1878.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
27 
DIAMOND PUZZLE. 
1. A vowel. 2. A heavenly body, which forms thecen- 
ter of a system of orbs. 3. The American Ostrich. 4. A 
name. 5. The act of being contemptuous. 6. To prose¬ 
cute. 7. One-fourth of five. 
The center letters, perpendicular and horizontal, form 
a name with which we arc all familiar. K. P. N. 
RHOMBOID PUZZLE. 
Across. 
1. A bird. 2. An animal. 3. Incurring punishment. 
4. A twist of thread. 5. A native of India. 
Downwards. 
1. A consonant. 2. A preposition. 3. A covering. 4. 
Animals. 5. Liquors. G. A value. 7. To cut short. S. 
None. 9. One of many. Nutmeg. 
ANSWERS TO PUZZLES IN THE NOVEMBER NUMBER. 
Metagram.— Stream —from which maybe made the words 
Sam, east, steam, tean.. mare, ram, tame, rat, tea, arm, sea, 
tar, mast, ease, mate, star, (Mars), rest, stare. 
Transposed Aviary.—1. Goldfinch. 2. Humming-bird. 
3. King-fisher 4. Nightingale. 5. Starling. 6. Pigeon 7. 
Falcon. 8. Swallow. 9. Pheasant, 10. Partridge. 
Numerical Enigma.—B e stirring, man, while yet the day 
is clear. 
Nine Concealed Fruits.—O range, lemon, pear, peach, 
currant, plum, prune, grape, apple. 
Send communications intended for Avnl Sue. to Box 111, 
P. 0., Brooklyn, iV. Y., and not to 245 Broadway. 
Aunt Sue’s Clints. 
Mrs. S. S. D.— A very pretty edging, for the purposes 
you name, may be made with braid and crochet-work. 
Get Sutro’s feather-edged braid. No. 3 (see fig. i), (it is 
cold by the piece of 12 yds., for six cents ; proportionally 
cheaper in larger quantities), Clark’s cotton No. 40, and 
a fine steel crochet-needle. Fasten the cotton into the 
fourth or fifth loop from the end of the braid (to allow 
for raveling). Make a chain of six stitches, then put 
your needle into the next loop but one, with short- 
Crochet. Now make a chain of five stitches, and put 
your needle through the next loop but one with short- 
Fig. 1.— FEATHER-EDGED BRAID. 
crochet. Again a chain of five stitches, and your needle 
through the next loop but one. Now take up the next 
eight loops of the braid with short-crochet, and you will 
have reached the point illustrated in the last scallop of 
figure 2. The eight loops just finished fill up the inside 
of the lower edge of the scallop. Now make a chain ot 
two stitches and join it in the third stitch (just drawing 
the thread through) of the lowest chain of five ; then a 
chain of two stitches, and turn back into the second 
loop (from the eight short-crochet stitches) of the braid ; 
then a chain of two, and back into the third stitch of the 
next chain of five; a chain of two, and into the next 
loop but one ; then you make a chain of three, ancF draw 
your thread through the center of the chain of six ; a 
chain of three, and into the next loop but one. This 
Fig. 2.— WIDE EDGING. 
completes the scallop. For the commencement of the 
next scallop (and to join the two) put your crochet-needle 
through the loop next to the one which is directly under¬ 
neath the stitch you have on your hook, on the lower side 
of the braid ; turn it over on the wrong side, and double 
the braid so as to bring the loops (between the two scal¬ 
lops) opposite to each other, then draw your thread 
through two loops at a time (the two loops which are op¬ 
posite to each other), 
leaving the stitches 
all on the needle, un¬ 
til you come to the 
loop above the eight 
short-crochet stitch¬ 
es inside the lower 
part of the scallop; 
then draw your thread through the first stitch, on the 
hook, then through two and through two until you come 
to the end of your stitches. Now turn it over on the 
right side, flatten it out, and just at the top of the join¬ 
ing there will he one little loop of the braid standing up 
by itself; through that you draw your thread and com¬ 
mence another scallop, beginning with the chain of six 
as before described. The illustrations may enable you 
to see through what my explanation has left obscure. To 
make a narrower edging, like figure 3, leave out tiie 
second “ chain of five stitches ” ; to make wider edging, 
increase your chains of five, and take up more loops on 
the inside of the scallops. 
Jessie W.—You will find a description of toilet-set 
(pincushion, mats, catch-alls, card-case, hair-pin box, etc.) 
in the June No., lS76,ofthe American Agnculturist. p.226. 
“W.”—The symbolic meaning of precious stones in 
Germany is: 
Amethyst.Control of the passions. 
Aqua marine.Misfortune. 
Agate...Long life and health. 
Bloodstone.Courage and discretion. 
Chrysolite.Preservation from folly. 
Diamond.Innocence. 
Emerald.Happiness. 
Garnet.Fidelity to promises. 
Opal.Hope. 
Ruby.Oblivion and grief. 
Sapphire . .Repentance. 
Sardonyx... ..Conjugal fidelity. 
Topaz.Friendship. 
Turquoise.Success. 
For the initials “ C. L. P.,” I can thinkof nothing bet¬ 
ter than coi'al. lapis lazuli, and pearl. It would certainly 
be a peculiar combination, and “C. L. P.'’ ivould be 
very sure that you had the ring made especially for her. 
Charlie.— Yes; “alligator skins” are tanned, and 
used for boots and shoes. Nearly 20,000 arc tanned 
yearly (the sides and underneath parts, not the back). 
They are stripped off, packed in brine and sent North, 
from Louisiana and Florida, to he tanned. It takes from 
six to eight months to prepare them for use. The alli¬ 
gators are sometimes 12, and rarely 15 feet long. 
“ S M. F.”—An old newspaper, slightiy dampened, is 
the very best thing with which to clean a looking-glass. 
“A. M. M.,” asks me how to make a “shell-frame.” 
The question is somewhat indefinite, but I suppose she 
means “how to make a frame of shells.” 1 never had 
much of a fancy for shell-work, it is so perishable; the 
shells are always falling off, and getting lost, leaving an 
ugly gap somewhere. But if x nad plenty of pretty 
shells, and wanted a frame of the kind, I should procure 
a suitable wooden frame for t-he purpose : then x should 
cut a paper the exact size of the frame. On the paper, I 
should arrange the shells in some tasteful uniform or 
multiform manner, until it was compietely covered. 
Then I should smear the frame with a strong, stiff glue 
(a small portion at a time), and transfer tho shells from 
the paper to the frame, one at a time, retaining the posi¬ 
tion (originally arranged on the paper) as nearly as pos¬ 
sible. [Sometimes the frame is cove: ed with a thin layer 
of putty, and the shells imbedded in that.— Ed.] 
Thanks for letters, puzzles, etc., to M. Marchand, 
Charlie F. B., Ida C. C., Augustus J. W., S. G. S., J. R. 
H., Mary Gold, Saliie, and others, whose favors! hope 
to answer at some future time. 
- ■> m . -- 
WSiere Docs tlie ’IVl«eat €lo ? • 
Every boy or girl who lives in the grain growing Slates 
takes an interest in the wheat crop. They see wheat 
every where, they hear wheat talked of, and they know 
that the wheat is sold that sugar, shoes, and many other 
things may be bought with the money. The girls and 
the quite young boys, if they take no part in the work oi' 
raising the crop, can admire it, and they early learn to 
know that the fields so bright, and green in fall and spring 
are wheat fields. Later, what a beautiful sight it is, 
when the tail grain is moved by the summer breezes, and 
it rolls iu waves likes those of the sea! Later still, the 
green gives way the rich tint that shows that the grain 
is ripe, and soon you hear the click of the reapers, and 
then come the liurry and the buzz ot the thrashing time. 
All these make the wheat, crop a most interesting one, 
even to the young people who can not work at it. But 
the older hoys are sure to have a hand in the crop 
at some time, if it is only to drive the horses or other¬ 
wise help at the thrashing machine. It must he a dull 
kind of hoy who can keep quiet when thrashing is going 
on, where nil is so active and every one is doing some¬ 
thing with all his might. The horses are pulling, the 
drivers shouting—or if an engine is used, the steam puf¬ 
fing—the machine going with a tremendous racket: even 
the air seems full of chaff, and straw, and shonts, and 
sounds. Where so much is going on we say—a boy that 
is any sort of a hoy—is sure to caieli the spirit, and be 
doing something. When at the thrashing machine, do 
yon ever think what all this bustle and rush is for—what 
does this crowd of horses or steam, of cogs and cranks, 
of men and-boys, all this noise and dust—what, does it 
all accomplish ? Go to the delivery spoilt, of the machine, 
and what do yon see? A little stream of small yellow¬ 
ish or brownish grains—the wheat, running into a bag. 
But this hnrry-sknrry of thrashing is only the end of a 
long line of operations. Months ago there were strong 
horses at work with plows, harrows, drills, and rollers. 
There was the farmers anxiety about snow, and freezing, 
and thawing, he was watching for insects and smut, 
Then came reapers and binders, and hauling and stack¬ 
ing—all this work running through months, and all that 
this little stream of wheat might quietly run from the 
side of this very noisy machine. Is it worth all this 
trouble and all this labor to get just those grains. What 
are they—what are they good for that they should be pro¬ 
duced at such a cost—that machines and animals, that men 
with their hands and with their thoughts, should all com¬ 
bine to produce these little grains of wiieat. If we were 
by, we might play the conjurer of the old fairy talc, and 
say: “ If you would see that stream of wheat as it really 
is, take this magic glass and look through it. This is a 
wonderful glass ; it is called ‘The Imagination.’ Every 
hoy, and every girl has one, but they do not always know 
it, and some who do know it and try to use the glass, 
look through the wrong end and see things as they are 
not. But look now at the wheat and what do you see in 
the stream ?”—“ Steamships and watches. A Senator 
making a speech and a cook making a pie ; fine laces 
and silks, and gunny bags and ropes; a thief going to 
prison, a preacher going to liis pulpit; books—books, 
and more hooks; newspapers and pictures; a micro¬ 
scope and a locomotive, washing machines and sewing 
machines, such a lot; looms, reapers and—there, take 
your glass, I am tired—there is too much—there is 
everything.”—Wheat is bread. That “ bread is the stnfl 
of life,” is a saying so true that many persons think it is 
from the Scriptures. Wheat is the main support of life 
in all civilized nations, and life stiows itself in innu¬ 
merable forms, a few of which we have supposed our 
youngster saw by the aid of “The Imagination.” It is 
no improper use of the imagination to see in the wheat 
those things which but for the wheat could hardly he 
possible. In writing thus we would show the farmer’s 
boy that in raising wheat, he is doing something more 
than getting so much a bushel for it. He is helping on 
the world’s progress ; lie is famishing food to the muscles 
and the brains of the world, and these muscles and 
brains in turn help him with better plows and thrashers, 
and send him hooks and papers to nourish his brain in 
return. We would show him that while we are all en¬ 
gaged in doing the world’s work, the farmer’s part is one 
of the most important and honorable. Yon can see that 
this little stream of wheat, insignificant though it looks, 
is really important. Each grain is full of power, quiet 
now, hut capable of being awakened. In a stream of gun¬ 
powder, eacli grain can exert an immense power, but 
that is exercised suddenly and dangerously—while the 
power in the grain of wheat, is exerted gradually, it 
becomes bread, and bread feeds the muscles and the 
brains, and its final power is shown in the work 
these do, which (though sometimes turned to evil) is 
generally for the good oi mankind. These precious 
grains are really worth all the trouble, all the hard work, 
and all the anxious thought through the months be¬ 
tween seed time and harvest, until amid all the lmrly 
burly of thrashing, they can run in a stream, quiet, hut 
STEAM ELEVATOR FOR LOADING SHIPS. 
how full of concealed powdr, from the outlet of the 
thrasher. Where does the wheat go then? “To the 
mill,” you will say. That which the farmer sends him¬ 
self to the mill—even that used in his own neighbor¬ 
hood, is but a small part of his whole crop. The rest 
finally gets to the mill, lint what a long journey much of 
it takes. Between the field on your farm and the thrash¬ 
ing machine at your barn, to the mill, is often thousands 
Fig. 3.— NARROW EDGING. 
