Connecticut western news., 1872-12-27
Farm, Garden and Household.

nal food. Keep the hen-house clean, ana see that the hens do not want for water.
 CRISP MUFF1Ns. pint of sifted Indian meal !; one pint of milk or cream two eggs teaspoonful of salt; a spoonful of butter or lard. Drop the batter in hot, greased pan or oven by spoonfuls, taking care that your mullins do not touch. Let them bake till crisp and brown.
 To KEEP LARD SwEET.-Even during the warnest weather lard can be kept sweet by the following plan: When melting it, throw into each kettle handful of fresh slippery elm bark. No further preparation is necessary, as l have tried it unti. I am fully satisfied of it's efficacy. No salt must be added to it at any time. The jars in which the lard is to be kept must be thoroughly cleansed.
 OXFORD DUMPLINGs. - Mix well to- gether the following ingredients: Two ounces of grated bread, four ounces of shred suet, tablespoonful of sifted sugar, a little allspice, and plenty of grated lemon peel. Beat up two eggs; add little milk and divide the mix ture into five dumplings. Fry them in butter a light brown color, and serve them with sauce.
 SouP FOR 1NvA11Ds.-Toa pint of warm water add three tablespoonfuls of cod liver oil, shake them until they are thoroughly incorporated. Take a clo7e ofgarlic, that has been steeped for some twenty-four hours in senna tea, and shredit into the liquid. Season with l., fo~ meat balls of the same size-and of the same materials-as anti-bilious pills. Brown with salamander, and serve up.
 TREEs.-Young trees need care at this season, whether newly set or not, as there is great danger from mice and stray cattle. The gates and fences should be properly secured, and when a light snow falls, it shoald be firmly trodden down around each tree, to keep the mice from gnawing the bark. It is good practice to raise mound of earth, q foot high, around the trunk of newly-set trees, as support for them during the high winds, as we'll as security against mice. Rabbits are pre- vented from injuring the trees by sprink- ling blood upon them, or wrapping them with tarred paper; the former, is, how ever, the best.
 How TO SELECT FLoUR.-1. LooR at its color if it is white, with a slightly yellowish or straw-colored tint, it is good sign. If it is very white, with blueish cast, OF with black specks in it, tLe four is not good. 2. Examine it's adhesiveness- wet and knead little of it between the fingers; if it works dry and elastic, it is good if it works soft and sticky, it is poor. Flour made from spring wheat is likely to be sticky. 3. Throw lump of dry flour against dry, perpendicular surface if 1t adheres in lump, the four has life in it if it falls like powder, it is bad. 4. Squeeze some of the flour in your hand :; if it re- tains the shape given by the pressure, that too is good sign. Flour that will stand all these tests is safe to buy.
 How TO MANAGE LOT OF CALVES " Young Farmer" has Q lot of yearlings, which he wants to feed as cheaply as pos sible on corn stalks and corn. He wants information on the subject.-We once fed twenty-four head of calves and yearlings in the following manner: A shed, fifty feet long, was furnished with feeding trough to which access could be had from the front. Tue trough was divided into partitions, so that the animals could not crowd each other, and each had feeding rlace from which it could not be eiected by the others. Corn-stalks were cut and wetted and mixed with corn-meal and wheat bran, ground together in equal parts, and salted and half bushel per head was fed twice day. Each animal had two quarts per day of the meal and bran. Plenty of straw was thrown into the shed, and none removed until spring, when there was three feet in depth of Eell-rotted manure which had not frozen at all, taken out, and which paid for all the feed the calves consumed. Regular currying, and exercise in the yard through the day when they wished, kept them in good health. We know of DO better plan. -Agraeulturist.
 SHARPEN THE HoE.-" As dull as a hoe.} is an old favorite comparison, and it seems cruel to rob it of it's aforetime poetry. Bnt 8 free use of the file or grindstone is as rough on the comparison as the keen hoe is on the weeds. We have seen hoes that were worn out, never having been sharpened, because g sharp hoe wears out t; although the extra labor in day needed to destroy the weeds or move the soil with dull instrument would equal the cost of 6 new one. Certainly it IS poor economy to save the wear of the hoe, of necessity only half killing the weeds and making heavy toll of otherwise light work. file, even an old one cleaned with some diluted acid, will answer every purpose or grind-stone if one has got no file Norlrl mind # o1 IL All 8 sharp hoe carefully used will accom- plish more than the noisy grubbing O dull one. We take pleasure in seelus the hoe daily narrow up and the corner gradually round off, for honorable az, and constant service benefits the hoe making the blade thinner and smaller sharpen the hoe then-frst, to save tn, hard labor second, to do heater work third, to keep it bright finally, to hay, the pleasure of seeing it grow old in th service.
 TRANSPORTING BUTTER.-The relriger atlng butter pail is recently invented contlivance for transporting butter in ho weather. It consists of two tubs. tn one setting inside of the other, and hel,
 place by brackets so that there shall b halt-lneh space between the two. Tn outside tub IS about twenty inches il diameter at the top. When the insid tub IS filled with butter it is covered wtl cloth, and upon this is placed pcrforate' lid or cover. Then upon the top of this i placed the tin ice chamber, having tight Iy-fitting cover. It holds from seven t. ten pounds of ice. The chamber has hole Tn the bottom for the escape of wate formed from the melting ice, and as passes out it flows into the space betweel the tubs. The whole is now covered wit lid which presses down upon the ic