1861. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



357 



this, and another sheet covers the sleeper. This 

 compromise between a bed and a hammock, an- 

 swers the purpose better than any thing else, and 

 admits of some circulation of air, especially when 

 you have kicked off the sheet, and lie fully ex- 

 posed to the air and the mosquitoes. I cannot say 

 that it is pleasant to wake an hour or two after 

 going to bed, with your exact profile depicted in 

 a wet patch on the pillow ; nor is it agreeable to 

 become conscious at the same time of an intoler- 

 able itching, and to find, on lighting a candle, 

 that an army of small ants are walking over you, 

 and biting furiously. These were my experiences 

 during my first night at Cocoyotla ; and I finished 

 the night, lying half-dressed on my bed, with the 

 ends of my trousers-legs tied close with handker- 

 chiefs to keep the creatures out. — Anahuac, or 

 Mexico and the Mexicans. 



IMPOKTANCB OF WHOLSOME BEDS. 



Sleep to the working man is emphatically Na- 

 ture's sweet restorer, reinvigorating the physical 

 system, which through much toil has become wea- 

 ry, and keeping up that flow of life and spirits 

 which is necessary to the performance of the ar- 

 duous duties of farm life. A comfortable bed, as 

 we are all aware, conduces greatly to one's rest. 

 On this subject, a recent writer says : 



Of the eight pounds which a man eats and 

 drinks in a day, it is thought that not less than 

 five pounds leave his body through the skin. And 

 of these five pounds a considerable per centage 

 escapes during the night while he is in bed. The 

 larger part of this is water, but in addition there 

 is much effete and poisonous matter. This, be- 

 ing in great part gaseous in form, permeates every 

 part of the bed. Thus all parts, mattress, blan- 

 kets, as well as sheets, soon become foul, and need 

 purification. 4 



The mattress needs the renovation quite as 

 much as sheets. To allow the sheets to be used 

 without washing or changing, three or six months, 

 would be regarded as bad housekeeping ; but 1 in- 

 sist if a thin sheet can absorb enough of the poi- 

 sonous excretions of the body to make it unfit 

 for use in a few days, a thick mattress, which can 

 absorb and retain a thousand times as much of 

 these poisonous excretions, needs to be purified as 

 often as once in three months. 



A sheet can be washed. A mattress cannot be 

 renovated in this way. Indeed there is no other 

 way of cleansing a mattress but by steaming it, 

 or picking it to pieces, and thus in fragments ex- 

 posing it to the direct rays of the sun. As these 

 processes are scarcely practicable with any of the 

 ordinary mattresses, I am decidedly of the opin- 

 ion that the good old-fashioned straw bed, which 

 can every three months be changed for fresh 

 straw, and the tick be washed, is the sweetest 

 and healthiest of beds. 



If, in the winter season, the porousness of the 

 Btraw bed makes it a little uncomfortable, spread 

 over it a comforter, or two woolen blankets, 

 which should be washed as often as every two 

 weeks. With this arrangement, if you wash all 

 the bed coverings as often as once in two or 

 three weeks, you will have a delightful, healthy 

 bed. 



Now if you leave the bed to air, with open win- 



dows during the day, and not make it up for the 

 night before evening, you will have added great- 

 ly to the sweetness of your rest, and in conse- 

 quence to the tone of your health. 



I heartily wish this good change could be every- 

 where introduced. Only those who have thus 

 attended to this important matter can judge of 

 its influence on the general health and spirits. 



for the Nete England Farmer. 

 PROGBESS IN THE ART. 



Messrs. Editors : — Thinking you might like 

 to hear occasionally from the readers of your pa- 

 per, I am inclined to pen a few thoughts of my 

 own, though I, by no means, pretend to be much 

 acquainted with the world and its wants. I wish 

 to chat awhile with the farmer, and I know of no 

 better way than through the columns of the Far- 

 mer. 



It is evident that implements for various kinds 

 of labor are daily improving. In this respect, 

 progress is everywhere visible. Probably no 

 class of laborers are receiving, in this way, more 

 assistance from the thoughts and experiments of 

 scientific men, than agriculturists. Now what I 

 wish to suggest is, that farmers and farmers' 

 sons do not improve as they ought by this knowl- 

 edge. They are willing to travel in the old beaten 

 track of their fathers. They should not depend 

 upon others for all improvements in agriculture ; 

 they should think for themselves ; they should 

 use their brains as well as their hands. Does 

 some one ask, what improvements can they make 

 in farming ? Let us notice one or two, that all 

 might make. At this season of the year, when 

 every one should be busy in preparation for com- 

 ing spring, even small improvements should not 

 be despised. Much might be done to advantage 

 in fitting teams for their severe labors, even when 

 a good selection has been made. Great pains 

 should be taken to train them aright, especially 

 in walking, that they may do their part of the 

 spring's work easily and quickly. Fast walkers 

 are the fast horses for fast farmers. They save 

 their owners much time, expense and strength. 

 The first part of this assertion is so evident, that 

 I will pass it by, and look only at the saving of 

 strength-. 



Did it ever occur to the many readers of your 

 paper, that the team which plows two acres per 

 day, exerts itself but little, if any, more than the 

 team which plows but one, provided the first is 

 not forced beyond its usual pace. Experiments 

 in plowing, harrowing, and in most kinds of farm 

 work, prove this statement to be true. If this is 

 so, what an amount of time and money is foolish- 

 ly wasted, during the seed-time of the year, by 

 many farmers. Why will not men keep good 

 teams, and use them well ? It is true, that many 

 of our hill farms are so uneven, that it is impos- 

 sible for a team to walk fast. I wish some New 

 England farmer would procure the right instru- 

 ment, and measure the power requ ired to plow a 

 smooth level piece of ground when moving at the 

 rate of two, three and four miles per hour. Let 

 us know the result in black and white. Let us 

 see if we cannot make an economical improve- 

 ment. A Farmer's Son. 



Burlington, Vt., 1861. 



