Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1876-05-12
FARM AND FIREsIDE.

WEIGHING EGGS.-It is, and for aught
| know always has been, the practice to
sell eggs by the dozen. without any regard
to their size or real value. There are pro-
badly but few who ever consider the real
difference in the size and. weight between
d dozen small and dozen large eggs. Many
of the small eggs in the market will not
| weigh pound to the dozen, while the
largest will weigh over II pounds. My
largest Brahlna eggs will weigh over II
pounds to the dozen, and they will average
over II pounds. Such eggs are really
cheaper at As cents than small ones are ut
| 80 cents a dozen. A Mr. Harris, of Bos-
| ton, says he weighed some of his Plymouth
| Rock eggs. and the largest weighed 80
ounces to the dozen. The small sized eggs
of the same sort weighed q ounces. Yet
most purchasers would be unwilling to pay
more for adozen of Mr.. Harris large eggs
than they would have to pay for a dozen
| of the smallest eggs iii the market. The
time will probably soon come when eggs
| will be sold by weight, or Il standard
weight for dozen of eggs will be estab-
lished by law. There is also as much diff
ference in the quality as in the size. [ am
satisfied that feed as much affects the
quality of eggs as much as it affects the
quality Of milk or butter. Some fresh eggs
are little better than rotten ones for table
use. AS long as the consumer considers
an egg TO be an egg, ithout any regard to
quality or size or real value, little pains
will be taken to produce a better article.
PACKING BUTTER.--A we'll known dairy
authority gives the following directions
for packing butter so that it will keep
sweet for eight or nine months Make
brine with a saturated solution of the
purest salt you can get, using one pound
of saltpetre to about twenty pounds of
salt. Scald the brine by bringing it to a
boiling heat, skim, and apply when suffic-
iently cool. The casks should be Carefully
prepared as well as the brine. If the gum
and sap in the wood are not removed be-
fore the casks are used, they will work out
ineo the brine and affect the butter. TO
remove the woody flavor from the casks,
thorough steaming with q hi, pressure
is the quickest and best meas. If soaked
before the steam is applied, hot steam will
cut the gum and woody flavor all out in a
short time. If steam is not convenient,
soak in brine week or so, and then Fill
with boiling hot brine, and let it stand till
it gets cool. By keeping tbs butter under
the brine and the casks full and in cool
place, the butter can be kept safely. Some
of the tin-lined packages which have re-
Gently been introduced, and which are east
ly Theoretically sealed, would be much
more convenient and probably fully as
cheap as the oak casks and brine, and are
claimed to be equally efficient in preserv-
ing.
How ARTIFICIAL BUTTER is MADE
Agents are employed to visit slaughter
houses and buy up all the beef-suet. This
is carried to the factory and cleansed.
Then it is put into meat choppers and
minced fine. 1t is afterward placed in a
boiler with as much water in bulk as itself.
A steam pipe is introduced among the par
ticles of suet, and they are melted. The
refuse of the membrane goes to the bottom
of the water, the oily substance floats and
is removed. This consists of butter-matter
and stearine. A temperature of eighty
degrees melts the former and leaves the
stearine at the bottom. The butter-mat-
ter, or cream, IS drawn off about thirteen
per cent. of fresh milk is added, and the
necessary salt, and the whole is churned
for ten or fifteen minutes. The result is
Orange county butter at half the usual
cost. The stearine is sold at twelve cents
a pound to the candle. maker, and the re-
fuse at one cent a pound to the manufac-
turer of food for cattle.
BEES ON A SMALL SCALE-There are
many householders whose means will not
enable them to buy COW, OF provide keep
ing for her were they in possession of one
But they may be equal to the purchase Of
colony of bees and provide hives for the
sWarms resulting therefrom. Bees, like
other stock, require pasturing but, unlike
horses, cattle and sheep, they are free COM
moners, ranging at will in search of stores,
nor can they be arrested and punished for
their intrusion OF premises, alias their own
ers. A single colony of bees, in good con-
dition in the spring, may pc counted upon
double or treble their numbers in a single
season, securing ample stores for winter
consumption, while supplying gratifying
surplus each autumn for household uses.
This accumulation will prove most accept
able in families, especially while the price
Oh butter rules so high as to place it be-
yond the reach of those not blessed with
elongated and plethoric purses. Try
colony of bees as an experiment.
AZURE FOR SCAB IN SHEEP.--A farmer
discovered a year ago that a lot of his
sheep had this disease. The first thing he
knew, they lost their wool, so that by
shearing time they were almost bare
Having heard of tobacco as a cure, and
falling with other remedies, he procured
some thirty or forty pounds of the leaves,
and boiled it up in a great kettle. When
cold, he poured the liquor into large tub,
and, after shearing, plunged each sheep
that was affected by the scab into it up to
the neck. and then turned them out to
pasture. The liquor must be strong enough
to change the color of the wool to light
red, and, according to this mans expe-
rience, they will be cured, not only of the
scab, but, if the lambs are dipped, too, of
all the ticks. Stalks of tobacco, cut I'D
and boiled the same as the leaves, will do
equally well.
APPLE CHARLOTTE.-Pare and chon