26 
[January, 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
fully two inches before beginning to narrow, but 
this seems to me unnecessary, as a strong cloth 
sole is needed anyhow, and the time and yarn may 
as well be saved for something else. 
The sock I have before me, has a plain strip of 
three stitches, running straight up from toe to 
ankle upon the top of the foot, on each side of 
which the narrowing is done—made in fact, by 
such narrowing. To begin this strip, or to begin 
narrowing; narrow once, then knit two stitches 
plain, and take oil' another stitch without knitting 
it, knit the next stitch plain, and slip (with the aid 
of your needle) the unknit stitch over it, and go 
on knitting around as before. To old knitters it 
would be enough to say simply—narrow, knit two 
stitches (or more if you wish a wider strip on the 
top of the foot), slip and bind once, and knit 
around as before. Do this every time around at 
the same place, till the sock is small enough for 
the leg. This sock has twenty seven stitches on 
each of the three needles in the leg, or eighty one 
around it. The leg is about ten inches long. 
To knit over-socks of different sizes, you have 
only to vary the number of stitches according to 
the size wished, and according to the fineness of 
your yarn. The coarser the yarn the fewer 
stitches required. Soles of leather or buckskin 
are best, but thick cloth is generally used. 
Baby’s Winter Clothes. 
I should like some winter boots for baby, knit in 
the fashion described above, of warm double zephyr, 
and soled and fixed with soft warm cloth, to wear 
over his long-legged white wool stockings. The 
worsted boots he now wears, are' not so warm or 
so strong as these would be. I think that a baby 
over four months old, ought to have its feet and 
legs so warmly dressed, that it can kick them 
about free from its entangling skirts, without 
exposure to cold. I do not keep my babies in 
long clothes after they are six months old. Indeed, 
its first long clothes are of 
such moderate length, that 
they will almost do for short 
ones without alteration, by the 
time that they are laid aside. 
Aside from the length, it is 
well that the clothing be made 
of more substantial materials 
for a baby of six months, if 
the weather is cool. Soft col¬ 
ored flannel for dresses, made 
just long enough to reach the 
toes, and made loose and as 
simple as possible. The plain 
gabrielle, not too full, seems 
knee-cap. most suitable. Over this I like 
pretty soft wool sacks, that 
can be washed, knitted or of flannel cloth, and 
white bibs for babies who drool or vomit. The 
sack may be cut away in front, so as to fasten 
under the bib with only one button. A safety pin 
fastens the bib down, or a pretty cuff pin, if the 
mother has one to spare for the purpose. Or the 
bib may be tied back under the sack, with strings 
sewed on the sides, near the bottom, and slipped 
through openings in’ the sack under the arms. 
Of course, any mother who prefers, will put 
apron's on her baby instead of sacks and bibs, or she 
may use the bib or sack, and omit either one. I 
am thinking aloud for myself, in part, as my next 
business after this manuscript is dispatched, is the 
making of baby’s winter outfit, and we live in a 
cold climate. I want the little fellow clad so 
warmly, that he can be comfortable in his high 
chair, or baby-jumper, or crib playground, where 
he can sit alone half an hour or more at a time. 
Next his skin I will put a soft white flannel long- 
sleeved waist, buttoned behind, and with a gored 
flannel skirt buttoned to it by six buttons around 
the bottom of the waist. To this waist will also 
button the thick flannel knee-caps. I have never 
cared to use the diaper drawers, except upon a few 
dress occasions, as they seem to be merely orna¬ 
mental, and are too much trouble for every day 
use. Knee-caps are quite different, giving protec¬ 
tion from cold where it is needed, below the 
diapers. My baby’s stockings shall be long enough 
to reach his diapers. At present they are pinned 
thereto with small safety pius, to prevent his kick¬ 
ing them off, but he has learned to tug at the 
worsted boots he wears over his stockings, till he 
pulls them off, and I must devise some means of 
keeping all these lower garments in place without 
ligatures, and without any restraint upon his most 
wholesome kicking propensity. Shall it be an 
elastic strap connecting with the waist, and button¬ 
ing to each pair of socks ? Or will it be better to 
have the outer knitted boots button to the bottom 
of the knee-caps ? In that case perhaps there 
should be a short piece of elastic strap at the top 
of each knee-cap. A ribbon drawn through the 
boot, and tied around the ankle, not too tight , would 
perhaps be sufficient for the outer socks. Pretty 
soon, when the weather gets warmer, and the 
little fellow wants to stand on his feet, he must 
havethe softestof shoes. Igive a figure showing the 
appearance of the completed knee-cap, which is so 
simple that any woman can easily construct the 
garments. They are worn over the diaper, the 
pointed portion or straps running up, over the dia¬ 
per, to the buttons on the under waist. 
A Week’s Bill of Pare. 
I have just made out a bill of fare which is to 
serve our family for the ensuing week. It would 
not exactly suit any other family. I have not made 
it up as my ideal of the best possible, but of such 
materials as it will be most convenient for me to 
use in the coming week. It is possible that I may 
obtain some fresh beef or mutton in the meantime, 
and then the programme will be altered. At pres¬ 
ent we have no fresh meat, and no immediate pros¬ 
pect of any. It is partly on this account that I 
give the bill here, as some housekeepers “do not 
know what in the world to get,” when they are out 
of fresh meat, unless they make a free use of pork. 
It may be well to explain that my family at pres¬ 
ent consists of two women, (the hired girl and my¬ 
self,) and four children. In providing for our daily 
wants, I try to remember that we need food to keep 
us warm, to give us strength for physical and 
for mental activity, to repair our daily waste, 
and to keep the children growing. Our tastes 
also must be taken into account. Nothing is 
said about supper, because this is usually omitted, 
breakfast being at 71 or 8 o’clock, aud dinner at II 
or 2 o’clock. If the little ones are hungry, they 
have only bread and milk at night; the hired girl 
helps herself to what she likes ; while I am gener¬ 
ally best suited, even while nursing a babe, to take 
no supper at all. In many families this is practiced 
on Sunday. At all our meals there is white yeast 
bread and butter upon the table, also milk. We eat 
bread and milk much more than bread and butter : 
Sunday-. —Breakfast: oatmeal balls or gems, boil¬ 
ed potatoes, mackerel. Dinner : dried sweet corn, 
graham gems, crab-apple jelly, boiled chestnuts. 
Monday. —Breakfast: baked potatoes, milk and 
egg gravy, baked squash, cocoa. Dinner : pearl-bar¬ 
ley and onion stew, graham pudding, prune sauce. 
Tuesday. —Breakfast: mush balls, potatoes, cod¬ 
fish. Dinner: bean soup, apple sauce, (remember 
that there is always bread and butter aud milk.) 
Wednesday .—Breakfast: johnny cake, steamed 
squash, potatoes, milk gravy. Dinner: split pea- 
soup, rice and raisin-pudding. 
Thursday .—Breakfast: graham gems, scrambled 
egg, potatoes, cocoa. Dinner : corn-meal mush and 
milk, baked apples, (the usual bread and butter.) 
Friday. —Breakfast: milk-toast, baked squash, 
baked potatoes. Dinner : boiled onions, warmed 
potatoes, raspberries. 
Saturday. —Breakfast: cabbage, graham gems, po¬ 
tatoes, egg gravy. Dinner: hean soup, oatmeal 
mush, raw apples. 
No other week in the year will have just the 
same bill of fare. Just now there is more Hubbard 
squash, because I shall be unable to keep them 
after the very severe cold weather comes on. 
Nothing is said about tea or coffee, because pater¬ 
familias is absent, nor always when he is here ; but 
either is very cheerfully prepared for any guest 
who likes them, and on such occasions I do not 
hesitate to take a little too. There will probably 
be no other week during the winter when there 
will not be one or two beef-soups for dinner, oi 
beef in some shape almost every day. However, 
my own experience and my observation of the chil¬ 
dren’s health, leads me to believe that there is no 
necessity for meat when there is good graham and 
oatmeal and milk, with butter or cream. Does any 
one observe the absence of pie and cake ? Their 
absence is scarcely thought of here, but a total ab¬ 
stinence from the plainer varieties is not intended. 
The breakfast bills of fare that have been publish¬ 
ed so far in the Agriculturist , have generally given 
great variety, but they have no doubt been intend¬ 
ed for larger and more varied families than mine is 
at present. I am sometimes asked to say more 
about food for children. As my cooking is done 
mainly for children, perhaps this is sufficient. 
Bai*ley ainl Onion Stew. 
Wash half a pint of pearl barley, and soak it over 
night or for two hours in warm water, boil it from 
two to three hours in a good deal of water, filling 
up with boiling water as often as it thickens much, 
so that it will always preserve its soupy character. 
An hour before, serving it, add four or five sliced 
onions, and soon after salt to taste. At the last 
add half a pint of cream or milk, and boil up to¬ 
gether. More milk and salt may be added, and the 
whole poured over slices .of bread, if preferred. 
The “ croutons,” over which most of our soups are 
poured, are simply small slices of sweet light yeast 
bread, and these are always welcomed by the little 
folks. Gems are more crusty and not so spongy. 
On(mf:i 1 Musli Made inlo Bread. 
Oatmeal mush is good and wholesome, but it is 
generally relished better in its secondary forms, as 
balls, griddle cakes, or gems. I have already told 
how the balls, (ormush-balls of any kind,) are made 
—simply by kneading the cold mush into a rather 
stiff dough with fine flour, with or without the ad¬ 
dition (and improvement) of a little cream or milk. 
These are shaped in balls or small biscuits, and 
baked in the oven. 
To make griddle cakes, soak cold oatmeal mush 
in sweet milk, and thicken to the proper con¬ 
sistency for griddle baking with fine flour—a rather 
stiff pancake batter. If you can not guess at this, 
try a little on the griddle. No baking powder is 
needed, but well-beaten eggs are an improvement, 
one or more, as you can afford. I put some mush 
soaking in milk and water, witli some pieces of 
stale yeast bread, one night, thinking to make pan¬ 
cakes in the morning, but when morning came, I 
dreaded the smudge, and so stumbled upon our 
much-liked oatmeal gems. The mush and bread are 
mashed and stirred fine with a spoon, and then fine 
flour is stirred in until there is a batter about as 
stiff as you can well dip into the gem pans with a 
spoon. This is our favorite way of eatiug oatmeal 
at present, and the bread added is an improvement. 
Remember that the hatter must be quite thick, as the 
oatmeal is already cooked and will not rise any more. 
Oatmeal has the name, among those who study 
into such matters, of being excellent food for both 
muscular and mental activity—very useful alike for 
student and laborer, and excellent, if thoroughly 
cooked, to promote the growth of little folks. 
Another Word Aboat Graham. 
At last we have what we have long desired— 
graham meal of excellent quality, in which the 
bran is cut so fine that its appearance is scarcely 
noticed. It comes in sacks from St. Paul, where it 
is manufactured, and is called “graham flour from 
granulated wheat.” This flour, like the granulated 
wheat, (which is a very nice article of food, other¬ 
wise called “ graniolo,”) seems to have the starchy 
portion of the wheat, or the fine flour, removed. 
It seems like very nice canaille, but the bi;au is all 
there after all, I should think, but beautifully fine. 
To make gems with it for breakfast, we usually 
stir a thin batter of the granulated flour and water 
at night, and thicken this with fine flour in the 
morning, before putting it into our hot gem pans 
and hot oven. For persons who live mostly upon 
fine flour bread, it may be best to eat this flour as 
it comes, without the starchy portion, to restore 
the equilibrium, but I like best to make it with 
the addition of some fine flour, as we all prefer now 
to live more upon gems than upon yeast bread. 
