266 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[Jul? 
If you arc obliged to wash dishes iu hard water, 
it is best to use no Boap, but with soft water use 
soap enough to make a bright suds. Now, you 
always want a clean dish-cloth and clean wiping 
towels. Tou can keep them clean by washing and 
scalding them every day, if you have not towels 
enough for frequent changes. Always wash out 
your dish-cloth the last tiling, aud leave it clean. 
It is best to have at least two — one for the coarser 
dishes and kettles. If you have much glass aud 
silver ware to wnsh, there should be a third soft 
dish-cloth for that purpose. Wash the glass first, 
the silver next, then the knives, then the cups, 
saucers, plates, etc. Tou should have plenty of 
dish-water, and keep that in the pan clean and hot 
enough to cleanse the dishes as they go through it. 
Wipe the glass and silver from the hot suds, rub- 
bing them with a soft towel until they shine. The 
knives, lay aside to be scoured after you have fin- 
ished washing. Rinse the crockery well with hot 
water. If you can have a rack to place across the 
top of the sink, made of wooden slats half or 
three-quarters of an inch apart, the open places 
being wide enough to slip in the edges of the 
plates and saucers, it will facilitate the drying, and 
6ave the towels some wetting. 
My young haters of the dish-pan, let me tell you 
frankly that if you are going to make useful wo- 
men, treasures and blessings to others whorever 
you go, you must learn to do faithfully the work 
your hands find to do, whether it be agreeable or 
not. Let your consciences guide you in this mat- 
ter, and you will find that the surest road to hap- 
piness is the way of usefulness. 
Platthings for Children. — How to employ 
and amuse the little ones, is a question that puzzles 
all mothers more or less. The children over three 
years old, who have no playmates of their own 
age, puzzle one the most. They grow so desper- 
ately naughty, they are so full of push and pull, 
and have such a fund of unapplied activity run- 
ning to waste, I see no reasouable cure for this but 
the kindergarten ; but those who need it just now 
came a little too soon to share its full blessing. 
Mrs. Horace Mann, who taught a primary school 
in Boston for years, before the kindergarten was 
launched, says that mothers have often told her 
that the little ones who had been full of irrepres- 
sible rudeness and tyranny in the nursery, alone or 
among younger children, grew more manly and 
gentle in their manners from the time their little 
world was enlarged by their entrance to her school. 
But this was no ordinary school. It was a most 
extraordinary one, for those days at least. Any 
mother whose love is "according to wisdom," 
would gladly loosen her arms from about her child 
and send him half across the continent, if needful, 
if sure of placing him under care as conscientious, 
wise, and loving. 
But such teachers are very rare, and we cannot 
risk the mental and moral injury which our more 
tender little ones might sustain if sent to ordinary 
primary schools under six, or at least five years of 
age. We cannot buy them the best of playthings — 
living playmates ; or if we did, how could we be 
6ure that the association, if left without oversight, 
might not do more harm than good ? 
Of playthings, the best are those in the form of 
miniature tools — little hoes, brooms, carts, wheel- 
barrows, dishes, etc. By most little girls, dolls and 
play-houses are more prized than anything else ; 
and little boys, too, will often find some comfort 
in them if grown-up people are not so thoughtless 
as to ridicule them. 
Children have so much imagination, and enjoy 
its use so much, that they really seem to like the 
play-houses patched together from all sorts of 
odds and ends better than expensive doll-houses. 
A plain rag-baby, with changes of clothing to take 
off and put on, gives better satisfaction than a fine 
" boughten " dolly, with flimsy finery sewed on. 
Every child should have its slate with a pencil 
tied to it. A pair of round-pointed scissors is an 
excellent plaything, if plenty of paper be fur- 
nished, and a little care be taken to teach the little 
one to cut some simple but pleasing forms. Coarse 
perforated card-board, with strong colored worsted 
(silk is still better), will give much pleasure and 
employment, if you do not expect too fine results 
from the little worker. All children love to string 
buttons (or button-molds) and beads. Colored 
glass beads can be bought by the ounce for children 
old enough to use them— over three years, perhaps. 
Younger children like to fill a large-headed pin 
with button-molds and empty it into a dish beside 
them. Of course they love to play in sand, and it 
pays to provide a box of clean sand, with a little 
tunnel and a few little tins or bottles to pour it 
back and forth. Hammer and tacks have great 
fascination. Very little ones love to drive the 
tacks into a bar of soap, sitting by the table in a 
high chair. 
After all, there is nothing that wears better for 
children of all ages than blocks. Only yesterday I 
heard a little boy begging his younger sister to 
" keep still a minute," and when I asked the reason, 
it was whispered to me that he " wanted to pray 
to God for more blocks." Afterwards I was pri- 
vately informed by him that he told the Lord lie 
had "not blocks enough tc build a large house." 
I smiled and said nothing, but thought within my- 
self, " The Lord works by means, and now I will 
6eud for the box of Crandall's building blocks, 
for which I have long been importuned." 
To be sure we have all of the kindergarten 
blocks, but they are so small and so useful for 
future kindergarten lessons in the family, that I 
cannot have them used very freely without my 
oversight now that the doors are wide open. 
»-. — ■ « ». •— 
Salads aud Salad Dressing. 
— » 
A subscriber in Illinois thus writes on the sub- 
ject of salads : " My partner for life, who attends 
to the culinary business of our firm, says she wish- 
es to know how to make such salads as are to be 
had at the tables of first-class hotels. My partner 
says she cannot imitate these by following any of 
the recipes of the ' Cook Books.' Can you tell 
through the Agriculturist how it is done, and oblige 
a subscriber who thinks people in the country 
ought to have as good eating as city folks. The 
trouble is with the dressing." — We quite believe 
with our correspondent, that country people should 
have all the luxuries that any one has. A cele- 
brated cook says that he can never make a salad 
twice alike ; he is governed by the " inspiration of 
the moment." All the recipes and even the French 
cook's "inspiration" are of no avail, if the ma- 
terials used are not of the very best quality. The 
foundation of salad dressing is olive oil, aud here 
is the very thing that those who live in the coun- 
try will find it most difficult to procure. Unless 
the oil is absolutely without unpleasant odor or 
taste, and if it have not a pure, nutty flavor, don't 
use it. Sweet, not over-salted butter, is much 
better in salad dressings than most of the oil that 
is sold. The butter should be slowly melted by a 
very gentle heat, without the least approach to 
frying. Let the melted butter stand a short time, 
then pour it off from the salt that will have settled, 
and use it instead of oil. The vinegar should be 
of the best, and so should the mustard. We give 
Mr. Harrison's recipe for dressing : Mix a heap- 
ing teaspoonful of mustard, the yolk of a fresh egg, 
and a tablespoouful of vinegar, rubbing them into 
a smooth paste with a silver fork. Mix one table- 
spoonful each of vinegar aud lemon juice, and 
measure out twelve tablespoonfuls of oil. Add to 
the egg mixture, very slowly, and stirring con- 
stantly, two tablespoonfuls of the oil. When the 
mixture becomes thick, add a teaspoonful of the 
mixed vinegar and lemon juice, stir this well, 
and then add more oil, and thus continue alternate- 
ly adding oil and vinegar, until the quantity meas- 
ured is used up, and a smooth, creamy paste is ob- 
tained. The stirring must be thorough, aud a 
fresh quantity of oil should not be put iu until that 
previously added is thoroughly incorporated iu the 
mixture. Properly made, and with good materials, 
this dressing can hardly fail to suit either city or 
country folks. It may be used for chicken or lob- 
ster or meat salad, and as a dressing for celery, cab- 
bage, or lettuce. Salads may be made of chicken, 
lobster, mutton or beef, mixed with celery, lettuce, 
cut cabbage, etc. Boiled beets, olives, capers, aud 
slices of hard-boiled eggs, are often added to meat 
aud chicken salads. 
■ ■ m o^i i ^ ■ 
Economy in Ice. 
— • — 
Refrigerators are made upon one general princi- 
ple — that is, to keep the ice from melting, except 
by meaus of the heat it abstracts from the articles 
that we wish to cool. The walls of refrigerators 
are made double, and the space between them is 
filled with sawdust, charcoal, or other substance 
that will serve as a non-conductor of heat. There 
must be a metallic lining to prevent the filling ma- 
terial from becomiug wet. There must also be a 
pipe to convey off the water resulting from the 
melting of the ice. The simplest refrigerator is the 
common grocer's box, which is a plain chest of con- 
venient size liued aud filled as above indicated. A 
lump of ice is placed iu the box, and the articles to 
be cooled are set around it. Where ice is plenty, 
a box of this kind will answer a good purpose, and 
it can be mainly made at home, the aid of a tin- 
smith being required for the zinc lining. Then 
there are refrigerators of numerous patents, each 
claiming to be superior to all others. We are un- 
able to see a great deal of difference in principle 
among the most popular of these, though they dif- 
fer iu details, and some are more convenient than 
others. It is desirable to have two compartments, 
in order that butter and milk may not absorb odors 
from meats and vegetables. The later styles of re- 
frigerators have the receptacle for the ice at the 
top, which is according to correct principles. 
There are also various devices for ventilating, and 
other contrivances, which, the inventors claim, add 
to the efficiency of their particular patents. Where 
there is no refrigerator, ice may be kept tolerably 
well by wrapping it in a thick woolen blanket, and 
keeping it in a covered box. In removing portions 
for cooling water or other purposes, chip it from 
one side, and do not break the lump in several parts. 
» ■ .»♦■— 1 » 
Recipes. 
— ■ 
The following seasonable recipes are from "Com- 
mon Sense in the Household:" a werk by the well- 
known authoress, Marion Harlaud, and one which 
has received high praise from competent judgeB. 
Green Pea Soup. — i lbs. beef, cut into 
small pieces, % peck of green peas, 1 gallon of wa- 
ter. Boil the empty pods of the peas in the water 
oue hour before putting in the beef. Strain them 
out, add the beef and boil slowly for an hour and a 
half longer. Half an hour before serving add the 
shelled peas ; and twenty minutes later, half a cup 
of rice flour, with salt and pepper. After adding 
the rice flour, stir frequently to preveut scorching. 
Strain into a hot tureen. 
Tomato Sonp.-2)^ lbs. of veal or lamb, 
1 gallon of water, 2 quarts fresh tomatoes, peeled 
and cut up fine. Boil the meat to shreds, and the 
water down to two quarts. Strain the liquor, put 
in the tomatoes, stirring them very hard, that they 
may dissolve thoroughly ; boil half an hour. Season 
with parsley, or any other herb you may prefer, 
pepper and salt. Strain again and stir in a table- 
spoonful of butter, with a teaspoonful of white 
sugar, before putting into the tureen. 
Scalloped Tomatoes, — Peel and cut iu 
slices quarter of an inch thick. Pack in a pudding- 
dish in alternate layers, with a force-meat made of 
bread crumbs, butter, salt, pepper, and a little 
white sugar. Spread thickly upon each stratum of 
tomatoes, and when the dish is nearly full, put to- 
matoes uppermost, a good bit of butter upon each 
slice. Dust with pepper and a little sugar. Strew 
with dry bread crumbs aud bake covered, half an 
hour ; remove the lid and bake brown. 
Fried Cucumbers. — Pare and lay in ice- 
water half an hour. Cut lengthwise and lay in ice< 
water ten minutes longer. Wipe each piece dry 
with a soft cloth, sprinkle with pepper and salt, 
and dredge with flour. Fry to a delicate brown v 
in sweet, clarified drippings, nice lard or butter. 
