idea has been developed upon the apples
and pears in his orchard. Having observed
that an apple did not redden in that part of
the fruit where a leaf happened to lie upon it,
he cut out letters from newspapers, and
when the apples were yet green, he pasted
the letters upon them with gum-tragacanth.
The apples would redden in all parts not
covered by the pasted letters. When the
fruit had reddened to perfection the letters
were removed, and they would appear per-
tec,ly outlined in green. So, again. when
he pasted on the apples paper in which the
letters were cut out, the parts covered by
would appear, distinctly turned in red, the
green ground surrounding them. The ex-
pertinent is a very pretty one; an orchard in
Roxbury exhibited last fall many familiar
names and inscriptions, all produced in the
skin Of the fruit, without abrasion, or any
foreign impression.
FArrEN1NG PouLrRY.-Poultry of all
kinds may be fattened rapidly if kept shut
up and in the dark. Three weeks is suffi-
cient time to make them as fat as they can
be made. In England Dorkng fowls are
prepared for the London market by being
shut up in darkcned coops and fed on mix
ture of one pound Of suet chopped fine, and
one-half pound Of sugar, mixed with four
pounds of meal. Milk is given them for
drink five or six times day, and under this
treatment a fowl will gain two pounds in
weight in week. Young turkeys fed thus
have been known to take on three pounds Of
flesh in a week. AS in our markets heavy
weights are highly appreciated, it would he
well for those who have poultry to try this
plan. In shutting fowls in close coops it is
necessary to place good supply of dry earth
under them every day, and to frequently re-
move their droppngs. Hearth and Home.
How TO SELECT HINGEs.-The following
simple method of selecting right from left
handed, loose jointed butts or hinges, may
be useful to many, as it has often saved
considerable trouble and annoyance in send
ing inexperienced persons to the stores for
such articles: Take up the closed hinge
from the counter and open it from you,
holding it in both hands; if you wish for
right-handed ones hold fast with the right
hand, letting go with the left. If the hinge
remain intact it is right-handed, but if it fall
to pieces, or apart, it is lett-handed Holding
fast with the left and letting 20 with the
right, will prove which are which, by SINH
lar test
have seen many score of people puz-
zled to tell one hinge from another, until !
showed them the above simple plan, when it
was mystery no longer.-Scient!dc line
Tican.
RICH PLUM CAKE.--One pound each of
sugar, butter and flour, ten eggs, one pound
of raisins, two of currants, one-half pound OF
citron, one teaspoonful of cloves, one-half Of
mace, one nutmeg, juice an1 grated peel OF
one lemon and one-half teacup Of molasses
before mixing scatter one teaspOonful of cream
tartar in the -four. Before adding the fruit,
dissolve one-half teaspoonful Of soda in a
tablespoonful of boiling water-add it to the
mixture and beat thoroughly Bake in two
pans one and one-half hours If frosted it
will keep nice almost any length of time.
GETTING GAIT FOR HORSES. The inner
ican Artisan says: can ingenious German
has gained great reputation in New York
by his success in training coach horses to a
grand gait. He used no burr-bit or other
cruel contrivance, and people couldn't see
how he did it, until it was found that he put
magnifying goggles upon his horses, which
made cobblestones look like boulders, and
they acquired grand tread by trying to step
over them"
HOME MADE CHLORIDE OF LME.-An
excellent disintectant is readily obtained by
dissolving bushel of salt in barrel of wa
ter, and with the salt water slack barrel of
lime, which should be wet enough to form a
kind of m ste For the nurnose of a disin-