464 
AMERICAN AGRIdULTUKlST. 
[December, 
Pearled Barley. —This makes an excellent 
thickening for a meat soup, as you would use rice, 
only you must cook it two or three hours. It is 
good boiled alone and eaten with sweetened cream. 
Boil it about three hours. 
Roast Duck. —Wild duck often has a strong 
flavor when cooked which is very disagreeable to 
many. Marion Harland speaks of it as a “fishy 
flavor,” and says it may be remedied by parboiling 
the dressed duck with a raw peeled carrot or an 
onion inside. The onion imparts some flavor, and 
should not be used unless there is onion in the 
dressing. A more important point is to remove 
the oil-sacs from the back of the fowl. A very 
important point (with all poultry, and indeed with 
all animal food) is the removal of the entrails. 
A very nice way to stuff and roast a duck is the 
following: For a moderate-sized duck take three 
potatoes, a quarter of a good-sized onion chopped 
very fine, half a tea-spoon each of summer savory 
and marjoram, a table-spoonful of butter, and a 
little pepper and salt. Put it,with a piece of butter, 
in the dripping-pan in the oven, and baste with the 
butter once in every ten minutes. Roast thor¬ 
oughly for an hour, or more if the duck is old and 
large. Mrs. Beecher says : “If too much cooked, 
a duck becomes very dry and tasteless.” 
This mode of roasting makes no allowance for 
gravy. That is made of the water in the bottom of 
the dripping-pan (after all of the fat has been re¬ 
moved) thickened with flour and the boiled and 
chopped giblets. 
Southern Mode of Baking Squash.—I am told 
that “nothing can be gooder” than the following 
mode of baking winter squash: Cut open the 
squash, and after scraping each half put a table¬ 
spoonful of butter and a table-spoonful of sugar 
in each. Bake slowly, and baste the inside so that 
the sugar and butter may permeate it evenly. 
I give the recipe as it was given me. I have al¬ 
ways thought that squash should be put into a hot 
oven and baked rather fast (though it takes a good 
while to bake it thoroughly, and I think it is often 
served when little more than half done), as much 
of the sweetness of the squash seems to escape by 
slow baking. It hardly seems fair treatment of 
anything so good as a Hubbard squash (to say 
nothing of economy) to allow it to waste its own 
natural sweetness on the desert air of the oven, 
and then attempt to supply the loss by imparting 
the sweetness of sugar. But you can try it. 
Christmas Toys. 
It has usually been my lot to have to send by 
others for the toys I would give my children, and 
I know that many other mothers are similarly sit¬ 
uated. I went through a large toy-store the 
other day in search of hints to give parents who 
can’t think what in the world to give their chil¬ 
dren next Christmas. 
There is such a great variety of toys that every 
one ought to get suited. It may seem an easy 
thing to select from so many, but really it is a 
matter that calls for considerable judgment. 
“Christmas comes but once a year,” and I think 
its presents should be very carefully chosen if 
possible. I should like to give about three presents 
—perhaps four—to each girl and boy. Or I would 
like to have each girl and boy receive as many from 
different friends. One present for any average 
child under twelve should surely be something 
that would make a noise —a trumpet, a mouth- 
organ, a jew’s-harp, a penny whistle, a toy mock¬ 
ing-bird, a toy accordion or fiddle, a squeaking 
ball or bird or mewing cat, possibly (O could I en¬ 
dure the racket!) a drum. Perhaps the drums and 
tnimpets ought to wait for summer time. But we 
must consider our neighbors’ ears too. The mouth 
organs ought to give some pleasure to everybody 
but the one “ who has no music in his soul, and is 
not moved by concord of sweet sounds.” The 
chords are usually pleasant, and a mouth organ is 
better than no music, in the house. Warn the little 
ones not to break off the metal side-casings, as the 
organ goes to ruin very soon after that happens. 
I wish now that I had had ours riveted together 
again when one side first got loose. A nice thing 
for baby is a soft rubber ball with a squeak inside. 
Babies always like balls, I notice. Froebel was 
right in making that the first of his series of gifts. 
How the little ones beg to take eggs in their hands. 
I see that china nest-eggs have their place in toy- 
stores, and rightly too, for they suit babies 
admirably. 
Having made sure that the instinctive craving of 
every child of nature to make a noise in the world 
has some gratification, if only by a penny whistle, 
I would wish to have it receive some present of an 
industrial character, some small implement to play 
at work with. All kinds of building and kinder¬ 
garten blocks may come under this head. Dolls 
too—why not ? Isn’t the care of children the big¬ 
gest job—though perhaps the most pleasant—that 
mothers have to do ? I should not choose for my 
little girls the dolls with ear-rings and brooch. 
Some sweet child-face and curly head would be a 
better educator of its taste—for a child’s taste is 
cultivated by all its playthings. For this reason 
I would dress the dolls simply, in pretty child- 
frocks rather than in fine-lady costumes. There 
are very sweet faces among the bisque doll heads, 
quite preferable to the shining china heads, I think. 
Two “ indestructible ” or leather-headed dolls have 
done the hardest kind of service in our family for 
a year past. They are more durable than even the 
rubber dolls, which mischievous children cut and 
bite with their teeth. I have seen none of these 
so pretty as the bisque heads, and they grow pale if 
subjected to baths, but it seems impossible to 
break them. Fire alone can utterly ruin them, serv¬ 
ing them as it serves other leather. 
Sets of dishes are much prized by little girls. 
They are only “ tea sets,” and the plates and knives 
and forks must be supplied separately. Very small 
china sets, suitable for beginners in doll house¬ 
keeping, can be bought for twenty-live cents. 
These are the cheapest, I believe, but beautiful sets 
sometimes cost many dollars. Even elegant real 
silver sets are sometimes presented to wealthy 
children. We won’t do so by our children, however, 
not only because we can’t, but because it seems so 
cruelly selfish when thousands and thousands of 
little children have scarcely a plaything at all. 
The doll-houses with their furniture do not so 
clearly come under the head of industrial imple¬ 
ments, since they are merely the apartments of the 
dolls. I would give a great deal more for the little 
old tool-house where I was once allowed to keep 
house for my dolls, and which was large enough 
for me to rock my babies to sleep and sit down to 
meals in with a few little friends at my small table, 
than for any costly doll-house I have seen. But 
where children can have almost everything that 
they want doll-houses work in nicely. Some little 
cubby under the stairs, or a corner of mamma’s 
room, may be almost a paradise for a little incipient 
woman with domestic tastes. Here will accumu¬ 
late, one by one, the doll, the doll’s bed and box 
of clothes, the dishes and their shelves, the wash¬ 
board and tub, the flat-iron and its stand, with a 
little holder and ironing-sheet, the broom and dust¬ 
pan, etc. Dear little housekeepers! Their imple¬ 
ments should be large enough to be of real use to 
them, and for this reason I should prefer to get 
one or two at a time, rather than a whole “kitch¬ 
en” with all sorts of very small implements 
which only dolls can use with any satisfaction. 
Tool-chests for the boys (and for girls, too, 
if they show a desire for them) give pleasure and 
profit. I fancy, however, that the money goes 
farther and pleases more if used for separate tools 
—first a hammer, afterwards a knife, then a gimlet, 
and other tools as the little workman’s needs re¬ 
quire. Half a dollar will buy a small saw or one of 
the nice fifty-feet tape measures that carpenters 
use—two things which the boys I know covet 
greatly. Children with artistic tastes will prize 
paint-boxes and sets of drawing instruments. The 
latter can be bought for a dollar or a dollar and a 
half, and the cheapest paint-boxes are only 10 cents. 
The carts and wheel-barrows are very delightful | 
and useful. By “ useful ” I mean simply that they 
make children happy —the best use of a plaything 
after all, however many other uses it may have. If 
they can be happy in what seems to them industry, 
instead of mere amusement like spinning tops, so 
much the better for their whole development. 
The tops have their place though, and so do all the 
jumping-jacks and other funny things. 
What crowds of them there are—steamboats, 
trains of cars, fire-engines that throw water a good 
many feet, dancing dolls. It is impossible to enu¬ 
merate all these things, so we will hasten to another 
department—that of the games and puzzles. There 
are jack-straws and dominoes and checkers, all 
useful intellectually as well as socially. There are 
various games of cards more or less profitable : the 
game of authors, game of poets, game of Dickens, 
historical cards, game of artists, etc. There are 
panoramas (seventy-five cents apiece)—two of 
which pleased me particularly. One is a panorama 
of American history—a series of colored pictures 
of early American history arranged on rollers in a 
case. There is a large poster or advertisement of 
this show in the box, and a card of forty little en¬ 
trance tickets, and a copy of a short, lively lecture 
about the pictures. The other one is about the 
late war of the rebellion, and is got up in the same 
style—very captivating to most children old enough 
to understand it. 
The third Christmas gift which I want every 
child to have is a good book suited to its years and 
tastes. The fourth should be something pleasing 
to the palate—not candy for my children, or only 
a very small quantity. A fine apple or a fresh pop¬ 
corn ball is better. Of course, I elo not adviso 
that more than one present be given, or more than 
one nice present, but I see the special use and ac¬ 
ceptability of all these things. I want children to 
have plenty of playthings, but they should learn 
to be pleased with simple and inexpensive things. 
The penny cast-iron toys please small children— 
spades, axes, hammers, rr'xfes, etc. Sleds ! O yes ! 
for girls as well as boys .-—but we must stop some¬ 
where. Rell. 
- - ■■ - - - 
Cake and Doughnuts. 
The following come from a Connecticut lady, 
Mrs. H. S. P., who has tested them and says that 
they are thoroughly practical: 
Cream Cake. —Two eggs ; one cup of sugar; 
one cup of cream ; two cups of flour; one tea¬ 
spoonful of croam-of-tartar ; one tea-spoonful 
of soda. 
Loaf Cake. —Three eggs; one cup of sugar; 
half a cup of butter ; one cup of cream ; one tea- 
spoonful of soda; one cup of raisins; one cup of 
currants ; flour and nutmeg. 
Cream Cookies.— One egg ; one- large cup of 
sugar; one cup of cream; one half cup of sour 
milk; half a tea-spoonful of soda; flour enough 
to roll. 
Raised Cake.— Two cups of raised dough; two 
eggs ; two cups of sugar; one cup of butter ; one 
cup of sweet milk ; one tea-spoonful of soda ; two 
cups of flour; one cup of fruit; cinnamon, cloves, 
and nutmeg. To be put into the oven at once. 
' Cocoa-nut Cake. —Two eggs; beat the whites to 
a stiff froth ; one and a half cup of sugar; half a 
cup of butter; half a cup of sweet milk ; one tea¬ 
spoonful of cream-of-tartar ; half a tea-spoonful of 
soda ; two and a quarter cups of flour ; half a cup 
of cocoa-nut; flavor with lemon. 
Minute Sponge Cake. —Beat three eggs two 
minutes; add one cup and a half of sugar; beat 
two minutes ; one cup of flour and one tea-spoon¬ 
ful of cream-of-tartar; beat one minute ; add half 
a cup of cold water with half a tea-spoonful of 
soda and a spoonful of extract of lemon ; beat one 
minute; add one cup of flour; beat one minute. 
Splendid. 
Doughnuts. —Two eggs: two cups of sugar; two 
cups of sweet milk ; a little salt; five pints of flour, 
with two even measures each of acid and soda 
of Hereford's preparation mixed well in the flour. 
