66 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[February, 
progress in reading was all that I could reasonably 
require, but I grew tired of waiting for the new 
paints. I grew ashamed too of holding out any 
such motive for the reading lessons, since the little 
fellow was really desirous of learning to read, and 
I was unwilling to have him read when he was tired 
or unwell or very much interested in other things. 
So I asked to have three good cakes of water-col- 
ors brought home — the three primary colors, red, 
blue, and yellow. When papa gave them to me he 
said : " I wonder if I have not done a foolish thing 
in buying just three small colors at twenty-live 
cents apiece. I had several paint-boxes in my 
childhood, and took a great deal of pleasure with 
them, but all together did not cost so much as these 
three colors." 
I had some doubts myself, and do not feel sure 
now that our course was the best under all circum- 
stances, but it does not seem to have been bad. 
A fifteen-cent box of colors was bought for the 
little sister at the same time. When I showed the 
children these treasures next day I think they both 
thought the cheap box preferable because there 
were more colors. But after I had found them 
some prints to color, I took a broken dinner plate 
for a palette and showed the little boy what a vari- 
ety of colors we could make from his three primary 
colors. With blue and yellow we made green, 
more or less yellowish or bluish. With icd and 
yellow we made orange, and with red and blue we 
made purple. Then we nnitcd the three colors in 
different proportions and made various browns and 
grays. This done, I laid the nice cakes of color 
away, leaving him colors enough on the plate to 
last a day or two. I taught him to put the colors 
on thin (or with considerable water) so as to show 
the shading of the engraving through the color. 
Our old Agriculturists are growing gay under the 
little brushes and colors, and the children have de- 
cided now that when they grow no they will be 
artists! Every afternoon (with soux- unavoidable 
exceptions) they spend an hour or two — all U e 
time that they cau get between the wiping of the 
dinner dishes and " chore time" — in the happiest 
employment of the day, painting. Tor a few days 
baby patiently tried to satisfy her longings after 
art by assuring herself, "When I get bigger I may 
paint too," but she didn't got bigger fast enough, 
and at last she would keep shoviug a chair to the 
table, climbing up, and meddling with the colors 
and with the water cups. So now she has an old 
saucer with some gay color ground off upon it, a 
piece of newspaper to daub, and one of mammals 
old long-handled oil-paint brushes to work with. 
I have a chance to watch the development of art 
in various stages. Miss Two-Tears delights most 
in making pretty-colored water in her little eup by 
frequent rinsing of the brush. Miss Four-Tears 
likes to put bright colors on the pictures, without 
much regard to fitness or much care about outlines. 
The boy of seven years tries, in his way, to match 
the colors of nature and to put the colors on so as 
to improve the picture. The improvement is some- 
times doubtful, but of course I never say so. 
Drawing and Painting.— I feel pretty sure that 
coloring comes naturally before outlining, but I do 
not know of any systems of art culture where this 
course is followed. I had felt that the kindergar- 
ten course is wrong somehow in its drawing les- 
sons, for I do not believe that any children will natu- 
rally take pleasure in practicing on little straight, 
unmeaning lines. I was delighted to find that 
Herbert Spencer had thought the same before me. 
He thinks that the use of colors should be allowed 
children, the coloring of pictures already outlined 
and shaded, as in prints, before any attempt is 
made to teach drawing. I see now that the desire 
to sketch pictures of his own to color begins to 
crop out in our little boy, and one or two ludicrous 
attempts have been made, with great pleasure to 
the young artist. I ma . I ■ Iforts some time 
ago to interest him in tin I Indi rg uten drawing 
lessons, but it was tiresome to US both, and I con- 
cluded that the painting which he did enjoy was 
better practice in that very dire< don of drawing 
than snch arbitrary m I unmeaning lines. 
Molasses Cake. — Marion Harlaud gives a recipe 
for Sponge Gingerbread without Eggs, which gives 
good satisfaction to those who try it : 
" Five cups of flour ; one heaping table-spoonful 
butter; one cup molasses ; one cup sugar; one 
cup milk (sour is best) ; two tea-spoonfuis salera- 
tus, not soda, dissolved in hot water ; two tea- 
spoonfuls ginger ; one tea-spoonful cinnamon. 
Mix the molasses, sugar, butter, and spice together ; 
warm them slightly, and beat until they are lighter 
in color by several degrees than when you began. 
Add the milk, then the soda, and, having mixed all 
well, put in the flour. Beat very hard five minutes, 
and bake in broad shallow pans or in paW-tins. 
Half a pound of seeded raisins cut in pieces will be 
a pleasant addition." 
This recipe is given exactly as in " Common 
Sense." We are told that "sour milk is best." 
It must be decidedly better than sweet milk when 
so much alkali is used. With sweet milk alone 
what becomes of all that saleratus ? There is an 
acid in the molasses, and soda mixed with it sets it 
foaming; but two tea-spoonfuls of alkali seem 
quite too much for one eup of molasses. The soda 
which is not met and neutralized by the proper 
amount of acid must unite with the grease in the 
combination !o produce soap. I have been treated 
to molasses cake before now which was more sug- 
gestive of soap than of anything else. Soapy bis- 
cuit is also manufactured by some cooks who dis- 
regard the laws of chemistry. I have made this 
sponge gingerbread with sweet milk, adding a 
small table-spoonful of vinegar to the other ingre- 
dients. I always use soda, in spite of the 
prohibition. 
What Shall we Have for Breakfast ? 
— ♦ — 
[Last niouth it was stated that wc should publish 
several of the responses to the above question, 
and we begin with giving that of Mrs. Anna Tanner 
of Louisiana. Others will appear in due time, as 
space will allow. — Ed.] 
Sunday. — Cold ham or tongue. Stswed oysters. 
Boiled eggs. Cold light bread, brown bread, and 
warm light rolls. Monday. — Ham and eggs 
(fried). Small hominy or grits. Waffles. Corn- 
batter cakes. Tuesday. — Beefsteak with gravy. 
Lye com. Muffins. Toast. Wednesday.— Broiled 
mutton chops. Biscuit ; puffs (or fried biscuit). 
' >melet. Cold mush fried. Toasted cheese. 
Thursday. — Fried chicken and boiled rice. Frit- 
{■■;■-■, buckwheat or rye batter-cakes. Friday. — 
Sausages. Large hominy. Fried sweet-potatoes. 
Sally Luuu. Corn griddle-cakes. Saturday. — 
Hash, dry or with gravy. Fried oysters. Cold 
potatoes, mashed and made into fritters. Gems ; 
pancakes ; corn-bread. 
Coffee, butter, and molasses at every meal. Milk 
and chocolate when convenient. 
In the summer-time I always have curd or cot- 
tage cheese, melons and whatever fruit is in season. 
Mrs. Tanner proceeds to give recipes of the less 
known dishes mentioned above, as follows : 
Fried Chicken is the best breakfast dish I know 
of, and can be quickly prepared if the chicken is 
picked and cleaned the night before. Rice always 
accompanies chicken in Louisiana. 
Furr.n Swt.et-Potatoes. — The evening before 
they arc wanted peel and slice them, lay them in a 
stew-pan and sprinkle sugar between the layers of 
potatoes; pour on water enough to cover them, 
and srl the Btew-pan on the stove. In the morn- 
ing, by the time you are ready to fry them, they 
will be cooked just enough ; fry in hot lard to a 
light brown on both sides. 
Lye-Corn is made by boiling corn with t-ifi d 
wood-ashes until the outer skin or "husk," as we 
call it "down South," easily slips from the grain. 
Then it is cleansed of all impurities. Put into a 
kettle and boil all day, changing the wider fre- 
quently. The fresh water added should always be 
When quite done pound well with a wood- 
' . tie. I generally 'nave enough made to last a 
week in cold weather. When wanted for use, take 
s quart of the com, put it in a stew-pan with 
half a pint of sweet milk ; salt and pepper to your 
taste. Set it to simmer until wanted. Just before 
serving add two well-beaten eggs 6tirred in briskly. 
[This is called Hulled Corn in New England. —Ed.] 
Corn-Bread.— Pour over a quart of sifted meal 
a very little hot water ; if 6calded too much the 
bread will certainly be clammy. Add to it four 
well-beaten eggs and half a tea-spoonful of soda 
dissolved in warm water. The whole thinned to a 
soft batter with clabber or buttermilk. Have your 
pan very hot ; put into it a piece of lard the size of 
a walnut ; as soon as it melts pour in your batter 
and bake. 
Batter Cakes. — Take half a pint of sifted meal 
and make a mush of it ; thin the mnjsh with half a 
pint of sweet milk ; add two eggs and flour enough 
to make the cakes turn. 
In speakiug of the difficulty of finding a servant 
who will have breakfast by daylight on a wintery 
morning, and the necessity of doing it herself, 
Mrs. T. evidently intends her remarks for the 
editor only, but the following is so sensible that we 
trust she will excuse us for publishing it : 
"I do not like to cook, nor am I a capital house- 
keeper. But there is one thing I can do well; 
that is, submit with a cheerful grace to whatever is 
inevitable. It is not so much over-work that wears 
a woman's life away as constant fretting about dis- 
tasteful work. Life is too short not to accept 
with a thankful heart the blessings, be they many 
or few, that fall to our lot." 
RenoTating Old Peaelievs. — Mrs. 
C L., of South Carolina, sends her method of 
treating old feathers, as follows : Expose them to 
the sun in an old mosquito net (or coarse corn 
sacks will answer) until perfectly dry, shaking 
them up from time to time. To get out the dust, 
they must be tied up to some convenient place in 
the yard and well beaten up with the hands or a 
stick (the person standing to windward, of course). 
If a lace net is used, feathers may be as thoroughly 
dried and sifted in this Wi y as can be desired. 
Cake-Making. 
Every lady thinks her way of making cake is the 
best. We give here what Mrs. H. B. P., n New 
Jersey lady, thinks is the best: 
In reading your May number of the Agriculturist 
I see some very good advice from Faith Rochester 
about making cake, but I think she might have 
improved the making of the cake had she told us 
to add the soda the last thing instead of the whites 
of the eggs. This I think the secret of having 
light cake. Beat the sugar and eggs as she says ; 
in putting in the milk 6ave out a great spoonful to 
dissolve the soda in ; then get the cake all ready 
for the oven ; have your baking-tins all ready ; then 
put the soda in, stirring it as quickly as possible, 
and put it into the oven just as soon as you can do 
so; the heat will be acting at the same time with 
. the soda and crenm-of-tartar. I think one that has 
never tried this way of doing will be surprised to 
see the difference it will make in lightness of 
the cake. 
Tea Cake.— One cup of sugar; one great spoon- 
ful of butter; half cup of milk; two cup; of sifted 
flour; a very little nutmeg; one tea-spoouful of 
cream-of-tartar ; half a ten-spoonful of soda. 
Mountain Cake.— One cup butter; three cups 
of white sugar; four of flour; five eggs, whites 
beaten separately ; one tea-spoonful of cream-of-tar- 
tar; one of soda dissolved in the milk. 
Fruit Cake without Eggs.— Two-t'; irds of a 
cup of butter; two cups of sugar; two cups of 
raisins; two cups of currants; two cups of sweet 
milk ; two tea-spoonfuls of cream-of-tartar : one of 
soda in the milk ; six cui < I I meg; 
one table-spoonful cinnamon, allspice, cloves, each; 
half pound of citron improves it. Bake slowly. 
