The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1877-06-27
FARM, GARDEN AND HOUSEHOLD.
Dairy Cows.

Dairy Cows.
The present season, usually called
"between hay and grass" is q critical
one for all live stock, and particularly
for COWS. They should be turned out
as soon as the ground is thoroughly dry,
for few hours each day, and then driven
up to dry fodder until they are gradually
Injured to the succulent grass of the
pasture. Heating feed of any kind for
COWS before calving will involve great
danger of milk fever. It is a bitterly
cruel thing to keep cow fastened in
stanchion while calving. They should
be kept in roomy stalls or loose boxes.
Just as long as the nights continue cold
and raw the COWS should be kept up
nights. In fact there are few if any
nights, even through the warmest
months, that COWS would not be better
for O shed to lie under out of the heavy
dews of night. A contemporary says q
farmer asks if there is any way to "de-
onionize" the milk of COWS which run
in the woods where wild onions and leeks
are plenty. Of course it can't be done
if the COWS eat any rank weeds; the
flavor will remain in the milk rs in the
butter and cheese made from it. It is o
question whether the little forage COWS
get in the woods pays for tainting the
milk in this way in any case where there
is any other means of subsistence for
them. No COW can produce pure and
healthy milk unless she has pure and
healthy food and drink. Whatever may
cause an unhealthy condition OF COW,
it will be sure to determinate her milk,
and nothing will be more sure to do this
than scanty and poor food and drink,
rough treatment and exposures. A
neglected or thin feverish COW will not
only yield diminished profit, but she
will give feverish milk, if any; or if
there is anything wrong about her, it
will affect her milk; or if she eats any
thing that has strong or disagreeable
odor it will surely appear in her milk
cream, and the butter produced from it,
as her milk is one source she has of cast
ing off filth from her organism. These
facts should at all times be well i'm
pressed upon the minds of farmers, but
more especially in the spring of the year,
| when COWS are liable to be thin and more
or less feverish. Many farmers keep
their COWS confined in stanchions too
great portion of the time through the
long winter, and too, in small, ill-venti-
lated stables, where they cannot always
get fresh, pure air, neither can they
have proper exercise and water at all
tines when desired and needed by them.
Household Hints.
CANNED STRAWBERRIES - Fill glass
/ jars with fresh whole strawberries,
sprinkled with sugar in the proportion
of half pound of sugar to pound of
berries, lay the covers on lightly ; stand
then in wash boiler filled with water to
within m inch of the tops of the cans
(the water must not be more than milk
warm when the cans are placed in it).
When it has boiled for fifteen minutes,
draw to the back of the stove let the
steam pass off, roll the hand in a towel,
lift out the cans, and place on table.
If the berries are we'll covered with their
own juice, take tablespoon and fill up
the first can to the very top Of the rim
from the second wipe the neck, rub
dry, and screw the top down firmly OBJ
serve carefully the general directions for
canning berries. Fill another from the
second can, and so on until all are fin
ished.
GINGER BEER. - Take nine gallons
of water, ten pounds of brown or white
sugar, eleven ounces of bruised ginger
root, nine ounces of lemon juice, half q
pound of honey, and three pints of yeast;
boil the ginger half an hour in gallon
of the water, then add the rest of the
water and the other Ingredients and set
it aside ; when cold, strain it and add
the white of one egg, beaten, and half
an ounce of essence of lemon let it
stand four days, then bottle, and it will
keep many months
CURE FOR SpRA1N. Take one table
spoonful Of honey, the same OF salt, and
the white of one egg beat all we'll to-
gether for Mt least one hour-or two
would be better. Let it stand for an
hour. Then anoint the sprained place
freely; keep well rolled up with a good
bandage.
V1NEGAR.-Save the parings and cores
of apples, put them in a jar with warm
water enough to more than cover them !;
set them in n warm place for several
days, then strain and add one pint Of
molasses to O gallon of the water put
in jar, tie thin cloth over it, keep in
warm place, and in two weeks you will
have good vinegar.
For ARREsTING FERMENTATIoN.-
solve n small quantity of borax (half a
teaspoonfuD, into tablespoonful of
boiling hot water, for every quart Of
cream or milk. To keep meat from spoil
ing, sprinkle on little powdered borax
like salt; then wash well in borax water
before cooking.
Petroleum on Shingles.
In regard to applying petroleum to
shingles to preserve them, q writer says !:
cit enters the pores OF the wood at
once and as it hardens makes it more
compact in texture, and rather less liable
to take fire. The petroleum also pre-
vents the surface Of the shingles from
rising in downy ibers, or fuzz, and it
is on the whole not so liable to fire from
sparks when treated with it, We have
tried the experiment with shingles oiled
some time previously, and find they are
not SO easily ignited by outside fire, al.
though when once burning, they will, OF
course, produce more flame than the
wood without the petroleum. Petro-
leum is also very good to apply to the
iron work and steel Of farm Implements
to preventtheir rusting when not in use.
| The crude article costs but s. or $4 Der
barrel-the price may be higher at pres
ent-and it is useful to keep Oh hand.
When any outbuildings, or even your
dwelling house is to be painted, one
half OF the expense may be saved by ap-
plying coat of petroleum with fine
whitewash brus!l; let it dry several
weeks, and then put on one coat OF
paint, and by so doing second coat OF
paint is rendered unnecessary.
The Orchard.
The pear slugs will visit your pear and
ounce trees this season, no doubt On
email trnes DESTROY them by pinching