46-4 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[December, 
I'ig. 1. — OFFICE STOOL. 
stockings, but it is not 60 now. I do not regret 
that less band-knitting is done now tban formerly, 
but I hope we shall not give up warm woolen 
stockings for winter until we cau replace them 
with something better. Merino, or the common 
"boughten" white wool stockings, are rather 
thin, but some of us supplement them with au ad- 
tional pair of cotton stockings, weariug the cotton 
or the woolen 
pair next the 
feet, as individu- 
als prefer. Cold 
feet are oftcu 
caused, at least 
in part, by too 
tight elaslics or 
bauds at the tops 
of the stockings, 
or by tight shoes, 
or shoes tight 
in the ankles. 
These interfere 
with the circu- 
lation of the 
blood, and there 
can not be a 
comfortable de- 
gree of warmth 
without a good 
circulation and 
aeration of the blood. My last lesson in this matter 
came from baby's experience last September. Sud- 
denly she contracted a habit of having cold feet, and 
when I warmed them the skin seemed hard and in- 
active, suggesting the need of a bath, wheu a bath 
did not seem necessary except for the feet. At 
length it occurred to nie that her "ankle-ties" 
had been too loose, and just before we came home 
from our visit a young lady cousin bad set the but- 
tons buck farther, to 
make the little slippers 
stay on better. Ever 
since that change the 
slipper-straps had been 
too tight around her 
ankles, especially after 
I put on woolen stock- 
ings. I changed the 
buttons again, and her 
feet no longer got cold, 
except in consequence 
of the actual rigors 
of the climate. Some 
well-informed persons object to Congress gaiters, 
the elastics are usually so firm and close about the 
ankle. Only very loose garters are allowable, and 
these may not be necessary when the stockings are 
worn over under-drawers. Garters in the shape of 
straps buttoning to both waist and stockings are 
most sensible for women as well as children. 
Many women are obliged to work in kitchens 
where the floors in winter are always cold. It 
helps matters to have a carpet down, but the kit- 
chen carpet is objectionable on the score of clean- 
liness, especial- 
ly where there 
are many chil- 
dren. A few 
large thick rugs 
are better. 
These can be 
shaken often, 
and will afford 
the kitchen oc- 
cupants warm 
places to stand 
or 6it at their 
work. There 
are some very cold days when the mercury sinks 
from 10" to 30° below zero (in Minnesota), and 
then I wear my arctic overshoes all day, and the 
children also keep on overshoes. The floors of 
our houses are many degrees colder than the air 
about our heads. 
One thing too little thought of in thi6 connec- 
tion is absolutely essential to healthy warmth of 
body. That is pure air. Men who work iu the 
Fig. 3. — STOOL FOR TABLE. 
Fig. 3. — LOW STOOL. 
open air some every day have a great advantage 
over housekeepers. Their blood gets oxygenated, 
and so purified (as far as such a degree of air can 
do it) aud prepared to warm and nourish the body, 
of which the blood is the constant up-builder. 
Everybody, male and female, old and young, ought 
to get out of doors some every day, and breathe 
freely with the mouth closed. The air of sleeping 
rooms and other living rooms should be purified 
each day. 
Keep bricks or soapstones in the oven, to be 
wrapped up and put under your feet when you are 
obliged to sit for some time at a distance from the 
fire, especially if you are writing or studying. 
High Seats at Table for ex-Babies. — There 
arc nice large high-ehairs, a little lower than regu- 
lar baby high-chairs, to be found at some furniture 
stores, but many parents neglect to procure them 
when baby No. 1 is dethroned by baby No. 3. But 
no child of six or seven is large enough to sit com- 
fortably and gracefully at table iu a chair made to 
suit a grown person, especially if not allowed to 
put its feet upon the chair-ruug. Its feet do not 
reach the floor, and are apt to swing about in a 
way to fret nervous people, and iu a way that cer- 
tainly is not graceful. And its elbows are not high 
enough to give it easy command of its plate and 
knife aud fork. So, in teaching table mauuers, 
look first for the comfortable seating of your chil- 
dren. A cheap piano-stool does very well for au 
intermediate seat between high-chair and common 
dimug-ch?.ir. Any man with tools cau make one 
on a rainy day, if it seems too much to purchase a 
second high-chair. 
A friend of ours purchased a high, yellow office- 
stool for a dollar. This was sawed off, to suit the 
needs of a child of six, above the lower rungs. A 
6ecoud very comfortable aud useful scat was made 
of the part sawed off, by putting a square board 
atop, and cushioning it with gay woolen patchwork. 
Skinning Sun-fish. — Mr. Rochester says that I 
was mistaken wheu I wrote that sun-fish are as 
easily skinned without scalding or scaling as with. 
It was found to be the best way to scale the fishes 
and wash them, also the hands, and then to strip 
off the skins, leaving the lishes all clean for cooking. 
In trying to skin the fishes without scaliug, the 
whole got badly 6limed. A small matter, perhaps, 
but having mentioned it, I had better get it right. 
~- — i»— _> 
Toughening and Coddling. 
BY RELL. 
In certain minds there is a prejudice against pro- 
tecting children much from the cold or from any 
hardships, for fear it will make them effeminate or 
unduly weak and dependent. One may be over- 
careful, it is true. There is such a thing as "cod- 
dling children" by a fussy, unwise tenderness, so 
that they develop no nerve, no power of endurance. 
There is also such a thing as false " toughening," a 
process that kills off the children of weaker constitu- 
tions. How steer clear of this Scylla without being 
drawn into that Charybdis ? 
To keep children close in warm rooms, never 
allowing them to feel a rough breath of air ; to do 
everything for them, paying heed to every whim- 
pered " I can't" and "I don't want to ; " to inquire 
anxiously after all their preferences and listen pity- 
ingly to all their whining ; to teach them no tasks, 
and never to let them get wholesomely tired— all 
that comes under the name of " coddling," aud I 
pity the children who are put through the weaken- 
ing process. 
The false toughening which is equally to be 
avoided, is on its face a compound of neglect and 
cruelty ; but sometimes it is deliberately under- 
taken by parents of really kind hearts, from mis- 
taken ideas of what Nature really needs. What 
she needs is a fair chance to do her work. She has 
wonderful power of adaptation, but she can not 
stand everything ; and if her children be pinched 
with cold and starved for nourishment, she will 
6urely tell the tale in her own time and way. She 
says that her little animals (and she makes no ex- 
ceptions in favor of humans) must have regular 
meals of simple, nourishing materials, and that 
their growing bones and muscles should have plen- 
ty. And then 6he insists upon plenty of warmth. If 
the surface of the body gets chilled, some harm to 
internal organs is sure to result, though not al- 
ways in a perceptible degree, at the particular time. 
A succession of such chills, or a shivering, half- 
cold condition for any length of time, makes a seri- 
ous drain upon the vitality, and weak constitutions 
break down under it, and the little victims of ne- 
glect fall an easy prey to the diseases of winter's 
cold or summer's heat. These " die a-toughening." 
To be tough is to be " strong and able to endure 
hardships." Strength is born of struggle. Ability 
to endure hardships is the result of discipline in 
the way of eudurance. Some children are born 
with " iron constitutions," apparently ; or were iu 
our grandfathers' day— and they bore a wonderful 
amount of knocking-about aud deprivation of one 
kiud or another. You may think they turned out 
well enough in spite of it; but I don't. I think that 
many of those foreparcnts of remarkable mention 
came out of the hard mill in which they were 
ground, pitifully stunted and deformed in more 
ways than one, and that, too, iu spite of their iron 
constitutions — constitutions so used up by then- 
hard early life that they could not bequeath one 
half their own native vigor to the sons aud daugh- 
ters born of them. 
Yet I believe iu toughening children, and in dis- 
cipline. But these are consistent with perfect 
tenderness and unceasing care. Turn them out of 
doors— no, never turn them out, but let them go, 
or coax them out if they have morbid fears. But 
have them so well protected with warm overcoats 
(give sleeved sacks to girls, instead of bothersome 
pretenses, called shawls), over-socks, or over-shoes 
with leggings, mittens, and hoods, or caps with ear- 
tabs, that they cau run and coast and skate and 
slide aud snow-ball without any discomfort from 
the north wind or the ice. 
Teach children to wait upou themselves, and to 
take pleasure in helping others. Encourage them 
to bear necessary pain with as little fuss as possible. 
Give them good tools, and show an interest iu their 
use of them. Show them how to work as you do 
but require very little at first, letting them make 
things for friends, or do their tasks to " help " those 
they love, until they learn to feel an ambition 
about doing their work fast and thoroughly. Ex- 
pect them to keep their engagements, and not 
allow them to back out of au undertaking as soon 
as the flush of novelty wears off. Therefore let 
them not attempt too much— unless to cure a habit 
of bragging. Give them long, warm night-clothes 
and bedding enough (too much will induce perspir- 
ation) to keep them warm in any position, and 
let them sleep in cool, ventilated rooms, and give 
them all the natural sleep they can take. 
~ - | 
Devonihire Cream. 
One of the noted luxuries of the London market 
is " Devonshire cream," or " clotted cream." The 
method of its preparation is as follows : From six 
to eight quarts of milk is strained into a thick 
earthenware pan or crock, which, when new, is 
prepared for use by beiug stood in clear cold water 
for several days, aud then scalded three or four times 
with skimmed milk. Tin pans may be used if they 
are scalded in hot bran and left to stand with the 
bran in them for twenty-four hours. The milk being 
strained into the pan is stood iu a cool room from 
niue to fourteen hours, according to the tempera- 
ture. It is then carefully moved to the top of the 
stove or range, or placed over a bright fire (not too 
near it), and slowly heated— so that at the end of 
a half-hour the cream will have shrunken away 
from the sides of the pau aud gathered into large 
wrinkles, the milk at the sides of the pan commenc- 
ing to simmer. The pau is then carefully returned 
to the cool-room aud left about ten hours, when 
the cream is skimmed off. 
This cream is very delicious to use on fruit or 
preserves, and is esteemed a great luxury— selling 
for about the price per pound of the best butter. 
