1876.1 
305 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
“ Bilked Hominy .—To a cupful of cold boiled 
liominy, (small kind), allow two cups of milk, a 
heaping teaspoonful of butter, a teaspoonful of 
white sugar, a little salt, and three eggs. Beat the 
eggs very light, yolks and whites separately. Woik 
the yolks first into the hominy, alternately with the 
butter. When thoroughly mixed, put in sugar and 
salt, and go on beating while you soften the batter 
gradually with the milk. Be careful to leave no 
lumps in the hominy. Lastly stir in the whites, and 
bake in a buttered pudding-dish until light, firm, 
and delicately browned. May be eateu as a desert, 
but it is a delightful vegetable, and the best substi¬ 
tute that can be devised for green corn pudding.” 
This is indeed a “delightful vegetable,” pre¬ 
pared exactly as the author directs, but you don’t 
often have the cold hominy, perhaps, or you can¬ 
not always spare eggs in the prescribed proportion. 
Baked hominy has become one of our most com¬ 
mon dinner dishes, but it is seldom real hominy 
that goes in. Oatmeal mush, graniola, cracked 
wheat, cold boiled rice—any of those rather coarse 
farinaceous preparations, even good corn-meal pud¬ 
ding—all serve well in this recipe instead of homi¬ 
ny. Cracked wheat is preferred to hominy by some 
at our table. If you leave out the butter no one 
will miss it, and if two or three times the amount 
of hominy or mush goes with the “three eggs,” 
and somewhat more than “two cups ” of milk, it 
is still an excellent dish. The exact recipe makes 
it a sort of hominy custard in appearance, but it is 
still an excellent pudding with a smaller proportion 
of eggs. Of course it could be baked without any 
eggs, (as good rice puddings are), using more mush 
and less milk in proportion, so you can make it 
rich or plain, as suits your convenience. If you 
use a cupful of sugar with nutmeg or cinnamon, 
what have you but a good, baked, sweet pudding ? 
Home-made Furniture. — A Sofa from 
Old Chairs. 
We are indebted to the lady whose design for 
extending a bureau we published two months ago, 
for the idea of constructing a sofa from three old 
chairs. The manner of doing this is so plainly 
shown in the engravings that but little description 
is required. The manner of placing the chairs, and 
the shape of the plank which is to connect them 
and form the seat, are shown in the diagram, figure 
1. The plank is to be firmly fastened to the chairs 
with a sufficient number of long and strong screws ; 
the front edge of the plank should be worked out 
in the form shown in the diagram. To make the 
back of the sofa, two strips (spruce will answer), 
5 inch thick and 2i inches wide, are required; 
these have holes bored near one edge, about 3 in. 
apart, and one is screwed, lashed, or otherwise 
fastened near the seats, and the other near the tops 
of the chairs. Strong twine is then run through 
the holes in these slats, to form a net-work, as 
shown in figure 2 ; this should be pulled very tight, 
and may be kept so by driving a plug into a hole 
here and there, to jam hard against the twine. 
The frame-work may be made in this way at a very 
little expense ; the cushions may be made to cost 
more or less, according to the material used in 
stuffing them, and the covering. The finished sofa 
is represented in figure 3. See engravings on p. 301. 
-—-- 
Ginger Snaps. — By Mrs. C. B., Homer, Wis. 
Butter and sugar 1 cup each, rub together; add 
boiling molasses 1 pint, saleratus i teaspoonful, 
ginger one tablespoonful. Other spices to taste ; 
flour enough to make it stiff. Let stand until cold, 
roll thin, cut out and bake quickly. Then spread 
them in a colander or sieve, and stand for a while 
in a warm place, to make them crisp... .Another.— 
Mrs. “ G. L. J.,” who omits her address, says: 
Flour 2 lbs., butter I lb., sugar i lb. ; ginger 1 
tablespoonful; cinnamon 1 teaspoonful; soda I 
teaspoonful. Molasses a sufficient quantity. Rub 
the butter with the sugar and other ingredients, and 
mix with as much molasses as will make a stiff 
dough ; knead well, roll into very thin sheets, cut 
with a round cutter, place on slightly buttered pans, 
and bake in a quick oven. Keep in a covered jar 
in a dry place. 
Mould in Canned Fruit.— “ M. L. W.,” Boston, 
finds that mould appears on the top of some of the 
in hand on this Centennial year. There are John and 
his horse, and as you read the poem you can put the two 
in position to illustrate the ride. The Publishers tell all 
about it on 3d cover page. The poet concludes the history 
No. 454. S’tizxle Picture.— 1 The artist says that this represents Indians viewing the face of the country. 
The Indians are plain enough ; the face of the country is much diversified, but very striking when you see it. 
canned fruit, wishes to know the cause, and how 
it may be prevented another season. The came of 
mould is the same as the “ cause ” of a pumpkin 
vine. In the case of the vine we plant a large 
germ or seed that we can see, and we can under¬ 
stand why the vine appears. Mould is just as much 
a plant as the vine, but the germs, or what serves 
as seeds, are so small that they can plant them¬ 
selves without our seeing them ; they may be car¬ 
ried in the air, or they may have been with the 
fruit, which was not sufficiently cooked to kill 
them. We have never known mould in fruit jars 
to do any injury ; it does not indicate that fermen¬ 
tation has taken place ; and if carefully removed, 
the contents of the jar are in good condition. As 
to prevention, we would suggest filling up the jars 
so as to have as little air space ns possible, and cov¬ 
ering as quickly as may be, in order that the sur¬ 
face may not be exposed to the air any longer than 
necessary. The occurence of mould in some jars, 
and not in others, would show that a difference in 
handling them had something to do with it. 
Moths in Carpets. —Mrs. “S. T. W.” has tried 
salt and various other applications, and still the in¬ 
sects trouble her carpets. We advise her to try 
the plan proposed by Prof. A. J. Cook, in his re¬ 
port on Injurious Insects. He advises to take a 
wet sheet or other cloth, lay it upon the carpet, 
and then go over the wet cloth with a hot flat iron ; 
the steam thus produced will penetrate the carpet, 
and not only destroy living moths, but cook their 
eggs, and prevent them from hatching. It is cheap 
and easy of application, and we have no doubt that 
it will prove effective. The only wonder is, that 
no one has thought of it before. 
HOTS & (B©3L¥MMSo 
CJIJpiit’.s Ride Illustrated. 
“ Who was John Gilpin ? ” you will no doubt ask, and 
“ Where did he ride ? ”—Probably the history of no one 
was better known to your grandparents, if not to your 
parents, and the boys and girls of 50 years ago could re¬ 
peat the whole of liis “Diverting History,” which was 
written in amusing verse by the poet Cowper, though 
most of his writings were serious and sad. We are told 
that “ John Gilpin was a citizen of credit and renown,” 
his “renown” is to be still greater, for though his his¬ 
tory is preserved in Cowper’s poem, he is now to be still 
more famous by having his wonderful ride illustrated by 
thousands of boys and girls all over this country, and no 
doubt in other countries. Mr. Crandall, who is always 
contriving some clever toy, has now taken John Gilpin 
by saying, “And when he next doth ride abroad, may I 
be there to see.”—Unfortunately Cowper did not live in 
our day, or he could have seen Gilpin taking rides the like 
of which his poet’s fancy never conceived. Who but 
Crandall would ever have thought of illustrating Cowper. 
and making fun for boys and girls at the same time? 
----■ 
How Kitty Went lSliiclkl>ei-B*yimg. 
BY LILA P. NORTH. 
“Divme more! Divme more, Susie!” cried Kitty, 
holding open her little mouth, all purple with blackberry 
juice. 
“Oh, Kitty! I can’t find anymore; the boys have 
eaten them all oft' these hushes. Besides, there’s the 
dinner bell, we must go back to the house,” said Susie, 
taking her little sister’s hand, and starting down the 
hill. 
Now Kitty loved blackberries dearly, and was dread¬ 
fully disappointed that Susie had not found more among 
the bushes by the old stone wall, and her little heart was 
so full of grief that some of it ran out of her eyes, as she 
No. 455. A Patriotic SScbus, which gives 
the name of something dear to all Americans, as a place 
celebrated in our revolutionary history. 
stumbled over the grass, sobbing out, “ Oh, Susie ! you’re 
a dreffui, drefful bad dirl; you said you’d det me lots and 
lots, now I tan’t love you any more, Susie! ” 
“ What’s the matter with my little Kitty ? ” asked Mr. 
Riley, coming out from the hack porch, where he had 
been trying, to wash the red from his hot face. 
“Why, father, she’s crying because I didn’t get her 
but a few blackberries by the old stone fence, and I 
found all I could, father! ” cried Susie, indignantly. 
