NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



365 



and boil it. It will never shrink any more after this 

 operation, and should then be made up into gar- 

 ments. — Selected. 



To PURIFY River or any other Muody Water. 

 — Dissolve half an ounce of alum in a jiint of warm 

 water, and stirring it about in a puncheon of water 

 just taken from any river, all the impurities will soon 

 settle to the bottom, and in a day or two it will be- 

 eome as clear as the finest spring water. 



Bojis' ^Department. 



Politeness at Home. — Always speak with the 

 utmost politeness and deference to your parents and 

 friends. Some children are polite and civil every 

 where else except at home ; but there are coarse and 

 rude enough. I trust you will never be one of these. 



Titles of respect, too, should not be forgotten. 

 "Yes, sir," and "No, sir," "Yes, ma'am," and "No, 

 ma'am," sound much better, as well as much more 

 refined and well-bred, than the blunt "Yes," and 

 " No," which very many children in these days are 

 accustomed to use. 



Nothing sits so gracefully upon children, and noth- 

 ing makes them so lovely, as habitual respect and duti- 

 ful deportment towards their parents and superiors. 

 It makes the plainest face beautiful, and gives to 

 every common action a nameless but peculiar charm. 

 — Selected. 



Bad Books. — Bad books are like ardent spirits : 

 they furnish neither aliment nor medicine ; they are 

 poison. Both intoxicate — one the mind, the other 

 the body. The thirst for each increases by being fed, 

 and is never satisfied. Both ruin — one the intellect, 

 and the other the health — and together, the soul. 

 The makers and venders of each are equally guilty, 

 and equally corrupters of the community ; and the 

 safeguard against each is the same — total abstinence 

 from all that intoxicates mind or body. — The Well- 

 ^ring. 



Cjealtl). 



Effect op Stoves upon Health. — All experience 

 has demonstrated their debilitating influence upon 

 the nervous system ; and nothing is more true than 

 that the mind sympathizes with the body in all its 

 derangements. Our old men remember when the 

 aggregate of good health was far above its present 

 standard ; when men and women could endure twice 

 the fatigue that they can now ; and when consump- 

 tion, the present scourge of the north, and New Eng- 

 land in particular, was almost unknown, or existed 

 only as a slow disease, that had to battle with life 

 for many years before its strong victim succumbed to 

 its power. It has been thought that the bad health 

 and constitutions of our farming population, particu- 

 larly the female portion of farming families, are owing 

 to a' change of diet. There is no truth in the idea. 

 Farmers live as judiciously now as they did fifty or 

 one hundred years ago. On our mountain towns, 

 among the primitive hills and pure air of Vermont, 

 all over New England in fact, the population are 

 better fed and better clothed, arc subjected to less 

 injurious exposure, and are called to boar less pros- 

 trating fatigue, than in those " good old tunes, a 

 hundred years ago." Yet, where the pure air roves 

 freest, where the dark wings of miasm never come, 

 all along the beautiful green mountain ridge, through 



Vermont and Massachusetts, do we find consumption 

 doing its deadliest work, and an aggregate of female 

 invalids that can hardly be equalled in any miasmatic 

 valley in the far south- -west. 



It is in vain to look for the causes of all these evils 

 in any thing but the atmosphere of the dwelling. 

 The food is wholesome, the air as pure as any in the 

 world, and the water as good. The simple statement 

 of the ease is, that the houses are made too close, the 

 rooms are kept too hot, and the grand ventilator — 

 the chimney — is closed. The evil is insidious, and 

 in the manner of its approach should be a warning. 

 A reference to experience will show, that when the 

 stove was first introduced, the heat was intolerable. 

 Afterwards it became agreeable ; then it was found 

 necessary ; still further on, the heat was raised, until, 

 at last, the weakened and relaxed skin shrunk with 

 dread from a breath of cold air, and all stirring from 

 the room was forbidden on penalty of a cold. The 

 difference between the atmosphere out and in doors 

 made the transition always attended with danger. 

 Every physiologist, and every common observer, un- 

 derstands the intimate sympathy that exists between 

 the skin and the lungs ; and here, at this point, is 

 where consumption and other similar and dissimilar 

 evils step in, and find prepared for them a house, 

 swept and garnished. Here lies the secret of moun- 

 tain diseases, the erysipelas, low fevers, rheumatisms, 

 etc., etc. 



We by no means propose the abolition of stoves. 

 They form a prominent part of family economy. The 

 poor cannot do without them, nor will the rich. The 

 fire and the damper should in all cases be controlled 

 by the thermometer. This httle. instrument should 

 be in every house. Again, free ventilation, that sliall 

 secure to every room good- pure air, is absolutely 

 indispensable ; and still further, a proper amount of 

 cold bathing and friction, to enable the skin to retain 

 its tone, should be observecHiy every individual who 

 spends the winter in doors. — Sprinc/Jield Rep. 



iHecljanics' ^Department, ^rta, ^c. 



Construction of Ice-Houses. — Abroad both the 

 ice-house and hot-house are portions of the wealthy 

 man's establishment solely. But in this country, 

 the ice-house forms part of the comforts of every 

 substantial farmer. It is not for the sake of ice- 

 creams and cooling liquors, that it has its great value 

 in his eyes, but as a means of preserving and keep- 

 ing in the finest condition, during the summer, his 

 meat, his butter, his delicate fruit, and in short, his 

 whole perishable stock of provisions. Half a dozen 

 correspondents lately have asked us for some advice 

 on the construction of an ice-house, and we now 

 cheerfully offer all the information in our possession. 



To build an ice-house in sandy or gravelly soils, is 

 one of the easiest things in the world. The drainage 

 there is perfect ; the dry and porous soil is of itself a 

 sufficiently good non-conductor. All that is neces- 

 sary to do, is to dig a pit twelve feet square and as 

 many deep, line it with logs or joists faced with 

 boards, cover it with a simple roof on a level with 

 the ground, and fill it with ice. Such ice-houses, 

 built with trifling cost, and entirely answering the 

 purpose of affording ample supply for a. large family, 

 are common in various parts of the country. 



But it often happens that when one's residence is 

 upon a strong loamy or clayey soil, based upon clay 

 or slate, or, at least, rocky in its substratum. Such 

 a soil is retentive of moisture ; and even though it be 

 well drained, the common ice-house just described 

 will not preserve ice half through the summer in a 

 locality of that kind. The clayey or rocky soil is 

 always damp : it is always an excellent conductor, 



