Year: 1879

each one the instant it is done.


SHoRTcAKE.-Prepare the dough as
for biscuit, only much richer; roll out
two crnsts nearly as thin rs for pie crust;
put them together, spreading little
butter between them bake in a quick
oven. When done, place the fruit or
preserves between the crusts. When it
is not in the fruit season, dried fruit or
preserves make very good substitute.


DRY BREAD AND Cold MEAT UTIL-
tzED.-Chop your beef very fine. then
soak your bread in cold water till it is
very soft; take it in the hands and
squeeze as much of the water out as you
can, having tw e-thirds as much bread
as meat; mix the bread and meat
thoroughly together; beat three eggs
well and mix in; add salt to taste;
make in balls the size of biscuit, and
fry slowly in butter or cooking fat till
brown on both sides.


MUTTON STEw.-Three pounds OF
breast mutton, one teaspoonful of salt,
six potatoes, four onions, two carrots,
one pinch of black pepper. Stew the
mutton in water just sufficient to cover
it, until tender. Skim off the fat, and
add the vegetables, pared and cut up
into thin slices. It is more delicately
favored if the meat before stewing is cut
into small pieces, and when the vege-
tables are added, all is put in layers in a
clean stew pan, covered with the liquor,
and then closely covered to keep in the
steam while cooking. Stew one hour.


TOMATO SoUP.-Take neck piece or
from the round-two or three pounds OF
beef; remove every particle of fat, and
cut the meat into very small pieces; put
into the kettle with two or three quarts
of cold water, and simmer for one hour;
as the scum rises remove, and keep the
kettle covered; strain the meat from the
broth, and add quart of tomatoes which
have been pressed through a colander,
with a bunch of parsley, and boil twenty
minutes; cut and scrape the kernels from
three ears of sweet corn, and add to the
soup, with half teacupful of sweet
cream, two small tablespoonfuls of
-four, pepper and salt; boil fifteen min
utes, and serve.


Strawberry Cultivation.


To cultivate the strawberry in gar
dens for family use, Messrs. Ellwanger
& Barry, of Rochester, N. Y, recon-
mend planting in beds four feet wide,
with an alley two feet wide between.
| Those beds will accommodate three
rows of plants, which may stand fifteen
inches apart each way and the outside
row nine inches from the alley. These
beds can be kept clean, and the fruit
can be gathered from them without
setting the feet upon them. We find
from experience that no more convent
ent mode can be adopted than this. The
ground should be we'll prepared by
trenching or blowing at least eighteen to
twenty inches deep, and be properly en-
riched, as for any garden crop.


The season for planting depends upon
circumstances. 1t may be done with
safety from the time that plants begin to
grow in the spring until they are in
blossom; and again in the fall, from the
time the young plants are sufficiently
rooted until the freezing ofthe ground.
1t is well, however, to plant at a time
when the plants will at once commence
growing. II planted in warm, dry
weather, as August or September, it is
necessary to water the ground thoroughly
before planting, and then to shade the
plants until they have begun to root.
The culture subsequent to planting
consists in keeping the ground among
the plants clear of weeds and frequently
stirred with hoe or fork; to keep the
runners closely pinched until after the
fruit is gathered, and to mulch the
ground among the plants, before the
fruit begins to ripen. with two inches
deep of cut straw or short grass now
ings from the lawn, or anything OF
that sort, to keep the fruit clean and
the ground from drying. In exposed
situations. or where the winters are Sc.
we're, with little snow for protection, a
slight covering Of leaves or litter will
be of great service. This can be raked
off and the beds dressed ut the opening
of the growing season. A bed managed
in this way will give two full crops,
and should then be spaded down, new
one having been in the meantime pre-
pared to take its place.


Layerins Grnpevines.


There is nothing new to q majority OF
our readers in the following sugges-
tions by practical grape-grower. But
there is always rising generation to be
educated, or a new class Of men and
women who are, benefited by practical
hints. The writer says in the Country
Gentleman:


Being practical grape-grower. I
can give q few hints about layerimg
grapevines which might be of interest to
some of your readers. I select vines that
have one or two good canes! from six to
eight feet long; tie them down horizon
tally to small stakes bout six inches
from the ground, until the new shoots
ore about eight inches long; then / loosen
up the ground in the direction where the
canes are to be layered, leaving little
trench about four inches deep. The
shoots which start from the under side
are broken off altogether, the others are
stripped of the lower leaves. and the
whole is put in the trench and covered
with an inch of soil, filling the trench up
about II week later. To insure the root
ing of the layer, I get copper wire l-32
of an inch thick; cut in pieces II
inches long, and with small plyers
take twist around the cane at every
Joint, on the side next to the parent vine,
and just tight enough to pinch the bark
slightly. The sap can 60 one way, but
cannot 20 back, and this helps the for
nation Of roots. Varieties like Delaware
do not root very readily without being
wired. By this process I have raised as
many as twenty good layers from one
vine, besides two good canes for another
years layering. As a matter of course,
all the bloom, on layer as well rs on pa
rent vine, must be pulled off.


That Burrowine Mole.


The mole being an insect-eating ami
NAL relieves the farmer ofmany noxious
pests, and therefore is in one re3pec' ut
! least his friend. But from it's burrowing
habits it not infrequently becomes a
great nuisance in both field and garden.


There appear to be various means of
driving moles away. They may he
poisoned by placing pills Of flour mixed
with arsenic into their holes and shut
ting them up. Again, Il paste of
potash is spread in the molcs' runways,
which burns their feet and drives them
away. A correspondent of Nck's Month
ly advises soaking corn until it is soft,
then with penknife open each kernel
and introduce dose of strychnia and
close it up again. Open a hole through
the earth over their roads, drop in the
corn and cover again. Another CORE
spondent says to plant in the garden the
seeds of the mole-tree (Euphorbia httky-
sis), q hardy annual, sometimes called
caper spurge. Farmers in many Sec
tions soak corn in solution of sui plate
| of iron (copperas) before planting, not
| only to preserve it from the worms, but
| to spo,,ro r. a no ;pct tho 1oprod otiopc of