1878 .] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
183 
is perfectly hardy, so far as cold is concerned, hut 
it can not endure a moist soil, and unless a specially 
well-drained bed can be given it, the French culti¬ 
vators advise to cultivate it altogether in pots. It 
is altogether too fine a plant to be scarce, and we 
hope our cultivators will take pains to multiply it. 
A Wire Trellis for Peas. 
The sticking of peas is a job which gardeners 
would gladly avoid, as it is often difficult to secure 
suitable brush and the time occupied in collecting 
brush and setting it is no small item. A few years 
ago, we figured a pea-hurdle, such as is in use in 
England, hut this is rather costly, and takes up too 
much room when not in use. Mr. Z. Mills, Jr., 
sends an account of his method of using wire to 
support his pea-vines; he has employed this for 
several years, and finds it greatly superior to brush. 
The peas are sown in double rows, six inches apart, 
care being observed to have the rows true. A post 
six inches in diameter, either round or half round, 
is set at each end of the row ; it is placed three feet 
in the ground, and is as high as the vines require ; 
the earth should be pounded firmly around the 
posts to prevent sagging. The wire used is galvan¬ 
ized iron, No. 18, which measures 150 feet to the 
PORTION OP PEA-TRELLIS. 
pound. When the peas are tall enough to need 
support, the wire is attached to a post, about six 
inches from the ground, carried to and passed 
around the post at the other end of the row, and 
back to the starting point; here it may be made 
fast and cut off, but Mr. M. prefers to take two or 
three turns around the post, and leave the coil 
hanging there until another stretch of wire is needed. 
When the vines grow 8 or 10 inches above the first 
wire, a second wire is stretched in the same manner 
as the first, and so on until the vines cease growing. 
Plasterer’s laths, or other strips, or beau poles, are 
put every 15 feet in the row as stakes to support 
the wires, if they sag with the weight of the vines ; 
the stakes have notches cut to receive the wires, or 
these may be tied with a cord or a short piece of 
wire. If the rows are over 300 feet long, another 
post should be set midway of the row to relieve 
those at the end of too great a weight. When the 
crop is gathered, the wire is removed and wound 
up on a reel, and the posts stored in a dry place, 
ready for another season. Mr. M. trains Lima and 
-other pole-beans in the same manner, using for 
these a single wire, instead of passing it on both 
sides of the posts, as for peas. He is sure that he 
can get a larger crop from beans trained on wires 
than from poles, but at first some care is required 
to train the vines, and get them properly started. 
The Potato-Beetle. —The experience of last 
season has shown how easily the potato-beetle may 
be vanquished. Notwithstanding this pest, potatoes 
are plentiful in New York markets, at §1.50 a bar¬ 
rel, and farmers seem to think that these prices are 
better than those for most of their products. The 
fight with the beetle, to be successful, must be 
swift, short, and sharp. No other remedy is so 
certain as Paris Green for the larvae, and hand¬ 
picking for the first crop of the beetles. Hand¬ 
picking early in the season, prevents the deposition 
of thousands of eggs, and every egg destroyed, 
diminishes the late crop by hundreds or thousands. 
If farmers would only work for one year, and de¬ 
stroy the beetles as long as one is to be seen, spar¬ 
ing none of the late crop, there would be an end of 
them, practically, for ever afterwards. To spare 
the latest brood, is to save seed for the next season. 
TMffi HOTSEIMLK 
tsir For other Household Items see “ Basket ” pages. 
Home Topics. 
BY FAITH ROCHESTER. 
How to do a Washing. 
Washing-machines are usually accompanied with 
printed directions for their use, but in more than 
half of the families throughout the country, no 
machine is used. The old-fashioned washboard is 
the main reliance. Perhaps washing does not come 
under the head of “ skilled labor ; ” it is generally 
supposed that any one who has strong arms and 
back can do this work; but certainly something 
more than mere strength is required to do a wash¬ 
ing well. There is a great difference in washings, 
as I can see iu comparing my present task with 
ten years ago. I not only have more pieces in 
the wash now, but the majority of them are much 
harder to cleanse: this is because there are chil¬ 
dren iu the family, who play out-doors in all kinds 
of weather. Knowing this, I am not likely to 
be deceived by any advertisements of machines, 
or soaps, or washing-fluids, which promise to do 
“the family washing ” in an hour or two without 
any hard rubbing. It may all be true about some 
washings, but not about mine. 
Many advise that the white clothes be always put 
in soak over-night before washing. I have not 
found enough help iu this to pay for the trouble. 
I almost always use some kind of wasking-lluid, or 
chemical soap, especially in summer, when most 
white clothes are used. In winter, a free use of 
flannels, which are easily washed, makes the work 
lighter. Clothes that are much soiled should 
not have hot water poured upon them, or be put 
into clear hot water, which “ sets ” the dirt. A hot 
soap-suds does not have the same effect. Yet I 
should prefer to wash stained articles in moderate¬ 
ly warm suds, before putting them into hot suds. 
Many fruit stains are removed by pouring boiling 
water through the spots, but other stains cannot 
bear this treatment. Make, then, a good strong 
suds, as hot as the hand can bear. Add washing- 
fluid if you can, unless you have some kind of 
“ electric ” or “ detersive ” soap. Put in pieces to 
the amount of three or four or five shirts, accord¬ 
ing to the size of the tub, and amount of water. 
Of course, we wash first the finest, or least 
soiled articles. Let them soak in the strong suds a 
little, from five to fifteen or twenty minutes. Keep 
plenty of hot water in the boiler, and, to this end, 
fill it up whenever we take any out, keeping it 
somewhere near half full. If we use hard soap, it 
is best to shave up two-thirds of a bar, (or less if 
the washing is small), and dissolve it in a quart or 
more of hot water, upon the stove. Make the 
suds of this. With a good suds, and with a short 
soaking, the shirts, pillow-cases, fine shirts, and the 
under-garments of cleanly people, ought not to 
need much rubbing. After the first lot of pieces 
has been washed, wrung out, and dropped into the 
basket, put another lot in, adding more of the dis¬ 
solved soap, or more hot water if needed. Some 
of the suds from the tub may be taken out first, in 
which to soak the especially soiled garments. 
When the suds in the tub becomes considerably 
dirty, prepare a clean suds, and in this begin with 
the white table-cloths, napkins, and dish-towels, if 
it is desired to keep these separate from articles of 
clothing, as some do. Many do not care about this, 
aiming to have every thing so clean when it has 
been washed, boiled, sun-dried, and ironed, that it 
may be put to almost any purpose. Each house¬ 
keeper must use her own judgment about what to 
put in first, or into the suds when it is clean. If 
white flannels are to be kept clear and white, they 
must be washed in clean suds, and rinsed in clean 
warm water; so never put them in at random among 
other clothes. As soon as you have taken out the 
last hot water needed for washing the white 
clothes, put more cold water in the boiler, and put 
into it the finest and whitest part of the white 
clothes. If you have used very strong suds in the 
washing, it is not necessary to put more soap into 
the boiler, but most house-keepers do add soap, or 
soap and fluid. A thorough scalding is the main 
thing now. The water should be heated to boiling, 
and should boil from five to twenty minutes, ac¬ 
cording to the quantity of clothes in the boiler. 
Long boiling in suds makes clothes yellow. After 
the clothes are thoroughly scalded through the 
mass, I see no benefit in continued boiling. Stii* 
them about, (or poke them down), with a clothes- 
stick. Set an empty tub near the stove, and take 
clothes from the boiler into this with the stick. 
When the tub is again on its bench, pour into it 
two or three pailfuls of cold water. Put another 
lot of clothes into the boiler, and proceed to “suds” 
the first lot. That is, rinse them well—rubbing 
wrists or children’s drawers if not yet clean, and 
wring them. Take the others from the boiler, and 
suds them in the same tub. The sudsing water is 
then warm enough, and clean enough for washing 
the colored clothes. There is probably too much 
of it, and you can put some of it back into the 
boiler. If you have many colored clothes, you will 
need more than one suds for them. They should 
not lie iu soak. White calico, with black figures, 
may be washed and boiled with the white clothes. 
Colored cotton or linen articles, may be rinsed in 
the water which has rinsed the white clothes, un¬ 
less they are very dark colored or black, so as to 
show white lint, in which case they need clear wa¬ 
ter. They should be starched at once, and hung in 
the shade, if convenient. 
Protection from Moths. 
In May the clothes-motli begins to fly about our 
rooms. It is a small, light buff-colored “ miller,” 
dainty and beautiful on close inspection. Its 
highest mission seems to be to teach us to set 
our effections only upon incorruptible treasures 
which “ moth and rust can not destroy.” But 
it is necessary to keep a sharp lookout for the 
safety of our furs and flannels, and we must 
wage war upon it. In the first place we must care¬ 
fully put away everything we can, upon which it 
will lay its eggs. If we pack away our furs and 
flannels early in May, before the moth lias begun to 
lay its eggs, and leave them in boxes or bags so 
tight that the flying-moth can not squeeze in, no 
further precaution is necessary. Clean paper bags 
are recommended for this purpose—those used for 
flour and meal bags. They should be without holes 
or opening's anywhere. These bags, when filled 
and closed firmly, may be put away on closet 
shelves or in loose boxes, without danger to their 
contents, so far as moths are concerned, without 
need of camphor or other strong odors to drive 
moths away. Furs are usually sold in boxes, in 
which they may be kept. Beat them well when you 
finally put them away for the season. If you delay 
putting them away until June, examine the furs 
well, and shake and beat them very thoroughly, 
in order that any moth-eggs that may possibly have 
been laid in them may be thoroughly removed or 
killed. Furs sealed up early in May need no cam¬ 
phor or tobacco or other “preventive.” Muff and 
tippet boxes should be tied up securely in bags, or 
made safe by mending holes and pasting a strip of 
paper around the junction of the cover with the 
box below, so as to close all openings. Woolen 
garments must not hang in closets through the 
summer, in parts of the country where moths 
abound. They should be packed away in tight 
trunks or boxes, or sealed up in bags. Woolen 
blankets must be well shaken and carefully put 
away, unless they are in daily use. Early in J uue 
the larvae of the moth begin their ravages, and 
now, unless you who dwell in places where clothes- 
moths are not found, look sharp, you will find 
some precious thing that you have forgotten—some 
good coat unused for a few weeks, or the woolen 
cover of a neglected piano, already more or less 
riddled by the voracious moths. It is their nature 
to eat until they have grown strong enough to re¬ 
tire from the eating business, and go into the chry¬ 
salis condition. 
Some things can not well be packed away in 
tight boxes and bags, and among these it is well to 
scatter small lumps of camphor or clippings of 
Russia leather. Some use tobacco, though I think 
