Connecticut western news., 1876-09-29
FARM, GARDEN AND HOUSEHOLD
DOmeslIc Recipes.

ExoRLLRNT POUND CAKE. One pound sugar, half pound butter, eight eggs, ten ounces flour before it IS sifted, nut meg or mace as desired.
 PLAIN SUEr PUDDING. Take ono pound and half of common flour, half Q pound of beef suet chopped very line, two eggs we'll beaten, one pint of new milk; mix. Have ready bowl well greased; put in your pudding; tie B down with oleth; boil steadily for two hours. Grated lepaon reel improves it. tst-:s
 QuMcH JR1n1.-Slice the quinces without either pairing or coring. Put them into Q preserving kettle and just cover with water; put over the fire and boil until soft. Remove from tho stove and strain of the liquor. To every gal lon allow four pounds of white sugar, and boil very fast until it becomes stiff jelly.
 CRAB APP1A JE1LY.-Cut out the eyes and stalks of the apples, halve them, and put in 8 preserving kettle, with enough water to prevent burning; cook until soft; then strain through sieve, and afterward through muslin bag; to every pound of liquor put one pound and quarter of sugar; boil gently for twenty minutes. ....
 MELISSA PUDDINa.-Prepare 0 paste exactly the same as in making ordinary soda biscuit; roll it out about an inch thick, and of the size required, accord ing to the number to be served; place in a steamer for about twenty minutes, or . until it rises to light crust. Serve with butter, any kind of preserved ber- is ries or fruit, and fine sugar; boil gently for twenty minutes. s--a-,s. T~
 .,IED APPLES. and core one doz- en large apples fill with sugar mixed with little butter and cinnamon or nut meg; bake till nearly done. Cool, and, if possible, without breaking, put the apples on another dish. If not possible pour of the juice; have some icing pre- pared; lay it on the top and sides and set into the oven few minutes to brown slightly. Serve with cream.
 MINoEMEAT WITH TOMATOES. Take cold roast or boiled meat and chop it . fine with about an equal quantity of ripe tomatoes, season with an even tea spoonful of pepper, heaping teaspoon ful of salt; spread layer of bread or cracker crumbs in pudding dish, put in the mincemeat and tomatoes, spread thick layer of bread crumbs on the top with little butter, and pour over tea cupful of water. Bake it one hour and you will have 8 delicious dish. Gold gravy mixed with warm water, or cup 1ul of stock, are nicer for moistening than water. Butter enough should be used to make the top brown, like escsl- =loped oysters.
 GRAPE JAM.-Seven pounds of grapes and three and one-half of sugar. Steam the grapes, weigh, and then wash them, put in kettle with about pint of wa ter, over a moderate fire, stirring occa- sionally to prevent burning; in forty or fifty minutes, or less, the seeds will slip from the skins; then rub through Q col lander, and return to the kettle with the sugar. Boil from one to two hours, ac, cording as it thiokens; stirring it all the while or it will burn. If it is desired to make 8 sauce for cold meats, etc., to this quantity add two tablespoonfuls of cinnamon, one cloves, and one-half pint of vinegar just on taking from the fire. Any kind of grapes will do, wild, culti vsted or green.
 Questions and Answers.
 What will make hens lay through the winteri
 'ya One farmer says that feeding henl with fat occasionally will cause them tc lay during the winter. Mix hogs larc with dough is the rule; piece of larc about the size of walnut given to heI after she has been broken up from sit ting will start her to laying again.
 Can evergreen be planted in the fall
 Evergreens may be planted at an, season of the year when the ground i not frozen. The best time, however, i whenth buds bave just started into ney growth this occurs about the tim, other trees have come into leaf.
 What is the natural size of an appl tree9
 The age of an apple tree varies great ly according to the constitution of tn tree, the nurture, climate, etc. On dee and favorable soils, where the climate not too severe, apple orchards have bee known to bear fair crops at eighty ninety and even, in rare cases, one hu1 dred years of age. As 8 rule, however apple orchards fail in forty and lift years. Severe cold, which blackens a the wood, is common cause of th premature failure of orchards. Starv, tion, in consequence of exhaustion of th soil, is Q still more frequent caus Pe9r trees, under favorable circumstal ces. live forty and fifty years, the plu averages from twenty to thirty year the cherry lasts about the same lengI of time, and peach trees usually fail be profitable at twelve to thirteen yea of age.
 Is there any truth in the assertiC that the season in which eggs are la has an influence on the chicks hatch, therefromf
 It is very generally believed by pot try raisers that hens first laying the season will produce better al stronger chickens than those laid late The idea seems to be that after two three months the fowl loses her vitali and these late eggs, in consequence, pl ,duce brood lacking somewhat stamina.
 Is there no way in which apples c be kept through the winter without c .tirely losing their favor2 They 8 stored away in the fall crisp and pa table. but in two or three months 1 come fiabby and poor.
 Apples are fruit which very read take in surrounding odors, especia those of close, moist cellars, in whi they are too often kept. Remove thu from all rank vegetables and unpleasa odors handle them gently keep tn, in a dry, cool room, just above the fre ing point, and they will retain in grt measure their natural flavor and criI ness.
 Ts Dry Sweet Corn.
 When the corn has become best
 table use, remove all husks and si
 With sharp knife cut just the ends
 the kernels of, and with knife scr,
 the milk and balance of the corn, leav
 the hull on the cob. Now put the c,
 in pie tins, or on plates an inch thi