Vegetables for table and health

SQUASH CUTLETS

SELECT a young squash, peel it, cut it into slices about half an inch thick, fry in butter until tender. Pour parsley and butter sauce over it. For breakfast it is always appreciated.

Green tomatoes and cucumbers are also appropriate for frying, but they must be really green. After they commence to turn, a pungent, bitter taste develops that is most disagreeable.

IRISH STEW

Peel potatoes, ripe tomatoes, and onions; cut into quarters; half fill a four-quart saucepan with alternate layers; scatter half a teaspoonful of salt and pepper between each. Just cover with cold water and cook for one hour.

MOCK DUCK

Large marrow or white squash, whole, unskinned. Put it in boiling water, cook half an hour; when cool, skin it. If a marrow, cut off three inches to the end; if a white squash, knife out a circle about three inches in diameter round the stalk. In either case, scoop out all the seeds and fibre.

Make a dressing by mixing a pint of grated bread crumbs, three onions chopped fine, a tablespoonful of dried sage leaves rubbed fine, a teaspoonful of dried mustard, two ounces of butter cut into small pieces, half a teaspoonful of salt; moisten with a beaten egg. Replace the small piece you cut out, put it in a dripping pan, and bake for two hours, using bacon or salt pork dripping to baste with.

The brown gravy to go over will come from a sliced onion fried golden brown in butter. Add a tablespoonful of flour, brown, salt and pepper to taste, pour in boiling water until you have a sufficient quantity, stirring all the time.

Place the duck on a hot dish, strain the gravy over it. Serve with apple sauce, mashed potatoes, mashed turnips.

FURMITY

If you are near a farm where wheat is being thrashed, try an old English dish called "furmity," which is a delicious concoction farmers in Lincolnshire make for the harvest feasts, and is composed of new wheat principally. The receipt for the luxury is as follows :

Ten quarts of new wheat put in twenty quarts of water and stewed until quite soft, but whole. Add more boiling water as it cooks, if necessary. It should be like stiff oatmeal porridge when taken from the stove.

Let it stand until the next day; then add two pounds of the best beef suet, chopped until it is as fine as stale bread crumbs ; stir into the cold wheat, adding two pounds of stoneless raisins and two pounds of currants washed and dried, two pounds of the best brown sugar, a quarter of a pound each of candied citron and orange peel chopped fine, ounce of pudding spice, and, unless you object, half a pint of brandy. When all is thoroughly mixed, add six quarts of new milk, and simmer for four or five hours. Remove, let it stand until the next day, and serve with thick cream. Care must be taken not to let it burn.

We make half the quantity at a time, using a large brown stone jar with a lid, which is placed in a round boiler half filled with boiling water.

OKRA

A savory dish for lunch or dinner is made in the following manner: Butter a pudding dish, put a layer of cooked or half-cooked rice, a layer of sliced okra, a layer of ripe sliced tomatoes, butter, pepper, salt, and a little sugar if the acid of the tomatoes be objectionable. Repeat the layers until the dish is filled. Grate bread crumbs on top, with pieces of butter; pour in as much boiling water as the dish will hold; bake long enough to cook; serve hot.

Okra soup any cook-book will give you.

The pans of sour milk can be converted into pot-cheese by being placed near the stove until whey starts and covers the top; then poured into a cheese-cloth and hung up to drip for twenty-four hours. Then turn it out, break up with a fork, sprinkle with salt, and beat a little fresh cream through it if it is for table use. Naturally, omit the cream if for your chickens.

A Swede taught me another way to use the curds, which we like extremely. Put about two quarts into a small bag, and let it hang in a dry, cool place for four or five days until quite dry. Then take it out and grate finely; add half a pound of currants, half a cup of sugar, and three beaten eggs, and fry like batter-cakes, only much thicker.

SAVORY POT-CHEESE

If the milk has soured rapidly into a thick clabber, it may be put at once into a cheesecloth bag and hung to drip until every bit of whey has run out. If not so thick, turn boiling water from the tea-kettle into the pan of sour milk and let it stand for a few moments for the curds and whey to separate. As soon as this is accomplished, put into the bag to drip. When the whey has been disposed of, turn the curd into a basin and add butter, salt, and cream, sweet or sour, to make rather moist and of good flavor. Add paprika, black pepper, minced sweet green pepper, or fine-cut pepper grass, as you like. Then mould on crisp, green lettuce leaves, or make into tiny soft balls no larger than English walnuts. Never fall into the mistake of making these balls big, round, and hard, like the pot-cheese of commerce, which is dry, crumbly, and suggestive of overmuch handling.

POTATO CHEESE-CAKES

Pound well together three ounces of boiled mealy potato, two ounces of melted butter, four tablespoonfuls of sugar, and the grated yellow rind of two lemons. Stir until smooth, then add the yolks of two eggs and the white of one, well beaten. Line some patty pans with puff paste, fill them and bake twenty minutes in a good oven.

CURD CHEESE-CAKES

Boil one pint of milk, and add it gradually to three well-beaten eggs. Let it simmer until the milk curdles; then pour off the whey and allow the curd to drain a little over a sieve. Then beat it up with a fork, add two tablespoonfuls of sugar, a pinch of salt, four ounces of currants (cleaned and dried), one ounce of melted butter, and a little mixed spice. Mix well. Line patty pans with puff paste; fill three parts with the curd mixture and bake in a good oven. A very old-fashioned sweet.

HOWELL HONEY-CAKE

It is a hard cake.

Take 6 Ib. flour, 3 Ib. honey, 1 1/2 Ib. sugar, 1 1/2 Ib. butter, 6 eggs, 1/4 oz. saleratus, ginger to your taste. Directions for mixing: Have the flour in a pan or tray. Pack a cavity in the centre. Beat the honey and yolks of eggs together well. Beat the butter and sugar to cream, and put into the cavity in the flour; then add the honey and yolks of eggs. Mix well with the hand, adding a little at a time during the mixing, the 1/4 oz. saleratus dissolved in boiling water until it is all in. Add the ginger, and finally add the whites of the 6 eggs, well beaten. Mix well with the hand to a smooth dough. Divide the dough into seven equal parts, and roll out like gingerbread. Bake in ordinary square pans made for pies from 10 x 14 tin. After putting into the pans, mark off the top in 1/2-inch strips with something sharp. Bake an hour in a moderate oven. Be careful not to burn, but bake well. Dissolve sugar to glaze over top of cake. To keep the cake, stand on end in an oak tub, tin can, or stone crock crock is the best. Stand the cards up so the flat sides will not touch each other. Cover tight. Keep in a cool, dry place. Don't use until three months old at least. The cake improves with age, and will keep good as long as you will let it. I find any cake sweetened with honey does not dry out like sugar or molasses cake, and age improves or develops the honey flavor.
-- E. D. HOWELL.

HONEY APPLE-BUTTER

1 gallon good cooking apples, 1 quart honey, 1 quart honey vinegar, 1 heaping teaspoonful ground cinnamon. Cook several hours, stirring often to prevent burning. If the vinegar is very strong, use part water.
-- MRS. R. C. AIKEN.

SUMMER HONEY-DRINK

1 spoonful fruit juice and 1 spoonful honey, in 1/2 glass water; stir in as much soda as will lie on a silver dime, and then stir in half as much tartaric acid, and drink at once.

GENERALITIES

Hippocrates, the father of medicine, considered cabbage one of the most valuable of remedies. Erastratus deemed it a valuable remedy against paralysis. Cato, in his writings, claimed it to be a panacea for all diseases, and believed its use made it possible for the Romans to do without the use of physicians for six hundred years, they having expelled them from their country for that length of time. M. Chevreul, a former scientist, says the odor caused by the boil-ing of cabbage is due to the liberation of sulphuretted hydrogen. Cabbage can be cooked so that this principle will not be liberated and will remain as an aid to its digestion. If put on in salted boiling water and allowed to simmer, never boil, from one-half to three-quarters of a hour, drained, and served either with melted butter or cream sauce poured over it, even those of weak digestion can indulge in its use.

The onion is of special value to the country family far removed from doctor or drug store. Nothing alleviates croup more quickly than a poultice of onions fried in goose greese; or if that is wanting, any fat. Fill a bag large enough to fit up round the throat and reach to the pit of the stomach. Use as hot as can be borne. If the poultice is made about two inches thick, it will retain the heat for some thirty or forty minutes, during which time another should be made to take its place. It is a good plan to place two or three folds of flannel between the patient and the poultice, for then it can be applied whilst very hot, pieces of flannel being slipped aside as the heat moderates. The effect is soothing, alleviating the pain and lulling the patient to sleep. In extremely severe cases, when the child seems in danger of choking, grate a large onion, mix one teaspoonful of the juice with a little sugar, and pour down the child's throat. I once saved a baby of two years old, after the doctor had given up all hope, with this household remedy.

The juice of a roasted onion will cure a bee or wasp sting as by magic. The heart of a roasted onion will work the same relief for earache. Eating a raw onion at night stimulates the secretions and purifies the blood.

Celery contains an aromatic oil, sugar, mucilage, starch, and manna sugar. The daily moderate use of celery is said to remove nervousness and even palpitation of the heart. For rheumatism and kidney troubles it is considered excellent. Those having weak digestion should eat celery cooked, as the fibre of celery makes it difficult of digestion.

Rhubarb should be eaten as a matter of duty, for it is one of nature's pleasantest remedies, counteracting the ill effects of heavy winter diet.

Water-cress is a splendid tonic, and the country home should manage to have a plentiful supply.

Asparagus and lettuce are so universally liked that the family are sure to eat quantities without regard to the medical qualities, which are many and varied.

-- END --

Umm, and that's it! We hope you have enjoyed A Self-Supporting Home. After I began this project I found the book had been scanned by Google at least twice as well as by others; a search should lead you on to several full-text online versions to read. Also it has been reprinted, and when I last looked, you could find it at Amazon and Ex Libris. Happy Farming! --risa b

Old and tried

More on chicken illnesses ... remember, this was written at the end of the nineteenth century. It is presented here for historical interest.

GAPES

Gapes causes so much mortality among young chickens that you should be prepared to fight the pest as soon as symptoms of its presence are observed. Gapes is not a disease, as many people imagine, but a parasite worm, which is supposed to exist only on ground on which birds have been distributing droppings for more than one season. Game preserves where quail, pheasants, or grouse are bred extensively will occasionally have epidemics of this scourge that will sweep off hundreds of young birds. The pest is about five-sixteenths of an inch long, and as thick as a fine thread. It seems certain from the information gathered about it that after entering the windpipe of a chick it produces young; for bunches of little ones, not more than three-sixteenths of an inch long, have been found on making a post-mortem examination, but only when a mature worm was also present. At least, such is the result of the investigations of one of the most reliable poultry experts, who has devoted much time to the study of the subject, and who also gives the following directions for exterminating the pests: --

Mix salt and water, or steep tobacco in water ten minutes. Pour a teaspoonful down the bird's throat. Keep the head up and the two holes at the base of the beak closed with your thumb and forefinger while you count five slowly. Then suddenly release and turn the bird's head downward, holding it by its feet. It will gasp, sputter, and usually eject the worms.

However, as we have never had a case of gapes on our place, I firmly believe that chopped garlic or green onion in the feed is a sovereign preventive, and more potent than all the torturing cures.
SCALY LEGS

Some of the old broody hens bought for hatching the first year are almost sure to have rough legs. Don't make the mistake of thinking that is merely the sign of old age, for though scaly legs does not seem to injure the general health in any way, it looks so disagreeable it should not be allowed to spread to the younger chickens, which it is sure to do unless checked, because it is caused by a parasite and is contagious. Bathe the afflicted bird's legs and feet in moderately strong permanganate of potassium and warm water. The best plan is to fill a two-quart lard pail and hold the bird's legs and shanks in it for a few minutes, to soak and soften the scaly substance. Then wash thoroughly, using a plain white soap and nail brush. Wipe dry, and rub in carbolic vaseline. Repeat every three days until cured.

FEATHER PULLING

is scarcely a disease, yet as it requires a cure, it seems as if it should come within the doctor's jurisdiction. It is really a bad habit which springs from the natural desire for animal food, being denied which creates an abnormal desire. A fight or some accident causes a few feathers to be torn from a bird's body and some one of the flock discovers the animal secretion in the quills; the habit is acquired to alleviate the craving and, like most evils, spreads quickly throughout the pen, and it will be only a short time before the entire flock will be demoralized. Remedies are very inefficient in this case, so be careful to furnish a perpetual preventive in the shape of meat scraps or green bone....

CHOLERA

In the majority of cases the so-called wholesale destruction of flocks from cholera is not cholera at all, but the work of lice. On some farms where the hens hide away at night here and there, for want of some kind of suitable shelter, the trees, wood pile, sheds, and under the barns will be swarming with lice; and dead hens may be found every morning, being literally eaten alive by myriads of lice, the cause being attributed to cholera or some disease, simply because the owner cannot comprehend how lice can be so destructive. On such farms there may also be found an apology for a hen-house, the floor of which will be covered for a foot or more with droppings, being the accumulation of years; but which house will be found useless, as the hens will prefer exposure to all kinds of weather rather than venture in the pest hole filled with lice and called a poultry house. Some farmers wonder how it is that they get no eggs, and they naturally ascribe their failure to "there being no money in chickens"; when the fact is that if they were as negligent of their horses, cows, sheep, and hogs as they are of their hens, they would go into bankruptcy the first year. Before undertaking to cure cholera, examine for lice, as in many instances the lice are at the root of all difficulties.

Genuine cholera is a disease that exists, however. It is shown by great thirst, greenish, profuse droppings, and prostration. It can be distinguished from indigestion or roup, as it kills the bird in from twenty-four to forty-eight hours, or else recovery ensues. There is no lingering illness connected with it. The best remedy is carbolic acid. Add twenty drops to a gill of water, and with the water mix together meal and shorts, slightly parched and browned, and force a tablespoonful of such soft food down their throats twice a day. Give no water to drink at all. If it is given, however, add ten drops of the acid to each gill of water. Keep the sick birds in a dry, warm place, and separate from the others.

INDIGESTION

This is frequently mistaken for cholera and is caused by overfeeding, especially when grain is largely used. The symptoms are the same as for cholera, except the intense thirst and the death of the bird in a few hours. The remedy is to give no food whatever for three days, and also add a teaspoonful of tincture of nux vomica to each quart of the drinking water, at the end of three days allowing one ounce of lean meat once a day for a week. Be sure and provide sharp grit.

CROP BOUND

Whenever a fowl is crop bound it is due to eating something that will not pass into the gizzard, such as hay, old rope, rags, dried hay or grass, or anything that is liable to become packed. The opening from the crop to the gizzard may be clogged with a small piece of hemp or rag, and as no food passes to the gizzard, the fowl is all the time hungry and eats and eats, only to add more to the crop, yet not satisfying hunger. It starves with a full crop. As it eats to satisfy hunger, yet fails to do so, the crop is filled to its utmost, every little space being packed, and the crop in a few days becomes as hard as a wooden ball. On the first symptoms give the bird a tablespoonful of warm lard, and work the crop with the hand until it becomes soft, as by so doing the passage to the gizzard may be cleared and the food begin to move out of the crop ; but if this fails, which may be known by examining the bird four or five hours after manipulating the crop, then the crop must be opened. To do this, make an incision lengthwise in the upper part of the crop about an inch or an inch and a half in length. This should be very cleanly made with a sharp lancet or penknife. As there is an outer and inner skin, draw the outer skin aside when cutting, so that it will go in place again and cover the inner skin.

Through this incision the contents of the crop may be removed, using for that pur- pose a small egg spoon. Sometimes the mass is so hard that it cannot pass through the aperture, and in that case it must be broken up, which can be done with care and patience. This mass is usually very offensive indeed, and to remove any contaminating matter from the crop, this organ should be washed out with a half teaspoonful of carbolic acid in a quart of water. It is also desirable to pass the finger, well pared and oiled, into the orifice, so as to be certain that there is no obstruction there; for if so, the whole process may have to be gone over again. This done, the incision must be sewed up, and for this a small bent needle is best, as by it the skin can be most easily gathered together, and silk used not thread. Sew the inner skin first and then the outer one. Do not sew in the usual way, but pass the needle through, cut the threads of silk, and tie the ends of silk together. Before making the incision, pull off the feathers, so as to have a clean skin to work on. When finished, smear on a little tar to prevent fly blowing. No water must be supplied until the suture has completely healed up. For a time it is advisable to keep strict watch on a fowl that has been crop bound, as there will be a tendency to a recurrence of it.

EYE TROUBLES

Conjunctivitis. A catarrhal inflammation of the mucous membrane of the eye. Caused by cold, exposure, bad hygiene, injuries, or maybe extension of inflammation of nasal passages. Symptoms are gumming together of eyelids, discharge of fluid from the eye, and swelling of face about the eye. May occur on one side of head only, or on both. Swelling sometimes out of all proportion to apparent inflammation. Purulent cases may result in keratitis.

Treatment. Conjunctivitis usually yields to daily bathing with hydrogen dioxide one part, in two parts cold water. Ten drops of tincture euphrasia in each pint of drinking water often proves efficient.

Even hopeless cases should receive treatment if the fowl is to be allowed to live, since if the case is neglected, the other eye may suffer also. As in most of these eye cases there is an ulcerative condition of the mucous membrane of the nasal tract, the nose should come in for its share of cleansing. After cleansing nose, it will be well to inject into it the iodoform.

AN OLD AND TRIED CURE FOR GAPES

Gapes is easily prevented by cleanliness, but so far we have found no trouble in curing it by the following method: Shut up the sick chicks in a soap box. Pour in a little tar and spirits of turpentine mixed, on an oyster shell, set it on fire, and let the smoke fill the box completely. The chicks may be nearly suffocated to advantage, but be careful not to go to an extreme. Now take them out, and five minutes afterwards give each chick a mouthful of corn-meal dough, to which spirits of turpentine has been added in proportion of a teaspoonful of turpentine to half a pint of corn meal. The smoke of the tar and turpentine is harmless, and it is also excellent for roup, colds, and debility. There is a notion among some that they must remove what they call the "pip" from the end of the bill of each young chick, which is useless and unnecessary; and red pepper is often given when there is no occasion for doing so.

Disastrously convincing

POULTRY AILMENTS

ROUP

[Editor's note: chemicals and practices available and/or recommended in 1905 might not be appropriate for current use. Check with your veterinarian. Accordingly, one section of this post is presented in gray type to remind us .Remember, this blog is presented for historical purposes! -- risa b ]

Roup is a disease that gives worry to the poultry men and women. Like cholera, it is contagious, runs a rapid course, and even if some birds are brought back to apparent health, they are not safe to breed from, as their progeny are sure to have a predilection for colds, sore eyes, or swollen heads, which sooner or later break out and cause endless trouble. Many people scoff at the idea of roup being transmitted to future generations. I did myself at one time, and bought two sittings of eggs from two different farmers whose fowls had suffered an attack of roup the preceding winter, and proved myself all wrong !

Of the first sitting twelve hatched, rather weakly, pinched-looking little fellows. One died when two weeks old; nothing the matter just a want of energy. Another followed the third week in the same way. Four had colds in eyes and heads when six weeks old, and though doctored and fussed with, quietly died one after the other. Of the six remaining two were cockerels, so they were killed. The four pullets matured slowly, and proved poor layers, easily affected by any change of atmosphere; so at the end of the tenth month they were killed, cooked, and fed to the kennels. The second year was just as disastrously convincing. Thus the experiment convinced me beyond doubt that roup at least transmits weakness, and should therefore be guarded against as a double danger.

Being transferable, roup can be brought into your poultry by a strange bird. It is therefore wise to segregate all new birds when first purchased. The most frequent cause of outbreaks is, however, right on your own farm. A neglected cold which develops into roup is passed along, becomes contagious, and spreads like wildfire through the flock.

Watch your birds closely, especially at morning feed, now when the nights are cold; and should one look dumpy or sneeze, pick it up and remove it to a sunny, dry coop. The symptoms of a common cold, catarrh, and roup are identical at first: watery eyes, bubbling in the nostrils, sometimes diarrhoea. The discharge is at first thin and scanty, then abundant, and finally thick and drying on the surface. If it is roup, the odor is most disagreeable. The victim at once begins to lose strength. Should the head begin to swell, it is an extra proof of the severity of the attack frequently incurable. If you examine the sick bird's throat, you will find it inflamed, with small irregular patches of gray or yellow at the back. They increase rapidly and run together, forming a tough membrane, almost closing the throat. If you try to move it, blood oozes. If there are no spots or bad odor and the membrane comes away easily, the bird has only catarrh bad enough, but not contagious.

Bronchitis, canker, pneumonia, and influenza are also nearly alike in symptoms, and are easily mistaken for roup. As they are still all kindred diseases, springing from cold, my advice is: Don't wait to diagnose the case, but at once use means to kill the embryo germs without losing time to determine the particular family they belong to.

Having removed and quarantined the suspected bird, start treatment, if there is any discharge anywhere, by thoroughly scrubbing with some antiseptic solution night and morning. Dr. Woods recommends hydrogen dioxide and fifteen drops of tincture of phytolacca root in each pint of drinking water, with light, nourishing food. He also gives as a good remedy for all forms of cold: tincture of aconite, ten drops; bryonia, ten drops; tincture spongia, ten drops; alcohol, enough to make one fluid ounce. Mix this, one spoonful to be added to every quart of drinking water.

My entire drug supply for family, animals, and poultry consists of permanganate of potassium, which comes in little flaky, deep-lake colored crystals. Dissolve a thimbleful of them in a quart of water, and you have a splendid disinfectant. A dessert-spoonful of that mixture, diluted again by half a pint of water, becomes an antiseptic solution that meets every requirement for internal or external use on man or beast. Fifty cents' worth will last a year, even generously used as a purifier in and out of the house. It has also the added advantage of being easily sent through the mail without fear of breakage. If kept in a tin with a closely fitting lid, or a wide-mouthed bottle severely corked, it will last indefinitely.

Crude carbolic acid comes next. Castor oil, camphor, borax, and turpentine complete the list, but they are seldom used.

When we have a bird with a cold, it goes into a coop with plenty of straw on the bottom, which stands where it gets all the sun. At night a curtain made of bags is hung in front for extra warmth. Mouth, eyes, and nostrils are swabbed with warm water to which the permanganate of potassium mixture has been added; half a teaspoonful is poured down the invalid's throat. Food consists of stale bread, moistened with milk in which onions have been boiled. If the diarrhoea is bad, half a thimbleful of poppy seed is added; or water in which mullein seed has been boiled is given as a drink.

A change of food is made by boiling rice and mixing it with chopped parsley and green sprouts of onions, chopped fine; and powdered charcoal is mixed in once a day. When we have any of the milky puddings for dinner, some of it goes to the patient. In fact, any sort of nourishing food you would give a child is appropriate. This "homey" doctoring has always answered with my poultry, and is much better than dosing with drugs, which are not always on hand when wanted on a farm.

But prevention is always better than cure. Use common sense combined with humane thoughtfulness towards your stock. When you notice that the night has changed suddenly, or that the morning is raw and damp, causing you and the family to specially enjoy the hot cup of coffee, just add a dessert-spoonful of kerosene to each quart of drinking water for all the birds. Give a little less mash for breakfast. Half an hour after empty a bed of leaves into each house, and a couple of handfuls of millet seed, thus insuring an extra amount of exercise. Work that circulates the blood is the best way of warding off a cold. If you haven't any millet, brush up the barn and throw the sweepings into the houses if it is raining; into the yards if it is dry. Dry cold does not hurt fowls, but there is danger in damp or draught.