NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



23 



wool coarse, compared with this beautitul fabric. It 

 ia made into cloth composed wholly of fur, and ol 

 part silk and part fur. As this elegant material is 

 the product of an invention which has just been pa- 

 tented in England by unusual process of an act ol 

 parliament, and the manufacture of it is still in its 

 incipient stages, the price, although not by any 

 means extravagant, must necessarily be higher than 

 it will be by and by. 



It is made into gloves and stockings, and may be 

 made up for the most delicate garments used for 

 ladies and children. The under-shirts made of this 

 new material are appropriately called "Astoria 

 Jackets." 



IMPROVED GRATES, 



Mr. A D. Spoor, N. Y., has invented and taken 

 measures to secure a patent for an improvement in 

 grates, which is applicable to stationary and loco- 

 motive engines, also stoves and furnaces. It con- 

 sists in having a stationary or fixed grate cast in 

 one or more pieces, with bars placed a little further 

 apart in common grates, and combined with this 

 there are a number of moveable grate bars united 

 together by joints to axes underneath, which allow, 

 by a lever, the said bars to lie on a line with the 

 fixed bars, to move vertically between the above 

 the fixed bars or fire box bottom, and to be elevated 

 and depressed angularly at both ends. This im- 

 provement in grates allows the burning of very 

 fine coal, answers the purpose of a poker or clearer 

 to remove all scales and caking of the coals, and by 

 having square shoulders on the moveable bars, they 

 can be projected upwards to make the shoulders set 

 snug to the bottom of the fixed bars, thus answer- 

 ing the damper also. — Rural New Yorker. 



Cables' Pfpartmcnt. 



YEAST. 



TliC article in which yeast is kept must, when 

 new yeast is made, or fresh yeast bought, be 

 scalded and emptied, and then have a salt spoon 

 full of saleratus put in, and be rinsed out again 

 with warm water. If it is glass, rinsing twice with 

 warm water will answer. Junk bottles are best 

 for holding yeast, because they can be corked tight, 

 and eas-.ily cleansed. 



Potato Yeast. — By those who use potato yeast, 

 it is regarded as much the best, as it raises bread 

 quicker than common home-brewed yeast, and, best 

 of all, never imparts the sharp, disagreeable yeast 

 taste to bread or cake, often given by hop yeast. 

 Mash half a dozen peeled boiled potatoes, and mix 

 in a handful of wheat flour, and two teaspoons full 

 of salt, and after putting it through a colander, add 

 hot water till it is batter. When blood warm, put 

 in a half tea cup of distillery yeast, or twice as 

 much potato or other home-brewed. When raised, 

 keep it corked tight, and make it new very often 

 in hot weather. It can be easily made when pota- 

 toes are boiled for dinner. 



Home-made Yeast, whieh id 11 keep good a month. 

 — Four quarts of water, two hands full of hops, 

 eight peeled potatoes, sliced, all boiled soft, mixed 

 and strained through a sieve. To this, add a bat- 

 ter, made one-third of Indian and two-thirds of rye 

 in a pint of cold water, and then boil the whole 

 ten minutes. When cool as new milk, add a tea 



cup of molasses, a table spoon full of ginger, and 

 a tea cup of distillery yeast, or twice as much liome- 

 brewed. 



Home-brewed Yeast more easily wade. — Boil a 

 hand full of hops half an hour in three pints of 

 water. Pour half of it, boilnig hot, tlirough a 

 sieve, on to nine spoons full of flour, mix, and then 

 add the rest of the hop water. Add a spoon full 

 of salt, half a cup of molasses, and when itbxHi 

 warm, a cup of yeast. 



WHAT A PRUDENT V/IFB DID. 

 A fact which I came in possession of years ago 

 may illustrate the character of the New England- 

 ers, and reveal the origin of some l^ranches oi their 



profitable business. S. W was the son of our 



country clergyman, and was accustomed to laboring 

 on a farm in summer and keeping school in winter. 

 He was moral, industrious and frugal, and took a 

 wife possessing the same qualities, together with a 

 shrewd propensity to calculate the cost of all arti- 

 cles of living. One day her husband brought home 

 the cloth and trimmings for a coat. The wife in- 

 quired the price of the buttons, which she noticed 

 were made of cloth "lasting,'' or, more fully, "ev- 

 erlasting," covered on wooden button moulds. She 

 thought she could afford a good button, made by 

 hand, for less money. The next day, like the true 

 daughter of a Yankee, she tried the thing out. She 

 bought the cloth by the yard, and the moulds by the 

 dozen, and in a week she had better buttons, at a 

 less price, in the market. The operation, it became 

 evident, would pay. So the husband quit farming 

 and school-teaching; bought the cloth, which the 

 wife cut into button covers; he then purchased a lot 

 of button-moulds, hired the women and girls of the 

 neighborhood to make them at great profit. Soon 

 another entered into partnersliip with him, and in- 

 vented machinery to do the work. Then the plain 

 "lasting" was changed to figured velvet, and satin, 

 and twist. Improvement on improvement in ma- 

 chinery was made, till they equalled the best En- 

 glish, French, or German buttons. S W 



now owns one of the sweetest villages in the Con- 

 necticut valley, and almost supplies the United 

 States with buttons for coats and overcoats. He 

 has endowed an academy munificently; has contrib 

 uted like a prince to the funds of a highly distin- 

 guished and useful female seminary, and has res- 

 cued a noble college from embarrasment. So much 

 for the carefulness of a prudent wife, and so much 

 for a disposition to earn an honest living in some 

 way, rather than thriving in idleness on the hard 

 and too often unrequited toil of others. — National 

 Era. 



To Whiten Linen. — Stains occasioned by fruit, 

 iron rust, and other similar causes, may be removed 

 by applying to the parts injured a weak solution of 

 the chloride of lim^ — the cloths having been pre- 

 viously well washed, or of soda, oxalic acid or salta 

 of lemon, in warm water; the parts subjected to this 

 operation should be subsequently well rinsed in soft, 

 clear water, without soap, and then immediately 

 dried in the sun. 



To TAKE Stains out of Mahogany. — Mix six 

 ounces of the spirits of salt, and half an ounce of 

 rock salt of lemons (pulverized) together. Place 

 a few drops on the spot, and rub it briskly until it 

 is removed. Then wash off with cold water. 



