1864. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



127 



This i9 the important time to cut it, and this 

 point, in all our grain crops, deserves more con- 

 sideration than it has usually received. A proper 

 observance of this particular would considerably 

 increase the quantity of our grain crops, and 

 greatly improve their quality. 



One other thing we may observe before we 

 close. The last process of Nature's work in ma- 

 turing grain is supposed to be the perfecting of 

 the seed-coat, or that part which makes the bran, 

 when the grain is ground. This probably takes 

 place, to a great extent, after the circulation of 

 the plant is arrested by the drying of the straw 

 at the neck. For purposes of food, the less 

 .bran the better, and this we secure by cutting as 

 soon as we see the changes already spoken of. 

 But if we want the wheat for seed, we are in- 

 clined to think it should stand until it is fully 

 ripe. 



We have seen an experiment stated where a 

 crop was cut at three different periods, at intervals 

 of ten days. One third was cut twenty days be- 

 fore it was ripe, another portion ten days after- 

 wards, and the rest left until it was dead ripe. 

 The result was : 



20 iLiys. 



Flour 74.7 



Bran 17.5 



We hope to resume this subject of cutting just 

 previous to the next grain harvest. 



LADIES' DEPARTMENT. 



HOW TO KEEP CHILDREN HEALTHY. 

 The mortality among the children in our cities, 

 as well as in the country, is sad to contemplate. 

 Is there any necessity for this ? Are all these chil- 

 dren sent into the world to be thus early cut 

 down ? Are not nine out of ten of these early 

 deaths the result of ignorance ? What parents 

 ever lost a child, except by accident, without 

 thinking: "If I had treated it differently, it would 

 not have died ?" The loss of our own three first- 

 born has led us to think much upon this topic, 

 and three almost always healthy living ones are 

 evidences that our studies on the subject have not 

 been in vain. A few hints on the topic may not 

 be without use. 



Elsewhere, we have given some hints on the 

 sleep of children. Next to securing plenty of 

 sound sleep, or rather before it, we place the prop- 

 er preparation of food. The kind of food they 

 eat is not half so much consequence as the 'man- 

 ner of its preparation. Give a child a hard ap- 

 ple and let him swallow it in pieces from the size 

 of a large pea upward. The result will be, that 

 the lumps will be partly worn off' by the coats of 

 the stomach, and partly dissolved by the gastric 

 juice j but after a time, the remaining portion of 

 the lumps will be forced down into the intestines 

 and go through the whole length of fifteen to 

 twenty feet, producing at least griping and irrita- 

 tion all the way, if not diarrhoea or dysentery. 

 But first scrape or mash the apple to a fine pulp, 



and it may then be eaten with impunity, and with 

 benefit, if ripe or nearly so. 



Feed a child on boiled potatoes cut up, or on 

 potatoes coarsely mashed and fried in fat, and you 

 will be pretty sure to find more or less of lumps 

 of potatoes remaining undigested. How can it be 

 otherwise than that these lumps must have pro- 

 duced irritation in the intestines ? But mash 

 these same potatoes finely before feeding them, 

 and then the fine material will be digested and 

 afford nutriment instead of giving uneasiness and 

 pain "under the apron." 



The same holds true of most meats. Cut up 

 fine — as fine as shot almost — ihey will be digest- 

 ed, and produce nourishment ; while if fed in 

 coarse pieces, they will lie in the stomach, like a 

 meat poultice on the outside, the cause of uneasi- 

 ness if not of partial inflamation. Feed raisins 

 and nuts to children, and unless very strong and 

 vigorous, the chances are that they will induce 

 immediate sickness or a weakened system, liable 

 to be affected by the first change of heat and 

 cold. 



Chop these same raisins or nuts finely, reduc- 

 ing them almost to powder, and they may be eat- 

 en in moderate quantity with impunity. These 

 remarks apply to all kinds of food, and, in a 

 measure, to grown people as well as to children. 



Many persons are over nice or anxious as to 

 what, their children eat, and often reduce them to 

 skeletons, or unfit them for a vigorous resistance 

 of colds and malaria diseases, by feeding them on 

 toast or rice, weak gruel, &c. Give them rather 

 a fair supply of hearty food Jinely reduced that it 

 will be quickly digested in the stomach, and they 

 will grow vigorous and be able to withstand the 

 changes of climate, and the exposures to which 

 they are ever liable. Mothers, consider these 

 things, and see if they are not true and in accord- 

 ance with reason. — American Agriculhirist. 



Pictures. — A room with pictures in it and a 

 room without pictures, differ about as much as a 

 room with windows and a room without windows. 

 Nothing is more melancholy, particularly to a 

 person who has to pass much time in his room, 

 than bleak walls with nothing on them, for pic- 

 tures are loopholes of escape to the soul, leading 

 to other scenes and other spheres. It is such an 

 inexpressible relief to a person engaged in writ- 

 ing, or even reading, on looking up, not to have 

 his line of vision cropped off by an odious white 

 wall, but find his soul escaping, as it were, through 

 the frame of an exquisite picture, to other beau- 

 tiful and perhaps heavenly scenes, where the fan- 

 cy for a moment may revel, refreshed and delight- 

 ed. Thus pictures are consolers of loneliness ; 

 they are a relief to the imprisoned thought ; they 

 are books, they are histories and sermons, which 

 we can read without the trouble of turning the 

 laavee. — Downing. 



Geranium Leaves. — It is not generally known 

 that the leaves of geraniums are an excellent ap- 

 plication for cuts, where the skin is rubbed off, 

 and other wounds of that} kind. One or two 

 leaves must be bruised, and applied on linen to 

 the part, and the wound will become cicatrised in 

 a very short time. — Miss Fry. 



Look up the flower seeds for early planting. 



