Club Minutes: The Home Interest Society, 1896-1899

7

Magnolia 2/26/96.

suggestive remarks about the condition of tenant houses in the neighborhood, as to means of warming etc: the questions thus raised will have to be answered by every landlord and it is well to have them brought to mind once in a while

In lieu of a question Carrie L. Brooke read of a sturdy Western cow who carried 11 mortgages with ease, owing to red and white spots.

The owner of plum trees that drop their fruit before it matures was advised to apply salt and coal ashes at the root, to drive nails in it, to bore an inch augur hole through the trunk, and hang a horse shoe in it branches: the tree warranted to bear if it survives the treatment.

Currant bushes should be moved now as soon as possible.

There were several opinions as to the advisability of planting peas now if the ground continues to thaw, but the majority seemed to favor waiting, and most of the farmers thought it early to sow clover seed.

Most present thought it would be best to cut down the old locust trees at Bloomfield as they are practically useless as shade trees, and are dangerously brittle - and replace them with other varieties if possible the roots should be treated with salt or petroleum to prevent suckers.

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Plainfield 3-30-96

From 30-35 cents is a fair price for seed oats.

Lard will keep till next fall in 5 lb. buckets if set in the cellar.

Apples that were burried in the fall had better be opened at once.

The Home Interest expressed a very emphatic preference for the preservation of its minutes for its own enjoy ment and for the benefit of posterity, so as the old minute book was full Walter H. Brooke was appointed to collect a tax of 10 cents per member to buy a new one, and to pay for the one just filled, which had been bought by the then sec'y out of her own pocket.

There was quite an animated discussion on the taxation of mortgages, and the vote stood 15 in favor of taxing, 3 opposed, 14 ignorant of the merits of the case.

The hour for adjournment having arrived he readers were continued till next meeting, to be held at Plainfield 3-30-96.

Rebecca T. Miller sec'y.

270 Meeting. Plainfield. 3-30-96

The 270 meeting of the Home Interest, held at Plainfield, was called to order at 5.45. Walter H. Brooke in the chair.

When the minutes of the meeting held here in June 1894 had been read, no one but the

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Plainfield 3-30-96

Prest. and Sec'y made any move to walk out; tho' the weather was warm and pleasant. the hostess said there was nothing but wind in the garden no one had been to see whether the peas that had been planted "in the middle of the winter" had come up. So we proceeded to read and adopt the minutes of the lat meeting held at Magnolia and began with the questions before supper. Mary E. Moore wished to know what to do with her pot plants during the summer: it was evident she need have no trouble in disposing of them if she chose to distribute them among the members of the Home Interest

Though no one knew where to have mirrors re silvered in Washington there is a place there where it can be done and W. B. Moses can probably tell where it is.

York Imperial apples that were buried kept very well, but A. G. Thomas was less successful with Smith Ciders. His apples tasted hardly at all of earth, having been well protected on all sides by rye straw. A barrel of apples put in ice now would keep but not very well probably. A majority of our apple raisers would plant York Imperial if restricted to a single winter variety, the Wine Sap being its only rival in popularity. A. G. Thomas has apples on sale.

E. N. Bentley has as yet done nothing with the big locusts at Bloomfield.

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Plainfield 3-30-96

This is the proper time to take off top dress ing.

Carroll and Robert Blair were recommended as good paper hangers.

To test 2 year old seed peas before planting sprout on raw cotton.

The only way get discovered to prevent strawberry blight is to plant kinds not affected by the insect. Currant cuttings may be planted now, though they should be cut before the sap rises; and some think layering a better way to propagate them.

Raspberries planted last year should only have dead wood out off now, and be trained after bearing. The rule for trimming raspberries seems to be to cut them breast high

If an agatia be cut back now it will not bloom well next year.

Most of the Home Interest cooks empty the ashes from the kitchen stove and we all agreed that it is properly their business to do it.

Most of the farmers present advised putting lime on corn land rather than on stubblefield.

There was some diversity of opinion as to the profits of milk raising; the cost per gal. in winter was 12 1/2 cents and from 8-10 3/4 was thought to be the averagest the year round.

By way of encouraging potato growers

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Plainfield 3-30-96

B. H. Miller told us that he had just learned that there are enough fine Burbank potatoes in Washington to supply every one there for the rest of the winter, and they are delivered there for 12 1/2 cents per bu.

Hams smoked, bagged and white washed would keep. Even though not in an meat house but a cellar would be a better place than a garret which would be too hot.

To treat a refractory daphne, try shak the roots free of earth and washing them; then pot in a rich, sandy soil and keep in the shade in summer.

Dr. Brooke announced a double, charcoal packed, 8 can Cooley Creamer for sale; and Mary B. Thomas a Jas Stabler sausage mill.

If new cake pans are not greased before they are used the cake will never stick, and after the baking instead of washing the pans, simply wipe them clean with a dry cloth. Tins that have already acquired bad habits will have to be papered to insure the cake's coming out.

A sure remedy for scaley bug is to burn the plant infested, but when that is not desirable, was the plant well with a brush and sprinkle frequently.

To drain wet spring land, run ditches to the springs, and cut another between wet and dry ground. If free of roots tile makes the