1871.] 
AMEKICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
34:5 
TOE IHI(D)l[JiEM(0)]LB o 
tW (For other Household Items, see " Basket " pages.) 
Drying Fruit, Corn, etc. 
m 
J. N. Nind, Du Page Co., 111., reminds us of a 
drying-box, which we think we have already pub- 
lished, but it is well to call attention to it at this 
seasou, as it is a very convenient arrangement. It 
is a box like a hot-bed frame, covered with one or 
wore sashes. Window-sashes, or those made espe- 
cially for hot-beds, will answer equally well. The 
box should be higher at one side than at the other, 
to give a slope to carry off water, and the better to 
catch the sun's rays. It should be in all respects 
like a hot-bed, except that it must have a bottom, 
aud be set up upon pieces of joist, or some other 
material, to keep it from contact with the earth. 
Several holes are to be bored in each side of the box, 
for ventilation ; these are to be covered with gauze, 
to keep out insects. Fruit, etc., will dry rapidly 
in such a box, and be kept clean ; besides, it ueed 
not be brought in at night or during a rain. 
Home Topics. 
BY FAITH ROCHESTER. 
Accomplishments. — Kate G.,who knows what 
I wrote for Annette's benefit last month, wants me 
to say something on the general subject of accom- 
plishments for women. She wauts to know what 
I would advise about studying music, painting, 
dancing, etc. 
From the busy lives of most persons, some 
things, very desirable in themselves, must get 
crowded out. " Every thing depends upon what 
gets crowded out," dear Miss Craydock says, in 
Leslie Goldthwaite's "Summer." The accomplish- 
ments named above are not essential to the exist- 
ence, or to the absolute comfort of any body. But 
bare existence is, by no means, living ; and physical 
comfort is only essential as the necessary founda- 
tion for the healthful developmeut of the higher 
faculties. The needs of the body are imperative, 
however, and you can not slight them without 
wronging the soul that inhabits the body. So it 
seems to me that every woman should be skilled in 
the preparation of wholesome food and comfort- 
able clothing, whether she knows how to play the 
piano or not ; but let her also learn to make music. 
The best of all music is that of the human voice, 
well cultivated. It seems to me much better to 
learn to sing sweetly, than to learn to play on any 
musical instrument. Many voices, naturally good, 
are strained and spoiled very early by the effort to 
6ing too loud. Some of the best professional sing- 
ers were allowed to sing very little during child- 
hood, or only with moderate power. " Louder ! 
louder!" the leader of singing at the Sabbath- 
school exclaims, and the young voices of the poor 
little victims stretch to their utmost capacity to 
satisfy the unreasonable demand. Some leaders of 
children's singing seem to suppose that to keep 
time and sing loud are the chief requisites of good 
singing. Quality is sacrificed to quantity, and many 
a child suffers life-long injury from this cause. The 
ability to sing, even moderately well, is of great 
value to a mother. Most married women are 
obliged to give up their piano-practice while they 
have the care of young children, but there is a 
chance for some vocal music every day. You can 
not siug the little lullabys too sweetly. Every day 
I am thankful for my owu poor little gift, which 
rarely comes into service anywhere except in the 
nursery. While one baby is lulled to happy rest 
by the singing of little rhymes from "Songs for the 
Little Oues at. Home," a larger one sits near, or 
lies upon the floor, resting, too, and laying by hard 
questions to ask me at the first opportunity, about 
the meaning of what I sing. 
Among accomplishments to be desired I would 
rank the ability to read aloud with clearness aud 
proper expression. It is a very rare accomplish- 
ment, but one that may be made to add greatly to 
domestic happiness. 
A great deal of time and money is fooled away in 
lessons on the piano, where there is little natural 
gift iu that liue, and where the motive is merely a 
desire to make a display. A young girl who wishes 
to study instrumental music had better satisfy her- 
self first that notliiug more important is likely to 
be crowded out by her music lessons, and that a 
real love and talent for music animates her, more 
than the wish to shine in society. The desire to 
dazzle others, or to be admired, is an unworthy 
motive; not so with the honest wish to contribute 
iu every way we can to the rational pleasure and en- 
tertainment of society about us. 
I think drawing — mechanical drawing, and sketch- 
ing from nature— should be taught to every child, 
not merely as an accomplishment, but as a useful 
art, and as legitimate training for both eye and 
hand. I don't think much of learning to ijaint 
merely for the sake of getting a few "pretty" 
pictures for your walls. However, there is pleas- 
ure and some degree of culture eveu in that. But 
there is more real culture iu the patient copying, 
with pencil, or charcoal, of a burdock plant, study- 
ing all its outlines, aud lights, and shades, just as 
you see it growing iu your back-yard — or in your 
neighbor's yard, for, of course, you don't allow 
burdocks to grow on your premises ! Any other 
plant will do. Haifa day's faithful study of nature, 
in the attempt to copy her beautiful shapes and 
shadows, will make all nature vastly more beautiful 
and wonderful to you ever afterward. There is no 
danger of carrying this study too far, if you keep 
it from monopolizing time that should be given to 
other duties. And when you come to use colors, 
the pleasure is increased. 
Kate mentions dancing. There is no harm in 
knowing how, and there is no harm iu dancing. It 
may be made good physical culture and healthful 
exercise. Usually, this is not the case, and there 
are so many evils associated with dancing that I 
don't feel ready to recommend dancing lessons 
very cordially. I wish we were all ready to take 
hold and free dancing from its evil associations, and 
consecrate it to good. It is a heavy taslc until the 
leaveniug influence of simple Christianity has 
spread farther and deeper through society, but we can 
at least try to speak frankly, and without prejudice, 
about it. Did you read what H. W. Beecher wrote 
lately about his memory of the single time when 
his sainted mother danced before her little flock of 
children and their father ? 
In my opinion, it is for the good of man, and, 
therefore, for the glory of God, to cultivate the 
love of the beautiful, aud the ability to express it 
as perfectly as possible to all the senses— not for 
the sake of the senses, but for the sake of the soul, 
to which the senses may all be made to minister, by 
judicious cultivation and exercise. 
Sunday Headaches. — They are a reality— a 
dreadful reality— as many weakly persons know to 
their sorrow. Why should they come just once a 
week, aud on Sunday, too ? I used to won- 
der about it when I was a little girl, and 
had to lie abed, or in my eldest sister's 
arms, enduring the misery of a sick or a ner- 
vous headache on a Sunday afternoon. The head- 
aches used to begin to come on, or to suggest them- 
selves somewhat, before I started for church ; and 
when I begged to stay at home on the plea of sick- 
ness, after a whole week of exemption from such 
Buffering, I do not wonder that the request 
was deemed absurd by stronger persons, and that I 
was sometimes obliged to choose between going to 
meeting or taking a dose if I stayed at home. 
I can see now that the Sunday habits of many 
families are directly conducive to headache, 
stomach-ache, aud other physical discomforts, with 
accompanying mental stupidity. When Sunday 
comes, overworked people are glad to sleep a little 
later than usual, and perhaps it is best that they 
should do so. But for people who are not over- 
worked, such late rising is a bad beginning of a 
good day, and sets the stomach out of order at the 
outset, by breaking in upon the usual habit of 
breakfasting. Some feeble persons can not lounge 
in bed after the time of waking, without rising 
with a headache. The stomach is already out of 
tune before the late breakfast is ready, and the chil- 
dren are apt te be hungry and cross. In many 
families it is any thing but a pleasant and leisurely 
task to get all the members ready for church or 
Sunday-school ; aud it is not strange that the body 
calls for rest, when once seated iu the church pew, 
more earnestly than the mind for instruction. 
Drowsiness is a natural result of the whole week's 
work and the whole morning's proceedings. Add 
to this the poor ventilation of the church, the 
crowd of changing colors and shifting scenes, and 
the misery of many of the fashions of women's 
head-gear, and it is not strange that many a mother, 
at least, feels as though she has done a hard day's 
work when she goes home from church to a late 
aud perhaps a heavy dinner. 
It would be more healthful, and so more religious 
iu one sense, to have the hours for rising aud eat- 
ing vary as little as possible from those observed 
ou other days. Extra Sunday naps ought not to be 
made necessary by the irreligious conduct of the 
whole week. Earlier hours for bed every night 
would give a more reasonable aud comfortable day 
of rest on Sunday. 
By Expkess or by Post. — A friend lately sent 
me a present of a package of books aud picture- 
cards of wild animals, birds, aud foreign people, 
for the children. She sent by express, paying the 
charges herself. So I need not hesitate to say that 
she might better have sent the parcel by mail, as 
printed matter. Large parcels, on which you must 
pay letter postage, cost heavily ; but in this case the 
expense would not have been more than half what 
it cost to send the same so far by express. Had the 
distance been shorter, her way would have been 
the better one ; but in sending by express, the ex- 
pense constantly increases with the distance, as the 
parcel changes from one line to another. You can 
send a printed parcel by mail from Boston to Ore- 
gon as cheaply as from Boston to Springfield. But 
be careful not to send any thing as printed matter 
which does not properly come under that head. It 
is easy to find out the law on the subject, and silly, 
tb say the least, to attempt to evade it. A friend 
once sent me a bouquet (much faded, of course, 
when I received it) in a newspaper, and I had to 
pay twenty-five cents for it when I took it from the 
office. A few words, thoughtlessly written ou the 
margin of a newspaper by me when a school-girl, 
cost the friend so addressed twenty-eight cents, be- 
sides some shame on account of my folly. 
Treatment fob "Cross Children." — Mrs. 
Mann commends the good sense of a mother of her 
acquaintance who used to give her children medi- 
cal treatment to cure their evil tempers. She acted 
under the advice of a good physician, and the chil- 
dren, as well as their mother, learned to observe 
the moral effects of an emetic ! It seems quite 
reasonable. Iu such a case, as in all others, " pre- 
vention is better than cure." A simple, whole- 
some diet, free from rich and spicy and greasy com- 
binations, plenty of quiet sleep and exercise in pure 
air, and a clean skin — these are the preventive 
measures, if we would escape peevishness and 
quarrelsome tempers iu children. Even with the 
greatest care for their physical condition, we need 
not expect perfect dispositions, for the little crea- 
tures will inherit more or less of "the old Adam." 
When young children cry much, the trouble is 
apt to be iu the stomach. If we have reason to 
suspect that some undigested matter there causes 
the irritability, a warm-water emetic (sickiskly 
warm) will sometimes bring speedy relief. Pieces 
of unripe fruit will sometimes be thrown up, and 
so cease to torment the little sufferer. I have sel- 
dom resorted to this; but a cool, wet compress, 
bound over the stomach aud bowels, will often 
cause a marked chauge for the better in the temper 
of a child. When I find ray child incapable of be- 
ing pacified by playthings or fun, I sometimes think 
to ask, " Don't you want a compress on ? " and of- 
ten the suggestion is welcomed by the little one. 
Then I am glad enough that I did not punish for 
naughtiness, instead, of trying to cure sickness. 
Sometimes hunger or cold makes a child peevish 
when we little suspect it. 
Oatmeal Grcel. — This is a favorite dish with 
