Beer is a good family drink.  A handful of hops, to a pailful of water, and a half-pint of molasses, makes good hop beer.  Spruce mixed with hops is pleasanter than hops alone.  Boxberry, fever-bush, sweet fern, and horseradish make a good and healthy diet-drink.  The winter evergreen, or rheumatism weed, thrown in, is very beneficial to humors.  Be careful and not mistake kill-lamb for winter-evergreen; they resemble each other.  Malt mixed with a few hops makes a weak kind of beer; but it is cool and pleasant; it needs less molasses than hops alone.  The rule is about the same for all beer.  Boil the ingredients two or three hours, pour in a half-pint of molasses to a pailful, while the beer is scalding hot.  Strain the beer, and when about lukewarm, put a pint of lively yeast to a barrel.  Leave the bung loose till the beer is done working; you can ascertain this by observing when the froth subsides.  If your family be large, and the beer will be drank rapidly, it may as well remain in the barrel; but if your family be small, fill what bottles you have with it; it keeps better bottled.  A raw potato or two, cut up and thrown in, while the ingredients are boiling, is said to make beer spirited.

Ginger beer is made in the following proportions:—­One cup of ginger, one pint of molasses, one pail and a half of water, and a cup of lively yeast.  Most people scald the ginger in half a pail of water, and then fill it up with a pailful of cold; but in very hot weather some people stir it up cold.  Yeast must not be put in till it is cold, or nearly cold.  If not to be drank within twenty-four hours, it must be bottled as soon as it works.

Table beer should be drawn off into stone jugs, with a lump of white sugar in each, securely corked.  It is brisk and pleasant, and continues good several months.

Potato cheese is much sought after in various parts of Europe.  I do not know whether it is worth seeking after, or not.  The following is the receipt for making:—­Select good white potatoes, boil them, and, when cold, peel and reduce them to a pulp with a rasp or mortar; to five pounds of this pulp, which must be very uniform and homogeneous, add a pint of sour milk and the requisite portion of salt; knead the whole well, cover it, and let it remain three or four days, according to the season; then knead it afresh, and place the cheeses in small baskets, when they will part with their superfluous moisture; dry them in the shade, and place them in layers in large pots or kegs, where they may remain a fortnight.  The older they are, the finer they become.

This cheese has the advantage of never engendering worms, and of being preserved fresh for many years, provided it is kept in a dry place, and in well closed vessels.

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GENERAL MAXIMS FOR HEALTH.

Rise early.  Eat simple food.  Take plenty of exercise.  Never fear a little fatigue.  Let not children be dressed in tight clothes; it is necessary their limbs and muscles should have full play, if you wish for either health or beauty.