1863.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
245 
means within reach of every one. We have 
used with great success a common soap box with 
the bottom knocked out, and a piece of muslin 
(common cotton cloth) tacked in its place. The 
cuttings being placed in a sandy soil are covered 
with thU box, which admits sufficient light and 
retains the moisture. If air is required, the box 
maybe tilted and a brick or other support placed 
under one side. Where there are hot-beds in 
use, a frame with the glass coated with whiting 
or shaded by mnslin will be found much more 
convenient. In this way we have rooted in 
large quantities and with very very little trouble, 
Fuchsias, Lantanas, Petunias, Verbenas, Cuphe- 
as, Ageratmns, and a host of other bedding 
plants, as well as Weigelas, Porsythias, Roses, 
and numerous other shrubs. The soil should 
be made very sandy and kept well watered, and 
in making the cuttings, strong and well or 
partially hardened shoots should be taken. 
TOE MttJMiMILBo 
About Naming Children. 
■ — « 
A correspondent of the Agriculturist writes that 
several years since he read in some journal a plan 
for composing proper names of pleasing sound. 
As near as he can remember, a certain number of 
consonants were to be placed in one box, and vow- 
els in another, and in some manner specified, these 
were to be drawn out and a euphonic name would 
be the result. "We never happened to meet with 
this item, and can therefore say nothing of its 
feasibility. The subject, however, suggests a 
few thoughts worthy of consideration. We have 
known individuals made a laughing stock through 
life, by the thoughtlessness of their parents in giv- 
ing them ludicrous names. Who could restrain a 
smile at hearing announced Mr. Preserved Fish, 
Mrs. Seedy Brown, Onderdonk Dumpier, (sure to 
be nicknamed " Underdone Dumpling,") or Pullan 
Wool, known to his neighbors as " Pulled Wool." 
We have known several instances wdrere persons 
thus afflicted by the thoughtlessness ot their pa 
rents, applied to the Legislature for relief. Though 
apparently a trivial matter, such naming of chil- 
dren is a real cruelty. Constant annoyance from 
this source is more painful than a serious tem- 
porary affliction ; almost any one would choose to 
endure the pain for a few weeks from a broken 
limb, than he tormented for years by the pricking 
of a thistle. As a general rule it is not in good 
taste to give to children the names of distinguished 
persons. Their station in life may afterward make 
the contrast ludicrous. Hundreds of names com- 
mence with George Washington, and end with 
Smith, Brown, or Jones, all of them unobjection- 
able terminations, but made insignificant by the 
high sounding introduction. It is as if one should 
erect a splendid gateway at the entrance of a pota- 
to patch. Should individuals so named, rise to dis- 
tinction, they could hardly hope to equal their illus- 
trious namesake, and their fame would thus con- 
stantly suffer by comparison. It would be a much 
less difficult undertaking for the individual to 
make a new name distinguished. 
Iu naming a child, some reference should be had 
to the convenience of the appellation : it is a wrong 
upon a person's associates to require them to waste 
breath in addressing a person by a loug or difficult 
title. Who could have patience iu calling after 
"Shalmauezcr" ? The convenient nickname 
" Sham" would very soon designate such boy, and 
accompany him into manhood. The wise man 
says : " A good name is rather to be chosen than 
great riches," and although this refers to character, 
yet it is of great advantage to a person to have a 
prepossessing name, which will give him at least a 
favorable announcement in society. No one would 
wish to be introduced as Judas Iscariot, or Bene- 
dict Arnold, and even so small a circumstance as 
the possession of a pleasant name may open many 
avenues to advautagc in life. The subject is worthy 
of thought by those who are fortunate enough to 
have the bestowment of one of the gifts' which 
must be accepted for life, and which therefore 
should not be lightly or thoughtlessly disposed of, 
the butter in the same mauuer. The apparatus iu 
fact enables a person to use lever power in the ap- 
plication of the ordinary hand ladle, and thus great- 
ly diminishes the amount of force required. We 
consider this arrangement superior to the imple- 
ment heretofore in use eonsistiug of a roller hinged 
at one end and working upon a slab, as 
in the latter ease a portion of the butter 
will be moved along over the surface 
of the slab with a sliding motion, there- 
by in some degree destroying the " grain"., 
and making it of a salvy consistence.' 
The above described apparatus is manu- 
factured by Mr. J. P. Corbiu, Whitney's 
Point, Broome Co., N. Y., and sold at 
about six dollars. Tlicy will also pro- 
bably be on sale at agricultural ware- 
houses, and be advertised accordingly. 
The Nonpareil Butter Worker. 
The good quality of butter depends upon proper- 
ly " working " it, as much or more than on any 
other process in the manufacture. A very small 
quantity of buttermilk left among butter, will very 
speedily cause it to become rancid, aud then no 
after treatment can restore its original sweetness. 
It is also necessary that the salt added to butter 
should be completely commingled with the whole 
mass, otherwise it will not be of uniform quality 
when fresh, aud the unsalted portion will soon be 
spoiled and corrupt the remainder. To properly 
work butter, it is required that the ladle or other in- 
strument should be brought 
into contact with every por- 
tion of it, and to do this 
takes no little time, pa- 
tience, and strength ; and as 
neither of these are found iu 
over quantity among many 
butter makers, the market 
is too largely supplied with 
underworked and inferior 
butter. We are pleased to 
notice any improvement 
that promises to make this 
labor easier of performance, 
and thereby renders it more 
likely that it will be pro- 
perly done. The engraving 
at the head of this article 
represents a recently in- 
vented apparatus for this purpose, which has been 
tested and adopted by some of the leading dairy- 
men in the western part of this State. It consists 
of a tray, T, resting upon a stand or table of suit- 
able hight, to which it is attached by a joint, /, so 
that one end may be raised to pour off the butter- 
milk. A latch, L, in front keeps it in place when 
the worker is being used. The worker, W, con- 
sists of a ladle mortised into a lever. This lever 
hangs from the arm, A, by a hook, and may be 
readily detached by bringing it forward aud lifting 
it from the eye in which the hook rests, and only 
when in this position. The arm, A, turns upon a 
pivot between the two standards, S. Theso stand- 
ards may be removed if desred, by taking out the 
key which holds the tenon iu the mortise on the 
sides of this tray. The wearing of the apparatus 
will be readily understood oy examining the illus- 
tration. The operator presses successive portions 
of the butter under the ladle by means of the lever, 
aud when the butter is crowded back toward the 
end of the tray, it is readily brought forward to be 
pressed again by meaus'of the lever aud ladle, aud 
is thus repeatedly gone over until all the butter- 
milk is extracted. The salt is easily worked into 
New and Improved Milk-Rack. 
The illustration given below, repre- 
sents an improved rack or stand for hold- 
ing milk, devised aud patcuted by Mr. 
Robert Cruikshank, Washington Co., N. 
T. It consists of eight posts, standing 
in a slanting position, into which tiers 
of horizontal slats or bars are inserted 
to serve as shelves for supporting the milk 
pans. There are six tiers of bars on each side, six 
inches apart. Near the bottom of the posts, invert- 
ed conical caps of tin arc placed, to prevent rats or 
mice climbing up to the milk. The racks are made 
of two sizes ; the largest size 5)£ by 4 feet at the 
base, aud 5}£ by 3 feet at the top, will hold 48 large 
sized pans ; the other 4 by 4 feet at the base, and 4 
by 2 feet at the top, will accommodate 86 pans. The 
advantages claimed for this rack are: The large 
number of pans of milk which can be accommod- 
ated iu the space occupied ; the pans can be placed 
on the rack and the milk strained directly into 
them, thus avoiding danger of spilling; the bars 
allow a better circulation of air around the pans 
than when they are placed on shelves, and conse- 
quently the milk cools more quickly and yields an 
increase of cream. The rack is very simple in con- 
struction, aud so put together, that the pieces may 
be easily separated for removing or cleansing. The 
price of the rack is, largest size $6, smaller, $5. It 
is commended by many prominent dairymen, and 
appears to be a very desirable arrangement, par- 
ticularly where space for dairying is limited. It 
would be just the thing to hold the milk where it 
is kept in the cellar, as is practised by many wdio 
have no building specially devoted to the purpose. 
The Rats Have "Skedaddled." 
To the Editor of the American Agriculturist : 
Tes, they have all gone — where I can not tell — 
and it was the " Phosphorus Salve " that did it. I 
bought a box according to your suggestions in the 
April Agriculturist, and used it freely. At first it 
appeared to agree with the rascals, and I concluded 
that rats which bad grown fat on strychnine, arsen- 
ic, plaster of paris, and sundry other ingredients, 
