1SG5.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
Q23 
not b^d sufficient experience in this to saywbctlier 
coolcing requiring a long application of heat can 
be d(ine with economy. But most people arc be- 
yond the reach of g:is pipes, aud for tliem a kero- 
sene stove answers an excellent purpose. We used, 
last summer, oue made by Lesley & Elliott, who 
also make gas stoves, and found it very convenient, 
especially at tea time when there is seldom any 
need of beat beyond that necessary to boil a kettle 
of water. The apparatus consists of a small iron 
stove with a large kerosene lamp having three 
wicks, over which a teakettle, spider or saucepan 
can be placed, and the whole thing can stand on 
the kitchen table or dresser, and be put out of 
eight when not in use. The only especial care re- 
quired in the use of kerosene is, to see that the 
wicks are not so high as to cause smoking, and 
with the gas, to so regulate the flame as not to burn 
more than is needed. Any person with ordinary 
tact will find either of these methods of cooking a 
comfort in hot weatlicr, while others, who don't 
believe in new-fangled notions, and start with a 
prejudice against them because they are new, will 
probably manage to make them unsuccessful. 
Hints on Cooking, etc. 
— • 
Bread.— One pint mashed pot.atoes, one tea- 
spoonful salt, and one of sugar. (The potatoes 
should be ranch wetter than for the table.) Add 
one tcacnpful of yeast, either home or baker's, but 
not a bit of flour. Keep this very warm till light. 
Use this to mix the bread, and mix so that it will 
just not stick. Let it rise very light, then mould 
into tins ; keep very warm till light again, and 
bake in a moderately warm oven. I have made 
good bread in this way from flour not lit to eat 
without the potatoes. 
Sitcanicd Corn Bread.— Mix thorough- 
ly 1 cup of sweet, and 2 of sour milk, 3 of corn 
meal, 3 of flour, 1 of syrup or molasses, and one 
Icaspoonful of soda. Place it in a pan and steam 
it over boiling water steadily for three hours. 
Butter Cracl<ci-s.— " R," of Rensselaer 
Co., N. Y., sends the following: Take 10 cups 
flour and I of butter, 1 teaspoonful of soda, and 2 
of cream tartar, with water enough to form a very 
stiff dough; rub the butter aud cream of tartar 
through the flonr, and dissolve the soda in the 
water, roll thin and bake quickly. With these 
crackers and vegetable oysters we make oyster soup. 
i.inie M'ator for Correctins Acids 
in l>ou;;;Ii, etc. — When bread becomes sour 
by standing' too long before baking, instead of using 
soda I use lime water, two or three taljlespoonfnls 
will entirely sweeten a batch of rising sufficient for 
four or five large loaves. I slack a small piece of 
lime, take the skim off of the top and bottle the 
clear water, and it is ready for use. A bottle full 
will last all summer. 
Floating^ Iitland. — Beat the whites only of 
five eggs, until they form a stiff froth, then 
add a little at a time, 4 spoonfuls of powdered loaf 
sugar, and Currant Jelly, or syrup of any kind of 
preserves. Put rich milk or a custard with the yolks 
in the bottom of a gloss or china bowl and put the 
float on the top. 
I»oor plan's jrumliles. — 2 bowls of flour, 
1 of sugar, 3^ of sour cream or buttermilk, a little 
soda and cinnamon; to be rolled thin and fried in 
hot fat or butter. 
Tea Crackers. — 3 teacnpfuls flour, 1 of 
lard,lof water, a large teaspoonful of salt. Mix all 
tosctber, put it on the pie-board and work it well, 
adding flour until stiff, short, and perfectly smooth. 
Roll out as thin as a knife blade, prick with a 
fork, aud bake well, but do not brown. 
Omelet. — Take 4 eggs, 1 tablespoonful of 
flour, 1 cup of milk, and a little salt. Beat the 
whites of the eggs separately and add to the above, 
(which should be well stirred together,) just before 
cooking. Butter a spider well, and when hot pour 
in the omelet. Cook very slowly on top of the 
etove and keep the vessel covered. 
Beet Basil.- Take cold boiled beets and po- 
tatoes, equal ji.arts of each in summer and early 
autumn ; in winter, one third beets, and two thirds 
potatoes ; hash them, and fry or stew in milk and 
butter, with salt and pepper to suit the taste. He.at 
slowly and thoroughly; if scorched it is spoiled. 
This is a nice preparation for a breakfast dish. 
SDYS 4 (sii:eils' (BoiLirmns. 
IVIaking^ <jarden ^Vork Easy. 
Gartlening is hard labor or pleasant work, according 
as one manages to have it. It makes the back and arms 
ache ti> hoe Ihrougli the long lows, and it is very tire- 
some to sloop among tlie beets, onions, carrots, etc., to 
pull the weeds. A boy may tliink of little but " Oh whut 
long rows these are " — " what liard work this is " — ''how 
I do aclie all over *' — *' I wish dinner time would come," 
(does not that sound familiar, John?) Such thoughts 
will help veiy much to make one tired, and hot and 
thirsty, and thoroughly uncomfortable. One little gar- 
dener we know of, has a diRerent way of looking al things. 
When planting corn, he was busy thinking of the fine 
roasting eats which would grow from them. "These 
are my little eggs." said he dropping some kernels, " I'll 
put them safely in the nest, and mother Earth will keep 
them warm, and first you know, all the sprouts will hatch 
out. and then grow and grow, and next September there'll 
be a whole brood of my corn on every stalk." And so he 
went on planting, thinking, and amusing himself with 
such pleasant conceits, forgetting all about the hard 
work. When hoeing time came, he called his hoe a 
musket , the weeds, rebels, and the com, the Union men. 
and great sport he had in winning easy victories. That 
was certainly more agreeable than pitying his muscles 
and so making them ache harder. The secret of easy 
working is to ke^p the mind pleasantly employed. The 
garden is full of ideas for those who will take pains to 
seek them. On commencing work in spring, the ground 
is hard and must be plowed or spaded. That may re- 
mind you of the thick dullness of an uneducated mind. 
It lakes something stirring to wake up its attention, and 
prepare the man to receive the leed of new ideas ; the 
older he is, the harder work for him to learn. Vou re- 
member the proverb, "You can't teach an old dog new 
tricks." When the seed begins to grow, if too thickly 
sown it must be thinned, or it will produce little. That 
may teach the very important lesson that or>e who would 
be successful must not have too many plans on hand. 
Most great men are those who have worked steadily on 
a few purposes. Then there are fortunate plants grow- 
ing ahead of all around them, because they happen to 
grow in very rich earth; but tlieir less prosperous 
neighbors do not seem to notice it ; they go right on 
growing their best. Surely heje is a good lesson. And 
so from every plant and weed, and from every operation 
in the gaiden, profitable and pleasant thinking enough 
may be drawn, to keep work fi om being irksome, and to 
greatly lessen fatigue. Try it the next time you are weed- 
ing onions, or hoeing cabbages. 
Interesting; Xradiiious of tlie Ear- 
liest Ximes. 
A chief of the Ojibway Indians relates that when he 
became of suitable age to be made the head of his tribe, 
the *' Medicine Man " or prophet of his people, took him 
alone into the woods to initiate him into some of the sa- 
cred mysteries. When they came to a certain location, 
the prophet bade him to remove his moccasins, because 
they were standing on holy ground. He then went to a 
large stump and drew from it a roll of bark on which 
certain characters were marked, which he read to the 
young chief. It professed to give among other things an 
account of the intioductiun of death into the world, in 
substance as follows: Thousands of moons ago. before 
death was known, this world was fastened to a briglit 
star t'y a grape vine w hich grew in the midst of the home 
of the Indians. At the further end, where it touched the 
star, was a wicket gale. It had been decreed bv the 
Great Spirit, that this gate must never be touched, that 
if any one presumed to knock there, death should enter 
the world. A little old squaw seemed determined to try 
the experiment, and several times she was detected 
climbing the grape vine, but was shaken off by the other 
Indians. But early one morning, to their dismay, they 
saw her so far up that they could not dislodge her. On 
she went, until she reached the fat;d gate and knocked ' 
Instantly the hand of an angel was stretched forth with a 
drawn sword, the grape vine was cut. and wiih the old 
squaw fell with a crash to the ground. The enraged In- 
dians attacked her with fury, and stamped her in pieces, 
and so death commenced and has always continued on 
the earth Our young readers will see how curiously 
this account resembles the fall of man as described In 
the Scriptures. A tradition apparently of Eastern origin 
thus accounts for the savase propensities of wild beasts. 
Before man sinned the animals all lived in peace. The 
lion, the tiger, and even the fierce hyena, were as harm- 
less and gentle as the innocent lambs in whose midst they 
fed upon grass and herbage. But when Adam tinned 
they became sullen and wild, though they did not yet 
destroy each other. A number of them were present in 
the field when Cain killed his brother ; then the smell 
and sight of blood maddened them, and a terrible strife 
followed. Hundreds of them were slain, until each 
learned which of the others was stronger, and shunned 
those they could not overpower, and they and their de- 
scendants have remained ferocious and blood thirsty. 
A Child's Question.— A boy once asked Sir Hum- 
phrey Davy why two pieces of rattan rubbed together 
would give a faint light. The great chemist could not 
tell, but said he would try to find out. and after consi<fer- 
able experiment he made the discovery that this cane 
and a large number of plants contain silex or flinty earth, 
which helps to stiffen and protect their slalks. 
AnsTvers to Problems and Pnzzles. 
The following are answers to the puzzles, etc.. in the 
June number, page 191 : No. 156. Curious Smtrnce.— 
He said that ; that that that, that Hint that referred to, 
was incorrectly used No. 157. Illustrated Rebus.— 
Tooth ink on sin with pleas ewer is necks two its c 
(omission) ; or, To think on sin with pleasure is next to 
Its commission No. I5S. Curious Latin Sentences. — 1, 
Quis, who ; crudus, raw ; pro, for ; tectum, read ; album, 
white ; et, and ; spiraxnt, blew ; or, hurrah for the red 
white and blue: 2, Mens, mind ; tuus, your; ego, I ; et, 
and ; labor, work ; via, a way ; that is. Mind your eye 
and work away: 3, Bona'., good; mali, apples, sunt, 
are; desiderabiles, desirable No. 159. Illustrated Re- 
&mr.— Two bee a man re quires sum th in g yef^e^ars 
(more than years) ; or. To be a man requires something 
more than years No. 160. Conundrums.— }, Because 
it knows no law ; 2. Scipio carried the war Into Africa , 
Lincoln carried Africans into the war ; 3, General satis- 
faction ; 4, Portugal (is full of Portu,?Ti(rse).— The follow 
ing have sent in correct answers up to June Sth : I. C. 
Martindale, 149, 150. 153 ; Rowland Bobinson, Jr., 153, 
Belle Curtis and Mary F. Jordon, 153; "A. P.," 152, 
" J. Y. D.." 147, 155 ; *• T. S. McD.." 147 (There are sev- 
eral correct solutions to the planting problem) ; Jim R. 
Hale, 153 ; Emeline Burgert, 153. 
IVeiv Pnzzles to 1>e Ans^vrcred. 
No. 161. Curious Numbers, From what number caT. 
you substract three and leave the same original numb^ ? 
2d; 1 from 6 leaves 9, and 2 from 6 leaves 10 ; how can it be ? 
No. 162. Illustrated Rebus. — Appropiiate to the times. 
No. 163. Conundrum. Louis Napoleon and Maximilian 
are in dread of the gift of what whole country ? 
No. 164. Word ilcftus.— Fuel sheep insect recolored in 
small spots journalist abbreviated, condensed moisture 
wash-pitclier opening tea made of dew. 
No. 165. Illustrated Rebus.— To be remembered by all. 
No. 166. Conundrum, by John R. Weeks. What river 
in the United Stales is like a private in the 54lh Jlassa- 
chusetls Regiment ? 
No. 167. Puzzling Sentencet.—l, HI knees found 
harm under half covering. 2, Ut rye vattin I am ituu. 
Read them correctly. 
No. 168. Clock Problem.~M a certr.in time between 3 
and 9 the minute hand of a clock was between 9 and 10. 
Within an hour afterward the hour and the minute hands 
had changed places. What w as the lime first mentioned f 
