1871.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
185 
THE HdDmEHOm 
%AT~ (For other Household Items , see “ Basket ” pages.) 
About Baskets. 
In one of the streets that take ns to the ferry 
which enables us to reach our country home, is a 
basket-store. It tempts us sometimes to linger for 
a few minutes to notice the great variety of styles 
and their appropriateness to the uses for which 
they are intended. There are ladies’ work-baskets 
of the finest material, and through every grade, to 
the coarse, heavy hamper on wheels used as a sort 
of go-cart in our city stores. We have of late no¬ 
Fig. 1. — CHIP MARKET-BASKET. 
ticed a new style of chip-basket, figure 1, which is 
very neat and serviceable. It is made of neatly 
interwoven wooden splits, with strongly-framed fiat 
covers, which shut down closely, and are fastened 
by catches. The corners are neatly rounded, as the 
corners of a basket to be used in crowded cities 
always should be. If one wishes to know how 
much one’s comfort depends upon a trifling matter, 
let him go through the crowded passages of Wash¬ 
ington market. His sides will be sufficiently 
bruised by sharp corners to make him ready to pe¬ 
tition to Congress for an act to make all baskets 
with rounded ones. A basket for soiled clothes is 
a convenience that we do not often see outside of 
cities. These baskets are made tall, so as to occupy 
a corner without taking up much room. Soiled 
clothes, especially in summer, should never be put 
in a tight receptacle. A basket allows the needed 
ventilation. We figure on this page two forms of 
these clothes-baskets, a square and a round one. 
Home Topics. 
BY FAITH ROCHESTER. 
Graham Gems. — I am glad to see that Miss 
Catherine Beecher recommends Graham gems as 
among the most wholesome articles of diet. She 
says (and she has good authority for saying) that 
the wheat-kernel has all the elements contained in 
the human body. By the process of bolting, the 
flour is deprived of its woody fiber, which facilitates 
digestion; the lime needed for the bones ; the silica 
for the hair, nails, and teeth; the iron for the 
blood; and most of the nitrogen and phosphorus 
needed for muscles, brain, and nerves. 
And yet, as Graliam flour is usually furnished at 
our call, the bran is coarse and offensive to many, 
especially to children. I confess I feel obliged to 
sift such Graham flour as I get before using it— 
through a coarse sieve, to be sure—but if the flour 
had been properly ground I should not remove any 
part of it. There are very few millers who grind 
“ Graham ” properly. The stones should be so 
sharp as to cut the grain even 13- and finely, so that 
no coarse bran would appear. This is sometimes 
called “wheat-meal,” and it is sweeter and more 
satisfactory in every way than the ordinary Graham 
flour which we buy—which is simply a mixture of 
fine flour, canaille, and bran, or those parts of the 
wheat left unseparated after grinding. 
Miss Beecher, in her recipe for gems, directs the 
use of a “spoonful of molasses and a pinch of salt” 
to a quart of the flour. I cannot think that this 
would be any real improvement upon the old 
rule that has found so many heart}' friends— 
simply flour and water, well beaten together into 
a batter a little thicker than for griddle-cakes, dip¬ 
ped into gem-pans, and baked quickly in a hot oven. 
These gems, made of good wheat properly 
ground, are fit to set before any king whatever— 
more than that, they are such nourishment as Amer¬ 
ican citizens (far higher in true rank than kings) 
deserve and should have, to make them strong, 
and wise, and good; fit rulers of a self-ruling nation. 
Let patriotic women who would fain do the State 
some service take into consideration, among other 
things, the subject of healthful cooker}'. They 
are doing this, and will do so more and more. 
A Baby’s First Food. —There came to me, early 
last winter, via the office of the Agriculturist , a 
very pleasant letter from a lady in Virginia, asking 
for my opinion about the most suitable food for a 
baby during the first few days of its life. I sup¬ 
posed the inquirer expected her answer through 
the Agriculturist , but when I received her letter I 
had just sent off one month’s talk; so I waited for 
the next month, and then did not write at all. 
When I decided to write directly to the lady in¬ 
quiring, I was unable to find her letter; but I hope 
she still reads the Agriculturist, and will accept my 
apology for this seeming neglect. 
In a former paper I said that the new-born infant 
needed no doses of a purgative nature, as old 
nurses used to suppose—that the maternal secre¬ 
tion (which at first is not milk, such as comes in 
two or three days after the birth) was exactly 
adapted to the emergency in all ordinary cases. 
This seems to have led my friend to suppose that 
other food must be provided for baby. I have not 
found it so in my own experience, and other moth¬ 
ers (of the intelligent kiud—I have consulted no 
others) tell me that their little ones who have been 
put at once to the breast have prospered better 
than those that were fed at first. Such medical 
books as I have consulted advise the same course. 
In cases where the mother is utterly unable to 
nurse her babe, it will be necessary to give the lit¬ 
tle thing some other nourishment, of course. The 
milk of a good new milch cow is best, diluted with 
one-half, or more than half (at first), its own bulk 
of warm water. We all know that the first milk 
drawn from a cow, after calving, is quite unlike her 
milk several days later; and at first it is entirely 
unfit for human food. Yet it is perfectly adapted 
to the little ealfs needs, and continues to change 
as the calf grows older. The same change takes 
place with human milk. 
My friend says that she has heard “sugar and 
lard in arag” recommended fora babe’s first food ! 
I should say never give either to a baby, and the 
less of lard at any age, the better. Both are too 
concentrated in their form. To give such food to 
Fig. 2.—SQUARE CLOTHES-BASKET. 
a very young child when it needs nourishment in its 
most diluted form, is to my mind simply horrible! 
Sun-bonnets. —It must be an unnatural child, 'I 
think, that can enjoy having a close, heavy sun- 
bonnet tied on its head whenever it runs out to 
play. Children always prefer light straw-hats, and 
these are more sensible head-coverings for summer 
than close sun-bonnets. For very small children 
bonnets are most convenient sometimes, but let 
them be light and comfortable in shape. The bon¬ 
nets stiffened by pasteboard slats or whale-bones 
Fig. 3 .— ROUND CLOTHES-BASKET. 
running from back to front away out beyond the 
nose, so that one cannot see right nor left without 
turning the head, are heavy and worrisome to the 
children who wear them. There is the same ob¬ 
jection to the stiff “shaker.” A good sun-bonnet 
is deeper over the top than at the sides, serving as 
a shade, but not as “blinders.” White sun-bonnets 
are trying to the eyes, and if used should have a 
piece of green silk basted in for lining. A corded 
gingham sun-bonnet, stiffened with thin starch, or 
one made on a few ratans running over from side 
to side—deep over the top, but short around the 
cape; is easy to make and comfortable to. wear. 
Protection for Wet Weather. —High rubber 
boots are very nice for children in weather that is 
bright over head but wet under foot. I find that 
one pair serves my little boy through three wet 
seasons—two springs and one fall—and it is a great 
pleasure and some profit to him to wade out into 
the vin-lakes, viu-oeeans, and vin-rivers made by 
rain or melted snow. “Yin” in his “Tench” 
language, means “ dry-away-soon,” I am informed. 
Rubber boots arc indispensable for women who 
are obliged to be out in all weathers and who wish 
to preserve good health. I often wonder why we 
who love the woods and fields do not provide our¬ 
selves with costumes suitable for rambling about 
comfortably. I remember that Mr. Beecher (in one 
of the first series of “Star Papers,” I believe) rec¬ 
ommended the bloomer for such occasions. So 
did Grace Greenwood in her early Greenwood 
Leaves. But that comfortable costume has fallen 
into such disrepute among persons who fancy that 
they already know and apply the laws of beauty in 
regard to woman’s dress, that it requires great 
courage for a sensitive woman to “ face a frowning 
world,” even on a stormy day, in a dress that pro¬ 
tects her person without wearying her in both body 
and mind by the constant care she is obliged to 
give it. I could n’t advise her to try it, unless she 
has strength of nerve to spare. 
The Kindergarten. — I have been studying 
Froebel’s Kindergarten system lately, and I believe 
it is all that has been claimed for it. I see now 
how we can get good workers in every department 
of life—in a few generations more, at least. Once 
get free Kindergartens established in this country, 
and the “ good time coming” will come rushing right 
along! The Kindergarten will be slow at first, be- 
