1875.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
147 
and the implement will be lighter and neater. 
The form of the stretcher will be so clearly seen 
by the engraving, that any smart boy can make 
one. It wUl be found handy at house-cleaning time. 
■ ■«■ ■ » 
Ste.ui in KiTcnENS. — A friend in Iowa is 
troubled with steam in the kitchen, but does not 
go into full particulars as to the cause of it. Sup- 
posing there is a cooking stove, and that the 
COVER TO A STOVE-POT OR BOILER. 
troublesome steam comes from the pots and ket- 
tles, we give a diagram showing how SO or 30 
years ago all stove boilers were arranged. The pot- 
lid a, had in it a short pipe, b. When this was in 
use, the pipe, c, d, was placed on it, the end, c, fit- 
ting on b, while the end, (7, went into a hole in the 
pipe. The pipes were furnished with 2 or 3 Iiolcs 
at different hights, to allow the steam pipes to 
enter, and when not in use, a small iron flap fell 
down and covered them. 
What Shall we Have for Breakfast? 
ET AITNT LTTCT, TnUMEUtL COUNTY, OHIO. 
[The various breakfast bills of faro that we have 
given from time to time, have called out others, 
one of which is here published. These are inter- 
esting to housekeepers as showing how their 
sisters in different parts of the country 
manage tliat important, but usually trouble- 
some meal, the breakfast. The use of cookies, 
ginger cakes, and other cakes, will strike 
many as strange, but we have noticed that 
it is an almost universal custom in some parts 
of the country. Such lists are always sug- 
gestive, and when, as in the present case, they 
are accompanied by recipes, very useful. Ed.] 
I here give a list of plain articles for 
breakfast, for each morning of the week, 
such an one as any farmer's wife could get 
any time through fall and winter months. 
Sunday. — Codfish cooked in water, add but- 
ter, in which work a tablespoonful of flour, 
and add just before taking up, a teacupful ot 
thin cream. Boiled potatoes, cold baked 
beans, ffrom Saturday's dinner), apple sauce, 
pickled cabbage, ginger cakes, coffee. The 
ginger cakes are very good made with one 
cupful of cream, one cupful of molasses, 
two of flour, a tablespoonful of ginger, one 
teaspoonful of soda, add salt. Drop on a 
well greased tin, a small spoonful in a 
place ; bake quick. If the cream is sweet, 
add a tablespoonful ot vinegar to raise it. 
Monday. — Cold sliced meat, from Sunday's 
roast, (cut thin and smooth), fried pota- 
toes, fried or boiled eggs, Graham gems, 
sauce, tomato piPkles, cookies, and coffee. 
Tuesday. — Baked potatoes, baked squash, fried 
pork, (cut in thin slices, soak over night in cold 
milk and water, then dip in flour before frying, fry 
slow to a nice brown), com cakes made with one 
pint of buttermilk, one pint meal, one egg, teaspoon- 
ful soda, salt; bake half an hour. Very good, try 
it. Apple sauce, ginger cakes, and coffee. 
Wednesday.— Beet steak, mashed potatoes, tur- 
nips, griddle cakes, (one pint sour milk, one egg, 
one teaspoonful of soda, make tMn), maple syrup, 
pickles, ginger cakes, and coSee. 
Thursday. — Warm the meat from yesterday'.? din- 
ner, baked potatoes, fried mush, with syrup, Gra- 
ham gems, sauce, pickled beets, cookies, and coffee. 
Friday.— YrieA ham or sausage, baked potatoes 
and baked squash, Graham gems, spiced tomatoes, 
ginger cakes, and coffee. 
Safurday.—CoM meat, mashed potatoes, toast, 
with a soft boiled egg, (break each egg into water 
to boil, and when done take it up with care), on 
each piece. Cold cabbage, sauce, cookies, and coffee. 
To me there is not so much in what we have, or 
get, as how we get it. Always set the table neatly, 
it takes no longer, if you wUl only accustom your- 
self to put the knives and forks on regularly, and 
have a certain place for every dish. Let your food 
come to the table in neat and suitable dishes ; al- 
ways put the meat on a platter, and potatoes and 
other vegetables in covered dishes. I have seen the 
meat on soup plates, and the potatoes and other 
vegetables on dinner or breakfast plates, and al- 
though well cooked, the food to me seemed inferior. 
It is worth while for the young housekeeper to 
notice these small matters. 
Graham bread is an article of diet which should 
be found on every table, and I think would be, if 
our cooks would take more pains to make good 
G raham bread. Here is a recipe, which, if followed, 
will insure the same : one i^int of warm, (not hot), 
water, and add oue teacupful of sponge, or half a 
cupful of yeast, two tablespoonsful of molasses, (or 
three of sugar), quarter teaspoonful of soda, stir in 
the Graham flour tiU quile thick, let it rise, but not 
too liyht, then add flour until it is as thick as you 
can well stir it, init it into a well greased sheet-iron, 
{not ttn), bread pan, and let rise, but not too much. 
This flour ferments sooner tlian the bolted flour, 
and one cause of poor Graham bread is, that it is 
left too long, or rises too many times. Do not let 
it rise but twice before baking. Sometimes I stir it 
up and put it immediately into the baking-pan, let- 
ting it rise only in the loaf. Do not make it stiff 
enough to knead, or it wiD be too dry. 
Graham Gems. — At our breakfast table we con- 
sider Graham gems indispensable. This is our 
recipe : Two teaeupfuls of butter-milk, a little salt, 
three even cupfuls of Graham fiom', and one tea- 
Api'il. 
Though in the division of the year into seasons, March 
is pat as tlie first montli of spring, most of yoa, at least 
you who live in northern countries, think tbere is little 
spring-like about March. As wo write this in the first 
week in March, there is over a foot of snow on the 
ground. It is in April that most of you look for signs of 
spring— the swelling and the bursting of the buds, the 
early wild flowers, the peeping of the frogs, the return 
of the birds, and all that marks the awakening after the 
long sleep of winter. Do you know why the month was 
called April ?— The ancient Romans called it Aprili9, 
from which our word is made by leaving otT the last syl- 
lable, and they got ApHiis from aperire, to open, because 
this is the month for the buds to open ; so we really 
call this month April because it is the " opening month." 
Did you ever get sent on some foolish errand on the first 
day of the month— and then feel vexed when some one 
tQid "April fool ? " It used to be the custom to observe 
the first day of the month, by making April-fools, much 
more than it is now. We are not sorry to see the custom 
forgotten, as every one does not know how to make 
hannless fun. Still, should you be "April-fooled", do 
not get cross over it, but remember that long before the 
Christian era, the ancient Hindoos, not only children, but 
old persons, were served in the same way, and that the 
custom is one so old that the meaning of it, or how it 
was first begun, have been forgotten for ages. It is 
much pleasanter to think of April as the bud-opening 
month, than as that in which people make fools of them- 
selves in trying to fool others. — Don't yoa think so? 
l\o. .443 — Tlie Aviary Puzzle.— In 
this the difierent pictures each represent a bird, i. e., 
gives you a clue to the name of some bird. If a picture 
of quadrupeds was made in a similar way, the letter M 
placed upon a picture of a key, would read M-on-key, or 
monkey, or a picture of a hat, such as boys use in ball- 
AN ATIART PUZZLE PICTUKE. 
'-•a-nji 
Rpoonful of soda. Stir well and bake in inm gem 
pans, which should be hot on the stove before flll- 
ing ; put them into a very hot oven, and bake from 
15 to 20 minutes. If you want them of extra qual- 
ity, take one teacupful of butter-milk, one egg, two 
teaeupfuls of the flour, with soda and salt, as be- 
fore. Very good gems arc made by taking one tea- 
cupful of sweet milk or water, one and a half tea- 
eupfuls of the flour, half a teaspoonful of soda, 
one of cream tartar, with a little salt, and a spoon- 
ful of sugar ; beat well, until it looks smooth. 
White Rolls should be mixed and set to lise 
the evening before, and made into rolls half an 
hour before baking in the morning. A pint of 
warm milk fresh from the cow with salt and half 
a cup of yeast stirred up quite stiff with flour, and 
molded until it springs under the touch ot the fin- 
gers, makes a most delicious, light, short roll. 
playing, wonld stand for the animal of that name. With 
this explanation you will no doubt find amusement in 
mailing out what birds are kept in our aviary. 
Ilnvc Itntterflies Feathers. 
" Henry," of Bergen Co., has heard some one say that 
the wines of bntterflies were covered with small feathers, 
and wishes to know if this is true. — The statement is 
much nearer the truth than some things that are told 
alinnt insects, and if you say scales instead of feathers, it 
will be quite true. No doubt you have noticed, when 
you have touched the wing of a butterfly, that something 
like a powder or dnst came off upon your fingers. If yoa 
have a microscope, or even a strong common magnifying 
glass, and examine this powder or dust from the butter- 
fly's wing, you will find that each particle is a very pretty 
scale, like those shown in the engraving, which shows 
several shapes. They diftor in size and shape on dif- 
ferent kinds of butterflies, and on the same insect, 
but arc usually wedge-shaped or fiin-sliapeii, often with 
notches at one end, and a little stem, by which it is fast- 
