272 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[Sbptembru, 
Fresh Air and Warm Air, at a Saving of 
Expense. 
Many readers of the Agriculturist inquire about 
ventilation; heating of houses, economical fuel, etc. 
To satisfy them and exhibit the principles of econ- 
omical heating and ventilation of dwellings in few 
words, the accompanying engravings have been 
prepared. The first represents a room heated by 
an open lire ; the second, by a stove ; the third and 
fourth by a hot air furnace, the heated air entering 
by the fireplace. In each case the light shades or 
clear part indicate the warm air ; the darker shad- 
ings are the cool or cold parts of the room ; and the 
figures indicate approximately the temperature by 
a Fahrenheit thermometer. Warm air is light, cold 
air is heavy, o.nd the warm air floats over the cold. 
The air in any heated room is warmer at the top 
than near the floor, and is divided into strata, which 
though not so definite as we have drawn them, are 
still of about the same temperature at any given 
night all over the room away from the disturbing 
Fig. 1.— ROOM HEATED BY OPEN PIKE. 
iuflueuccs of windows, doors, or. the fireplace. 
These strata are often seen in a still room when 
the fire is first made in a stove and it smokes a lit- 
tle, especially after the room is somewhat warmed. 
The smoke will be seen to arrange itself in hori- 
zontal sheets. The same is often seen in cold 
weather, when a man sits quietly smoking near 
a closed window. The air of the room is chil- 
led by contact with the glass and flows down- 
ward, producing a current and drawing down more 
of the warm air from the top of the room. The 
smoker's fumes are entangled in these currents, 
become of a temperature, and consequently of a 
specific gravity, like that of some of the air strata 
in the room, and so float out into the room, main- 
taining almost a perfect level, as a thin sheet of 
smoke. In rooms heated and ventilated in the usual 
way, a person sits for hours after the fire is made, 
with his head in a comfortable temperature, and 
his feet very cold. Many a room heated by an 
open fire is so hot close to the fire that women's 
dresses are in danger of scorching, while back, 
away from the fire, ice will hardly melt in a pail of 
water in all day. The same trouble is more or less 
Fig. 2. — KOOM HEATED BY STOVE. 
experienced in all rooms where there is not a very 
perfect ventilation. The fire is increased and an 
immense quantity of fuel consumed to warm the 
room, while through many cracks cold air comes 
in, and from the cold walls and windows the air is 
constantly chilled and poured down upon the 
floor. There it lies, chilling the feet, and unaffected, 
unless it is stirred up by the opening of a door 
or the sweep of a crinoline, when the excla- 
mation is elicited. " What a stream of cold air 
you bring with you." This state of things would 
be very pleasant if we were only so constructed as 
to walk on our heads and sit on our shoulders, 
for cool heads and warm feet are very desirable; — 
but this is exactly the way we do not walk and sit. 
The usual ventilation which a builder will intro- 
duce into a house, if the owner insists upon having 
any, is simply to make holes into an independ- 
ent flue near the top of the room, which may be 
opened or shut. It needs no argument to show 
that though opening a hole in the top of the room 
might cause fresh air to flow into the room, it 
Fig. 3. — BOOM HEATED BY HOT AIR FURNACE. 
would be at the expense of the warmth, for the hot-' 
te6t air would be drawn off, leaving its place to be. 
supplied by cold air. In summer this furnishes 
agreeable ventilation, if the flue draws. In winter 
we need to have the cold air withdrawn, so that the 
warm air can be more diffused through the room. 
To effect this, obviously the ventilator must be" 
near the floor, and it is much better if it be in the 
floor. It should also be in the coldest part of 
the room, as shown in figure 4, where the arrows 
indicate the flow of the cold air from near the floor 
into the " register." The air-trunk beneath the 
floor lies between the floor joists, if possible, 
and communicates with a flue in the chimney 
which is warmed by proximity to some heated flue. 
Rooms thus ventilated, in whatever way they may 
be heated, are much more economically warmed 
than others. They are more eotnfortable, for a 
pleasant temperature pervades the room,' there be- 
ing often less difference than we have indicated 
between the top and bottom of the room. Mr. J. 
HEATED BY HOT AIR AND VENTILATED. 
L. Lockwood, of Fairfield Co., Conn., has introduc- 
ed this plan into his dwelling house very thorough- 
ly, and with great satisfaction. The chimneys in 
his house are all built with ventilating flues com- 
municating with all the principal rooms. He-finds 
the saving of fuel very great. 
Suggestions on Drying Fruits, etc. 
Mrs. D. Garrigus, New Haven Co., Conn., writes 
to the American Agriculturist : " Fruit time is 
here, hut sugar is so high that it will not pay to 
preserve much in the old-fashioned way. All the 
6mall fruits are excellent dried in sugar. To do 
this ; remove the stones from plums, cherries, etc.; 
take 4 oz. of sugar to 1 lb. of fruit, cook a few min- 
utes, spread them on earthen plates, and dry in the 
oven. If the fruit is juicy, as cherries for exam- 
ple, let it remain in the liquor over night after cook- 
ing, then in the morning drain through a colander 
and dry. I always have sprinkled a little sugar 
among the fruit when I packed it away in jars, but 
this may be omitted this season. 1 make fruit 
cake by using cherries (the common red ones are 
the best) for raisins ; huckleberries for Zante cur- 
rants ; and plums for citron. 
" I think dried tomatoes are better than any can- 
ned or bottled ones I ever ate. I prepare them 
thus : Seald and skin the tomatoes, cook as dry as 
possible without burning ; then spread on earthen 
plates, and dry in the oven. When required for 
use, rinse in cold water, let them soak in warm wa- 
ter an hour or so, cook a few minutes, and season 
to taste. Of course they will stick together, and 
want to be picked in pieces before soaking. They 
will keep, hung up in little 6acks. If wanted to 
send to the soldiers, they are packed and trans- 
ported with much less trouble and expense than 
bottles or cans. Tell your readers while drying 
sweet corn for winter use, not to forget the 6nap 
beans and green shell beans. Prepare as if for 
cooking, scald in boiling water, and dry in the sun ; 
by this simple means one can have succotash in 
winter almost as good as summer." 
Sundry Domestic Notes. 
Prepared for the Agriculturist by Molly Greenfield* 
diairs,— Some time ago somebody said "cut off 
the back legs of yo\ir chairs to make them more 
comfortable." Don't do it, unless you are of those 
poor people who have no babies in the house. 
Have pity on the little climbers' heads; they get 
bumps enough any way, without pulling the chairs 
over backward so easily. Have the seats of the 
chairs made at the proper inclination, but don't cut 
off the back leg's. 
A Comfort. — One of the workmen on the street 
came into our yard the other day. He was suffer- 
ing from the sun's intense heat. I suggested that 
he put wet hollyhock leaves in his hat, which he 
did. It was a relief, he said " first-rate." Perhaps 
it will be a hint to others who have never tried wet 
leaves. Father says "go without a hat to keep the 
head cool." That's an odd way, and every one 
might not like it, or find it as effectual as he does. 
Little Savings and Little Wastings. — " Trifles make 
the sum of human things." A "penny saved is two 
pence earned," says Poor Richard. It is well then 
to look to the little savings, and avoid in house- 
hold and farm economy little wastings, which with 
careless managers are continually occurring. 
Don't throw away the ashes, leached or uuleached ; 
they are a valuable fertilizer. And, speaking of 
ashes, how handy it is always to have a leach ready 
for use, a good substantial affair, not a tumble- 
down old barrel — always to be able to have a sup- 
ply of good lye for washing, cleaning, or making 
soap. Does every housekeeper know that it is 
convenient and economical to have a tub of strong 
lye to throw soap-grease into, through the summer, 
thus preserving it from the flies, and making soap 
without boiling ? Have a care to save all your waste ' 
paper, it is worth from 4 to 8 cents per pound. 
Save all the rags, the best of them for mattresses, 
cushions, rugs, and carpeting, and all you can use 
no other way, for the paper-rags. Hang a small 
bag in a very convenient place, to receive all the 
shreds from the sweeping, etc. Let the children 
make patchwork quilts again of bits of calico; and 
of bits of silk a pretty cover for the top of a home- 
made work stand may be pieced up. Make aprons 
of the back breadths of calico dresses, when the 
rest is worn out. Put the abaudoned old shoes and 
all other waste animal matter on the compost heap; 
also slops which the cow and pig will not eat. 
Mend the broken crockery if you can, for kitchen 
use. Don't let fruit go to waste — there is a mark- 
et for surplus dried fruit, and the soldiers can find 
use for all you can spare them. When making 
preserves, put the rinsings of your kettle in a cask 
or jug of molasses and water for vinegar. Take 
care of all the ripe tomatoes. Many are somtimes 
wasted on the ground. Preserve, pickle, make 
catsup, dry, salt down in brine ; don't let the last 
freeze. Feed out a"hy that are left, or wash out 
the seed, keeping varieties distinct, and sell it. 
Green tomatoes are good in various ways, but prob- 
ably not very wholesome. — Sugar is high this sum- 
mer, and ladies make jelly with half the usual 
amount — it is very nice for cake. Put up all the 
fruit you can in glass cans. — Be careful of fresh 
meat in warm weather. Sour milk is good tb keep 
it in, or you can hang it down in the well. After it 
is cooked, if you have no safe, keep it in the stove 
oven, when the stove is cold, and the flies will be 
less likely to touch it. Use your own ingenuity in 
