18 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Jan. 



in consonance with the progress which has been 

 made in almost everything which conduces to ele- 

 vate the moral and material condition of man. 



There is one point, at least, which ought to be 

 well considered by everj' person who is about to 

 build — and that is as to what the general appear- 

 ance of the structure shall be. It is as easy, and 

 as cheap, to erect a building that shall have some 

 pretentions to architectural taste, and which shall 

 be attractive and pleasing to the eye, as to construct 

 it in violation of all rules, and render it a blotch 

 upon the natural beauties which may surround it. 

 In order to accomplish this the proprietor himself, 

 must possess some knowledge of construction, or 

 have before him some plan which he is Avilling to 

 adopt. Therefore, to be of service to those about 

 building, we propose to give, in the course of the 

 coming year, in our columns, such perspectives and 

 outlines of buildings as we think may be useful as 

 suggestions or as may be adopted in full. 



The picture which we present above is rather as 

 an example of taste, than as such a house as would 

 be recommended for farm purposes. We shall, 

 however, give others, suited to the farmer's wants, 

 and which will have the merit of being constructed 

 at a cost coming within the means of most of those 

 ■who build, and at the same time, possessing such 

 conveniences and architectural proportions as will 

 make it a credit to its owner. 



HUSK BEDS. 



As each autumn has returned, for several years 

 past, we have advised all corn-growers to save their 

 husks for under beds, believing they are the very 

 best substance for this pm'pose that is or can be 

 used. They should be the inner husks, clean and 

 whole, and spread on some airy floor for a few days 

 in order that they may become perfectly dry. Then 

 they may be put into the ticks, and they will last 

 for many years. We have some of these under - 

 beds noAv in our house which have been in use more 

 than twenty years ; and with an annual ventilation 

 and beating, by being emptied on a chamber floor, 

 and with a little replenishing Avith new husks, they 

 are now as good and lively as when new. The 

 husks had better not be stripped up as some have 

 done. This makes the substance finer and more li- 

 able to mat up. Let the husks be whole, and, dry- 

 ing in irregular shapes, they will retain those shapes 

 and lie Hvely in the bed for a long time. There is 

 a beard, or furziness, on each husk, that prevents 

 any insects crawling through the Ijeds ; consequent- 

 ly they are entirely free from vermin, of which 

 straw is apt to be full. They are, therefore, clean, 

 sweet and healthy. A good husk bed is equal to 

 the best mattress for summer use, and we have slept 

 in feather beds in winter not half so soft as these. 



The best time to save the husks is when in the 

 act of husking the corn. By a little practice, the 

 husker will soon learn how to strip off" first the out- 

 side, coarse husks, and by another motion, seize the 

 inner ones, (removing the silks at the same time,) 

 and dropping them into a basket at his side. It 

 •will take a little longer to husk out a bushel of com 



so, but the husks will most richly repay for the ex- 

 tra time. When this process has been omitted, it 

 will not be a great job to visit the husk pile after 

 the corn is removed, and by hand, pick out enough 

 of the clean, inside husks to make a bed. We con- 

 sider such a bed worth a five dollar bill. After 

 being made, there is no need of ever going after 

 straw with which to fill the under beds. The job 

 once done, is done for hfe. — Drew's Rural Int. 



For the Neic En gland Farmer. 



THE MOST NUTRITIOUS BREAD. 



The various tissues of the body, as bone, fat and 

 muscle, are formed from certain elements contained 

 in the blood, and conveyed by it to the formative 

 vessels. These elements are obtained from the food, 

 and conveyed through the lacteal vessels into the 

 blood vessels. That food that suppHes most abun- 

 dantly all the elements needed to build up all the tis- 

 sues of the body, or which supplies them in propor- 

 tions best suited to the actual wants of the body, 

 must be the most nutritious,and must impart the most 

 strength and vigor to the frame. The bread in use 

 among us is chiefly made of wheat. In the process 

 of manufacturing wheat, it is separated into two 

 parts, the flour and the bran. We use the flour for 

 bread, and consign the bran to the use of the pigs 

 and other animals. The corn bread and the "rye 

 and Indian," upon which the former race of "hardy 

 New Englanders" were raised, is comparatively un- 

 known in the present generation. I propose to in- 

 quire whether the fine flour, of which our bread is al- 

 most wholly made, is capable of supplying in the 

 greatest abundance, those elements of which the va- 

 rious tissues of the body are formed. 



According to Johnston's tables, one thousand 

 pounds of wheat meal contain of 



Muscle material 156 lbs. 



Bone material 170 



Fat material 28 



354 lbs. 



One thousand pounds of fine flour contain of 



Muscle material 130 lbs. 



Bone moterial 60 



Fat material 20 



210 lbs. 



Now if we subtract the tissue-forming materials 

 contained in fine flour, from those contained in 

 wheat meal, we find that one thousand pounds of 

 wheat meal contain 144 pounds more than one 

 thousand pounds of fine flour. These tissue-forming 

 elements are necessary to supply the waste that is 

 constantly going on in the system. The more rapid 

 is the waste from labor or exposure, the more nec- 

 essary are they to the animal system. 



The Yankee who is always in motion, always in 

 a hurry, and by his incessant activity keeps up a 

 continual friction in his system, needs a large sup- 

 ply of tissue-forming material in his food. Linng 

 as he does upon flour bread, his l)ones are small, his 

 muscles are lean and tough as whip cords, and the 

 fat cells of his cellular membrane are almost wholly 

 destitute of ftit. His bread should be made of wheat 

 meal, and if to this were added a large per centage 

 of corn meal, which contains a larger proportion of 

 fat-making material, it would fill up his fat cells, 

 and render the contour of his whole frame less an- 

 gular and furrowed, and mcrease in him that embon- 

 point that contributes so much to the good looks of 



