1881 .] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
541 
A Two Thousand Dollar Tooth. 
A man in a large active business, in New York, 
said in our hearing : “ The worst oversight of my 
younger days was that somebody did not instruct 
me to take care of my teeth. At 50 years of age I 
have but eight natural teeth left, and I could well 
afford to pay or even $2,000 apiece to get back 
half a dozen or more that I needlessly lost.” In 
explanation he put it in this way : “ Artificial teeth 
are at best a very poor substitute. Iam in a large 
business that needs a good deal of strength of 
body and mind. All strength comes from good 
food well digested. But perfect digestion only 
takes place when food is thoroughly masticated 
(chewed) and mixed with the saliva, and good, 
firm, natural teeth are essential for this. So, if I 
had better teeth I could do a great deal more of 
profitable business, and earn additional money 
enough to pay a great price for several of them.” 
This is worth thinking of by the young. Here 
are some good rules : 1st. Never crack nuts with the 
teeth, or bite very hard substances ; it breaks or 
cracks the enamel and hastens decay.—2d. Always 
brush the teeth before going to bed, if not in the 
morning also, and use a wooden or quill tooth-pick 
(not pins or other metal), to remove any food from 
between the teeth. If left there over night it fer¬ 
ments and injures the teeth. Use only a moderately 
stiff tooth-brush ; a very stiff one injures the gums, 
and promotes decay.—3d. Do not use any of the 
“boughten” tooth-powders, unless it be finely 
powdered orris root. The most active tooth-pow¬ 
ders, which whiten the teeth quickly, contain inju¬ 
rious acids or alkalies. Charcoal, however fine, is 
not good; it has the “grit” and wear of diamond 
dust.—4th. If the slightest decay begins on any 
tooth, have a reliable, skillful dentist plug it firm¬ 
ly at once. It will be one of the best possible 
investments of a small sum for the future. 
“Kicking Agin Nothin.’ - 
This story comes to the American Agriculturist 
from up in Vermont. A farmer in the Legislature 
had charge of a good Bill and had modestly spoken 
in favor of it. A young politician replied in a long, 
frothy, hifalutin speech against it. All eyes turned 
to the farmer, expecting to see him rise in defence 
of his bill. Observing this, after a time he slowly 
rose, and elevating his voice to a high and squeak¬ 
ing pitch, said, “ Mr. Speaker! I see my friends ex¬ 
pect me to answer the honorable gentleman who 
has just set down. I can’t, Mr. Speaker, I can’t; 
it alius wrenches me so to kick agin nothin.” His 
bill passed nem. con .—How many little and big peo¬ 
ple do wrench themselves, or waste their strength, 
by worrying over things of no account really. 
Fighting Trifles—Three Short Stories. 
What a world of trouble, time, and nerve irrita¬ 
tion, would be saved, if boys, and men too, would 
learn to never mind trifling annoyances. Only the 
other day we overheard one boy telling another 
what a third boy had said about him, and urging 
him to “lick him.”—“Oh,’’said the second boy, 
“ ’tisn’t worth minding. He knows it aint so, and 
I wont stoop to his level by taking any notice of 
it.”—We inwardly thought, “that’s a very wise 
head on young shoulders.” 
It reminded us of two men, one of whom started 
on a foot journey of 150 miles or so. Two days 
later the other man followed in the same road, and 
on the fourth day overtook the first one. The lat¬ 
ter remarked : “ This is the worst and slowest road 
I ever travelled. There is the greatest lot of snarl¬ 
ing, barking little dogs I ever saw, and it has taken 
half my time to drive them off.”—“ Why,” said the 
second man, “I didn’t pay any attention to them, 
but came right along as if they weren’t there.” 
Half the time of many boys and men is wasted in 
fighting trifles. 
A certain Circuit Judge was always sure of meet¬ 
ing some cutting or sneering remarks from a self- 
conceited lawyer when he came to a certain town 
in his rounds. This was repeated one day at din¬ 
ner, when a gentleman present said : “Judge, why 
don’t you squelch that fellow?”—The Judge, drop¬ 
ping his knife and fork, and placing his chin upon 
his hands, and his elbows on the table, remarked : 
“ Up in our town a widow woman has a yallur dog 
that, whenever the moon shines, goes out upon the 
stoop and barks, and barks away at it all night.” 
Stopping short, he quietly resumed eating. After 
waiting some time, it was asked: “Well, Judge, 
what of the dog and the moon?”—“ Oh, the moon 
kept, light on ,” he said. 
T3ie End oi' ti»e Supply Pipe.—Whether 
water is taken from a well, a pond, or river, by a 
hand, steam, or other pump, the end of the supply 
pipe, though out of sight, may be of great im¬ 
portance. If the pipe ends without any protec¬ 
tion, there is a chance that bits of stick, fallen 
leaves, and other similar matters may be drawn 
the “mushroom strainer.” 
into the pump, and if they do not interfere with 
the working, they may with the quality of the wa¬ 
ter. To avoid all difficulties of this kind, Mr. 
Blunt supplies his pump with what he calls the 
“Mushroom Strainer.” The engraving shows this 
to be a shallow iron box, slightly convex below, 
and with its upper surface perforated with numer¬ 
ous holes. This being attached at the end of the 
supply pipe, reverses the manner in which the 
water is taken up when the pump is in action. 
An ordinary pipe must have its end secured at 
some distance from the bottom, else it will take 
up impurities ; if the pipe is furnished with a 
strainer of this kind, the water must be drawn in 
from above without danger that the current will 
disturb the bottom, while at the same time all 
floating matters are excluded. This useful in¬ 
vention is applicable both to small and large pumps. 
JLong Handle Pincers—Home-Made.— 
It is very often convenient to be able to grapple 
milk pans, tin ware, pails, dishes, and various arti¬ 
cles that have fallen into cisterns, wells, or streams, 
or to take them from high shelves. For a very 
simple device we are indebted to Mr. B. J. Good¬ 
win, of Chickasaw Co., Iowa. Take a pole of any 
desired length or size ; bore a hole in the end, 
and fasten in one handle of any pair of common 
pincers. Attach a string to the other handle, and 
take it through a small staple driven near the end 
A HANDY LITTER. 
of the pole. The engraved sketch explains its 
operation. The bottom of a deep well or cistern 
can be very easily examined by throwing down 
the sun’s light, reflected from a common looking- 
glass (mirror), using two of them if necessary to 
shift the light to the right direction. (Of this see 
illustration, page 36, of January number), 
Friction Matclies and How to Eight 
Them.- Matches are tipped with a little protected 
phosphorus, which is ignited by the heat of fric¬ 
tion. This burns out quickly, and sulphur, or 
parafine or wax (for “ Parlor Matches ”) is added 
to prolong the fire until the wood catches the 
flame. Chlorate of Potassa is added to the phos¬ 
phoric mixture to intensify and continue the flame 
to the parafine or wax, from which it extends to 
the wood. These are without sulphur fumes, 
ignite quicker, but are more expensive and danger¬ 
ous, and should only be kept in metal or earthen 
safes. Match sticks, instead of being split from 
straight-grained wood, are now too often cut from 
cross-grained, brash stuff; many are broken in 
lighting, and the dropped ends have frequently 
caused destructive fires. Such matches should be 
seized as closely as possible to the fire end, in 
lighting them. In the absence of sand paper, a 
short hard “ dab ” is far less effective than draw¬ 
ing them lightly over a long , dry surface. Doubling 
the friction surface, doubles the amount of heat. 
Let the Frost Kelp You. 
Few fully appreciate how much a freezing of the 
ground does to set at liberty the plant-food locked 
up in almost all soils. Water, in freezing, expands 
about one-eighth of its bulk, and with tremendous 
force. Water, if confined in the strongest rock 
and frozen, will burst it asunder. The smallest 
particles of soil, which are in fact only minute bits 
of rock, as the microscope will show, if frozen 
while moist are broken still finer. This will go on 
all winter in every part of the field or garden 
reached by the frost; and as most soils contain 
more or less elements that all growing plants or 
crops need, a good freezing is equivalent to adding 
manures or fertilizers. Hence it is desirable to ex¬ 
pose as much of the soil as possible to frost action, 
and the deeper the better, for the lower soil has 
been less drawn upon, and is richer in plant-food. 
Turn up the soil this month wherever practicable. 
If thrown into ridges and hollows, in field and gar¬ 
den, the frost will penetrate so much deeper. Fur¬ 
ther, plowing or spading the soil now, exposes in¬ 
sects and weed roots to killing by freezing. Still 
further, soils thrown up loosely will dry out earlier 
in spring, and admit earlier working, which is of¬ 
ten a great gain when a day or two may decide in 
favor of a successful crop. 
To Several S ilk nou n Persons.- We have 
never been able to ascertain why we, as editors, 
should be treated any different from the rest of 
mankind. Many, who in writing to all other per¬ 
sons consider it proper to sign their notes or let¬ 
ters, fail to do so to editors, but they suddenly be¬ 
come “ Constant Readers ” and the like. We have 
again and again stated, that such persons can 
not expect attention. We have now at hand a 
number of letters which could have been answered 
by a “ yes,” or “ no ”; these are mostly of a kind 
that we would not in any case answer in the paper, 
for the reason that they have no interest to any 
* but the writer. “ Only a Girl,” should not be 
ashamed to put her name to a very neat note about 
apple wood. Had she done so, we should have ad¬ 
vised her to inquire of the lumber merchants.... 
“ Subscriber.” in Miss., would have been told that 
all large seed dealers keep “ Alfalfa ” seed but call 
it Lucerne, and that we can not say who makes 
“the best ” of any machine.Another “Sub¬ 
scriber,” in Maryland, would have had a reply about 
Peanuts, as it was too late for the paper-“H. L. 
P.,” sends a blank postal card, but as he sends 
neither name nor address we cannot use it to 
tell him that we cannot answer his strawberry 
question without knowing what variety he has.... 
Still another “Subscriber,” in Hoboken might have 
had a request to send us some of the diseased 
fruit he describes_“ H. B. W.,” Cass Co., Mo., 
would have been told to apply to the Fish Com¬ 
missioners of his State : if there were none, then 
to Prof. S. F. Baird, U. S. Commission on Fish and 
Fisheries, Washington, D. C. We again repeat 
that those who do not sign their letters, can not ex¬ 
pect a reply, and there are many of these. No 
doubt, they are wondering why the editors are so 
neglectful or discourteous. 
Thyme in New England.— W. Whitman 
Bailey, Professor of Botany, in Brown University, 
Providence, R. I., writes, apropos of our article last 
month, that the Wild Thyme occurs in South King¬ 
ston, R. I., as a weed. 
