386 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[October, 
a good pan of biscuit for tea. I leave about as much 
dough as would make a good-sized loaf of bread, 
and I add to it, well working it in, a piece of short¬ 
ening as large as a duck’s egg. I let it rise again, 
and then mold and cut into biscuits. I let the bis¬ 
cuits touch in the pan, and I am very careful to set 
them perfectly even with one another, just so many 
and no more, both ways. Some housekeepers are 
not particular about this, and the biscuits look very 
ugly. One great secret in making good biscuits is 
to have them well risen. I have noticed that the 
same dough takes longer to rise in biscuit shape 
than if a loaf of bread had been designed. Have 
any of my sister housekeepers observed the same 
thing? Not leaving them to rise long enough is, I 
think, why some people fail to have light and white 
biscuit. Where biscuits are made by themselves, 
and for any especial occasion, new milk is much 
better with whicli to wet the sponge, as the bis¬ 
cuits will be much whiter, and the whole appear¬ 
ance will be better. Many persons, especially in 
the country, can use milk entirely for all the bread, 
but persons residiug in the city are glad if they can 
afford milk to raise their biscuits. 
Green-Grape Pie. —In the absence of other 
materials, and a friend having recommended me to 
do so, I have been making pies of green grapes. 
They take a good deal of sugar; that is the chief 
objection to them. I have at times added a few 
grains of soda in order to neutralize some of the 
acid, so as to use less sugar. The pie would then 
be very good ; but for those who can afford it, no 
soda, and the full complement of sugar, will give 
better satisfaction to most tastes. The stones are 
now soft, and I do not remove them. I fancy that 
as the grapes get riper they will make a better pie 
than now—though we all agree that green-grape 
pie is excellent, and quite equal to a green goose¬ 
berry pie. My neighbor, Mrs. Sargent, makes a 
Green-Grape Stew, which, she tells me, with 
plenty of sugar added, makes a good sauce for tea, 
in case nothing less expensive is convenient. 
Green-Grape Jelly.— There is hardly any finer 
jelly than that made from green grapes. Just be¬ 
fore they turn color is the time to gather them. 
Grape Jelly. —Ripe grapes make an excellent, 
fine-flavored, handsomely colored jelly. Strip from 
the stems any quantity of ripe and quite sound 
grapes. Extract the juice in the oven or over the 
fire, bruising them as slightly as possible, and using 
a wooden spoon to stir them up. After the grapes 
have burst, strain the juice through a flannel bag, 
twice. Then boil up the strained juice, and let it 
boil for twenty minutes. Now stir in the sugar, 
and boil for fifteen minutes, stirring constantly. 
Grape Catsup.—R ipe grapes, with sugar, vine¬ 
gar, cloves, and other spices, boiled until tender, 
make an excellent relish to eat with cold meat. 
Squash Pie. —We have had so many squashes of 
all kinds this summer, that we were at a loss to 
know what to do with them. We gave a good many 
away. We had some white scallop summer squash, 
which we considered wonders in their way. One 
fellow struck us as so remarkable in shape and size, 
that husband took it to a butcher’s shop and had 
it weighed. It turned the scale over four pounds 
and a half. Now, I suppose some farmer, with 
plenty of good land, and all the guano and super¬ 
phosphates and home-made what-do-you-call-’ems 
at his command, will laugh when he reads of our 
boasting over a four-and-a-half-pounder of a sum¬ 
mer squash, but he must remember that we didn’t 
have any Peruvian nor superphosphate stuffs to 
coax ’em with, but just planted the seed in the 
bare ground. But I was telling about 6quash pies. 
I think them most as good as pumpkin pies. As I 
had no recipe just at hand, I made them according 
to my judgment, and the result suited the children, 
at any rate. Boil until very tender any quantity of 
6 quash which has been previously peeled and freed 
from seeds. Mash until perfectly smooth. To about 
one pint of the pulp add two tablespoonfuls of 
sugar, a grated nutmeg, a half-pint of new milk, 
and two eggs well beaten. Bake in a tin plate, 
lined with a good paste, as a custard pie is made. 
Home Topics. 
BY FAITH ROCHESTER. 
A Cover for an Open Sewing Machine.— 
This may be made very easily of an oblong piece 
of calico or linen, with rounded corners, hemmed 
around the edge. A strong string may be run in 
the hem, to tie under the edge of the iron machine' 
upon the wooden stand. This protects the machinery 
from dust, and from meddlesome little fingers. 
What object is served, I wonder, by rounding one 
end of the spools of cotton ? Some of our best 
machine thread comes in that way ; and in using 
it with machines where.we sew directly from the 
spool (at least, in using it with Grover & Baker’s 
machine), it is extremely annoyiug to have the 
thread run off faster than it is needed, and twist 
around the spindle, as it does from the rounded 
end when we put on a new spool. 
Night-Gowns. —There are persons who do not 
seem to see the “ sense ” of night-gowns, especially 
of men’s night-shirts. They may admit that it is 
quite reasonable for a man who wears fine starched 
linen about his daily business, to change to a 
plainer garment at night, especially if he cares for 
a small laundry bill. But why should a farmer take 
the trouble to put on a night-shirt ? 
Because the garment he has worn all day is so 
saturated with the perspiration of the wearer—the 
insensible if not the sensible perspiration—that it 
needs a good airing before further service. It is 
not tidy to sleep in it, especially if another person 
occupies the same bed. A due regard to the laws 
of health would lead us all — men, women, and 
children—to remove every article of clothing worn 
during the day on going to bed, changing to gar¬ 
ments at night that have been well aired during 
the day. The habit of rolling up night-gowns in 
the morning, as soon as taken off, and placing them 
under the pillows, results from the same ignorance 
that leads housekeepers to make bed£ before they 
have been well aired in the morning. 
Night-drawers, for young children of both sexes, 
have several advantages over the ordinary gowns. 
When properly made, they keep their place much 
better during the night, so that children who throw 
off the bed-spreads have at least one covering left. 
They are also a better protection to modesty, 
where several children are undressing and frolick¬ 
ing together. They should be made very long in 
the body, and very short in the legs, comparatively 
—though they should cover the little feet in win¬ 
ter. The opening reaches the whole length of the 
back to the legs, and should have a wide lap, and 
button securely together, to keep the back from 
exposure to cold. They look loose and bagging, 
but are very comfortable. 
Men’s night-shirts are made about the same as 
their day-shirts, only longer in the body, and with¬ 
out bosoms and wristbands for starching. A flan¬ 
nel night-gown, to be worn over an ordinary muslin 
one, is a great comfort in very cold weather. 
Homes for the Homeless. —As cold weather 
approaches, and our thoughts run ahead to prepara¬ 
tions for the comfort of our own beloved families 
during the coming winter, let us see if we can not 
draw a little closer together in our homes, and so 
make room for some of the Lord’s little ones who 
may be left to perish without our help. In all the 
great cities of our country they may be found. 
There are thousands who need comfortable Chris¬ 
tian homes to save them from lives of vice and 
crime. And there are thousands of comfortable 
Christian homes in our land where there is room 
for a poor, unfortunate child of poverty and ignor¬ 
ance, and where the hearty adoption of such a dese¬ 
crated little image of the Lord, “in His name,” 
would be a great benefit to the family adopting it. 
Careful training and kind treatment might make of 
the little waif a valuable member of the family and 
of general society. The moral culture of the self- 
denial involved in such training, and the reflex in¬ 
fluence of patience and kindness, arc not among 
the least of the blessings sure to follow such adop¬ 
tion, if made from pure motives. The golden rule 
is grossly violated sometimes by those who adopt 
orphan children. Such little ones are treated like 
little slaves by some selfish people. If our children 
were left poor and orphaned among strangers, what 
treatment should we desire for them ? Is the test 
absurd ? Centuries ago, there lived on earth One 
who made the test of Christianity our love for our 
brethren—for the poorest, lowest, and vilest— 
a love that would rush to their succor from degrad¬ 
ing conditions of life. I often use the word 
“Christian,” but hardly in the technical sense— 
never as necessarily synonymous with “ church- 
member” or “professor of religion.” So when I 
bespeak “ Christian homes” for homeless wander¬ 
ers, I am thinking of the homes where Love and 
Duty preside. 
The children of ignorance and vice increase so 
fast, we must work at both ends of reform move¬ 
ments if we really mean to do what we can toward 
true civilization; must stretch out helping hands 
toward the fallen in all possible places, and must 
work even more earnestly to keep the young from 
the same sad fate. 
The Agriculturist and the Children.— My 
small children welcome the coming of the Agricul¬ 
turist with about the same eagerness with which 
tlieyhail theirown little green-covered “Nursery.” 
Both are equally profitable to them, I think, though 
in different ways. Of course, they can not appre¬ 
ciate the reading of the Agriculturist (except the 
easiest part of that contained in the children’s de¬ 
partment), but they are full of questions about the 
pictures, and they learn something of natural his¬ 
tory and botany from the pictures in the Agricul¬ 
turist, with the explanations they coax from us. 
I groan sometimes because I can not have the 
privilege of reading an illustrated paper or book in 
their presence without knowing that they are long¬ 
ing to have me show them the pictures, and “ sing 
’bout dat,” as the youngest one pleads. But there 
is great delight in supplying their honest needs for 
knowledge with that which is wholesome and of 
lasting benefit. Many children are stuffed with 
any kind of intellectual husks that come handy, 
when they ask for stories or beg to see pictures. 
Some of my friends seem to suppose that my lit¬ 
tle ones are peculiar in their aptitude for natural 
science, when they hear the five-year-old boy talk 
so familiarly about the physiology of plants and 
insects. Even the two-year-old toddler is fast 
learning the names of the weeds in the yard, as 
well as of the flowers in the garden, and begins to 
ask, with comical seriousness, “Is dat in’e same 
family?” from hearing her brother inquire so often 
about the family relationships of plants and ani¬ 
mals, and even of fabrics and kinds of cooked food. 
But I can not believe that the natural inclination 
of these two children toward the observation of 
natural facts is above the average of children. I am 
thankful that we have been “ led ” in this way, and 
I believe that my children will be thankful some 
day that a taste for these pursuits was cultivated in 
them (or allowed a chance to grow) before the too 
common pap of average Sunday-school books, and 
stories of fairy-land, and narrations of the every¬ 
day incidents of child-life, in repeated easy doses, 
had almost hopelessly demented them. 
I used always to choose the easy reading for my¬ 
self when I was a little girl—the little stories or 
baby novelettes. I had friends who regretted this, 
but the mischief had been done long before they 
thought of care iu the matter. The little hands of 
my babies have led me nearer to nature, to learni 
something of'lier wonderful secrets, in order that 
I may teach and delight them with things more 
beautiful and wonderful than any fanciful traveler 
ever found in any imaginary fairy-land. 
But I was going to tell how glad my boy and I 
were to find the “Arrowhead” pictured and de¬ 
scribed in the Agriculturist for July. It had proved 
too much for me with my old botany to decide 
upon. Other wild flowers are pictured every month 
that are the faces of friends familiar to ns in the 
woods around, and whose names we have learned 
ouly within the last few years. 
