The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1881-06-18
HOME AND FARM.

Steak should be broiled without
salt. Salt draws the juices in cooking:
it is desired to keep these if possible.
Cook over hot fire, turning frequently.
Salt and pepper to taste.
The grease which has become hard
eued by dust on the axles of machinery
can all be cleaned off by the use OF ker-
osene.
To Clean Cistern Water.-Add two
ounces powdered alum and two ounces
borax to twenty barrel cistern OF rain
water that is blackened or oily, and in q
few hours the sediment will settle, and
the water be clarified and fit for wash
ing.
Loaf Cake.-Beat together two cups
white sugar, one scant cup butter,
three eggs and three teaspoons baking
powder. Add cup of sweet milk and
then gradually beat in three heaping
cups of flour. Sprinkle little powdered
sugar over the top of the cake before
baking.
The following jelly is excellent and
nutritious when given to an invalid {:
One Calls foot and one pound of veal;
this put in four pints of water and boiled
very slowly for fully five hours; when
the water was reduced to one-third IT
was strained, the seasoning of little
pepper and salt and nutmeg being
added last. This jelly keeps quite well.
1t should have no vegetables in it, or it
will spoil.-Cor. ". Y. Times.
The sourness of rhubarb or ''pie-
plant'' stalks is due to malic acid (the
acid of apples) and citric acid (found in
lemons), both of which are as healthful
as they are agreeable. In some condi-
tons of the system, however, these acids
may not be beneficial. A simple rule
with regard to the use of rhubarb is, il
you find it doesn't agree with you,
don't eat it.
-Oil-cloth washed in hot water or in
soapsuds, or with brush, will look
dingy when dry, and soon crack and
peel off; but when always washed in
luke-warm water with piece of soft, odd
flannel, and wiped perfectly dry each
time, will last longer and retain its
young looks down to old age; it greatly
improves its appearance to use half
milk and half water. Skim milk, if not
sour, is just as good as new milk. This
makes oil-cloth look as if vanished.
Neither soap, hot water or brush should
ever be used on it.
-Farmefs! don't sign anything to
pass into the hands of stranger. Don't
sign any contract, receipt, note, nor
even put your name down on piece of
paper, or your residence. There are so
many devices to procure fraudulent
notes, and SO many innocent banks to
buy them, and so many Legislators to de-
fend them, that it is not safe to sign any
thing to travelling man. Don't rely on
your sharpness to protect you. The
sharpest men in the State have been
taken in. And we know one case where
a member of the Legislature was roped
into signing the worst kind of fraudu-
lent note. Don't!-IoWG State Register
Where water can be commanded
there is nothing so profitable as to well
soak the soil about small fruits; first
about the time that they have set their
fruits. Much of the value of this opera
ton, however, will depend on the nature
of the soil. The advantages are least
In a tenacious, and greatest in porous
soil. 1t is said that an animal derives
most benefit from food when it is hungry
before it begins to eat; it is certainly so
with plants. Water applied to soil
already wet is an injury; and water
never has so telling an advantage or
vegetation as when every leaf is about tC
wither up for the want of it. A plant
chat never seems to want water is in
very doubtful condition in regard to ita
health.
Fruit pies in deep dishes, such as
made by the English and French, are
preferable to ordinary fruit pies, be-
cause you obtain more juice and fruit
The best method of making these is as
follows: Take a deep, oval pie-dish,
china (not tiny, line the edge with paste,
also about half its depth inside. Now
place small cup, an egg cup is best,
and one that will stand little above the
edge of the dish; next fill your dish
with fruit, then add a little water if
your fruit has not too much juice. Some
fruits, such as currants and raspberries,
have enough juice; also add sugar to
taste. Now cover this with crust of
short paste, wash it with water or white
of an egg and dust with powdered sugar.
Make few fancy cuts on it before bak,
ing and after it is washed and sugared
do not cut too deep. These cuts give
it a rich-looking appearance. The cup
in the center collects the juice, and if
the whole of the pie is not eaten at one
meal what is left can be supplied with
juice by simply lifting the cup and al
lowing the juice to escape. The edge OF
this pie, to be artistic, should be
pinched up with the finger and thumb,
then notched with knife. If you use
fruit which gives too much juice you
can prevent the boiling over by mixing
little flour with the sugar, about one
teaspoonful of flour to twelve of sugur.
Ounce Seeds.