384, 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
[October, 
New England mother, who had been absent from 
her family for several weeks. I saw how she was 
treasuring' up every idea that came to her for the 
improvement of her children. She sought to in¬ 
form herself on all points that would make her a 
more useful companion to them, and enjoyed plan¬ 
ning her work for them when reunited to them 
once more. It seemed to her that she should man¬ 
age somehow to give them more of her personal 
training and society, than she had given them be¬ 
fore her sickness and her journey, and she was in 
search of books suitable for reading with them, and 
gave considerable study to her choice of presents 
which would have the best effect upon each one. 
Of course it is possible to fuss over children too 
much, and there is such a thing advisable as “ judi- 
dicious letting alone ” ; but it ought to be possible 
for enlightened mothers to follow their best judg¬ 
ment in each case. Schools and classes, especially 
kindergartens, are great helps, no doubt—indeed 
they are necessary to the broadest development of 
character—but they cau never take the place of good 
home education. If a mother has not time to read 
with her children, to play games with them, to su¬ 
pervise their employments, to sympathize with 
them in their enthusiasms and disappointments, 
it is a great pity, and a remedy should be sought. 
Jelly and Marmalade Making. 
I remember how difficult a matter it used to be, 
among most of the housekeepers familiar to my 
childhood, to make jelly “ come.” You would see 
jars and tumblers of thick red fluid sitting in the 
sunshine, waiting for the sun’s rays to evaporate 
the excess of water, and change the fluid into 
jelly. You would hear housekeepers apologizing 
for their gummy jelly, by explaining how they had 
to put it over the Are a second time and boil it 
down, thus thickening the fluid, but not making 
successful jelly. Other housekeepers said they 
never had a bit of trouble in making good jelly, be¬ 
ing very particular to take the fruit when first fair¬ 
ly ripened, and when freshly picked and dry. They 
were also careful to observe exact weights and 
measures. Jelly can be made from any fruit or 
vegetable, from which can be obtained the peculiar 
substance or principle called peciine —so called 
from a Greek word meaning curdled. This can be 
obtained not only from currants, grapes, apples, 
plums, quinces, and other fruits, but from turnips, 
carrots, beets, and other roots, flavored in each case 
by some other principle peculiar to each fruit or 
vegetable. Jelly is commonly made by mixing 
sugar with the fruit juice, but usually the quantity 
of water in the juice must be reduced by boiling or 
by the action of sunshine. If boiled too long, it 
loses its power to form jelly, and becomes gummy. 
Boiling the sugar with the fruit juice longer than is 
necessary for its perfect mixture, spoils the flavor, 
or makes the jelly more bitter and less clear in ap¬ 
pearance, than when the sugar is put in after the 
juice has been boiled sufficiently alone. To pre¬ 
vent the necessity of boiling the juice and sugar 
together, the most careful housekeepers now put 
the quantity of sugar necessary to make the jelly 
they are preparing on plates in the oven, letting it 
get as hot as possible without burning it while 
boiling down the juice. The plan is strongly re¬ 
commended by Marion Harland, who says she has 
practiced this for twelve years without a single 
failure. If too little sugar is used, the jelly will 
not stiffen without over-boiling, which spoils both 
texture and flavor. Recipes for jellies often direct 
us to “ simmer in a little water,” until soft enough 
to strain through the jelly bag. This is not neces¬ 
sary, and by the addition of water longer boiling is 
required. It is only necessary, in order to get the 
juice of the fruit set free, to steam it well. This 
may be done by setting the clean, dry fruit over a 
kettle of boiling water in a covered pan. If a tin 
pan is used, it must be bright and unworn. A 
rusted or blackened tin, or an iron spoon, would 
injure the flavor of fruit. Or a stone jar, contain¬ 
ing the fruit, may be set in a kettle of cool water, 
and boiled until the fruit-cells are broken and the 
juice set free. Put a block or a small dish under 
the jar, so that it will not break when the water 
around it begins to boil, and do not fill the kettle 
so full of water as to make it boil over into the 
fruit. The jar should be kept covered. A new tin 
steam cooker answers well for making jelly, though 
a stone jar is perhaps the nicest. Brown sugar is 
as good as white for making jelly, except that it 
gives a darker color. The usual proportions given 
are “a pound of sugar to a pint of juice,” but a lit¬ 
tle less makes better crab apple jelly, in my opinion. 
All this talk about jellies comes too late for cur¬ 
rant and berry jelly this season. One “"kink” 
about making strawberry jelly I may mention here, 
however. You can make your jelly from the same 
fruit that you use for canning, if you follow Marion 
Harland’sdirections for “ canning berries.” Under 
that head she says, “Heat slowly to boiling in a 
large fruit kettle. When they began to boi'i, add 
sugar in the proportion of one tablespoonful to 
each quart of fruit. Before doing this, however, if 
there is much juice in the kettle, dip out the sur¬ 
plus with a dipper or cup. Leave, the berries al¬ 
most dry before putting in the sugar.” 
So this juice taken from the berries which go to 
fill your jars as “canned fruit,” makes your berry 
jelly, after having been strained. Add a little 
lemon juice to the strawberry juice, and to your 
raspberry juice add, if possible, currant juice in the 
proportion of one part currants to two parts of 
raspberries. Then observe the general rale o/ pound 
for pint, boil twenty minutes before adding hot 
sugar, and only two or three minutes afterward. 
Beautiful jelly can be made from the wild plums, 
so plentiful in some parts of the West, and nice 
marmalade can be made from the same fruit. 
Wild Plum Jelly.—Your boiling water over jour 
plums, turning it oft immediately—this is for the 
purpose of extracting the bitter taste in the skins. 
Steam the plums in a stone jar or covered pan over 
boiling water, until they crack so that the juice 
runs out. Put them into a colander and let them 
drain, but do not press them. Boil this juice twenty 
minutes, meanwhile heating the sugar on plates in 
the oven (pound for pint) so hot that you cannot 
bear your hand in it. Put the hot sugar into the 
boiling juice, and boil all together a few minutes. 
Hum Marmalade. —Rub the plums, after draining, 
through a sieve or colander, to take out the stones 
and skins. Add half a pound of sugar for each 
pint of pulp, boil slowly, stirring well to prevent 
burning, until it is a smooth, thick paste. 
Excellent marmalade is made by mixing the sifted 
pulp of wild plums and crab apples. 
Crab Apple Marmalade is made like plum marma¬ 
lade, after sifting the steamed apples through a 
colander. Do not pare the apples, but only cut 
out the blossom ends. Half a pound of sugar to a 
pint of pulp. Boil until you have a clear thick paste. 
Crab Apple Jelly. —Cut out the blossom ends and 
quarter the apples, but do not peel or core them. 
Put into a stone jar, covered well, and set in a ket¬ 
tle of tepid water, with a block or small tin in the 
bottom. Let it boil thus nearly all day, leaving it 
in the covered jar until the next morning. Then 
sift through a colander, and afterwards strain 
through a jelly bag. Allow a pound of sugar for a 
pint of juice. Boil the juice twenty minutes, add 
the hot sugar, stirring well, and let all boil up to¬ 
gether two - or three minutes. Some crab apples 
seem veiy dry and require the addition of a little 
water to the juice. 
Wild Grape Jelly. —Gather the ripe fruit before 
frost, or while it retains all its acidity. Steam 
(without water) in a covered jar set in boiling wa¬ 
ter, until the grapes are well broken up. Strain 
through a colander, then through a jelly bag. Boil 
the juice alone twenty minutes, and add a pound of 
sugar for each pint of juice. Have the sugar hot 
when put in, stirring carefully. Boil all together 
two or three minutes. 
The Kindergarten Gifts and Occupations. 
The Kindergarten system for the education of 
children, has been more than once referred to in 
these columns. The name, meaning “ Child-gar¬ 
dens,” was given by the originator, Froebel, because 
children were cultivated rather than taught. We 
cannot go into a detailed account of its principles 
and methods, but state briefly that the Kindergar¬ 
ten is founded upon the fact that children must do 
something, and it endeavors to turn their ceaseless 
activity to a good account; it furnishes the child 
with play, and so directs that play that it shall form 
a part of the child’s education It is intended for 
very young children—even beginning before the 
child can leave the constant care of the mother, 
and goes on until the child is old enough to be 
taught from books and in a regular school. When 
the system was first introduced it made but slow 
progress in this country, but a few appreciative 
minds—among them notably Miss Elizabeth P. Pea¬ 
body—saw its capabilities and persisted in advocat¬ 
ing it; now, after a healthy growth, the Kindergar¬ 
ten may be regarded as thoroughly established. In 
proof of this may be cited the advertisements of 
the numerous Kindergartens in the columns of the 
daily papers, and the fact that in some cities it has 
been engrafted upon the common school system. 
While we had a general notion that this system of 
education was now accepted and advocated by the 
best teachers of youth, we had no idea of its ex¬ 
tent until we recently made a visit to the book-store 
of Mr. E. Steiger, Nos. 22 and 2-i Frankfort st., N. 
Y. This gentleman has for a long time made a 
specialty of Kindergarten literature and materials, 
and publishes catalogues of both. The works in 
English, German, and French, are surprisingly nu¬ 
merous, and there are several journals devoted to 
Kindergartens both in this country and Europe. 
Those who are interested in knowing its aims and 
means—and every mother should be—can send to 
Mr. Steiger for the Kindergarten tracts which he 
publishes for gra¬ 
tuitous distribu¬ 
tion. As the child 
at play must have 
something to play 
with , Froebel devis¬ 
ed a series of play¬ 
things which he 
called “gifts ” and 
“ occupation mate¬ 
rial,” to keep little 
fingers busy. These 
are regularly grad- Fig. 2.— perforating. 
ed, and are to be 
used successively according to the development 
of the child. The first gift, to be used while 
the child is still in its mother’s arms, consists of 
soft balls of different colors, each with a string by 
which it may be. swung, and a box in which all may 
be kept. With these the child learns up and down, 
in and out, here and there; the use of the gift be¬ 
ing accompanied by a little song, or verses, which 
can not fail to amuse the little one, and at the same 
time teach it many object lessons. From this sim¬ 
ple gift, the series runs through various ingenious 
and pleasing forms up to the 20th, in which the 
child is given a modeling knife and a ball of clay or 
putty, and allowed to work various forms out of a 
shapeless mass. The manufacture of the gifts. 
