American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1875-09-25
FARM AND HOUSEHOLD.

Picked Plums.-To every quart of
plums, one pound of sugar and one pint
of best vinegar. Melt the sugar in the
vinegar tie spices of all kinds in a fine
piece of muslin and put up with the
vinegar and sugar. When boiling put
in the plunis and give them one good boil.
If you wish to keep the fruit whole prick
with needle before cooking.
"A good way to start slips of plants is
to get an old glass fruit-jar, sift nice mel
low earth in it till it is two or three inches
deep, or till it touches the end of the slip,
then pour water over it till it is full. Set
the jar where it will be moved often.
After the roots start sift more earth over,
till it is full and filled with roots, then
carefully break the glass off and trans
plant to pot, and you will have no
trouble in starting it.
There is, says the american Grocer,
no article of food upon which so much of
the comfort of the household depends as
upon bread, and no one upon which so
much has been written. Whenever the
failures of the sex in the way of house
keeping are commented upon by their
lords and masters, bread forms the con-
venient and ready p: oof of their delin-
quencies. If women does not do what
is supposed to lie within her legitimate
way of business, or does do what does no:
come within that range, the masculine
voice, with one accord, shouts deridingly,
or warningly, go and learn to make
bread" If they make poor verses or paint
poor pictures they are told that they had
better make good bread" If they have
an ambition to become doctors or lawyers,
or clergymen or editors, the whole profess
sional world joins in the chorus of advice
and tells them they had better 8" learn to
make good bread"
The ideal dish of raw tomatoes is
thus prepared: Choose only those which
are large, comparatively smooth, firm, and
thoroughly red-ripe-it is an absurdity to
offer small or immature specimens in q
salad, and if you can't find such as here
recommended you must not attempt to ea
raw tomatoes. Put them in a tin pan and
pour over them boiling water, pouring il
off Immediately. This SO loosens thu
skins that they can usually be pulled of
easily without any violent application Of
the knife. Then with very sharp knife
slice them across, discarding the frs
piece, which has the hard base of The
| stem, and the last piece, which is toe
small. Make the slices thin rather thar
thick, keep them large and whole, and
pile them carefully in layers in a pretty
y
over them. Then put them away to ge
thoroughly cold in your cellar or refriger
ator. Prepared thus they are simply am
brosial and only a pagan could scorn them
If anybody wants to add sugar and vine
gar to the seasoning that can be done a
table by the eater. Slices of the large
yellow tomatoes scattered among the rec
sometimes make the dish look very tempt
ing.-Inter-Ocean
The Physiological Journal says: L
the only good that boy ever did abOu
the farm was to repair the pump, hang
gates, make Ole-traps, put in rake teeth
file the saw and hang the grindstone, and
he did these things well, obviously the
farm is not the place for him-but ma
chine shop is. If a boy will walk half
to hear political speech; if he takes
time from play to attend trials before 6
Justice of the Peace, and sits up half the
night when he is going to school to learn
declarations which bring down the house
at spelling-sch most likely he will dc
the world more good if you put a law
book and not manure fork into his hand
If he earn more money in trading jack
knives and fish-lines on rainy days thar
he does in hoeIng potatoes and cutting
grain in fair weather, give him chance
at the yard-stick and not have him around
troubling the other boys who are handling
horse -rakes and pitch forks and the like
employments. Again, if boy is sklllful
in skinning small animals and stuffina
small birds; if he practiced making pills
of mud when he was child and extract
ed teeth from the jaws of dead horses with
pincers when he got older; if he read
physiology while his brothers are deep in
!" Robinson Crusoe," he will be far more
likely to succeed with lancet than with
scythe.