The National tribune., 1895-04-04
OUR RURAL TOPICS.
Some Practical Suggestions for Our
Agricultural Readers
Curing Pork.

Hork-
Wen ham with but a slight saline taste
is preferred, two pounds of salt, two pounds
of sugar, and half an ounce of saltpeter,
made into q brine by using sufficient water
for % pounds of meat, will cure it in five
weeks The brine is prepared in the usual
way, and the hams kept beneath it and
turned over twice week The hams may
be kept in the pickle all Summer by scald
ing it occasionally and adding salt.
are ready to drain and smoke.
A very good pickle for 100 pounds Of pork
is made by dissolving in three gallons OF
water five pounds Of sugar, eight pounds of
rock-sait, and four ounces of saltpeter.
Bring the ingredients to boil over a slow
fire, Swimming Off the impurities. IL is
scarcely necessary to repeat the statement,
pour the brine over the hams when cold, as
this is an accepted fact with eurers of pork.
The minority make q practice Of rubbing
the meat thoroughly with pulverized salt
peter before packing, and the next day inn
mersing IN brine strong enough to bear up
an egg.
Two ounces Of salt-peter will be more
than sufficient for the ham and shoulders of
a hog of three hundred pounds. A good deal
of sugar used in curing causes a smoky at
mosphere when the meat is frying. unless
attendance is constant, and molasses has q
Ike effect. A pint of mOlasses is the equiva-
lent Of a pound Of sugar. What is termed
dry sailing is said to induce more delicate
flavor than the brine cure. This is the
recompense for the time devoted to the mas
sage treatment. One pound of salt and an
ounce of saltpeter is moistened with mo-
laSses. After the hams are thoroughly
rubbed with salt the paste is laid on. and
every day for six weeks the paste which
runs off is again laid on. A mixture of
sugar and salt daily rubbed onto hams viii
preserve them. 1t is protracted process,
but effectuaL
sIiIiet.
The hay from most varieties of millet and
Hungarian grass is 80 strong a food that il
should be fed with great canton, especially
to horses. 1t is safer and more palatable IL
cut before the seed begins to ripen, but even
then IL should be alternated with other fod-
der. When grown on n good soil, through
long season, the large-headed German
millet is the best variety, according to A. A.
Crozer, of the Michigan Agricultural Col
lege. The pointed-headed common miles
is adapted to poor soils or late sowing. On
fertile soils the small, slender-headed Hun
garian grass will yield large amount of
good hay in moist seasons. Miilet can be
sown as a catch crop for hay when it is too
late to plant corn or when insects or hard
Winter have destroyed the clover, or when
ever seeding of permanent grasses fails,
For hay, plant half busheI per acre; if for
seed, sow one peck. 1t is especially adapted
to new lands and good, sandy soil. The
thick stems cause il to cure better IL
punched in the field when partly dried, like
clover.
Care of Young Ducks.
For the first three or four days feed hard
boiled egg chopped fine, mixed with littls
milk and bread-crumbs; vary this with oat-
meal. Have water always before them, but
fixed they cannot get into it, if you are
raising the ducks TO eat. Decrease the egg
gradually and give cooked cracked wheat,
varied with mush composed of bran, mid
dlings, cornmeal and cracked wheat mixed
with warm water and little salt After
they get to be two or three months old you
can give them this mush every evening or
morning and can put into it boiled potatoes
OF carrots or beets. Give them a little
chopped meat after the first week, and after
the first month whole wheat can be given
once day. To thrive well they must have
green food every day.
Crops in the Orchard.
An orchard in bearing ought never to Be
,ropped. All the fertility that the soil con-
aims is worth more to be used in developing
ruit than for anything else that can be-
crown. ReDovaing crops to be plowed
lnder may, however, be sown even in bearing
richards. II young orchards are making
wood instead of fruit when they are large
enough to bear, a seeding with clover and
blowing in Midsummer after clover growth
las been taken of, will often bring them
nto condition to bear fruit. The clover
while growing is a check to growth, and the
cutting of the roots in Midsummer is
urther check. This will cause q greas
many fruit-spurs to form late in Summer,
md these will produce a large crop of fruit
he next year. This is a severe remedy, but
the tree has good supply of mineral
ertilizer it will continue to bear from that
ime. 1t may be that a tree treated thus
Eiu not be so long-lived as is one whose
rowth has not been checked, but it is not
fen the very largest trees that are the MOST
roftable.
Notes About the Farm.
Early potatoes should pay well, as they
re always in demand. A potato field
nould be kept clean from the time of plant
lg to the harvesting of the crop. Many
otato fields are allowed to become 80 over
IN with weeds as to make the cost of bar-
esting more than all other labor given dur
lg the season. Keep the weeds down from
he start and the tubers viii be larger and
le yield heavier. 1t
Old hay answers an excellent purpose
zen when the cows have an abundance OF
reen food on the pasture. 1t is highly rel
he'd by them, and they should have full
stion of it at night. During the season.
hen cows are first turned on grass they.
lould have salt, and should any of them
I'VE the scours keep them in the
lrnyard and feed hay with a mess of hot
an and eornmeal seasoned. Green grass
laxative, and the cows must not be al
wed too much at the beginning of the
Is ture season
Prof. Henry says that those who feed
meal almost without exception
9 pleased with it. He says ne is sure
meal would come into very
neral use were it not for the difficulties Of
ducing the cob to the proper degree Of
leness for feeding.
Green manuring is one of the best uses
r which crimson clover is adapted. 1t is
Iery rank grower-soTne stools counting as
my as 100 to 40 blossoms from one seed.
grows to the hight of 20 to "a inches;
DTS deep, even In poor soil, from four
five feet. 1t will grow and make heavy
,p of hay or seed on land so poor that the
mmon clover would do but little. Is