14 : 4 : 
[April, 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
garten, aud as she says, “ of course they were wide¬ 
awake and fresh for study.” I know myself the 
difference between reading aloud in the family to 
children who are accustomed to pay attention, who 
delight in the reading selected for them, and to 
children who are not accustomed to such experi¬ 
ence, and who distract others and look about for 
something to play with while 1 read. The work ac¬ 
complished in Mrs. H.’s school, could not be done 
in a public school, unless the children had been 
previously trained in a Kindergarten. 
Education at Home. 
This report of what Mrs. Hopkins had accomplish¬ 
ed pleased me, it came like good tidings from the 
future. I had seen one ten-year-old boy get what 
seemed tome “ quite a clear vision of the course 
of leading events in our country during the last 
two hundred years,” without any “memorizing” 
and with only one careful, though often interrupt¬ 
ed, reading of the “ Youug Folks’ History of the 
United States,” read aloud by myself. I had seen 
the same child’s delight at the age of five, in Mrs. 
Agassiz’s “ First Lesson in Natural History,” and a 
year later, had seen how fast he gained a knowledge 
of physiology from my reading aloud a little at a 
time, that capital book, “History of a Mouthful of 
Bread.” I had seen how he picked up for himself, 
without book or single teacher, the names of all 
the forest and ornamental trees he came across. 
Then I know, too, how the Swede and German chil¬ 
dren, among whom I have lived in the West, learn 
to speak two languages, quite correctly, when very 
young. More than all this, 1 have seen how almost 
all children are starved and stunted mentally, be¬ 
cause we parents are too ignorant or too busy with 
other things to give them answers to their ques¬ 
tions, and to surround them with conditions favor¬ 
able to healthy mental growth. 
Mental Strain. 
But there is another side. I would not leave this 
subject of education here without an earnest word 
of warning against overtaxing the minds of children. 
Mental strain is like any other strain—of the back, 
or of the eyes, for instance. It may be slight, and 
excite little attention, or so severe as to get the 
name of “arrested development,” or result in 
idiocy. I have known of children, who were won¬ 
ders in their ability to learn and recite little verses, 
and in learning the alphabet, who suddenly came 
to a stand-still—hated all lessons, and afterwards 
learned with great difficulty. One little girl, who 
had been through an experience some like that, told 
me, when a dozen years old, that she didn’t know- 
why, but she could not put her mind fully upon 
anything. It would always wander in spite of her 
efforts to pay attention. Rest is the cure for a 
strain ; rest for the mind when the mind is weary, 
and a long rest with a change to out-door amuse¬ 
ment, when the mind has been seriously overtaxed. 
Unbleached Window Shades. 
Mary has been keeping house so short a time that 
she has no old “ duds ” to work over into cheap cur¬ 
tains. I don’t know as she can do better than to 
take unbleached factory cloth. She can make 
drapery curtains of this if she likes, but if, like 
me, she wants to see out, and let the light in dur¬ 
ing the day, she will prefer shades. If her cloth is 
too wide for the window, she can make a broad 
hem each side. Then she may trim it with a narrow 
strip of some bright color—cheap worsted dress 
binding is most easily managed, though plain calico 
that will not fade may be used. The shades may 
be tied up by cords and tassels of the same color. 
If worsted dress-braid is used, the same will do for 
a cord, allowing enough in length for a generous 
bow when the shade is rolled up. Lambrequins of 
the same color in calico, flannel, or any material, 
of any pretty style, (the pattern books usually give 
them, or give an idea how one can make them with¬ 
out a pattern), give a pretty finish to the whole. 
Rice and Tapioca Pudding;. 
In a pint of water, soak over night half a teacup¬ 
ful of rice and half a teacupful of tapioca. In the 
morning, add to this, cinnamon, or other flavoring ; 
half, or three-fourths a teacupful of raisins ; three- 
fourths a cupful of sugar, and a quart of milk—a 
little more milk (or water) if you put in the raisins. 
Mix well, bake two hours, and eat cold. 
This is a good pudding to make when eggs are 
scarce, or dear. I have found, too, that the milk 
used may be diluted nearly one-half, as milk grows 
scarce, by adding a teaspoonful of butter. But 
eggs are beginning to be plenty, as I write, and 
when this reaches my readers they will be at their 
cheapest and best. So here is a good recipe for 
Tapioca Pudding with Eggs. 
Soak one teaeupful of tapioca in a pint of water 
for two hours or more. Add one quart of milk, 
and set it where it will heat gradually, without burn¬ 
ing, stirring it occasionally until it seems quite soft. 
Set it where it will cool a little, while you beat w-ell 
together the yolks of five eggs, one tablespoonful 
of butter, and half a teacupful of sugar. Stir this 
with the milk aud tapioca, then add the beaten 
whites. Bake in a buttered dish. It is not neces¬ 
sary to soak tapioca before making into a pudding, 
if you heat it gradually in milk or water, stirring 
as it sw-ells and softens—all this before you mix 
it with the other ingredients of the pudding. 
■ ' ■ ■■i. -= i n 11 ai i 
Another Wood-Box. 
In February last, we gave a rather elaborate de¬ 
sign for a wood-box, and several others will be 
found in former volumes. In those places where 
wood is the fuel, it is found to be bulky, and to 
bring in that dread of the neat housekeeper— dirt. 
Hence some device for holding the wood, is neces¬ 
sary. We have, in former volumes, given neat 
wood-holders, for use in the sitting-room. We 
now give one for the kitchen, where the demand is 
constant, and should be supplied in the most con¬ 
venient manner. Our correspondent, “H. T. S.,” 
Wayne, N. Y., sends a device which will be useful 
where, as is often the case in country houses, the 
wood-house immediately joins the kitchen—a most 
convenient arrangement. His wood-box, as he 
says, “ is only adapted to those dwellings where 
WOOD BOX IN PARTITION. 
the wood-house is next to the kitchen,” as it should 
be where wood is the fuel. As shown by the en¬ 
graving, the partition wall between the kitchen and 
wood-house is cut away, to allow the box to be 
supplied from the wood-house, and to deliver it 
where it is to be used—in the kitchen. As our cor¬ 
respondent says, “this will save many steps, and 
avoid much litter,” two things every farmer’s wife 
—indeed any other wife—will appreciate. The en¬ 
graving sufficiently explains itself. The partition 
is shown with the parts of the box on each side, 
and the measurements of the box are given. The 
drawer at the lower part is for kindlings, and any 
of the stove appliances not in constaut use. 
A Strawberry Huller. 
Where strawberries grow with a distinct neck, 
the operation of hulling is easy, and no aid is re¬ 
quired to the fingers of the operator. But many 
varieties, especially those that produce very large 
berries, have the hull (or properly speaking, calyx), 
so closely attached to the fruit, that it is trouble¬ 
some to remove it by the use of the finger and 
thumb, and when, as is often the case with the 
large berries, they grow in the “ cockscomb ” shape, 
the calyx is so malformed, and partly covered by 
the shoulders of the fruit, that it is impossible to 
remove it neatly without using a knife. We have 
seen two or three devices for hulling strawberries, 
but none so simple and practical, as that made by 
A. S. Bunker, of Lawrence, Mass. It consists of a 
pair of forceps, or tweezers, of the form shown in 
the engraving; they are apparently of brass, and 
silver-plated. Mr. B. sent us his huller too late 
bunker’s strawberry huller. 
last season for us to notice it then, and we now 
call attention to it well in advance of “ strawberry 
time,” at least in the "Northern States, as an ex¬ 
ceedingly useful little affair. As we preach for an 
abundance of fruit for others, we try to practice it 
for ourselves, and as in the season, strawberries are 
served usually three times a day, we had a fair 
chance to test the utility of this huller. Like most 
useful affairs, it is very simple, and its peculiar 
form allows it not only to save the fingers where 
the hulls present no especial difficulty, but with 
troublesome and cockscombed berries, it allows 
the calyx to be cut out neatly and quickly and 
leave the berry in a presentable condition. 
—-.n a-40M »- 
Washing and Washing Machines. 
Whatever may be the liquid used in washing, 
whether it be hot soap-suds, cold river water, with 
the “soap-root” of the Mexicans, or some of the 
various washing compounds, the mechanical op¬ 
eration is essentially the same. The Mexican woman 
souses your shirt in the river, lays it on a flat stone, 
and pounds it vigorously with another stone, re¬ 
gardless of buttons; others use a board and a stick; 
others put the clothes into a barrel and pound 
away at them with a heavy pounder. These primi¬ 
tive washing machines act upon the same principle, 
as do the more simple methods of rubbing the 
fabrics between the knuckles, or rubbing them up¬ 
on a wash-board. In each and all of these, the 
pores of the fabric are filled with the water or 
suds, which is more or less violently squeezed out 
again, carrying with it the various soiling matters 
known by the comprehensive term dirt. We fill 
the clothes with all the water they will hold, and 
squeeze, rub, or pound it out again, and repeat this 
again and again, until the soiling matters are either 
dissolved out or are carried off mechanically by the 
liquid. The number of machines that have been 
contrived to perform this simple operation, and 
take the place of the knuckles, whether used 
against one another, or against the grooved washing- 
board, is beyond computation, some of them being 
ponderous and complicated, others almost as sim¬ 
ple as the old pounding barrel, but in each the ob¬ 
ject is to fill the fabrics with suds and squeeze it 
out again, and those are most effective that most 
closely imitate the rubbing upon the W'ash-board. 
Hundreds of machines have been invented, but 
there is not one that maybe said to have come into 
anything like general use. This is not from any 
fault in the machines themselves, for some of them 
are very effective, but from a strange perversity on 
the part of the very people whose labors they are 
intended to lighten — the working women, or 
“ help.” The average kitchen-maid, if she displays 
no tact or ingenuity in anything else, shows a won¬ 
derful ability in preventing a washing-machine 
from working, and the mistress, for the sake of 
peace and clean clothing, allows the servant to do 
the washing by “main strength and stupidness.” 
