ightly with sugar. Serve with
cream. Other cooked fruit, such as cherries, evaporated peaches, and
apricots may be used in the same way. A very pleasing dish is made by
using between the layers ripe yellow peaches and plums sliced together,
and lightly sprinkled with sugar.

OATMEAL PORRIDGE.--Into a quart and a half of water, which should
be boiling in the inner dish of a double boiler, sprinkle one cup of
rather coarse oatmeal. Boil rapidly, stirring meanwhile until the grain
is set; then place in the outer boiler, and cook continuously for three
hours or longer. A half cup of cream added just before serving, is a
desirable addition.

BARLEY.

DESCRIPTION.--Barley is stated by historians to be the oldest of
all cultivated grains. It seems to have been the principal bread plant
among the ancient Hebrews, Greeks, and Romans. The Jews especially held
the grain in high esteem, and sacred history usually uses it
interchangeably with wheat, when speaking of the fruits of the Earth.

Among the early Greeks and Romans, barley was almost the only food of
the common people and the soldiers. The flour was made into gruel, after
the following recipe: "Dry, near the fire or in the oven, twenty pounds
of barley flour, then parch it. Add three pounds of linseed meal, half a
pound of coriander seeds, two ounces of salt, and the water necessary."
If an especially delectable dish was desired, a little millet was also
added to give the paste more "cohesion and delicacy." Barley was also
used whole as a food, in which case it was first parched, which is still
the manner of preparing it in some parts of Palestine and many districts
of India, also in the Canary Islands, where it is known as _gofio_. Of
this custom a lady from Palestine writes: "The reapers, during barley
harvest, take bunches of the half-ripe grain, and singe, or parch, it
over a fire of thorns. The milk being still in the grain, it is very
sweet, and is considered a delicacy."

In the time of Charles I, barley meal took the place of wheat almost
entirely as the food of the common people in England. In some parts of
Europe, India, and other Eastern countries, it is still largely consumed
as the ordinary farinaceous food of the peasantry and soldiers. The
early settlers of New England also largely used it for bread making. At
the present day only a very insignificant quantity of barley is used for
food purposes in this country, and most of this in the unground state.