^ *--4 . 
47 
Jontfstu; (Kiionamg. 
ALL ABOOT COOKING OATMEAL. 
In' response to Aunt Phebe s request for 
information about cooking oatmeal, I send 
the following directions for preparing it ] 
without much trouble ‘ 
Oatmeal Mush .—Into one quart of boiling 
water stir a teaspoonful of salt and sufficient 
oatmeal to make a thin pudding. Stir rap¬ 
idly to prevent scorching, and when it is just 
thick enough to keep its shape dip out into a 
bowl or deep dish, and in a, few moments it 
can be turned on to a plate. 
This is a nice breakfast dish eaten warm 
with butter and sugar, or, when cold, with 
cream and sugar. For variety, at dinner, 
we sometimes us a dressing similar to 
that made for dumplings, with the addition 
of a tablespoonful of strawberry preserves, 
or a. little juice of some acid fruit. 
Oatmeal Pancake *.—Stir into four cupsful 
of cold wnter a tea spoonful of salt, a large 
handful of Graham flour and oatmeal till 
you have a thin batter. Bake at once on a ! 
very hot griddle. We think tho Graham 
flour improves the pancakes, as they are 
i more easily turned and not quite so dry as 
when oatmeal onlyis used. When preferred, 
one cup of water can be left out, using in¬ 
stead of it a cupful of buttermilk and a tea- 
spoonful of soda. 
Oatmeal Gems.—Take three and one-half 
cupfuls of cold water, a teaspoonful of salt 
and enough oatmeal to make the batter 
about as thick as for pancakes. Let it stand 
a few minutes; then fill gem irons nearly 
full aiid bake about twenty minutes in a very 
hot oven, or a small dripping-pan con be used 
instead of the irons. 
MOORE'S RURAL 
beat to a stiff froth, the whites of eight eggs, 
and two-thirds of a cup of sugar, and spread 
over the top. It is improved by being kept 
on ice, and is grateful to the eye and palate, 
either for desert or tea. The yolks of the 
eggs may be used in making a boiled custard. 
Cloth .Mittens.— Take auy soft, Irong 
cloth, of all wool, and the same amount of 
Canton flannel, if you have it ; let the hand 
be laid flat ou piece of paper, marked round 
with a pencil, then cut out a pattern, allow¬ 
ing for seams ; cut the lining bias so as to 
have a spring to it, stitch the flannel and 
lining separate, turn the seams together in¬ 
side, bind the wrist, leaving the mitten open 
two inches on the under part of the hand, 
work a button-hole on one side, sew a strong 
button on the other, and you will have a 
durable mitten. 
The Best Way of Roasting Chestnuts .— 
In the south of Franco chestnuts are first put 
into a pan of cold water, placed on the fire, 
and boiled until nearly soft. They are then 
taken out, each chestnut receiving a small 
slit on the rind with a knife, after which 
they are put into a large flat pan (an ordinary 
frying pan would do) and tossed over a glow¬ 
ing lire until they become dry and mealy. 
Jelly Rolls.- -Take three eggs, half a cup 
of sugar, a cup of flour, a teaspoonful of 
soda, or, in lieu of the soda and cream tartar, 
one and a half teaspoonfuls of baking pow¬ 
der ; hake in thin cakes ; spread with jelly, 
and roll up with the jelly side in ; cut in 
slices across the roll. 
Potato Puff.— Two cups of cold, mashed 
potatoes ; stir in two tablespoonfuls of melted 
butter, heating to a cream ; add two well- 
beaten eggs, one cup of cream or milk ; pour 
into a deep dish ; bake in a quick oven. 
Nice Gingerbread. -One cup of molases; 
one cup of thick, richepeam ; one teaspoonful 
of saloratUs mixed with the cream ; one len- 
Oatmeal Porridge,—Make a pudding of 
oatmeal so thin that it can be poured from 
the spider ; let it cook slowly for a short 
time, and instead of boiling the milk with it 
as we do in corn meal or flour porridge, drop 
the pudding with a spoon into each one’s 
bowl of cold, rich milk. 
This is a wholesome dish for supper, and 
we like to have oatmeal in some form get I 
into our bill of fare quite often. 
Ruth Lee. 
•-♦-*--*■- 
SELECTED RECIPES. 
Cabbage^ Salad. —Raw cabbage composes 
a part of our dinner every day, and we have 
various methods of preparing it, but think 
the following the best:—Shave a hard white 
cabbage into small white strips ; take the 
yolks of three well-beaten eggs, a oup and a 
half of good cider vinegar, two teaspoonfuls 
of white sugar, three tablespoonfuls of thick 
cream, one teaspoonful of mustard mixed in 
a little boiling water ; salt and pepper to 
' suit the taste. Mix all but the eggs together 
and let it boil; then stir in t he eggs rapidly ; 
stir the cabbage into the mixture, and stir 
well. I always make enough for * wo days 
at once, and it keeps perfectly, and is an ex¬ 
cellent relish to all kinds of meat. 
A Useful Soap. —The following is com¬ 
mended by those who have tried it for scrub¬ 
bing and cleansing painted floors washing 
dishe3, and other household purposes. Take 
two pounds of white olive soap and shave it 
in thin slices ; add two ounces of borax and 
two quarts of cold water; stir all together in 
a stone or earthen jar, and let it set upon the 
back of the stove until the mass is dissolved. 
A vory little heat is required, as the liquid 
| need not simmer, When thoroughly mixed 
and cooled, it becomes of the consist-nee of 
a thick jelly, and a piece the size of a cubic { 
inch will make a lather for a gallon of 
water.—Boston Journal of Chemistry. 
Fruit Pudding. —Make a crust of graham 
flour, sour cream, soda and a pinch of salt. 
Pass the flour through a coarse sieve, so as to 
relieve it of the larger bits of bran. For a 
family of six persons line a quart basin with 
the crust, a quarter of an inch thick. Fill 
the basin thus lined, with fruit—plums or 
peaches are best. Let the fruit be of the 
choicest variety. Cover the whole with a 
rather thick crust, and steam until the crust 
is thoroughly cooked. Serve with white 
sugar and thick, sweet cream. This is the 
queen of puddings and can be eaten with a 
. (comparatively) clear conscience.— Herald of 
Health. 
Apple Snow .—Pare and core eight or ten 
tart, juicy apples, boil them in water suffic¬ 
ient to cover them, till they are soft, taking 
care to keep them whole; then remove 
them from the stew pan, making a sirup of 
nice, white sugar, and replace them ; let 
them simmer slowly till they are amber 
colored, then place in a glass preserve dish ; 
spoonful ginger ; one well beaten egg with a 
little salt. Bake in a quick oven. 
^loriiiultttijal. 
RESULTS OP HYBRIDIZING PETUNIAS. 
From the white and dull, purplish red Pe¬ 
tunia of South America—old familiars of 
forty years—the rose, lavender, violet, , 
blotched and striped petunias of to-day have 
sprung. But there is a trace of the red per¬ 
vading these colors that detracts from their 
variety and brilliancy as bedding plants. A 
trailing, coarse, rampant growth, likewise 
constrains the Petunia to accept a second 
place among annuals, though in several de¬ 
cided respects there is not another possessing 
higher claims to rank among the choicest. 
The plentiful formation of seed, the faeil ty 
and certainty with which the seed germin¬ 
ate in-door or out, their early, profuse and 
perpetual bloom uulii frost, the trifling care 
required in the preparation of tho soil or in 
their culture, let the season be wet or dry, 
are among these claims. 
With the exception of the Countess of El- , 
lesmere—a little rose-colored flower with a 
white throat, the blotched and striped sorts, 
whether planted in masses or singly, show a j 
constant tendency to revert to the original 
solid colors. When this occurs and we wish 
to re-create the variegation, it is only access 
ary to plant a large proportion of the old 
white flowers with the. others. The next 
season will reveal an endless variety of mark¬ 
ings, the pollen having been transmitted 
from one to the other chiefly, we suppose, 
by bees, which arc especially fond of this 
flower. In fact, the lower part of almost 
every flower, during the season, when bees 
are most industrious, is torn in two by their 
frequent ingress and egress. 
The results of judiciously hybridizing or, 
more accurately speaking, mixing petunias, 
proved in our own case somewhat unexpect¬ 
ed and remarkable. We give the following 
particulars that others may be induced to 
try a like experiment, conducted us It may 
be with little of either patience, trouble or 
skill. 
We raised las year a green-margined flow¬ 
er of an unusually large size and a somewhat 
frilled edge, the seed of which we were de¬ 
sirous of collecting. But tho anthers born 
no pollen and the corollas dropped off, leav¬ 
ing no sign of a seed-pod. We at length fer¬ 
tilized the pistils with pollen from the largest 
red flower we could find. Seed now formed 
plentifully, In due course, and—sowed this 
season—produced about twenty plants most 
of them very distinct in leaf and flower, and, 
in the latter, conspicuously different from 
either parent. The throat is wider and deep¬ 
er, and the five confluent laminae after co¬ 
hering for an inch, separate into puffed bor¬ 
ders that overlap each other. Each border 
NEW-YORKER 
is so frilled and puffed that the flower, when 
torn in pieces, can not be laid or pressed 
smooth. The whole blade is wrinkled, heavy 
and tough, and in ores in many flowers, 
four, in some four auu ... naif, and in a few 
flve inches in diameter. The sepals of the 
calyx are as large as ordinary petunia leaves 
and the leaves atleasl twice the size of other 
strains. The flowers, very few of them 
really pretty, were variously and strangely 
marked. One plant bore flowers with a yel¬ 
low throat that merged into a greenish white 
at the perimeter. Another a violet throat 
gradually changing to lilac, with vivid green 
seams, the green breaking out irregularly 
about the edges. Another, of a dull white 
ground, was crimson t inted through the mid¬ 
dle of the divisions, with green lines-eonnect- 
ing laminae—the tube measuring, in differ¬ 
ent, specimens, from two to three inches of a 
deeper color with black veins. More com¬ 
monly the flowers were deep purple with 
immense green borders. Others were veined 
with black upon a lilac ground ; others crim¬ 
son blotched with white as wo often see— 
but all were of a size, substance and form 
that, with the novel markings of many, 
create with us, as we doubt not they would 
with others, a renewed and stirring interest 
in this old. hardy, industrious favorite. 
These singular flowers, especially those 
which developed the green either marginal 
or in blotches, beautifully illustrated the 
identity of all the floral organs with tho 
green leaf, by revealing the metamorphosis 
in its every stage. Thus, sometimes the half- 
formed flower, when concealed from the sun 
by an entanglement of foilage, would lose 
one by one, with every succeeding day. its 
flower characteristics and become petioJar 
leaves. Again, the stamens, instead of de¬ 
veloping anthers, would form a whorl of 
little green leaves within tho corolla, Tn 
other instances, after tho corolla had with¬ 
ered, yet remaining as if to protect the for¬ 
mation of the seed, we have discovered, 
upon removing it, Instead of a seed-pod, a 
complete, growth, from the receptacle., of 
stalk, petioles and leaves, as if the flower 
itself had caused no interruption. This last 
was of frequent occurrence, being, indeed, 
rather the rule than the exception during 
early arid mid-summer. 
We again industriously mixed and marked 
the flneA and most striking of these flowers, 
the seed of which we hope to plant again 
next season with additionally curious re¬ 
sults. E. S. Carman, 
.--* 
WINTERING GERANIUMS. 
The most of our Geraniums have just gone 
into rather novel winter quarters, and if any 
of you wish to try a somewhat doubtful ex- 
perimeut which is new to us, you may leani 
how we propose to escape the care of so 
many non-blooming plants during the cold¬ 
est season, it may be a failure, but in that 
case, we may have companionship in mis¬ 
fortune, and our lost treasures can be re¬ 
placed in the spring. 
When geraniums have flowered well thro’ 
the summer, we need not expect them to be 
very ornamental in the winter, and they 
should have some rest; but oiu-s have never 
lived when they were suspended by the 
roots in the cellar, as some gardeners have 
recommended. The mold has always col¬ 
lected on them, causing decay, though in a 
very dry cellar the results might have been 
better. 
This fall, on tho approach of frost, our 
finest single and double varieties that were 
in bloom in the garden were taken up and 
pruned closely, root and branch, before be- 
1 ing transplanted to pots and boxes, prepara¬ 
tory to their removal to the house. They 
were placed in the cellar for a. few days, and 
then brought into an upper room, where 
they remained till the second week in De¬ 
cember, when all the dirt was carefully 
shaken from the roots, and the tops were, 
cut back till only a few inches of the wooded 
branches were left. 
A number of new shoots were just start¬ 
ing on each stock below the soil. The plants 
were dried a day or two in the kitchen, then 
set upright, with a label on each variety and 
covered with sifted sand, which was thor¬ 
oughly dry. They are now in the cellar, 
safe from frost, and we shall borrow no 
trouble about them till spring. 
Some time in March, we intend to bring 
them into a warm room, moisten the sand, 
and if we find new buds, shall re-pot the 
plants and stimulate to a vigorous growth ; 
hoping in this way to have them in good con¬ 
dition for bedding out another summer. 
To guard against entire loss, we have start¬ 
ed cuttings of varieties that we should be 
very sorry to lose, around other plants in 
our Window Garden. Ruth Lee. 
l 
ititUffy and Useful 
MISCROSCOPIC CRYSTALS IN PLANTS. 
Besides the familar bundles of needle- 
shaped crystals, called raphides, dispersed 
throughout the cellular structure of certain 
plants, there are in the seed covers and 
leaves of several orders of plants, and in the 
pods of the bean family, multitudes of pris¬ 
matic crystals of extreme minuteness, which 
have hitherto escaped detection, In the 
horned poppy, those crystals areas small .as 
the8.000th f an inch in diameter. In the 
gooseberry and elm, they are 1.800th of an 
inch ; in the black currant,abouL half as large; 
in the black bryony, they are about 1.1000th 
of an inch in diameter, thickly set at regular 
distances throughout the seed covers. In the 
gooseberry, they are so distinctly and 
regularly placed in the outer skin—each 
crystal in a seperato cell—that they present 
the appearance of crystaline tissues. In 
plants of the bean family, the size is variable, 
the average being about l,8uOOth of an inch. 
In the garden pea, they are much larger. 
These crystals appear to consist chiefly of 
oxalate of lime, sometimes carbonate. Itaph- 
ides are mainly phosphate of lime. 
Plants most relished by animals are found 
to be especially rich in those microscopic 
crystals. In a piece of the midrib of a 
clover leaflet, 1.70th of an inch in length, Mr. 
Gulliver, who has added more than any 
other to our knowledge of these minute but 
important products of vegetable action, has 
counted 10 chains or crystals with 25 in a 
chain making 850 in all, or no less than 17,- 
500 to the inch. In like manner 21,000 
crystals were reckoned for one inch of the 
sutral margin of a single valve of a pea pod. 
The pod had four such margins, each three 
inches in length ; so that in a single pod 
there moat have been as many as 250,000 
crystals. In view of the. marvelous number 
of these crystals, as well as their regular- 
ty and consistency, Mr. Gulliver believes it 
no longer possible for physiologists to main¬ 
tain that su$i structures are accidental 
freaks of nature, of no relation to or value 
in the life and use of the species. 
-- 
SCIENTIFIC AND USEFUL NOTES. 
Excellent Whitewash .—The following is 
said to be the very best of the numerous 
recipes for whitewashingWhite chalk is 
the very best, substitute for lime as a wash. 
Avery fine and brillant whitowash prepar¬ 
ation of chalk is called the ‘‘Paris White.” 
This we buy at the paint store for three 
cents a pound, retail. For each sixteen pounds 
of Paris White we procure half a pound of 
the white transparent glue, costing twenty- 
five cents (fifty cents a pound). The sixteen 
pounds of Paris White is about nsmuch as a 
person will use in a day. It is prepared as 
follows: The glue is covered with cold 
water at night, and in the morning is care¬ 
fully heated, without, scorching, m.tildissolv- 
ed. The Paris White is stirred in with hot 
water to give it the proper milky consistency 
for applying to walls, and the dis ulved glue 
is then added and thoroughly mixed. It is 
then applied with a brush like the common 
lime whitewash. Except on very dark and 
smoky walls, a single coat, is sufficient. It is 
neary equal in brilliancy to “zinc white,” a 
far more expensive article. 
New Weather Wane .—The old weather 
cock has two essential faults ; it indicates a 
direction when there is a dead calm. It 
gives no means of learning the force of the 
wind; while, it fails to show the true course 
of the same, hy exhibiting merely its hor¬ 
izontal component. M. Tany proposes the 
I arrangement to be attached to the ordinary 
I lightning rod. Just, above a suitable shoul¬ 
der on the latter is placed a copper ring, 
grooved and made into a pulley easily 
rotated in a horizontal plane. Around this 
passes a knotted cord, the ends of which 
are secured to the extremities of a short 
stick or metal rod, to which is secured a 
simple streamer. Thus constructed the vane 
indicates a calm by falling vertically, and 
besides shows the strength of the wind by 
being blown out more or less from the light¬ 
ning rod. As is evident, it is capable of mo¬ 
tion in every direction so that if there exist 
in the wind upward tending vertical com¬ 
ponents the same will be. shown. 
Taking Care of Boots .—One who has ex¬ 
perience is convinced that a coat of gum 
copal varnish applied to the soles of boots 
and shoes, and repeated as it dries, until the 
pores are filled and the surface shines like 
polished mahogany, will make the soles 
waterproof, and also cause them to last three 
1 times as long as ordinary soles. 
