1883.J 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
133 
Easter Eggs. 
Easter comes very early indeed this year : upon 
the 25th of March, which is almost as early as it 
can ever be, and before long, children will begin 
to think about preparing what in old times used 
to be called paas eggs. It is a good plan, too, 
for the egg colorers of a neighborhood to hold a 
sort of “bee,” and unite in the production of the 
dyes, thus saving time and money. 
The exchange of eggs between friends, as a to¬ 
ken of love or friendship, is a very ancient custom, 
dating back almost to the flood, for it is a symbol 
of the ark, as well as of the resurrection, which is 
the reason that we present them at Easter. It is 
moreover a very universal custom prevailing among 
different nations and religions. The Jews placed 
eggs on their Passover tables, the Druids used 
them in their ceremonies, and the Persians fre¬ 
quently give them as New Year’s gifts. If you 
should happen to be in Russia this month, a Rus¬ 
sian would greet you on Easter morning with 
“ Christ is risen,” and offer you an Easter egg,— 
and stranger still, if you were in the far East, a 
Mohammedan would do the same. At city con¬ 
fectioners, fancy sugar eggs—some of them of 
enormous size, and containing panoramas of land¬ 
scapes and figures, or else filled with bon-bons,— 
may be had at all prices; hut appropriate home¬ 
made ones are worth twice as much. 
To dye eggs, onion skins put in the water in 
which they are boiled will make them a bright yel¬ 
low ; or, if left longer in the solution, a rich brown. 
Log-wood or violet ink,gives a royal purple. Cochin¬ 
eal, pick and crimson; and many pieces of chintz, or 
bright ribbon that fade easily, if sewed tightly 
round the eggs, will color them nicely in figures, 
stripes, or dots. Another way is to dip the egg 
into hot water, and then write a name or motto'on 
the shell with tallow. It is then boiled in the solu¬ 
tion of dye-wood, when the inscription will appear 
in white, upon a colored ground. 
Those who are skillful with pencil and paint¬ 
brush can present their friends with really exquisite 
souvenirs, by ornamenting eggs with flowers and 
butterflies, or appropriate texts of scripture. For 
these painted eggs, it is better to puncture a tiny 
hole with a pin in each 
6ide, and blow out the in¬ 
side, leaving a clear shell, 
than to boil them ; and the 
apertures can be concealed 
by stars of silver or gilt 
paper. In former times, 
boys used to hold egg con¬ 
tests on Easter Monday, 
with hard-boiled eggs, the 
strength of the shell' con¬ 
stituting the chief virtue 
of the paas egg. A youth 
challenged a companion to 
give blow for blow. One 
egg was sure to be broken, 
and the remains were the 
spoil of the conqueror. An 
egg which was the victor 
of ten or a dozen combats, 
would be frequently chal¬ 
lenged, and doubtless was 
highly prized by its owner. 
In Cheshire, England, 
children go round the vil¬ 
lage and beg for eggs for 
their Easter dinner, sing¬ 
ing a song addressed to 
the farmer’s wife, asking 
for “an egg, bacon, cheese, 
or an apple, or any good 
thing that will make us 
merry! ” ending with, 
“And I pray you, good 
dame, an Easter egg.” 
Charles the Second once presented one of his fa¬ 
vorites with an Easter egg made of silver ; and in 
the British Museum, in London, is still preserved a 
curious and beautiful one, given almost two hun¬ 
dred years ago to a lady of high rank. It was 
sawed open, the shell lined with gold paper, and 
decorated with figures of saints done in silk. It 
opens and shuts, and is tied with green ribbons. 
We hope all our young readers will try their hand 
this year at decorating eggs with some fanciful de¬ 
signs like those given below ; and we are sure, 
whatever they may be, their friends will find them 
pretty and acceptable Easter offerings. 
What is a Geyser? 
Is the question put by our young friend, “D. 
H.,” and he also asks where geysers can be seen. 
A geyser is a peculiar spring or fountain, 
which throws up boiling, or at least very hot, 
water at intervals. In some geysers, the water 
appears almost every hour—in others, a day 
or two may pass between the spoutings, and 
to see the great geyser of Iceland in action, 
one must often wait a week. The only geyser 
the writer ever saw was in California; there 
was an opening in the rocks ten feet or more 
across, and like a very deep well. Great noises 
down below were to be heard ; rumblings and 
the swashing of water, and the roar of steam. 
After a while, water could be seen far down 
in the well, which would come swirling up 
very rapidly until it reached the surface ; a 
large quantity of water then ran out, and the 
rest sunk back in the well. This geyser is 
a very tame affair compared with those in 
Iceland, or others in our own country. In the 
region of the Yellowstone river are some of 
the most noted geysers in the world. Some of 
these are gigantic fountains, which throw up large 
columns of water to the bight of 200 feet. In 
some geysers, the action is very brief, while in 
others, the flow of water lasts for 15 minutes or 
more. “ What makes the water flow at intervals ?” 
do you ask ? The action of geysers has been imi¬ 
tated, and apparatus has been contrived to play in 
a similar manner. From the form it is necessary to 
give these imitations, the cause of the irregular 
flow of the real geyser is inferred. Geysers are al¬ 
ways found where volcanic action is going on. Not 
that there are real volcanoes, throwing up lava and 
fire, but the internal heat of the earth in these 
steam is mingled with it. The engraving shows 
the manner in which the interior of the earth near 
the geyser would appear. At the left hand is seen 
the basin and the well of the geyser; this well con¬ 
nects at the bottom with a large cavern in the 
rocks, in which water accumulates. The heat of 
the earth causes the water to boil, and when the 
steam thus formed acquires force enough, it drives 
out the water through the geyser tube. Of course, 
when the water in the cavern gets below the open¬ 
ing of the tube, no more can be driven out. The 
flow stops suddenly, and can only begin again when 
more water and steam accumulate in the cavern. 
A GROUP OP EASTER EGGS. 
SECTIONAL VIEW OF A GEYSER. 
places shows itself near the surface. At the Cali¬ 
fornia geyser mentioned, the rocks and ground 
w r ere so hot that one did not care to stand long in 
any place very near the edge of the opening. The 
water of the geysers is always hot, and usually 
We hope that many of our young readers may some 
day visit the region of country where these geysers 
are found, and see with their own eyes what has here 
been described. Nature is full of wonderful things. 
Problems for Boys and Girls. 
Here are some interesting items that will give 
exercise with the pencil, and fix useful figures in 
the memory. On the maps you see a narrow strip 
of land extending east from New York City, called 
Long Island. In a Brooklyn Church, recently, 
the clergyman surprised the writer by saying, “All 
the people of the world could be set down on this 
Island, and not be crowded.” On looking into it, 
we found the island’s area 1,682 square miles. The 
latest and best estimate of the world’s population 
is fourteen and one-third thousand millions, or 
nearly li billion—in figures, 1, £33,387,500 
inhabitants. Now an acre contains 43,560 square 
feet, and a square mile contains 640 acres. (They 
call this a “section” of land out West, and the 
ordinary quarter section farm contains 160 acres.) 
Get out your pencils, and you will find that if all 
the world, old and young, came on to Long Island, 
they would each have over 321 square feet to 
6tand on, or over 31 square yards, or a plot over 5J 
feet square. In a crowd not much packed, a man 
will stand comfortably on 4 square feet, not 4 feet 
square. Now get out your pencils for 
The Problems. 
1. —Bring all the inhabitants of the world into one 
mass meeting, and give each 4 square feet of standing 
room. How many acres would they occupy ? 
2. —How many square miles? 
3. —How many miles each way would the meeting 
extend ? • 
4. —If all settled in the United States, excluding 
Alaska, hew many acres would each have ? 
5. —If divided into equal families of five persons, 
how many acres for each family ? 
6. —How much land would tour State give each 
family? 
7. —How much would New York give ? 
8. —How much would Pennsylvania give? 
9. How much would Illinois give? 
10. —How much would Texas give ? 
11 .—How much would Kansas give ? 
1 2.—Tell how much each State would give. 
Note. —You will find the areas of all the States and 
Territories in the American Agriculturist for March, last 
year, if you can not find the figures elsewhere. The 
United States, not counting Alaska, have 2.910,000 square 
miles of land surface, besides 55,000 sq. miles of water. 
