306 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[August, 
were removed by siftiug. The canaille (shorts or 
middlings) which is taken from the wheat at the 
mill makes excellent food cooked in various ways, 
as biscuit or as mu6h. It works in well with other 
kinds of flour—in johnny-cakes, gems, rolls, and 
crackers. 
Sour Milk as Food. —How powerfully the ima¬ 
gination affects the appetite ! Having always seen 
the beautiful white loppered milk given to the pigs 
as unfit for human food (unless first made into 
Dutch cheese), I have not been able to bring myself 
to taste it fairly. The very idea that milk was sour 
put its relish beyond question. But my children, 
who had plenty of excellent sweet milk for food, 
seeing sour curdled milk eaten gladly by a guest, ate 
the same without hesitation, and have ever since 
preferred it to sweet milk—that is, when they can 
have it in unbroken curd. Just so with their 
father. They all relish it without any seasoning. 
Marion Harland gives a recipe which is well 
worth trying. Here it is : 
“Bonny-clabber or Loppered Milk. —Seta 
china or glass dish of skimmed milk away in a 
warm place, covered. When it turns— i. e., becomes 
a smooth, firm, but not tough cake, like blanc¬ 
mange—serve in the same dish. Cut out carefully 
with a large spoon, and put in saucers with cream, 
powdered sugar, and nutmeg to taste. It is better 
if set on the ice for an hour before it is brought to 
the table. Do not let it stand until the whey sepa¬ 
rates from the curd. 
*' Few people know how delicious this healthful 
and simple dessert can be made, if eaten before it 
becomes tough and tart with a liberal allowance 
of cream and sugar. There are not many jellies 
and creams superior to it.” 
Speaking of Dutch cheese, I may as well tell how 
to make it, as many families where it might be had 
and relished are deprived of it through the ignor¬ 
ance of the housekeeper. 
Cottage Cheese.— Heat sour milk with a gentle 
heat (it is a good way to set the pan over a kettle 
of warm but not boiling water) until the whey 
separates from the curd. Pour off the whey with 
care, put the curd into a bag, and hang it to drip 
for several hours. Do not squeeze it. Work it 
with a spoon or with clean hands until it is soft 
and even, salt it, add a little cream or butter, mold 
into round balls, or leave it to be served in small 
6aucers. It should be eaten while fresh. 
Parents’ Unions. —Not long ago I read *, letter 
which Miss Peabody gave to the public. She 
hoped that the press generally would make some 
mention of that about which she wrote. She wrote 
briefly of the importance of the kindergarten for 
children between the nursery and the primary- 
school. I want to quote a part of her letter. 
Speaking of the trained teachers that children need, 
she says : 
“ To obtain such a class of teachers, it is neces¬ 
sary for parents first of all to make themselves ac¬ 
quainted with Froebel’s art and science; and, 
secondly, to support with their money and personal 
sympathy * kindergartens with properly trained 
teachers. 
“To promote these objects, therefore, the Kin¬ 
dergarten Association of Boston proposes that 
parents all over the count ry shall form hi their own 
neighborhoods simple unions, to meet at least once 
a month, for the purpose of reading and conversing 
with each other on the subject of kindergartening; 
being quite sure, if they do so, that they will very 
soon be prompted to do all that is requisite to have 
kindergartens for their own and their neighbor’s 
children at once, and to support the teacher whom 
they shall procure with all the necessary means for 
her success. 
“Already one such union has been spontaneously 
formed in the town of Montclair, N. J., whose 
members meet once a fortnight to read and con¬ 
verse. They began, as any other union can do, 
with procuring from the National Bureau of Edu¬ 
cation its circular of Information on Kindergar¬ 
tens, for July, 1872, containing the Baroness Maren- 
lioltz-Bulow’s statement of what a true kinder¬ 
garten is. The Commissioner, General Eaton, will 
send this pamphlet for the asking, without price. 
“ The Montclair Union-has already procured and 
supports a kindergartener, who meets with the 
mothers to read kindergarten literature, and with 
whom they converse and sympathize. It has 
proved a complete success, and continues to be 
more and more interesting to the members. The 
grown daughters of the members also visit the 
kindergarten, and find it delightful to assist under 
the direction of the kindergartener, who is thus 
enabled to enlarge her numbers, while they are ob¬ 
taining the highest touch of culture for future 
motherhood and general womanly influence in 
society.” 
Miss Peabody also announces that the Boston 
Kindergarten Association intends to start a journal 
during the present summer, to be edited by herself, 
“the first number of which will be sent to any 
union that will make known its existence to the 
Association.” Miss Peabody’s letter was written 
by the order of that Association, and I have been 
disappointed at not seeing it more widely copied. 
Such co-operation on the part of parents would 
have many excellent results, I am sure. Mothers 
are growing almost desperate from need of some 
such help. I was a good deal moved by a short 
and hasty letter which I received the other day 
from a woman of such happy combination of cir¬ 
cumstances—fine healthy organization, large moth¬ 
erly heart, comfortable pecuniary relations, conge¬ 
nial marriage, bright and loving and healthy chil¬ 
dren—that I could hardly think of any awakened 
woman (for most mothers are still half dozing, in¬ 
tellectually, as mothers) less likely to suffer from 
the awful piuch that mothers are being brought 
into by the increasing demands of science on one 
side and social customs on the other. But this 
woman wrote me : “ I have such an intense desire 
to possess the book you wrote about in the last 
Agriculturist , that I have taken my pen on Monday, 
in the midst of innumerable cares, to beg of you 
to get it for me. If there is anything that will 
help me to be loving and gentle, patient and for¬ 
bearing with these dear little ones, I want it. I have 
always been looking for something of the kind, and 
perhaps this will fit my case.” 
Help her to be “ loving and gentle, patient and 
forbearing!”—when she is all that by nature. 
Sometimes I feel almost guilty for having so 
strongly recommended “Bits of Talk.” Every¬ 
body admits how silly it is to preach moral truths 
to a starving man. “ Nourish his body first,” they 
say, and then feed the mind. The mothers who 
have ears to hear and hearts to feel what “H. H.” 
says, are often so crowded and pressed with other 
cares and duties, that they can not fulfill half the 
motherly duties which they already are aware of. 
If I could only take the sewing, and washing, and 
ironing, and cooking, and care of servants and 
guests and house, and chignons and wearisome 
clothing, and leave mothers free to act as rational 
women and sensible mothers, I might well enough 
call upon them to listen to “ II. H.” I do not know 
the personal circumstances of “II. H.,” but I have 
a feeling that she has probably had only one babe 
at a time on her hands. Has any one ever told in 
print how wearing it is to a mother’s nerves to 
have the baby kept from going to sleep at the 
proper time and awaken too soon by the very 
natural and innocent and irrepressible noise of 
other young children ? how hard to hear the last 
baby but one—still a baby, and still having a right 
to its mother’s arms when tired or in trouble—to 
hear it pleading vainly in weariness or in grief for 
its mamma when the last baby can not possibly be 
turned off? how discouraging to wait vainly for a 
chance to give to the child of four or five years the 
help or information which its development needs 
and craves ? 
Oh 1 these mothers’ hearts 1 What a strain is put 
upon them 1 Oh 1 the need—the awful need of 
patience! 
There are two kinds of patience, I think—one 
physical, the other spiritual. I can not wonder 
that the former fails when such unreasonable strain 
is put upon it; but let us do our best to keep our 
souls steadfast in the higher, spiritual patience. 
Don’t you know what I mean? Why, just to do 
our best, and trust in Ood for the rest. I am sorry 
that the nerves give out so, and the patience which 
depends largely upon good health, the physical 
patience, fails so often—it is so bad for the little 
ones. Did you never sit down and cry in sheer pity 
for your children because they had 6iich a “poor 
stick” of a mother? No? Well I am glad of it, 
and hope you never will come to sucli.a pass ; but 
if you ever should, you may be sure that at least 
one woman knows how you feel, and would be glad 
to give you all the intelligent sympathy you need— 
and this is the advice she would give you : Stop 
crying as soon as possible, and look about you for 
more help. See how many of your present bur¬ 
dens you can reasonably drop, and look in every 
direction for helps. 
Speaking of helps, nothing that I am able to see 
offers such grand help to parents and to children 
as the kindergarten. But we who know this, and 
who are full of longing to avail ourselves of its aid, 
can not do so because others around us are ignor¬ 
ant of its value. Let us set to work to gather and; 
to scatter all possible information upon the subject. 
Now, how many “ Parents’ Unions” can we get 
started in the neighborhoods where this paper 
circulates ? 
Tested Recipes for Plain Cake. — Plain 
Sponge-Cake.— Two eggs; one cup of powdered 
6Ugar ; one cup of silted flour; one and a half tea¬ 
spoonful of good baking-powder (or one teaspoon¬ 
ful of cream-of-tartar and half as much 6oda). 
Always beat the whites and yolks separately for 
sponge-cake. Sponge-cake that is not “ plain ’* 
might well be called egg-cake, it is such a perfect 
puff of sweetened and flavored egg-foam, with only 
enough flour to give it body. Any cake having 
the “sponge” characteristic must be made of 
well-beaten eggs, however few they may be. 
An acquaintance tflinks this sponge-cake much 
improved by stirring in quickly and thoroughly at 
the last moment before it goes into the oven half 
a small teacup of boiling water. The rule given 
above makes ouly one small-sized loaf. 
Poor-Man's Cake. —One cup of sugar ; one third 
of a cup of butter ; one egg ; one half cup of sweet 
milk ; one and a half teaspoon of baking-powder. 
This rule makes only one loaf. It i6 a good recipe 
to use for “patty” cakes. 
Aprons for the Washerwoman! —I used to 
hear it said that a girl who slopped the suds from 
her wash-tub over the wash-board upon her cloth¬ 
ing would be sure to marry a drunkard ; but this 
sign, like others of its class, had no foundation in, 
fact. Some persons soil their dresses at the wash- 
tub very badly. Not long ago I saw two women 
washing in the shade together, and each wore a 
water-proof apron made of black carriage-cloth. 
It was simply a piece of the cloth about three- 
fourths of a yard square, with strings fastened on 
two sides, about ten inches from the corner, so 
that one corner of the square was pinned to the 
waist for a bib. 
[By “ carriage-cloth ” we suppose Mrs. Roches¬ 
ter means enameled cloth.— Ed.] 
Y¥lieaten Grits. —A correspondent at Mor¬ 
ristown complains that with all the care of the 
cook the grits will not be good. We do not know 
exactly what preparation of wheat our correspon¬ 
dent refers to. We use that which is sold as 
“ Cracked White Wheat.” This, covered with cold- 
water, and cooked for two hours in a farina-kettle, 
comes out well done, and is “ good.” The farina- 
kettle has an outer vessel containing water and an 
inner one to hold the thing to be cooked, and it is 
impossible to burn the wheat. 
K 
Canning; CJrccn Corn and Peas.— 
Every'season we have numerous letters asking 
how to can green corn and green peas. We are 
obliged to answer now as in former years, that 
these can not be put up in the family. They re¬ 
quire expensive apparatus, and but few among the 
regular canning establishments undertake them.- 
