1871.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
385 
W~ (For other Household Items, see " Basket " pages.) 
Little Matters and Greater Ones. 
In the primitive housekeeping of the wife of the 
Western pioneer, the skillet is the universal house- 
hold utensil. Iu this 
the bread is baked, 
the meat is cooked, 
and the dishes wash- 
ed. Indeed, it serves 
so many domestic 
purposes, that those 
fastidious about their 
food should not in- 
vestigate too closely. 
How bewildered one 
of these housekeepers 
would be could she 
visit a first-class 
house - f u r n i s h i n g 
store, where human 
ingenuity would 
seem to have been 
sorely taxed to in- 
vent a hundred uten- 
sils to do that which 
she had always found 
her simple skillet 
equal to! We like 
to visit a store of this 
kind, as it is wonder- 
ful to see the amount 
of thought and skill 
that have been ex- 
pended for the benefit 
of the housekeeper. It is not always the case that the 
uew things are better in practice than old ones, but 
there is nevertheless the same display of ingenuity. 
What a variety of devices have been pre- 
sented for the simple purpose of beating 
an egg ! We like now and then to drop 
in to the store of onr neighbor Baldwin, 
in Murray street, to look at the strange 
"traps," and exercise our ingenuity in 
guessing their uses, for some of them are 
embodied conundrums, and it takes no 
little acuteness to make out what they are 
for. As an illustration of the inventive 
Ekill bestowed upon a simple thing, we 
will take the nutmeg-grater. The primi- 
tive grater (fig. 1) is well enough known : 
a rough piece of tin, upon which the 
nutmeg is to be rubbed— simple and ef- 
fective. But careless people may grate 
their fingers as well as the nutmeg. This 
may be prevented by providing a holder, 
in the shape of a wooden block with a 
hole in it (fig. 2). The nutmeg is placed 
in the hole in the block, which slides over 
the grater. The same principle is expressed in a 
different way in figure 3, where the grater forms 
an arc of a. circle, and the nutmeg -holder, at- 
tached to an axis, is pushed back and forth 
Fig. 1. — COMMON GRATER. 
nutmeg is held in place by means of a wooden 
spring, and the grater, iu the form of a disk, is 
moved against it by turning a crank. The same 
idea is carried out in the iron implement, fig. 5, in 
which both nutmeg and grater are concealed from 
sight and also from dust. These are all single-bar- 
reled graters, but in figure we have what might 
be called a revolver. The grater is a short cylin- 
der, with the grating surface upon the inside. 
3. — CURVED GRATER. 
Within the grater is another short cylinder, which 
revolves; this has upon its circumference four 
holes, at which four nutmegs are held by means of 
springs, and are brought in contact with the grat- 
ing surface as the crank is turned. Any of these 
Fig. 3. — GRATER WITn GUARD. 
over it. In these cases the .nutmeg moves over 
the grater. There is another set of graters, in 
which the nutmeg is stationary and the grater 
.moves. Figure 4 shows one of these, where the 
Fig. 4. — WOODEN REVOLVING GRATER. 
graters do their work well. In purchasing house- 
hold or any other implements, simplicity should be 
sought, as well as efficiency. That implement that 
will do its work with the fewest parts and joints is 
to be preferred, as less liable to 
get out of order, to any com pli- 
cated one, no matter how in- 
genious it may be in design. 
Letter from a Housekeeper. 
Dear Agriculturist : There 
is nothing I enjoy reading better 
than a practical letter from some 
uuknown sister housekeeper, and 
the farther off it comes, really, 
the more interesting it seems to 
be. Although nothing definite 
may be told about the circum- 
stances surrounding her, yet 
there is just enough mystery about it to make it 
pleasant to enlarge upon it in the imagination. It 
is astonishing how often I thiuk of the mother, 
and her interesting family, who wrote the short but 
touching letter which appeared in one of the back 
numbers of the Agriculturist. Tou know the letter 
I refer to — 
"From an 
Over w orked 
Woman. " 
When I am 
■weary, and tir- 
ed, and over- 
done, I just 
think of her, 
and somehow 
I feel better 
for the sym- 
pathy. I won- 
der if she won't 
write to us 
again, and let 
us Agriculturist 
Bisters know 
how she is get- 
ting along ? If 
she has drop- 
ped down in 
the harness, let 
us know it 
from her hus- 
band or some 
neighbor, that 
her sisters may 
shed a tear to 
her memory. 
I find this hot 
weather thatitis difficult to make bread without the 
Dough Turning Sour before I can get it baked ; 
so lately I have taken the precaution to add a little 
cai-bonate of soda to the sponge. I use for my 
baking of twelve ordinary-sized loaves about two 
thirds of a teaspoouful, well dissolved in plenty of 
warm water. I have not had sour bread since I 
have done so, and I have followed this practice since 
early in the summer. As there is not the slightest 
discoloration in the bread, I know by this sign that 
it needed something of the kind. I have an idea 
that most of the flour we buy is slightly acid, but 
of course I don't know how far I am correct about 
this, but I do feel positive that the soda used as I 
use it, enables me to make whiter, sweeter, and 
more wholesome bread and biscuit than without. 
During the early spring, we had very poor old 
potatoes, and as the new ones were not large 
enough for the purpose, I omitted putting potatoes 
in my bread. Since the new ones have become 
large, mealy, and fully ripe, I have commenced 
using a generous quantity in the bread, and I am 
surprised to see what a great difference it makes. 
The bread is whiter, softer, firmer, and more glu- 
tinous-looking, and keeps moist much longer. Be- 
ing a young housekeeper, I have often questioned 
with myself the utility of putting potatoes in 
bread. Since this experiment has been thrown in 
my way, my mind is fully made up, and I think I 
shall never again omit them. We are all fond of 
5 — iron revolving grater. 
Fig. 6.— FOUR-BARRELED REVOLVING GRATER. 
Biscuits, and as I think raised biscnits the best, 
I always reserve a quantity of the raised dough for 
