474 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Oct. 



metrical lathe work and cycloidal ruling, that it 

 is impossible to imitate them by hand. The pro- 

 duction of these lace-like fij^ures is the result of a 

 mathematical problem worked out beforehand ; 

 80 many turns of certain wheels will produce a 

 certain figure, which can be multiplied by the 

 transferring process indefinitely. The machines 

 are very complicated and expensive, (though to 

 one unacquainted with them, they seem cheap 

 and simple,) and require great skill and experi- 

 ence in their management and operation. We 

 were shown in this department a geometrical 

 lathe, not twice as large as an ordinary sewing- 

 machine, and less than half as noisy, which was 

 three years in building, and cost about $10,000. 

 These machines are never patented, as the secret 

 of their construction is worth more than a patent, 

 and improvements and alterations are made from 

 time to time, while their great cost prohibits 

 their coming into general or improper use. 



COEKS FOB CliOSING PRESJERVB JARS. 

 For the preservation of all kinds of fruit, use 

 glass bottles or jars. They are cleaner, more 

 durable, more costly at first, but cheaper in the 

 end, than tin, and transparent. Select those of 

 even thickness, or rather of even thinness, for 

 they are often exposed to considerable heat, and 

 while they should not be so thin as to break in 

 common handling, or burst from internal pressure 

 caused by fermentation, still they should not be 

 thick, or of pressed glass, when blown glass jars 

 can be readily obtained. So much for the bottles. 

 Now as to closing them air-tight. First, corks 

 will not do it. The very structure of the sub- 

 stance is against it, unless cork of the most vel- 

 vety character is obtained, and this is costly. We 

 have in previous volumes recommended waxed 

 cloth tied over the jar as a substitute at once 

 cheap and eff"ective, and have never found any- 

 thing superior to it. Prepare the cloth in this 

 way : — Melt together some rosin, beeswax, and 

 tallow in equal parts ; tear the cloth in strips 

 four inches Avide, or at least wide enough con- 

 veniently to tie over the mouth of the jar, and 

 dip these strips, drawing them through the hot 

 wax and stripping nearly all the wax off. With 

 cloth thus prepared, after the jar is filled with the 

 hot preserves, and while still hot, close the mouth 

 and bind it on with good linen cord. Then with 

 shears trim off as much of the wax cloth as is 

 desirable, and then dip it in some melted wax, 

 which should be made with only about half as 

 much tallow. Sealing-wax may be used if de- 

 sired. The jars should be put where the wax will 

 cool at oace, so that the exhaustion caused l)y the 

 cooling 01 the preserves and the condensation of 

 the steam, may not cause the wax to run through 

 the cloth. Nothing can be more thoroughly air- 

 tight than bottles or jars so prepared.— -Z^ome- 

 stead. 



The Iowa Crops. — The wheat crop of Iowa is 

 abundant this season, though scarcely so heavy as 

 last year. It is estimated that the people of Iowa 

 will have a surplus of twenty millions of bushels 

 this season. A gentleman who has traveled some 

 400 miles through Southern Iowa, describes the 

 crop of wheat as very good, and corn as never 

 having looked better. 



For the Neio Enslanil Farmer. 

 liETTER FROM THE HOMESTEAD. 



Chester, N. H., Aug. 20, 1861. 

 My Dear Mr. Brown: — As you seem by 

 your note at the end of my last letter to appreci- 

 ate the importance of my employment in repair- 

 ing the Homestead, I may as well write of the 

 question, which comes up for discussion, on every 

 occasion of building or repairing, in the country, 



WHAT COLOR SHALL THE HOUSE BE ? 



White for the house, and black for the coffin, 

 were the fashionable New England colors, I think, 

 almost universally, half a century ago. This 

 fashion of white for dwellings for the living, in 

 the rural districts, continued until about twenty 

 years ago, when Downing published his "Cottage 

 Residences." Then it suddenly occurred to as- 

 piring rural gentlemen, that white was vulgar, 

 and the idea being that the farther we went from 

 white the more genteel, we soon beheld the light 

 of heaven profaned with all sorts of dismal, dark 

 brown, sombre-hued houses, and as there is a 

 sort of natural instinct that the living and dead 

 should have some distinction made in their dwell- 

 ing-places, the old mourning hue of coffins was, 

 at about the same time, changed to red or ma- 

 hogany. 



Now, as we travel in New England, v;e see 

 perhaps half or more of the houses, still white, 

 and the rest of various hues, most of them being 

 painted in some color, the basis of which is white 

 lead. As the expense is but very little increased 

 by the addition of any desired color to the lead, 

 it becomes a mere matter of taste what color we 

 shall adopt, and is therefore a question worth con- 

 sidering. There are, it is true, some cheap dark 

 colors, suitable for outbuildings, such as we see 

 upon rough railway stations, and which it may 

 be often best to use for economy. I have recent- 

 ly seen a statement that common hydraulic ce- 

 ment with skim milk forms a good paint for rough 

 work. It is very cheap, and might take the place 

 of whitewash, where the glare of white is to be 

 avoided. 



As to lohite, I confess to the opinion, that in 

 the country proper, a house, and especially a cot- 

 tage, well embowered in trees and vines, purely 

 white, with the old-fashioned dark green blinds, 

 strikes my eye very pleasantly. These same 

 blinds, which are called Venetian, and have been 

 flouted at by architects, as having no fitness for 

 the outside of windows, still retain their place, 

 almost universally in New England, and the rea- 

 son is very creditable to us ; it is because, in our 

 hot summer days, there is nothing else so com- 

 fortable. Blinds inside the glass, receiving the 

 rays of the sun in full force, are heated and trans- 

 mit their heat, to the room, while outside blinds. 



