RURAL NOTES.

Waikato Times, Volume XXII, Issue 1823, 13 March 1884, Page 4

RURAL NOTES.

American Han Curing. TnE principal tiling is to get the ham*just salt enough to keep them, and not so salt as to injure the flavour and cause them to get hard. Hams should b< neatly trimmed and cut round to imitate, as closely, as possible, the hams o! commerce. Trim closely, so that theie shall be no masses of fat left at thr lowest extremity of the hams. Tin shoulders may be cut in shape convenient for packing, and they should be salted iv separate packages fiom the hams Hams are cured by both dry salting and brine. When drysalting is umplojed the hams are rubbed often with salt and sugar. Between each rubbing theyaie bunched on platforms or tables, the surface of which is spii'ad with a layer of salt, and each ham is also covered with salt. When taken up to rub — which is usnally done five or six times— a shallow box is at hand in which to do the work. When brine is used prepare a pickle strong enough to float an egg, and stir in a sufficient amount of sugar and molasses to give it a sweetened taste. Some add a little saltpetre to color the meat, while others claim it tends to harden the meat. In moderate quantities it is generally accepted as benefical. Cover the hams with pickle, and place the packages w here the ten psraturc is uniform and above freezing. For hams of 121bs four weeks will be sufficient ; large hams must remain in brine a longer time. In gi-ner.il, three to seven weeks embraces the extremes of time required for domestic cm ing of ham, varying to size of hams, temperature, and time when they will be required for use. When it is desired to preserve hams through the summer they must not be removed from the pickle too soon. Shoulders require much the same treatment as do hams, and both should be carefully smoked. The piescivative principle of smoke i-J known a& creosote. Smoke made by burning corn cobs is highly esteemed, but those engaged in curing meat on n laigf scale prefer the s-noke obtained fiom dry hickory that has been stripped of its bark. The smoking piocess must not be too iuuriel, or the creosote will not ha\e time to penetrate the entire substance oi the meat. Ten days' smoking is usualy sufficient, xinless the hams aic very large and thick. A piocess in ham curing piactisc d by some of the leading packing houses cousists 5 n ci eating tne smoke in an oven outside of the smoke-house and passed through undergiound pipes into it. The smoke uses liom the iloor to the top of the house, encounteto two opposite currents of hot air drawn from the outside. These cunents cause the smoke to form in a rapidly i evolving horizontal column, winch passes through the hams. The smoke is not warm, and there is no heat to melt the hams oi lntau to blacken them. The hams, under this process, are smoked in very much less time than by the old method. While canvassing hams has nothing to do with their flavor, it is a piotection fiom insects, and will pay the fanneis for the e\tia labor. It should be done befoie the warm weather. Wrap each ham in coarse brown paper, and then sow it up iv cotton cloth cut it to suit the si/c, following the shape of the ham. When coveted as dosciibed, dip them in wash made of linici water and colou'd with yellow ochre. Plans; up in a cool place to diy. The wash closes the mtoistioes of the mu&lin, and the whole foi ma a piotection against insects. The place in which any kind of cmed meat is stored should be dry and cool, and the darker the better.

The " Cattle Pull." Wliat the nice ti.ick is to manyagiicultutal gatheiings, tlie " cattle pull" is to not a tew New England fairs, and well it nude be. 'J he go-ahead Westerners aie ill content with the slow ox teams, the mo! c speedy hoises, and mnchitieiy wot Led by horses, better suit their broad plains and their ideas. On the great pastuies a steer is looked upon for the amount of lound and siiloin steaks he will fui nish, the dollars he will balance on the scales in the cattle pen and slaughter yards. Imagme a Maine boy telling his Western f i iend that his steeis had gained six inches in girth, and earned their Ib ing w hile doing so ! To the latter, the idea of a steei being compelled to earn his boaid is scarcely compiehenbible. But in much of New England, especially among the pine tiees ot Maine, working oxen are appreciated, and at the shows dispute the claim to public attention with the fast horse that absorbs so large a share of admiiation in other sections. Hence the " cattle pull" is a feature in most agricultural exhibitions at the far East. It is a novel and interesting sight to one witnessing it for the first time -the level s\\ ard bet off by a rope, and surrounded by an eager throng of anxious farmers discussing the points and merits of a favourite yoke of oxen, attached or to be attached to a drag weighted with tons of mauite sUhs, The tjueatiou to be decided is, which oxgh, or Whose, ia to cany off the palm, by moving the ponderous load tho greatest number of measiiH'd feet and inches —in other w oids, which bleed, what btiain, what feeding and care, what training, have produced oxen th.it can supply the most strength when put to accurate comparative tests. The tiials are of single pairs, and with several teams to show how they will pull together, an important point often. You see the committee man mount the load, and he calls out so as to be heard by the vast throng. " These cattle are owned by John Martin ; girth, seven feet ; weight of load, eight thousand five huudied pounds." At the word, the animals, at, if conscious of their importance, and that their own credit .and that of their owner is at stake, put forth giant efforts. "Fifty-siv feet four inches" ia announced. Half-a-dozen men add their weight to the load. " Twenty-three feet nine inches "is recorded. Another yoke takes its turn, but not j 7 et trained to pull at command, and when unhitched, the load has not advanced an inch. At last autumn's fair of York County, at Buxton, Me., an old dispute was to be settled between two farmers' yokes, one of which had been victorious at the N.E. Fair, and the other at the Eastern Maine State Fair. * Both jokes were Buxton cattle ; both girthed 7ft 3in, and never had "St. Julius," or "Jay Eye See" more aident adhcients than these bos ines. .he enoi mous load of over five tons (10,3001b) was to be pulled over a grass stubble by a chain. The record of the victors was— Twenty-four feet in twenty pulls !

Thk making up of a paper in India would seem a strange process to an American printer; The native compositors who use type sit on the floor with their cases about them — in fact most of the work is done on the floor. Many of them who set type for English papers do not know the English language. They become very expert, and set type day after day without understanding more than the few words they have been able to pick up in the course of their work The advertising is chiefly of foreign snoods imported into India. The native people are too cautious to expend much money in advertising. Newspapers in the vernacular are mostly lithographed. Type has been adapted to the vernacular chaiaeters, and is less difficult to read than lithographed works, but a finely lithographed newspaper or book is as much superior to type as the painting of a master is superior to a chromo. The j presswork is done by hand, as native labour is cheaper then engines and, great presses. One Shilling.— Francis «T. Shortts' Popular Art Union.— Ton first-class Oil Paintings by celebrated artist-;. 6000 tickets at 1 1*. The prizes are magnificent and costly. Country subscribers sending stamps or otherwise will have tickets by return post. stamped envelope for reply.— Fkancis J, Shortt, 140, Queen-street, Auckland. — [Advt.] . < Rats and Mice, —lf jyoa,wish>to .destroy them get a. {jacket of Hiil's Magic Vermin Kilcrr m packettj'Od, 06, and 2c, to be obtained of»Uii£oreKeoper?, or from X,,J} f HifAiJtt W? doting an «xti«r«tanipr - * • > •