1874.1 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
305 
l^~(For other Household Items, see "Basket " pages). 
Comfortable Country Chairs. 
How rarely does one find really comfortable 
ohairs anywhere ? People seem to buy the style of 
furniture in fashion at the time, and this is usually 
made with a greater regard to show, than to com- 
fort. In the country, where hard working men 
and women need easy and restful 6eats, there seems 
to be a great lack of them. The best room may 
have some hair-covered or rep-eoverad rooking or 
EAST-CHAIR. 
lounging chairs, but these are too good for daily 
use, by tired people in their working clothoe^and as 
for taking the best furniture out of doors, that is 
not to be thought of. We Americans, especially 
those of us who live in the country, make but 
very little use of our spacious summer parlor — 
" all out doors " — A wide spreading tree, a 
vine covered arbor, a broad veranda or porch, an 
awning like a huge umbrella, or a tent with no 
eides or even an open shed is a much more com- 
KOOKING-CH.UR. 
fortable place for sewing, reading, and resting, than 
anyplace iu-doors, and often comes handy for iron- 
ing and other work. For the enjoyment of the 
open air in any case, seats and chairs that are not 
too good for rough usage or too rough for ease arc 
needed. The good old-fashioned framed chairs, 
with split-wood or flagged seats, have long been 
discarded forthe glued work of the modern cabinet 
maker, but we are glad to sec them coming into 
use again ; they were formerly the regular furni- 
ture of the farm house ; now they are offered as 
luxuries at the fashionable furnishing stores, and 
are purchased by those city persons who go into 
the country for the summer, and wish to take some 
strong comfortable chairs with them, as they are 
quite-sure to find no such thing at a country hotel 
or farm boarding house. We give drawings of two 
of these, which will, no doubt, be new to young 
housekeepers, but there are, we are sure, many old 
ones who can remember when such chairs as these 
were good enough for the best. Within the half 
century there has been wonderful improvement in 
household conveniences, but it does not lie in the 
direction of furniture for daily use. 
Some of the " rustic " furniture on sale is very 
pretty to look at, but one would find it anything 
but pleasant to sit in for long at a time. 
Pudding— Sponge Cake— Catsup. 
The housekeepers of our circle are certainly very 
ready to assist oue another ; we do not know that 
we have asked for aid in any case, that the replies 
were not abundant and prompt. In June last, we 
published a request evidently from a young house- 
keeper, whose statement that she had tried "and 
failed to suit George" seemed to be so wifely, that 
her note was given just as she wrote it. The ap- 
peal has brought out so many replies, that we de- 
spair of ever publishing all. The oue now given 
is from Mrs. "M. A. D." St. Paul, Minn., and 
we may print others ; she says : 
First, the lady wishes a nice, light, boiled pud- 
ding, that will please "George." My husband, 
who is not very fond of puddings in general, likes 
both of the following : 
Poor Man's Podding. — Oue cup of syrup ; and 
if desired, one or two spoonfuls of sugar; half 
cup of butter; one cup of sweet milk ; oue cup of 
raisins ; one pt. of flour ; one or two eggs ; one 
tea-spoonful of eream-of-tartar ; half tea-spoon of 
soda; a little salt. Put in a pudding dish and 
bake or steam. To be eaten with liquid sauce. 
Suet Pudding. — Oue cup of suet; oue cup of 
molasses ; one cup of raisins ; one cup of milk ; 
three cups of flour, or one and a half cup of corn- 
meal, and one cup of flour; one tea-spoonful of 
soda. Stir molasses and milk together, put in soda, 
then suet, then flour slowly, then raisins. Steam 
three hours in pudding dish. Eat with sauce. 
Sponge Cake. — The following recipe for sponge 
cake, I know to be excellent. Ten eggs; the same 
weight of sugar, and one half the weight of flour. 
The grated rind and juice of one lemon. Beat 
yolks and sugar to a cream ; then stir in gradually 
and very gently the flour, and the whites of the eggs 
well beaten ; add lemon. Watch while baking. 
Tomato Catsup.— To one peck of ripe tomatoes, 
add one tea-cup of salt ; three table-spoonfuls of 
black pepper ; two do. cloves ; two do. allspice ; one 
large red pepper, fresh from the garden ; four 
large onions, chopped fine ; one tea-cup of brown 
sugar; one quart of good vinegar. Pour boiling 
water on the tomatoes to remove the skins, then 
cut up in pieces or mash in your fingers, add the 
above ingredients, and boil two hours iu a large 
porcelain kettle. Add a tea-cup of celery seed, if 
liked, and then mash it through a common colander. 
Put on the fire again, and let it come to a boil, then 
bottle while hot, and seal the bottles, although it 
will keep a long while only corked, without being 
sealed. Dry all that will not pass through the 
colander for soup in the winter; but mash all 
through that will go, as it makes the catsup richer 
and thicker. The above catsup I know will keep a 
year, and I have no doubt, would keep two or three 
years, as mine is just a9 good now as it was when 
I put it up last summer, and many of the bottles 
were merely corked. I boiled it longer than two 
hours, making it very dark, and when put through 
the colander, so thick and almost jelly-like that 
it has to be shaken out of the bottles. 
Home Topics. 
BY FAITH ROCHESTER. 
BERBTrNG.— Have you noticed the difference in 
children, with respect to their berry picking abdi- 
ty? Some never have any "luck," you know; 
while other children, who go in the same party, 
bring home a fine lot of berries. I could not 
understand it when I was a child, but I am now 
able to explain the case to my little berry-pickers, 
and their "luck " is better than mine used to be. 
Children should be taught to regard berry-pick- 
ing as a business, while they are engaged in it, and 
nothing should divert them from it till the busi- 
ness is done. If they go into the woods and fields, 
a thousaud beautiful and wonderful things may 
attract their attention, and I can not say that these 
wonderful things are of less importance to them 
than berries. Oue tiling at a time, however. 
Teach them that it is not best to wait until they 
find the berries " thick," before they begin to 
gather them. They should pick every good berry 
they find in their way, though there may not be 
more than a dozen on a bush, or even less. While 
the "lucky " berry-pickers are slowly, but surely 
filling up their baskets, the luckless ones go 
sauntering on, looking for some place where they 
can liud the berries " as thick as spatters," stop- 
ping to gather winter-greens, or mosses, to put in 
their pails, because they begin to fancy that they 
can not find any berries, and they think they may 
as well carry home something. In the meantime, 
perhaps, they eat the straggling berries on the 
bushes they pass, thinking there are not enough 
to pay for putting them in the pail, and hoping to 
make it all up when they find the loaded bushes. 
A lesson here is very important, as it will apply to 
all the business of life. 
If they have set out to pick berries, with a 
knowledge that the folks at home desire and need 
the fruit, their honor should hold them to the ber- 
ry-gathering till the duty is done. In all these 
matters the conscience should be cultivated. 
They ought to be taught, too, that it is wrong to 
eat between meals, that even a few berries taken 
when the stomach has the last meal only partially 
disposed of, or if taken when the stomach needs 
its regular rest, interferes with the '.lealth. If 
children begin to feed themselves when in the ber- 
ry-field, it usually interferes seriously with the fill- 
ing of their berry-baskets, and the best fruit is 
what they eat. They should set out with the de- 
termination not to eat a single berry till the regular 
eating time comes. I know that this can be done, 
for I have seen it. It is a good exercise in self- 
control, and all children could more easily ac- 
complish it, if growu people were not so ignorant 
and so careless of all these laws of health in their 
own habits and consequent examples. Not long 
ago I saw oue of the best of fathers, who had lately 
been sincerely rejoicing that his little children had 
learned not to eat between meals, come into their 
presence and eat an apple iu the middle of the 
forenoon. It had not been easy for the mother to 
change her children's habits for the better, and 
they were evidently perplexed by their father's ex- 
ample, after all that had been said to them. This 
is one way of causing the " little ones to offend." 
This father had not learned to regard fruit as food. 
What shall be done with the berries brought 
home? Could any but a heathen mother say to 
the children, who had conscientiously gathered the 
berries, " No, no ! I want all of these berries for 
pies and for canning ? " It is fair to give the chil- 
dren a generous share, and to give them while they 
arc fresh. They will never be so delicious or so 
wholesome again. Ah ! if the children could each 
have all they want of sweet new milk, with good 
bread and plenty of ripe berries in it ! That is far 
better than sauce-dishes of heavily sugared berries. 
Can all the berries you like, after you have sup- 
plied your family with fresh berries. It is not 
necessary to wait until the berry season is about over 
before canning, only do not rob the table of fresh 
berries in the berry season, iu order to treat com- 
pany with canned or preserved berries in the win- 
