The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1871-04-13
FARM AND HOUSEHOLD,

ohoh, was CuJ up lupO u ldDyr1nuu VI
narrow walks. carefully edged with
dwarf box. This sort of needless and un-
slightly patchwork is fast passing away,
and a far better taste is being shown in
the smooth, soft carpets of green grass,
with the needful flower beds cut out
wherever required. Flowers are like
diamonds; their settings should be of
the inconspicuous order, and never the
most prominent feature of the two--as
often seen among the shoddyites' in
both fashionable society and horticulture.
Our florists and nurserymen still have q
considerable demand for "Box," for
edgings; and it is pity, although it's
true, that we have so much bad taste
shown in our suburban gardens.
Sometimes the grounds are cut up into
walks resembling an old-fashioned patch
bed quilt of many colors, and the pro-
prietor, not wishing to be outdone in
the way of variety, crowds thousand
species and varieties of plants into q
space where hundred would be far
better number, and show to better ad-
vantage. This trying to see how many
varieties can be grown, has been a curse
to pomology, and is rapidly running
Horticulture. A dozen plants, we'll grown,
show better taste and judgment than a
hundred, as far too generally seen.
We hope our readers will remember
this when making their selections of
seeds and plants this spring. Choose
only few of the very best, and of spe-
cies that will give succession of bloom
throughout the season, and bestow upon
these all the care that would have been
given to many, and see if greater salts
faction and better results will not be de-
rived therefrom.
We know of man who cultivated
three hundred varieties of Gladiok last
summer; but one-tenth of the number
properly selected would have furnished
all the beauty and other merits found
in the entire lot. To strive for the cery
best is commendable but to seek to OBJ
tain everything, is like trying to gain an
education by studying everything and
knowing nothing thoroughly.
DRIED BEEF PROPERLY PREPARED
The following pertinent remarks upon
the use of this very convenient article Of
diet are from correspondent of The
american AgriculturiSt 1.-THE good
qualities of dried beef as an article of
food for the family, are not fully ap-
preciated. In point of excellence it is
one of the incest articles, when properly
prepared, that we have in our store-room.
1t is also one of the most economical
articles of food; quite small quantity
of dried beef shaved very fine, and
cooked with nice gravy, will serve for
meat for family at very small expense.
Then it is so convenient to have; always
ready; always acceptable. To people
who live convenient to market, it is not
of SO much importance; but to US,
who have lived at a distance from
towns, dried beef is one of the neces-
sary articles in our bill of fare. We
frequently entertain guests at our table
who never have seen dried beef served
other than as relish for bread and but
ter, shaved and eaten without cooking.
There are several methods of cooking it.
Some prefer it cooked with a gravy of
water, seasoned with butter, thIckened
with flour, and perhaps eggs broken in
while cooking. Others cook it with
crumbs of sausage, frying the sausage
first, then adding the beef with water,
and thickened with -four. 1t is also
very good cooked with little sweet
milk and sweet cream, the gravy being
thickened with flour; allow it to boil
once, that is all the cooking it requires.
A dish of dried beef, properly cooked,
served with toast, baked potatoes, and
boiled eggs, is very nice provision for
breakfast or dinner prepared in haste.
When too salt, it can be remedied by
soaking, after cutting and before, and
cooking, and adding little white sugar
while cooking, to restore the sweetness
lost by soaking. Sugar-cured beef is
much nicer than that cured with salt
alone. l put mine into a sweet brine,
such as is used for pork hams"
THEORY OF FATTENING ANNALS
An important suggestion has lately been
made by Mr.. Lawes, of England, on the
waste of food during respiration, and its
relationship to the fattening of animals.
He remarks that in the case of animals
fed for the butcher the economy of the
feeding process will be greater, the less
the amount of food expended by respir-
alton, in the production of given
amount of increase ana it is equally
obvious that one ready and efficient
means of lessening the proportion of
waste or expenditure to the increase of
the products, is to lessen, as far as pos
sible, the time taken to produce it. In
other words, to fatten as quickly as pos
siole. Thus, from experiments made by
him, he assures us that pig weighing
100 pounds will, if supplied with as much
barley meal as he can eat, consume 500
pounds of it, and double his weight
that is, increase from 100 pounds to 200
pounds-in seventeen weeks. He then
points out that if instead of allowing
the pig to have as much barley as he
will eat, the 500 pounds of meal had
been made to last many more weeks, the
result would have been that the animal
would have appropriated correspon-
dinghy larger proportion of the food for
the purpose of respiration and perspira-
ton, and correspondingly less proper
ton in the production of increase. In
other words if the 500 pounds of barley
were distributed over q longer period of
time, it would give less increase in live
weight, and a larger proportion of it
would be employed in the mere main
tenance of the life of the animal. In
deed, if the period of consumption of
the 500 pounds of meal be sufficiently
extended, the result will be that no in
crease whatever will be produced, and
that the whole of the food, excepting
the portion obtained as manure. will be
expended in sustaining the animals ex-
istence.