426 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[NOVEJIBER, 
kuow to be for the child's good. We ought to use 
judgment iu giving a task to a child, so that it may 
be able to carry the task through without getting 
perfectly sick of that kind of work. If we become 
convinced that the task set is really too great for 
the child's powers of endurance, either physically 
or mentally, we had better tell the little one that 
we have changed our mind and that it need not go 
on ; for it is not well to simply cease insisting upon 
the performance of the task, leaving the child to a 
guilty consciousness of having failed iu what was 
required of it. But, oh dear ! how children will 
" beg off!" Katie knows it will take her all day to 
pick up the buttons she has just spilled, and Sam- 
my is just as sure that it will make him sick to pick 
up a basket full of chips. Don't be impatient with 
them. Children will be childish — those, at least, 
who are destined to grow up. It is our business, 
patiently to teach them to be reasonable. En- 
courage them. Let them know of something very 
nice that is going to take place as soon as the but- 
tons or chips are picked up. Under the influence 
of happy expectation, the task— over which they 
had been dawdling with tears — will be finished in 
a twinkling. When it is done, before the treat 
comes, call their attention to the smallness of the 
task when resolutely undertaken. 
Children who have been trained to observe what 
is going on around them, to be careful in the de- 
tails of their work, to plan their work before be- 
ginning it, and to persevere iu what they have un- 
dertaken, will make good, faithful workers in al- 
most any department. They should be encouraged 
to work with rapidity, but not at the expense of 
thoroughness. A great wrong is done to children 
when they are overworked by avaricious parents ; 
but it is also wrong to allow children to grow up 
with untrained powers and shiftless habits. 
To Catch, Dress, and Cook a Chicken. 
It is not easy to catch a chicken in the day-time, 
unless you know how to do it. This is one good 
way : In the bottom of a pail put a few kernels of 
corn or a few bread crumbs. Tip over the pail on 
its side, and hold it so, standing behind the bottom 
of the pail. When Biddy walks into the trap to 
get the corn, reach over and seize her by the tail. 
If you wring the chicken's neck, do it so thorough- 
ly, that the poor creature will not come to con- 
sciousness when half-picked. Hold it by the head, , 
aud swing it around and around, until it is quite 
dead. It can be picked more rapidly and with no 
trouble from vermin — if, unfortunately, the fowl is 
infested with them — after dipping it all over in 
scalding water. Those who save the feathers for 
their own use or for sale, prefer to pick them dry, 
and this is most easily done while the chicken is 
still warm. After all the feathers aud pinfeathers 
are removed, pass the fowl through a blaze — a pa- 
per burned on the hearth or a lighted candle — to 
singe off the hairs from the skin. 
Now there is a chance for skill and the pleasure 
that results from the use of skill, in separating the 
joints of the fowl. Take off the head, and cut 
away a small portion of the skin around the union 
of the intestinal canal with the outer skin. Make 
this opening large enough to introduce the hand, 
and you can gently draw out the entrails, crop aud 
all, in one mass. Most people cook the liver aud 
heart. In removing the legs and wings, you will 
soon see how neatly the muscles cleave apart so 
that there is comparatively little cutting to do. Cut 
through the flesh of these limbs at the joints, aud 
then break the joints apart, cutting the ligaments. 
There is a small place iu the backbone, where it 
may be easily broken. Try to separate the " wish- 
bone " from the shoulders and breastbone, for the 
childrcu's sake. Then it is not difficult to separate 
the breast aud back, and to sever the neck from the 
back. The pieces should then be washed. 
There are many good ways of cooking chickens. 
This is the hist one I have learned, and very good. 
It is an easy way. Put a spoonful of butter in the 
bottom of a frying pan, lay in the pieces, cover it, 
and set it iu the oven. Turn the pieces several 
times while cooking. When done, take out the 
chicken, turn off nearly all of the fat if there is 
much of it, aud make a gravy of the remainder by 
adding a teacup of water; thicken, when boiling, 
with a thin paste of flour aud water. 
I doubt if this is quite as wholesome as the com- 
mon chicken-slew. Put the pieces in a kettle with 
water enough to cover all. Let it come to a boil 
rather slowly and simmer gently until very tender, 
adding boiling water whenever any is needed to 
prevent burning. Before it is quite done, salt the 
whole. Take up the pieces, when very tender, and 
make a gravy of the broth by thickening it and 
adding a little sweet cream. This broth should 
always be skimmed when it first begins to boil, and 
all the fat floating upon the surface should be re- 
moved with a spoon before it is salted. Chicken 
fat is not very palatable, and when it is "tried," it 
makes a good oil for many domestic uses. K. 
Cooking Egg-Plants. 
Though the season for Egg-plant is about over, 
we print for future reference the following Creole 
style of cooking the vegetable, furnished by Mrs. 
A. L. Howard, Pike Co., Miss. We shall be glad 
to receive the recipes for other Creole dishes which 
Mrs. H" offers to send. She says : " Take six Egg- 
plants, cut lengthwise (through the stem as well), 
and soak them half an hour in salt water, boil until 
tender; it is a good plan to score them slightly 
around the edges before boiling. When tender dig 
out the center carefully so as not to injure the skins, 
which will then be left hollow r with a handle like 
au oval frying-pan. Take about a pound of light 
bread (some prefer more and some less), soak in 
water until soft, aud then squeeze out, mix with 
the contents of the Egg-fruit, kneading thoroughly 
together, season with salt, red pepper pods chop- 
ped, and one minced onion. Put into a frying-pan 
with a large spoonful of lard, aud stir the mixture 
over the fire until the lard is well mixed in ; then 
pack the mixture in the skins that have been emp- 
tied. Brown aud roll bread crumbs, and sprinkle 
thickly over the top of each, put a few specks of 
lard over each, and put iu the oven and brown nice- 
ly. Or you can pack the mixture in a shallow tin 
or pie-plate, and bake. Or you can keep it iu the 
frying-pan, allowing it to brown into a cake." — 
The direction to " take six Egg-plants," shows 
that the small variety is still iu use i-u Mississippi. 
One of our Improved New York Purples is large 
enough for a good-sized family. 
Time for Reading. 
BT FAITH ROCHESTER. 
Let us lake time for reading. It will never come 
if we wait to have every piece of work finished , aud 
every speck of dirt removed from each article we 
use. We can always find something else to do, and 
conscientious house-keepers, with little taste for 
mental pursuits, are apt to make a great blunder. 
"The life is more than meat, and the body than rai- 
ment," which means — if I may be allowed to preach 
a wee bit of a sermon — that you yourself, with all 
your immortal faculties, are of vastly more im- 
portance than your house and furniture, and cloth- 
ing aud cookery ; and these are utterly worthless 
if they serve as hindrances instead of helps to your 
individual human culture. No kind of labor is de- 
grading if done from a worthy motive, and no mo- 
tive can be nobler than the womanly desire to make 
a pleasant home. With this end iu view — with love 
as a prompter — washing aud darning and scrubbing 
are all elevated from drudgery to a nobler place. 
But our homes cannot be properly attractive and 
profitable to our families if we ourselves are dull 
and harrassed. Our brothers aud fathers and hus- 
bands and sous need cheerful and intelligent com- 
panions at home, far more than they need nice din- 
ners aud spotless linen. It is necessary that good 
home-makers aud keepers should read aud reflect, 
aud listen and couverse. 
What shall we read? Whatever really helps us 
along, whether it be history, science, philosophy, 
or morals. I can't read hard books when I am tired. 
Sometimes for several weeks the cares and labors 
of housekeeping and maternity take so much of 
my strength that mental labor is impossible, and 
then I take what I call easy reading — good stories 
and the lighter newspaper articles. But if we live 
on light reading entirely we cannot expect to gain 
in mental strength and growth. 
Do you know what a joy it is to feel that, though 
your school-days are long past, your intellectual 
growth is still going on ? The lessons of our own 
experience are most valuable, I know, but good 
books are great helps. From them we get the re- 
sults of the experience and observation of others. 
♦-« — iip i i • 
How to Roast a Pig. 
EX 31RS. "j. W. T." 
Charles Lamb wrote a " Dissertation upon Roast 
Pig." He introduces the article with au anecdote 
of a Chinaman named Ho-ti, and his son named 
Bo-bo. One day Ho-ti went away, leaving the 
boy Bo-bo to watch the hut and a fine litter of 
young pigs. Boy fashion, he got to playing with 
fire and dropped some sparks into a bundle of 
straw, 'which soon reduced their humble abode to 
ruins. Bo-bo was in consternation, TOt so much 
at the loss of the building, as at the death of the 
young pigs. While thinking what kind of a story 
to invent in order to divert the wrath of his father, 
whom he felt certain would beat him unmerci- 
fully, he happened unconsciously to grasp a leg of 
one of the burnt pigs, and as it scorched his fin- 
gers, put his hand to his mouth and tasted the 
crackling which had come away from the roasted leg. 
He fell to work with a will, aud piece after piece 
of the pig found its way down his throat. He did 
not come to consciousness of the outer world, un- 
til he felt the blows from his father's cudgel: 
" 1'ou graceless whelp, what have you got there 
devouring? Is it not enough that you have burut 
me down three houses with your dog's tricks, and 
be hanged to you, but you must be eating fire, and 
I know not what. What have you got there, I say ?" 
" father, the pig, the pig ! Do come and taste 
how nice the burnt pig eats." 
It was not long before Ho-ti had tasted the pig, 
allured as much by the delicious smell as by Bo-bo's 
arguments ; and roast pig has ever since been con- 
sidered one of the daintiest luxuries of the world. 
To be in its prime, the pig to be roasted should 
be not less than a month old, and certainly not 
more than five weeks. The nearer to the length of 
a moon's journey, the better. It should be killed 
and dressed the day before it is required to be 
cooked and eaten. It will deteriorate in flavor if 
kept longer, and a shorter time would not allow of 
its getting cold and firm, which is equally impor- 
tant. Caution the butcher to be careful not to 
make too large an opening, as it is difficult to keep 
the pig iu good shape if the bones of the hips and 
chest are divided. The head should not be remov- 
ed, aud the feet should also remain. The brains 
may be removed by opening the head from the un- 
der side, and returning the parts to shape with the 
aid of skewers and string. The feet should be 
doubled under the body, and the pig should sit on 
them while in the oven. When the force-meat is 
all in, stitch up the opening securely. 
Put the pig into a hot oven, with no water in the 
pan, nor gravy of any kind. As soon as the surface 
of the skin is a little warm, rub it over with a little 
butter confined in a muslin bag ; a tablespoonful 
will be enough. This process should be repeated 
every fifteen or twenty minutes until all the roast- 
ing is complete. From two to three hours will be 
required to cook it, but when of a fine brown — 
sides, feet and all, it is probably done. 
If onions are relished by the family, the force- 
meat for stuffiug, will be made as follows : Grate 
into crumbs a small loaf of bread, and add to them 
two good sized onions chopped very fine, and a 
tablespoonful of pulverized sage, a teaspoonful of 
pepper, and two teaspoonfuls of salt. Mix thor- 
oughly, form into a large ball, and put inside the 
body of the pig. Onion saute, apple sauce, aud pota- 
toes boiled whole, with the gravy from the pan after 
the fat is removed, ate the usual accompaniments. 
