1862. 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
119 
one) pom- over it a little of the gravy, the remain¬ 
der of which serve up in a hot covered butter boat. 
Have your vegetables ready to serve when the heart 
is dished, your plates hissing hot. Cut the heart (be¬ 
ginning at the thick end) in slices lengthwise, eat 
while hot, and you’ve a dinner fit for a President. 
And then, if there be any left from dinner, it makes 
a hash not inferior to, and much resembling, jug¬ 
ged hare....Be it remembered, that a beef heart 
chills as quickly as fat venison or mutton, and can 
not be fully appreciated unless eaten when direct 
from the oven, and on very hot plates. 
Dolly, the Cook. 
Cottage Farm, Dutchess Co., N. Y. 
A Good Home-made Yeast. 
Mrs. Jane E. Foote, of Onondaga County, N. Y., 
writes to the American Agriculturist thus : “A very 
nice yeast is made as follows : Peel and boil twelve 
potatoes; pour off the water, and jam fine. With 
ready boiling water from the tea-kettle, scald two 
quarts of sifted flour in a pan, making it about the 
consistency of thick paste. Add a teaspoonful of 
ginger, a tablespoonful of salt, and the potatoes be¬ 
fore prepared, heating the whole well together. 
When cool, add four yeast cakes, previously dis¬ 
solved in warm water, or a teacupful of hop-yeast. 
The above quantity will do for a “ baking ” of three 
loaves, four times, by keeping in a cool place. It has 
this advantage over the usual prescriptions for pota¬ 
to yeast, while answering about as well, viz: that 
it does not need to be made on every baking day. 
Cocoanut Cakes—Cocoanut Jumbles. 
Mrs. J. B., of Allentown, contributes the follow¬ 
ing to the Agriculturist: For cake, skin one cocoa- 
nut and grate fine; add 1 lb. sugar, 1 lb. flour, 1 
teacupful milk, 1 lb. sugar, 8 eggs, and spice to the 
taste.—For Jumbles: 1 grated cocoanut, 1 tea¬ 
cupful flour, 1 teacuf!ful butter, 2 teacupfuls sugar, 
and the whites of 3 eggs. Mix and drop them on 
baking tins, a little distance apart. They are very 
nice. [These are the same as are sold by the con¬ 
fectioners, we suppose. They are very good in the 
mouth, but not so in weak stomachs. We should 
hardly recommend them for children. Their di¬ 
gestibility depends much upon the fine grating of 
the cocoanut, unless they are finely masticated by 
good teeth, before swallowing. The amount of but¬ 
ter used, though perhaps necessary to their good 
keeping and oily taste, tends to render the cocoa- 
nut more indigestible.— Ed.] 
French Loaf Cake.—By same as above: 
1 lb. flour, 1 lb. sugar, 1 lb. raisins, % lb. butter, 
1 cup new milk, 1 teaspoonful raisins, 5 eggs, and 
spice to taste. 
A Truce to Corn Bread. 
In addition to One Hundred different recipes al¬ 
ready published this year, we have on hand nearly 
200 others, and the number is increased by every 
mail. The subject is an important one, and we are 
glad to have aided to excite so much interest in it; 
but probably it will not be desirable to devote more 
space to the topic at present. We return thanks to 
the many kind contributors, and regret that we 
can not find room for all their favors. It is rather 
remarkable that among nearly three hundred reci¬ 
pes contributed for the Agriculturist, so few are 
just alike.—A Correction : In condensing and 
printing so many recipes, from a variety of manu¬ 
scripts, a few errors have doubtless occurred. 
Thus: in No. 32, page 54, (February,) k should be l 
in the word cooked, and read “-When suflacient- 
ly cooled, etc.”—In No. 132, page 87 (March), read : 
“ 2 teaspoonfuls of salt, etc.” 
Butter in Wester. —We return thanks for sev¬ 
eral recently received communications on this sub¬ 
ject, which will be reserved until the more appro¬ 
priate season, next Winter.—Many good hints on 
other topics, received, are necessarily laid over. 
A True Farmer-Soldier’s Wife. 
[Since the beginning of the present year, it has 
been our pleasure to receive about thirty thousand 
letters from subscribers in different, parts of-the. 
country, and while mainly on business matters, they 
have contained very frequent incidental allusions 
that have afforded us no little pleasure. The his¬ 
torian could gather a true picture of the feeling of 
the country at the present peculiar period, from 
these off-hand private business letters. As we omit 
the name and town, we violate no confidence in 
giving the following extract from a recent letter 
from Edgar County, Illinois, remarking that it is 
similar in spirit to very many others received, and 
shows the true character of multitudes of the 
daughters of the land, West as well as East.— Ed.] 
Mr. Editor. —The fact that my husband has ex¬ 
changed the plow for the sword, has prevented his 
renewing his subscription; but as I am the farmer 
now, I must still have the American Agriculturist , 
and I send you the very first dollar I have been able 
to spare for that purpose. Myhusbandhas chanced 
to receive no pay as yet, though six months in the 
service, and our farm produce only brings about half 
price; but we have abundant crops, good health, 
patriotic husbands, and firm hopes of still having a 
country. So we will “ thank God and take courage.” 
The Editor with his Young Headers. 
A Very Good Memory—Some Flints. 
Mr. N. L. Wilcox, of Windsor, Ashtabula Co., O., 
writes to the Agriculturist, that Emma Sweet, 15 
years of age, learned 2,087 verses in the Bible 
during one week. This is equivalent to 69% chap¬ 
ters of 30 verses each. Or it is equivalent to all of 
Matthew (1,071 verses), all of Mark (678 verses), and 
to the 36th verse of the 7th chapter of Luke. It is 
equivalent to the whole of the Book of Genesis 
(1,533 verses), and over 20 chapters in Exodus..... 
Alvira Moore of the same town, learned in one 
week 1,545 verses, equivalent to nearly all of 
Matthew and Mark... .Emma and Alvira should be 
very thankful for such good memories. We would 
give more than one thousand dollars to be able to 
learn half as many verses in the same time. Such 
a memory would save us much time and labor. 
^ HOW TO IMPROVE THE MEMORY. 
A few persons, like those above referred to, have 
a native faculty of remembering almost everything 
they read once or twice; but these are exceptions, 
and we doubt not, that should we ask each one of 
the hundreds of thousands of boys and girls who 
read the Agriculturist, ■“ Have you a good memory ?” 
ninety-nine in every hundred would answer, “ no!” 
The truth is, almost everybody’s memory is poor, 
until it is trained and cultivated, and the only way 
to improve it is by use. If a boy puts his arm in a 
sling, or keeps it hanging by his side, it will grow 
slim and weak. If, on the contrary; he use it vig¬ 
orously, holding plow, chopping wood, and in other 
vigorous exercise, it will grow muscular and strong. 
The boy who goes into a blacksmith shop as an ap¬ 
prentice, strikes very feeble blows upon the heated 
iron, at*first; he scarcely makes a visible impres¬ 
sion. But after a few months’ exercise, his blows 
tell; his arm has not only become strong, but also 
disciplined to give a proper direction to the blows. 
Just so with the memory. Exercising it in any di¬ 
rection will give it strength and disciplined power. 
One having a weak memory, should specially culti¬ 
vate that faculty. Parents and teachers often make 
a great mistake; because a child exhibits a dislike 
of arithmetic, or of any other branch, they let him 
give more attention to something else, for which he 
appears to have a liking, or natural tact. The 
true plan is, to give'most attention to the exercise 
and cultivation of those very faculties which are the 
weakest. In this way only can a well balanced ef¬ 
fective mind be secured. This applies to the edu¬ 
cation up to maturity of mind and body. With 
this general discipline, the mind will afterwards act 
most effectively if its energies are mainly turned in 
some specific channel of thought. 
Crowded Again—'TJte Maps.—The 
continued calls for maps of the scenes of the war 
operations, show that our readers, old and young, 
desire these now, more than anything else, and 
they prefer them in the Agriculturist, to other par 
pers, because our maps are so well printed, ai d 
on such good paper. We trust our younger read¬ 
ers are studying geography very rapidly and ef¬ 
fectively now ; if so, they will cheerfully wait longer 
for the problems, stories, etc., that would other¬ 
wise occupy page 121. As it is, we have ventur¬ 
ed to crowd back a little on to this page, which 
properly belongs to your mothers’ and older sis¬ 
ters’ department; but they will excuse us, we hope. 
New Rebuses. 
Here are a few puzzles that will require some in¬ 
genuity to read, but after the explanations given on 
page 57, [Feb.], most will be able to make them out. 
No. 4—The above is a trite saying, worth remem¬ 
bering when read. (This was contributed by one 
of our young readers, whose name chanced not to 
be retained with the sketch. Will he please report ?) 
No. 5—A political axiom, or truth, which is not 
being demonstrated in our country, just now. (Con¬ 
tributed by R. F. Roberts, Racine County, Wis.) 
No. 6—The above is a verse from the Book of 
Proverbs, which every boy and girl should remem¬ 
ber. It will be easily read if you give the right 
character to the men shooting the little birds. 
No. 7—A Chinese block puzzle. It is required to 
arrange the above 8 pieces to form a perfect square. 
Do not cut this paper, but transfer the marks upon 
thick paper, and then cut the pieces for arranging. 
Answer to No. 2 in February Agriculturist, page. 
57: “ On earth peace, good will toward men." 
Answer to No. 3, (same page): The Union muss t 
and s hall bee mummy; that is, The Union must 
and shall be preserved .” 
