350 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[NOVEMBEK, 
by stringing several on elastic cords. When new 
nuts ai-e made use of, the work is apt to crack in a 
dry atmospbere, hence old ones are preferable. 
It will be pleasant work for winter evenings to or- 
nament the parlor with specimens of this work. 
Wooden Shoes, Clogs, Patens, etc, 
Wooden shoes have never been an American 
"institution;" and to the mind of an American 
they suggest only the clumsy economy and barbar- 
ism of the uncultured peasantry who live and labor, 
without the wish or ability to rise, in the fall glare 
of European civilization. In fact it would seem to 
many quite as reasonable to suggest to an Indian 
to change his moccasins for "clogs," such as we 
give a picture of, as to commend their use or manu- 
facture to the readers of the Agi-icuUarist. We have 
long been awake to certain advantages whicli they 
])Ossess over shoes of any other material, and have- 
recently ascertained that a large business is done in 
them in this city. We have seen with no little 
satisfaction that a good many young girls and 
women, who have to live .and go .about in the damp 
alleys .and cellars of this cit}', and whose feet other- 
wise would surely be wet and cold in wMntcr, wear 
ibese shoes, and so have warm, dry feet at .all times. 
This then is one of the advantages of wooden shoes; 
another is, they are very cheap, and another, they 
wear a great while. Offset against these merits, 
I liat they are not handsome, and make a noise when 
the wearer goes upon a hard walk, or floor. These 
demerits weigh very little against their use, by both 
men and women about the house, groundsand out- 
buildings. For men they are most exccli^t -to 
wear while working in the stables, or for going 
about in wet and thawing weatlier. For women, 
nothing that they can wear will so effectually pro- 
tect their feet against the cold and dampness of 
wet floors or cellars, or cold or wet feet under any 
circumstances. The German felt shoes, or those 
which the Germans make out of carpeting, or of 
rag-carpet materials, are very good to keep the feet 
warm in dry places, but wet through very easily, 
and are then useless until dried. 
We do not thus commend wooden shoes, in 
order to favor any manufacturer, for we know 
of no place where they can be bought at wholesale 
on this side of the Atlantic. We think, however, 
that the manufacture of the article mijht be 
conducted with great profit, for amo'ng the Ger- 
mans and French at least, of our naturalized citizens, 
lliere would be a ready market from the regard tliey 
had for them at home, .and their comfortable recol- 
lections of warm feet there, and cold ones here, very 
likely. No shoe of leather, unless it be fur-lined, 
can be made so warm. And it seems to us that 
sensible Americans would soon adopt them for the 
reasons above cunmer.ated. The shoes may be made 
of Avhite pine, white-wood, bass-wood, or probably 
any light strong wood. Even the largest sizes of 
the pattern we sketch, weigh only a pound each. 
About Keeping Warm. 
Warm Cloihinfj. — Wearing fabrics arc warm in 
])roportion as they are loose in texture, yet close 
enough, .and of fine, elastic materials. Silk, firm, 
close, non-elastic, as usually woven, is .almost im- 
jiervious to air, as m.ay be tested by trying to blow 
through it, and silk garments have little warmth. 
Flannels are elastic and loose, and they are waim ; 
if made of fine wool, they are very warm ; they 
offer little resistance to the breath. The hands 
will freeze in kid gloves in winter, yet one, by 
blowing into them, can hardly force any air through, 
while woolen mittens, or buckskin gloves however, 
tightly sewed, may be blown through very easily. 
This is very simple, yet it seems surprising to most 
people that clothing which will let the cold air 
through so easily, will afford the best protection 
against the cold. The reason of this is, that the 
fine loose fabrics enclose air within them, and this 
air being more or less entangled by the fine shreds 
and particles of the fabric, becomes as it were, part 
of the clothing, and thus the body is wrapped in a 
covering of air, which is one of the best non-con- 
ductors of heat (or, popularly, of cold) known. 
Underclothing may be of such loosely woven stuff 
as to be quite unfit for external wear, both by rea- 
son of its frailty, and becausethe wind would blow 
through it too easily, and the rain would d.ash 
through ; but being protected by closer and firmer 
outside garments, it is all the better on account of 
its light, loose character, to confine the natural 
heat and keep the body warm. 
Warm Homes. — The same principles which apply 
to clothing .are equally applicable to building ma- 
terials. Who would ever think of being comforta- 
ble in .an iron house, if it could not be furred and 
fiUed-in so as to make a warm house inside of (he 
cold one. Tet, iron will much more effectually 
exclude the outer air than wood or brick, or any 
thing made with mortar. All these are quite po- 
rous substances, and it is this very porosity, more 
perhaps th.an any thing else, that makes the walls 
poor conductors of heat. In the article on Ice 
Houses, we describe the warmest cheap walls th.at 
we can build, for, to keep ice from melting, we mnst 
shut the heat out, and this t.akcs just .as warm a 
wall, so to speak, as to keep the heat in. Warm 
houses have a close external wall for defense against 
the weather, to turn both rain and wind, but with- 
in some arrangement for virtually keeping a coat- 
ing of air close to the w.all on the inside. This, as 
we all know, is done by furring-out, and filling in 
with bricks loosely laid in mortar, or with a grout- 
ing of a mud mortar and stones, which answers 
equally well, and lathing and plasteiing for a finish. 
It requires much besides good walls to make a 
warm house, .and the discussion of this .and of 
some of the other .arts of keeping warm 'must be 
deferred to another month. 
How to Make First Yeast. 
In answer to an inquiry in a previous number of 
the Ayrimlturist, "How to m.ake yeast without 
having any to commence with," " Toung Badger," 
Appleton, Wis , sends the following directions : 
"In an e.arthen vessel, as a bowl or pitcher, holding 
1 (]uart, put 1 ]iint of milkwarm water, 1 even tea- 
spoonful of s.alt, and stir in flour enough to make 
it as thick as ordinary pancake batter. Place the 
dish in a IvCttle of milkwarm water, and keep it at 
as even temperature as possible from 4 to 6 hours. 
After it rises, take 4 quarts of milkwarm wafer, 
mix with it as much flour, with the jn'cparcd yeast, 
as can be stirred handily with a spoon, let it stand 
an hour .at the same heat as the yeast, then add flour 
and knead into loaves. Let it stand in a warm 
place until it rises, from J^ to 1 hour, then bake." 
Anotlier Kccipe. — Contributed by J. S. 
Smith, Port Hope, Can.ada : On Monday niorniug 
boil 2 ounces of fresh hops, in 4 quarts of water, 
for }{ an hour. Strain it — throw away the hops, 
and let the liquor cool down to the warmth or tem- 
perature of new milk. Put in a tabblcspoonful of 
salt and % a pound of brown sugar. Take 1 pound 
of best flour, and beat it up in a bowl, with enough 
of the liquor to make a soft paste or batter, then 
I)Our the hatter and the rest of the liquor together 
into a large earthen vessel, and stir them well to- 
gether. Let it st.and in a moderately warm place, 
and stir it every 3 hours until Wednesday morning. 
Then add 3 pounds of boiled potatoes mashed fine. 
Stand it in the s.ame place, and stir it as belbre, un- 
til Thursday morning, or until it ceases to ferment, 
Then pass it through a sieve, and bottle it. It is 
now ready for use, .and in a cool place will keep 
for several weeks. Shake the bottle before using. 
1 tablespoonful is enough for an ordinary sized loaf. 
■ I M # ^ 1 ^ 
Have Ice Next Summer. 
Housewives, shall you need ice nest summer ? 
Will you not be very glad to have the means at 
hand to keep fresh meat several days, to keep 
cream sweet, and to preserve many perish.able arti- 
cles of food ? Do you not wish to see hard butter 
on the table, .and to h.ave cool water in the pitcher, 
and to be able, now and then, to offer ice cream and 
other icy luxni-ies to your friends ? Then insist 
upon having an ice house built and filled this win- 
ter, and you may enjoy .all we suggest; should the 
head of the family plead ignorance, that he does 
not know how to build the ice house, you must 
know, .and show him. 
First, the ground selected must be dry, and out 
of the w.ay of floods, if near a stream, for if water 
stands in contact with (he ice, it will melt away, 
.almost " like the morning cloud." It is well to 
have the ice house on the north side of a hill, or of 
a house or big tree. If close to the house and a 
cool-room ran be made between it and the house, 
that will be found very convenient, and the ice 
house w.all next the cool-room need not be made 
so thick as on the other sides, in fact, a double 
boarding, with an inch of space between, is 
enough. It is well to dig out the ground so as to 
set the house a little lower than the general level, 
and it may be several feet lower if convenient. 
Tlie bottom ought to slope to the middle or to one 
side, and to be grouted, that is, laid with broken 
stones which are covered with hydraulic cement 
mortar, poured over and in .among them, and 
smoothed off even on the surface. The inclination 
of the bottom should lead to a sealed drain, so pro- 
tected that it can not be stopped up by accident, or 
by sawdust. It is importantthat the drain.age of an 
ice house, whether the bottom be cemented .as we 
have described or not, should be perfect, and that 
a circulation of air should not take place through 
the drain. Tliis is easily affected by h.aving the 
end of the drain, (a round tile,) rise 2 or 3 inches 
in a cemented depression, or basin, .and turuin<' 
over it a common flower pot with the hole stopped. 
A house 10 X 10, or 12 x 13 feet, and 8 feet from 
the bottom to the eaves, with a half-pitch roof, is 
about what is wanted on an ordin.ary farm, and 
will hold and keep more ice than is usually needed. 
The sides should be 10 inches thick, the frame being 
of 8-inch uprights, of 3-inch plank, set 4 on a side, 
(the end ones being a foot from the outside cor- 
ners,) upon sills of the same width. The inside 
boarding should be of cheap inch stuff. The out- 
side may be clajiboarded, or boarded up and down 
and battened. Dry sawdust, planing-miU shavings, 
or dry spent fan-bark, may be used to fill in between 
the outer and inner boarding, and the filling should 
be settled down solid. The plates may be of 3 inch 
]>lank ; the rafters 4 on each side, of 2-inch plank, 
Indies wide. They should be boarded outside 
and inside, and the space filled with shavings. The 
roof should lie thatched or shingled, and the gable 
cuds double boarded and filled like the sides. The 
door should be in one of the ends, 4 to 6 feet from 
the ground, .and 4 feet high ; and close to the peak 
there should be a sliding shutter for a ventilator. 
There should be a flooring not nailed down but 
laid firmly, to support the ice. 
The sides may rest on the grouting, or on a stone 
under-pinning. When they are laid, they should 
have a co.at of coal tar all over, and when the house 
is done, sawdust stirred up with coal tar should be 
filled into .all the crevices and holes near the ground 
outside and inside, and earth heaped up around 
the sides and trodden down. Paint the sides with 
far as high as the earth comes. How to fill an ice 
house will be a sulijeet for our December number. ' 
Straw Ice Houses. — Where there is a great 
abuud.ance of straw, ice maybe preserved through- 
out the year, if packed in a compact mass and well 
covered with straw, perfect drainage being secured. 
