186 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[Mat, 
dergartens, but if we have caught something of the 
kindergarten spirit, it will be a help to us in any 
situation as mothers or teachers. To educate by 
means of play, or to turn a child's pleasures into 
its discipline — that is the secret. We should en- 
courage our children to do well whatever they under- 
take to do. Slow and careful, rather than quick and 
careless. "We should encourage or awaken in them 
a desire to kuow all about the materials they use 
and see around them. 
Country children have a great advantage over 
city children, during the summer months at least. 
While quite young, they may become familiar with 
the names and uses of the trees, shrubs, herbs, birds, 
beasts, fishes, insects, etc., of their own vicinity. 
Good illustrated works on scientific subjects may 
be great helps to mothers. A microscope is much 
to be desired, especially for use iu examining flowers 
and insects. I mentioned a globe last mouth. 
Of children's playthings I have written before, 
and nothing new on that subject occurs to me at 
this time. Pictures are great educators, and care 
should be exercised in the selection of picture 
hooks. Most of the large primers with colored 
pictures are very poor trash. There are packs of 
fine cards to be found at most book-stores, repre- 
senting animals, birds, flowers, and foreign people* 
The District School. — Whether our children 
attend this school or not, it is our business (yes, 
women, ours) to look after the interests of the pub- 
lie school — the swarms of little children there are 
going to rule the country, by and by. Our children, 
even if they do not belong to their number — as 
most of them do, no doubt — must associate with 
them in many ways. 
But why do I appeal to such selfish motives ? 
Are not all children "ours," in a large Christian 
sense ? Are we not, each and all, parts of the 
society which ought to see that a fair chance is 
provided for every child to get a good education ? 
There is no law to keep women away from the 
school meetings. Mothers would not be out of 
their sphere there, and certainly not in the school 
itself. We ought to make our teachers feel that 
we are interested and anxious about their perform- 
ance of the very serious duties intrusted to them. 
No week of the school session should pass without a 
visit to the school from some woman iu the district. 
If this were expected and likely to occur at any 
hour, the effect upon teacher and pupils would be 
excellent. It would benefit the whole neighbor- 
hood. Each one of us should use some influence 
in favor of genial, well-qualified teachers (with as 
little change as possible from one session to 
another) and pleasant, well-ventilated school-rooms, 
with tasteful and convenient grounds and out-build- 
ings. The teacher should be one among us. A 
frauk association between parents and teachers 
would be mutually beneficial. None of us have 
any more important business— no, not priests nor 
potentates — than the education of little boys and 
girls into a noble manhood and womanhood. It is 
business that everybody can engage in, for the little 
children we have always with us ; and all that they 
see and hear helps to educate them. 
Graham Bread.— One woman wishes to know 
how to make good Graham bread. It is never 
made successfully after the usual recipes for bread 
of fine flour. To all who have thoroughly tried the 
Graham gems, I think that form of Graham bread 
is most acceptable. The method of making these 
is very simple. The essentials are patty-pans, but- 
tered and well heated, and a hot oven. Nothing 
else but the meal and water. Inexperienced per- 
sons will probably make the batter too stiff, and it 
may take them some time to learn that the gems 
seem lighter and sweeter if made without 6alt. I 
am no vegetarian, and use salt daily in my food, 
but I think it a mere superstition and a gastronomic 
mistake to put salt into some forms of bread. 
Our inquirer may have no patty-pans (the iron 
clusters are best), or she may wish especially to 
learn how to make Graham bread with yeast. 
In an August number of Hearth and Home for 
1871, "Mrs. Hammond " gave a recipe, which is the 
best I have found. She always sifts Graham flour, 
to make it light, but mixes the bran again thor- 
oughly witli the flour. This is an improvement, 
certainly. For one quart of flour thus prepared, 
use half a cup of good yeast and a little more than 
half a pint of warm water. Stir this well together 
at night, and set in a warm place. Iu the morning 
add more flour, but not too much to stir with a 
spoon— for Graham bread should not be kneaded. 
Stir it well, pour it into the pan, and let it rise an 
hour. Some prefer to steam Graham loaves, as 
well as those of corn-meal, before baking. This 
prevents the formation of the thick hard crust so 
dreaded by poor teeth. Many suppose'that molas- 
ses is essential to good Graham bread, but some of 
the best cooks do not use it. 
A Kansas Mother answered.— A good letter 
comes to me from a woman in Kansas, who has 
four little children under seven years of age. She 
says, " I have my hands and heart full, and need all 
the helps in the way of instruction and amusement 
that I can get. If the Kindergarten gifts are not 
beyond my limited means, I shall have them sooner 
or later." She asks me to state in the Agriculturist 
where they can be obtained and what is their cost. 
I am unable to give their precise cost. I think 
S10 would purchase the whole set. Through the 
agency of a friend I obtained Weibe's Guide, or 
"Paradise of Childhood," and all the gifts except 
Nos. 13, 13, 16, 17, 18, and SO, for that sum. The 
American manufacturer is Milton Bradley, Spring- 
field, Mass., where they can always be found. The 
express charges from Massachusetts to Kansas 
would amount to nearly three dollars. 
I can not conscientiously advise this mother to 
procure these gifts and attempt to give her little 
ones the Kindergarten culture. She does indeed 
need " helps," and I know of no help so great, for 
mothers and children also, as the Kindergarten. 
But for the Kindergarten proper, we must have 
qualified gartners (or teachers), and there should he 
a group of children of the same age. Very few 
mothers are smart enough and wise enough to use 
the Kindergarten gifts successfully, without having 
had especial training for it. I could not, even dur- 
ing the few months after I first obtained them, 
while I had the care of only one four-year-old child. 
But I could make some use of them, and enough to 
make me feel more thau paid for the trouble and 
expense they had cost. After grandma and auntie 
gave back our younger child, it became extremely 
difficult to use the Kindergarten gifts for lessons. 
The little blocks are very small (cubic iuches and 
their halfs and quarters), and dimpled hands of less 
than two years' growth were capable of making sad 
havoc among them, unless there was close watch- 
iug. Now another " wee one" claims her share of 
mamma's time and toil, and the Kindergarten gifts 
are seldom brought into use, except for what the 
children call "Kindergarten plays'" — when they 
build whatever they choose of the blocks or tablets, 
sitting in high chairs beside the table. The per- 
forating and weaving have given a good deal of 
pleasure and some good exercise to the eldest child, 
but he is such a woodsmau and farmer now (since 
his father 's business allows him to live with us 
again), that I am not called upon, as formerly, to 
provide almost constant employment. 
I give my experience to those who care for it. 
I do believe most heartily in the Kindergarten pro- 
per. I think every child would be profited by such 
a course of training, occupying three hours daily for 
three or four years. Of late I have sometimes feared 
that what I have said in its favor may lead some 
mothers to attempt too much, and thus to lose faith 
in the Kindergarten itself (the garden of children 
with a skilled child-gardener). Here, for instance, 
is one who says she " has tried the Kindergarten 
and does not think much of it " ! I have no idea 
that she has tried the genuine thing with such result. 
I want every earnest person to hear of the Kin- 
dergarten, and think about it, and help prepare 
the way for it, but we can not all reap the direct 
benefits. Mrs. W. writes, "I hope the day is com- 
ing when every mother may be able to make her 
child's care and culture her daily business' 1 ' 1 — quot- 
ing from a former article of mine. "O woman! 
great is thy faith ! " But not too great. It is com- 
ing. You and I would like to see it, and it costs a 
struggle to admit that our darlings must fall 6hort 
of the culture we would gladly give them. 
But there is a deal of comfort — to me, at least— 
in the belief that it will not always be bo. We 
human beings are gradually learning — never so fast 
as in our day — that it 2)ays to lielp each other ! 
Another time, I think, I will suggest some " helps " 
to mothers who have their " hands and hearts full." 
I have scarcely room for any at present. 
Economies in Furniture— Oilcloth. 
ET CARRIE CLOVERNOOK. 
One of our neighbors sent a set of chair-frames 
to the cabinetmaker's to be re-seated. The foreman 
told her he could not promise to do them, as he had 
plenty of more profitable work, but he would sell 
the canes for a trifle and could show her in a few 
minutes how to put them in as well as itf would be 
done in his shop. The chair-frames were sent home, 
the advice taken, and before night they were almost 
as goodasnew. The samelady has an old arm-chair, 
with a splint seat, or rather that had one wheu it 
was new, and she said if she could fix that, she 
would be quite happy. I suggested that a piece of 
strong canvas, firmly hemmed on all its edges, 
could be used. It should be large enough to wrap 
about the rounds that once held the splints, then 
should be sewed with twine, putting the needle 
through the edge — the hem will prevent pulling or 
tearing — and also through the canvas above the 
round, inclosing it tightly. This will make a firm 
seat, and a cushion can be added, if desired. It is 
a pity to have such chairs disabled, for all the family 
enjoy them, and if thrown aside, the old people 
miss them sadly. I have seen rocking chairs made 
prettier than when new, by fastening canvas with 
small tacks where the canes had beeu, takiug care 
to have the wood-work hid as little as possible. If 
a few layers of old quilts sewed together, for stuff- 
ing, be added, and the whole covered with rep 
or Brussels carpeting, the cushion is finished. 
An old lady dropped iu just at night, with her 
knitting, and her bit of good news was, that she 
had a nice piece of oilcloth for her kitchen stove, 
and it had not cost her a cent. A couple of yards 
of coarse bagging, such as covers packages of bat- 
ting, had been given her at the store, and a few 
strokes of Sam's hammer fastened it securely to the 
side of the barn. It was first brushed over with 
thin rye-paste ; when this was thoroughly dry, it 
was given a coat of dark-brown paint, and when 
this was well dried, another coat was added. When 
these had hardened, the edges were trimmed and 
bound with narrow strips of tin. It was pronounced 
a success. As the materials for painting were iu 
the house, she enjoyed telling to her friends how 
comfortable an article 6he had made without ex- 
pense. I have often seen in print directions for 
making oilcloth, but never have noticed any which 
advised a coating of paste first, but my friend said 
that she was taught by one who had followed oil- 
cloth making, aud that it was a great improvement. 
Moving Marbles and Mirrors. — In packing 
mirrors or marble for removal, they should 
be placed by themselves in a box, and fixed 
in their places by side-pieces and wedges, driven 
closely, and nailed; laths should be placed across mir- 
rors, and no elastic materials, as pillows or feather- 
beds, be used in packing them. Marble should be 
put in a box by itself, wetted sheets of clean paper 
laid between the pieces, and each piece held firmly 
in its place by 6ide-pieces and wedges. It may 
then be carried over a rough road iu a wagon, with, 
out injury. Glass and china ware should be packed 
upon the same principle — that is, they should be 
so firmly fixed that it will be impossible for them 
to move and jar against one another. The way 
the packing material is crowded in, to make the 
whole firm, is of much more consequence than its 
quality or quantity. Newspapers, sot straw, or 
hay may be used; but, whatever the material may 
be, have every crevice filled, and all well packed. 
