AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[January, 
26 
of flour, of the best quality. Stir in the flour grad¬ 
ually, and with a spoon beat the mixture five min¬ 
utes briskly. The object of the beating is to get 
as much air as possible into the batter. Put a piiecc 
of butter of the size of a pea into each of the moulds, 
and till about two-thirds full with tire batter. Put 
immediately iuto a very hot oven, and bake for 
twenty minutes, or until nicely browned. 
This form of unleavened bread is the best article 
for breakfast or tea we have ever found in that laud 
of good housekeepers, Eastern Connecticut. It is 
exceedingly light, palatable, and nutritious, excel¬ 
lent for invalids and dyspeptics, and quite as good 
for people in sound health. They are so nice that 
we hope our readers will try the article for them¬ 
selves. We bear no ill-will to the hop growers, or 
the venders of soda, saleratus, and other salts, but 
we have no doubt that the Gems once introduced 
into a family would greatly diminish the use of 
these unwholesome articles in cookery, and 
help to promote health and good digestion. 
-- * --- 
Comfort for Housekeepers without Help. 
Mrs. E. E. K. 0., of Illinois, writes us, in an ac¬ 
count of one day in her family. “ My neighbor was 
in and said she had made a whole dress to-day. 
She has no help and has as many in her family as I 
have. I have a washing machine, a wringer, and 
woman to wash, and a sewing machine. I can easily 
get some one to come and make up new garments, 
but no one to mend. I really like to mend, and it 
is possible I spend more time upon an old garment 
than it is worth. Intelligent domestics that know 
how house work should be done will not go out to 
service unless they are obliged to,. and I prefer do¬ 
ing my own house work to having poor Help. 
Girls think that their ideal husbands will never look 
into a kitchen for a wife. I suspect it is better for 
my children, perhaps better for me, to be without 
help. They try to wait upon themselves and to 
help me more than they would if I was less pressed 
with cares. I think I see an improvement in them 
since I gave them those two little books in which 
I write down their deeds both good and bad. They 
help me many times, that they may have the kind¬ 
ness put to their credit in the book, and check 
rising anger that it may not be set down against 
them. Exchanging work with them and reward¬ 
ing them encourages their industry. Yesterday 
Anna washed the dishes, and in the evening I made 
her doll a dress. Orin picked up a basket of chips 
and brought them in, and I told him about the Is¬ 
raelites crossing the Red Sea. He works with great 
alacrity when I promise to tell him a Bible story.” 
The topic touched upon by our correspondent is 
one of very great importance in all our families. 
The training of children to industrious habits is 
much more likely to be well done in a family where 
necessity is laid upon the parents to work. The 
curse is in a measure taken off from toil where it 
is shared by a mother’s love. Children come to 
love the labors of the household for the sake 
of lightening her burdens. The child’s view of 
washing, cooking, and mending, is very much 
affected by the person tied up to these duties. 
If Bridget is always associated with the wash tub 
and the cook stove, a little of Bridget’s coarseness 
attaches to these household offices. If mother does 
these things they are redeemed from all vulgar as¬ 
sociations. There is nothing pertaining to house¬ 
keeping that tlic daughter may notlearn with honor. 
She will be eager to master the mysteries of the 
kitchen, without suspecting that she is any the less 
a lady for the knowledge. Society is suffering so 
much for the want of good housekeepers and ser¬ 
vants that we think mothers ought to welcome al¬ 
most anything that will make their daughters thor¬ 
oughly skilled in domestic duties. Very much of 
the trouble with servants arises from the fact that 
the housekeeper docs not understand their duties, 
and so is not reasonable in her requirements. She 
is not at home in the kitchen, and there are no com¬ 
mon sympathies between her and her servants. A 
woman well trained in her early home not to des¬ 
pise any useful office seldom fails to make a good 
wife and mother, and to have a happy, well-regu¬ 
lated family. Our correspondent takes- a comfort¬ 
ing view of “ the situation,” and is pursuing the 
right course with her children. We especially like 
her devices of keeping account with them, and of 
exchanging work. Such a course will encourage 
self restraint and promote industrious habits. 
A Picture in the Backwoods. 
The cars ran off the track and we were detained 
two hours near a log house. It was in the midst 
of a corn field, in a clearing made a dozen years ago 
or more. There was no carriage road passing it, 
and we suspect the family owned nothing but a 
cart that went on wheels. Yet the man owned a 
farm of eighty acres and valued it at fifty dollars an 
acre. It was good land and yielded bountifully. 
In the main room of the dwelling, which answered 
for parlor, sitting-room, and lodging-room, sat the 
wife and mother bare-footed, with a pipe in her 
mouth, and sewing in her lap. Near her sat a mar¬ 
ried daughter with the same attire for the feet, 
rocking the cradle. In the ell, where the kitchen 
work was done, stood another grown up daughter 
with bare feet, mixing the corn meal dough for the 
evening meal. There was not the slightest indica¬ 
tion of embarrassment at the dishabille. The la¬ 
dies of the household were manifestly in the habit 
of receiving calls in that style of dress. There was 
no carpet upon the floor, and never had been. There 
were' no pictures upon the walls, no books upon 
the shelf, no ornaments about the room, nothing 
that did not contribute directly to man’s physical 
wants. There was no yard about the house, either 
in front or rear. There was not a fruit tree in sight, 
nota tree for shade about the dwelling, nota flower, 
not even a Nasturtian growing under the window. 
There was a shed in the rear, of the rudest pattern, 
where flour, corn meal, and the meat barrels, were 
sheltered. There was a log barn, with a stall or 
two in it, and a place for hay and corn. Beside 
these, there was no other convenience about the 
dwelling to indicate that man had other wants than 
the brutes. Yet here two human beings had lived 
for half a generation and reared a family of chil¬ 
dren, as rude, as ignorant, as destitute of taste, as 
themselves. We come at some truths best by con¬ 
trast, and it cannot fail to profit some of our de¬ 
sponding readers in cheerful homes to study this 
way-side sketch of a dwelling iu the clearings. 
—- y-o --- 
A Home-made Coal Sifter. 
When anthracite coal is burned, there Is often a 
great deal of waste. The sifting of the refuse of. 
the grate or stove is by no means a pleasant opera¬ 
tion, and it is often, especially where there are ser¬ 
vants, thrown away, and thus a considerable 
amount of fuel is lost. Quite a number of contriv¬ 
ances, most of them patented, have been devised 
for facilitating the process of sifting, some of 
which answer the purpose very well. A correspond¬ 
ent, E. ,T. P., sends us from Milford, Mass., a plan 
of an easily built, home-made sifter, that has the 
merit of being-cheap and apparently efficient. The 
materials required are an old flour barrel, a coarse 
sieve, apiece of one-sixteenth-inch wire, and an old 
broom-handle. Bore holes just above the second 
hoops of the barrel, and put two pieces of wire 
across it; clinch these on the outside so that they 
will make a firm place for the sieve to rest upon. 
Midway between the wires bore two l 1 .! inch holes 
on opposite sides of the barrel; saw two notches in 
the broom-handle, just wide enough apart to re¬ 
ceive the edges of the sieve. Put the broom-handle 
through the holes in the barrel, set the sieve in the 
notches cut in the stick, put on some kind of a 
cover over the top of the barrel, and the thing is 
ready. By pushing the stick backward and for¬ 
ward, the sieve slides upon the wires, and the sift¬ 
ing is done with ease and without dust. The ashes 
are a nuisance in towns, but in the country they are 
useful for walks, and as an absorbent in privies. 
Eecipes for Cooking. 
The following are contributed by Mrs. D. W. 
Sutton, Westchester County, N. Y. 
—Sift into a good sized wooden bread 
bowl a quantity of flour, say seven pounds, make 
a hole in the center of the sponge, (or in winter, 
some prefer setting the sponge in the tray of flour), 
or if the sponge is quite cold, and you wish to 
hasten the process, put in warm water or milk, a 
little hotter than it would do to set the sponge in. 
Thicken it up with flour until cool enough to re¬ 
ceive the sponge ; then add a handful of salt, then 
the sponge. Stir the flour around from the inner 
edges with a spoon, until a tolerably stiff batter is 
formed, knead until perfectly clean and smooth, and 
if kneaded several times, it is finer grained. A small 
lump of butter or lard rubbed into the flour, while 
it is dry, makes a nicer crust. In hot weather the 
batter should be made of cold water, especially if 
set over night, which is a good plan, preparing it 
about bedtime. When light again after kneading, 
mould into loaves and put into greased pans ; cover 
and let it rise the third time. -When light, prick 
the loaves, to prevent cracking, and bake in a hot 
oven. Care should be taken that it does not get 
chilled or scalded. If it threatens to be sour from 
the yeast, or heat, dissolve a small portion of soda, 
and incorporate it thoroughly. It is thought to be 
a great improvement by some to add a small quan¬ 
tity of mashed potatoes; others add a small quanti¬ 
ty of warm Indian pudding. 
2. Rye Bread. is varied but little in process 
from the above. It is preferable to set wheat or 
middlings for the sponge, add a piece of butter or 
lard, mix most entirely with a spoon, then make into 
loaves, and put into well greased pans to rise. It 
requires longer time to bake, and a brick oven, and 
if it remain in the oven until cold, it is improved. 
K. 'I’jii'iijuiSce Yeast Calces. —Make 
good,/re.s/i scalded emptings, as in Nos. 1 and 3, 
then boil up hops, about a double handful, in about 
two quarts of water, with several sweet apples 
sliced, and a handful of peach leaves if convenient. 
Pour this liquor scalding hot, and strained, over 
about enough Indian meal to thicken; when cool, 
mix about a quart with the light, fresh yeast, and 
when light again, thicken stiff with more meal, and 
make into rolls about as thick as a rolling pin. 
When a little light again, cut off iu cakes not quite 
a half inch in thickness, and dry iu the shade. 
This is more convenient to make into cakes than 
either to roll out and cut, or to form with the hands. 
It may be dried in crumbs if preferable. Great 
care should be taken after it is thoroughly dried, 
to put in a tight bag and keep iu the dark. Though 
good for a year, it is better to make it every six 
months in dry weather. For use, soak a cake until 
it will crumble up fine, and mix with a quart of 
warm water, thickened with flour. 
JPumpliisn Yeast. —Boil a pumpkin soft, 
and mash fine, and thicken it with Indian meal and 
a handful of salt; when cool, add two cups of yeast. 
This is very convenient and nice for winter, as it 
will keep four months or more in winter if kept in 
a cellar where it will not freeze. All yeast should 
be kept where it will not freeze in winter. 
Bottled Yeast.—Boil down one quart of 
hops in two quarts of water, one-half; boil and 
mash 13 potatoes to add to this liquid ; add one cup 
of sugar, a tablespoonful of flour, one-half cup salt. 
Rye and Indian Bread. —Two parts of 
Indian meal to one of rye; put the com meal 
into your bread pan, with a little salt and molasses, 
wet it with scalding water, and be sure that it is 
scalded, working it at the same time with a spoon. 
When lukewarm add the rye, a cupful of good yeast, 
and mix it up with water-not very stiff; knead it 
into loaves, let it stand to rise, and bake iu a mod¬ 
erate oven. 
Bunns os* Rolls. —Thicken one quart of 
warm water or milk, add a little salt, one half cup 
of melted butter, and one cup of good yeast; make 
into biscuits for morning, or into an oval roll, and 
draw a deep cut. If not very light, add a little soda. 
