FOOD OF PUPPIES. 217 



any case it ought to be nearly a year old. It may therefore be 

 considered that Indian meal or Scotch oatmeal, both of which may 

 always be procured from the corn-dealers, will be the best meal, 

 unless the price of wheat-flour can be afforded, when the best red 

 wheat should be coarsely ground and not dressed, and in this state 

 made into biscuits or dumplings, or used to thicken the broth. 



If Indian meal is employed, it must be mixed with the water 

 or broth while cold, and then boiled for at least an hour, stirring 

 it occasionally to prevent burning. If it is intended to mix oat- 

 meal with the Indian meal, the former may be first mixed with 

 cold water to a paste, and then stirred in after boiKng the latter 

 for three quarters of an hour ; then boil another quarter, reckoning 

 from the time that the contents of the copper came to the boiling 

 point a second time. 



Wheat-fiour should be boiled from fifteen to twenty minutes, 

 and may be mixed with the oatmeal in the same way as the Indian 

 meal. 



Oatmeal pudding, and porridge, or stirabout, are made as follows; 

 the first name being given to it when so thick as to bear the 

 weight of the body after it is cold, and, the last two to a somewhat 

 thinner composition. In any case the meal is stirred up with cold 

 water to a thick paste, and, when quite smooth, some of the broth 

 should be ladled out and added to it, still stirring it steadily. 

 Then return the whole to the copper, and stir till it thickens, ladle 

 out into coolers, and let it "set," when it wiU cut with a spade 

 and is quite solid. The directions as to length of time for the boil- 

 ing of oatmeal vary a good deal, some preferring at least half an 



