The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1881-09-28
Cooking and Composing.

At first glance the average reader will
ace nothing permane in the relations of
cooking with composing, and some will
even pronounce such association not
only absurd but disgusting. But even
a slight examination into their relative
functions will show q well-defned an
alogy; for cooking is but preparing food
for people and other animals, and COM
posting is simply performing the same
service for plants.
The farmer provides more or less care
fully some basic materials, such as flour,
raising materials, shortening, sweeten-
ing, etc., and from such he expects his
wife to supply the family with bread in
all its various forms, preserves, and all
other materials necessary for a we'll
equipped table. He reserves to himself
the duty of supplying the plant food
from which his future harvests are to be
nurtured.
The wife conscientiously and effective
ly performs her duties. She not only
treasures in her mind the time-honored
| traditions of ordinary cooking inherited
from her mother and grandmother, but
| carefully culls and preserves recipes
| from newspapers, and when meeting
her neighboring gossips never or scarce
| ly ever fails to fully discuss all modern
| improvements and novel combinations
which have been evolved since their last
meeting. If the bread or buckwheat
does not "rise," she takes no rest until
| she learns the cause and removes the
\ difficulty, and learns as fully from her
/ mistakes as from her triumphs the Sc
| cret of success,
| Not so the husband. Although his
responsibility is infinitely greater, as
his mistakes in selecting plant food are
| generally not discoverable until the
years crop is partly or wholly spoiled,
he permits himself year after year to be
humbugged by commercial concoctions,
when he has, to say the least, an equal
chance with his wife to guard against
such failures. As rule, he is as shift
less as his wife would be if she relied
upon the baker for her bread, pies, cake
and baked beans, getting inferior arti-
cles at double prices. This wasteful
stupidity is more inexcusable with him
than it would be with her, as the re-
sources at his command are infinitely
more ample, and the hints and instruc-
tions of the agricultural press are an
ever-present help to him which she Is
not possessed OF.
He possesses another great ad,
vantage over her in the fact
that he can concoct his plant food
| whenever it suits his conven'
ience, while with her each day and hour
has its own peculiar burdens, If she
expects company" every element oi
food is artistically and methematically
graduated to the several tastes, and she
| mss1 be sure that there is enough for al
and something over. He by well-known
manipulations invites by planting those
magnificent messengers of nature known
as crops, without proper provision fol
their well-known tastes and require
ment; and while some of their need:
are supplied with their peculiar food IN
superduity, others are entirely ignored
and it is not surprising that their REIN
bursement in harvest time is in CORE
spending degree niggardly.
For instance, one of his invited guests
wheat, has told him as sharply as chem
ical analysis can, how indispensable it i:
that he should have potash, soda, lime
magnesia, iron, sulphuric acid, phos
| phoric acid, chlorine and silica to feed
on. If the farmer attempt to buy these
| in their ordinary commercial shapes, the
| chances are that his fertilizers will cos
him more than his crop is worth; but by
| o little study he can learn when and
where to buy the crude material at 6
mere song, and the instinct of the plan
will without cost analyze and appropri
ate it. In a word, the farmer can make
his own composts cheaper and better
than they can be made for him, and
the meadow muck so largely used tC
divide and dilute them can be got more
cheaply on his own farm than elsewhere
N. Y. Sun.