large family pot, with a sufficient quantity of water to boil it, and to be evaporated by a steady simmering heat from 8 or 9 in the evening till 9 or 10 next morning. Thus the firmity will be made into a large mass of white mixture of paste or pulp of wheat, and of whole wheat. This is to be taken out in portions, as wanted to make a mess, boiled with skim or common milk, as thick as pea-soup or rice-milk, and sweetened to the taste. A small lump of butter, of the size of a nutmeg, is often put into the tureen or soup-dish of firmity, at the moment when it is served up hot. Some use a little nutmeg and a very little salt. Firmity is used after the meat meal, which need be but small when there is firmity for dinner, for it is a very hearty and pleasant food. At supper there is no occasion for meat.

Hominy is prepared in like manner, except that it is served up without milk, and that it is diluted moderately with hot water. A little butter and salt may be added; and on following days hominy is often fried in a large cake to the size of the pan.—Hominy, in every form and state, is very good with the gravy of roasted beef, mutton, lamb, and poultry, steaks, chops, and cutlets.

It is believed, that wheat and Indian corn are much more wholesome in firmity and hominy, than in bread or pone. No yeast is required.—Great quantities of grain might be used in this way. Every thing that employs our grain, which is becoming redundant, is an object worthy of consideration and attention. A great number of the best living and most expensive families in Philadelphia, from Maryland, Delaware, and Virginia, use hominy and firmity with the greatest relish; and if suitable mortars were sent thither for sale, the use of this food would increase.

FOR THE RURAL MAGAZINE.

Weeds, and larger growths, which interfere with cultivation or impoverish the ground, should be cut down or pulled up, before the seed ripens, in August, which prevents their growing in a following year. Weeds are the successful rivals of grain, garden vegetables, and grass.

Now is the BUILDING season. All our country houses and places for work, should be built on the south and west sides of swamps, marshes, ponds, and other fresh waters, on account of health; and not on the north or east sides of any such wet or watery places. The summer winds blow from the south and west, and carry the unwholesome vapours, exhaled from those fresh waters, from places on their south and west sides, to places on the north and east sides, preserving the people's health.

White covers of linen, cotton, or even paper, to the hats of people working in the fields, fishing, fowling, travelling, &c. protect them from morbid or sickening strokes of the sun. This is an old practice among the judicious Swiss.

Now, when all the waters are becoming low, we should observe the places for tapping swamps, marshes, and ponds. By cutting a drain to draw off the water in its low state, in August, we begin to reclaim our lands from the marsh and swamp.—The ground becomes firmer to haul off the wood and timber in the cutting season. Wet grounds should be drained, before they are cleared of their wood. For, if they are freed from trees, in their wet state, the sun produces sickening and often fatal evaporations. This is true in France, Germany, Holland, and the marshy parts of England, though several degrees further north than the United States.

Dry Rot.—This destructive enemy of building, which generally commences its ravages in the cellars, may be prevented or checked, by whitewashing them yearly, mixing copperas with it to give it a yellow hue.

Communicated for the Rural Magazine.

ABSTRACTS

From the IVth volume of the Memoirs of the Philadelphia Agricultural Society; Richard Peters, President; Wm. Tilghman, James Mease, George Logan and Robert Coleman, Vice Presidents; Roberts Vaux, Secretary.

1. The Sesamum Orientale or Be-ne, written Bene, for making oil of the seed, from Bengal, Africa, Georgia, and the Mississippi. See Archives of Useful Knowledge, by Dr. Mease; Encyclopædia Britanica; Accounts of East India Agriculture, &c. It is planted in the end of April and gathered in the end of September, in 32° N. lat.; raised also in 34° 50' N. lat. The oil is fine for salad, and all the other uses of olive oil, and may be extracted, as is the flax-seed oil, or by boiling water, to the top of which it will rise, and may be skimmed, and bottled or put into casks. It is very common on the west coast of Africa, and grows to most advantage on poor, sandy hills. It is said never to become rancid, but to improve with age. [Letter of Thomas M. Forman, Esq. Rose Hill, near Savington, Cecil, Md.] In the same letter is an account of Napoleon or Crawford RYE. It is described to grow very tall, having a solid stalk, probably capable of resisting the fly, like Jethro Tull's solid-stalked wheat. This grain is said to improve in the Cecil county soil and climate.

2. Plan of FENCES of living trees for posts, such as the Sugar Maple, and wire for rails; by White & Hazard, Whitestown, Philadelphia county, lowest falls of Schuylkill. Common fence for 100 acres, for 50 years, costs $3,080. Do. of wire fence for 50 years, costs $1,751. Add profit on trees, such as American black Walnut, curled or sugar Maple, Mulberry, Apple, (244 trees producing annually, at one dollar, $244) Buttonwoods, &c. which the projectors make to produce $14,098, in fifty years. Interest on annual produce sufficient to keep such wire and live-tree fence in repair, from the time of completion for ever. Other orchard lands can be spared. These fences are good against the worst cows;—they are easy to repair. Inquire at R. Watkin's tavern, at the falls of Schuylkill.

3. Accounts of LIME and KILNS, and cooking STOVES, in Spain; by Anthony Morris, Esq. formerly of Philadelphia, now of Bucks county, Pennsylvania, A. D. 1816.—In burning lime, the Spanish peasants use only the small Shrub or brush wood, not larger than a man's little finger to the size of a pipe stem. The kiln is like ours in Whitemarsh, &c. except that the top of the kiln is very little above the surface of the ground, and is covered with clay to confine the heat. The arch within is of such height as to give the full benefit of all the flame of those dry, light materials. The Spanish lime, like our best Pennsylvania lime, is very good. The Spanish practice is recommended, where lime stone is plenty, wood scarce, and brush, trash and weeds so abundant as to impede or injure culture. In the same letter is a cheap method, as to fuel, for heating irons; and an economical kitchen, as to fire, for cooking.

4. A letter from Mr. Jefferson, concerning the success of the Gypsum, or Plaster of Paris, in Albemarle, Virginia, 200 miles from the sea-coast; also concerning improved hill ploughing, by his ingenious son-in-law, Col. Thomas M. Randolph.[3]

5. An American Plough, approved in England; as is our Cradling Scythe.

6. Also, further notice of the Mangel Wurtzel, for the culture of which see the Philadelphia Society's Memoirs, vol. III. Seed of a new kind, called the orange-coloured Mangel Wurtzel, has been sent to President Peters