1879 .] 
511 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
stockings if they are too large to go inside. Theu 
what happy shouts and rejoicings together as these 
stockings are taken down and explored on Christ¬ 
mas morning! It often happens that a little one 
is so engaged in watching the others as they 
open the gifts he made, that he forgets his own 
stocking until reminded of it by the others. One 
of the best things that Christmas does for us is to 
strengthen our family love, one for another, and at 
the same time it enlarges our sympathies, making 
us feel more than at any other time of the year, 
that we are all one kind or kindred, all one great 
human family Who should love and help each other. 
After Christmas. 
Parents are slow to learn by experience, and so 
they go on, year after year, preparing their children 
<at Christmas for sickness after Christmas. They 
•east them on rich and indigestible food, and fill 
their stockings with unwholesome confectionery. 
They see no connection between this abuse of the 
Itomach and the childrens’ diseases that follow. 
1 hear mothers say that their children can eat any- 
(hing almost without injury—“nothing he eats 
!ver seems to hurt him ”—and I can see those same 
fhildren the victims of croup, diphtheria, sore 
Ihroat, worms, headaches, and all sorts of derange¬ 
ments of the system which are no less the result of 
bad food (in part at least) than are diseases more 
directly of the stomach and bowels. Highly season¬ 
ed food and confectionery make children irritable 
and dull about learning. The digestive organs take 
most of the vitality, and leave the brain too feeble 
for much activity. The child who is “not injured 
at all ” by candy, cake, and “ condiments,” may be 
the most troublesome pupil in school, and heed¬ 
less and irritable at home. If we would have our 
children escape sickness we must supply their 
stomachs with plenty of plain nourishing food, and 
avoid those things which disturb the digestive 
organs. Doses of physic are called for after the 
parcels of candy. With all the concentrated sweets 
or sours, a little should be made to go a great way. 
A Pocket for Sponges. 
Persons who use sponges are often at a loss for a 
good place to keep them. In the engraving we give 
a style of pocket that will 6erve the double pur¬ 
pose of use and beauty. The one represented, is 
crocheted of tidy-cotton, and may be made of any 
desired pattern. The front should be coated with 
shellac-varnish, which may be done by spreading 
A HAND* POCKET FOR THE SPONGE. 
the crochet upon a board or stiff paper, and using 
a brush. This makes the front stiff, shuts out the 
water from the material, and renders it much easier 
cleaned. A new coat of varnish can be added from 
time to time. The back of the pocket is best made 
of thin oil-cloth, of a color and figure to suit the 
taste. Generally the pocket may be most conveni¬ 
ently hung on the wall at one side of the wash-stand. 
Javclle Water. —Chloride of Lime 8 ounces, 
Pearl-ash 1 pound (if Pearl-ash is not readily ob¬ 
tained, use 1 pound and 4 ounces of Saleratus in¬ 
stead), Water 6 pints. Dissolve the Pearl-ash (or 
Saleratus) - in 2 pints of the Water; gradually 
moisten the Chloride of Lime, stirring to break up 
all lumps, adding more water, until 4 pints are 
mixed with it; let this stand until the dregs settle 
and the liquid becomes clear ; then pour the clear 
liquid into the solution of Pearl-ash ; the liquids, 
on mixing, will become milky ; allow this to settle, 
and then pour the clear liquid off from the sedi¬ 
ment ; this is the Javelle Water, which is to be kept 
for use in well corked bottles or jugs ; if in bottles, 
they should be placed in the dark. The solution 
and mixing may be made in glass or stone-ware, or 
in wooden vessels, but no metal, save iron, should 
be employed. This may be used to remove fruit or 
other vegetable stains Dy wetting the spots with 
it, then rinse in clear water before using soap. 
Household Ilotes and Queries. 
A Poison Box. —The use of poisons for the de¬ 
struction of insects, and other purposes, is so fre- 
A BOX FOR EVERT HOUSEHOLD. 
quent, that all possible precautions should be taken 
that these deadly agents do not destroy the life of 
members of the family. An uncle of the writer 
was killed by taking a dose of medicine (as he sup¬ 
posed) from the wrong bottle (Corrosive Sublimate), 
and thousands of such instances occur where life 
could have been saved by the exercise of proper 
care. All poisons should be put by themselves in 
a Poison Box, and the box put where no one can 
get at it unless specially sought for. The many 
mistakes in administering a poison instead of a 
remedy, should teach that poisons should never be 
placed near the harmless medicines. Glaring labels 
are not enough, the poisons should have an out-of- 
the-way place of their own, and always kept there. 
Ink on the Carpet.— Ink freshly spilled upon 
the carpet should at once be taken up with soft 
paper or a slightly damp sponge, or even a damp 
cloth, care being exercised not to spread the 
spot. After all is taken up that can be, wet the 
sponge—after first washing it clean—in warm water, 
and thoroughly scrub the spot on the carpet. When 
no more can be washed out, wet the spot with a 
weak solution of Oxalic Acid, and, after a few 
moments, wash off with cold water, and finally 
sponge with a weak Ammonia Water, to neutralize 
any of the acid that may remain in the carpet. 
Chapped Hands. —The cold, raw winds of early 
winter often produce chaps or cracks in the hands 
of those exposed to it, which are very disagreeable, 
and often quite painful if they are deep. A friend 
recommends the following : The hands should be 
kept clean, and frequently washed in Borax Water, 
and afterwards rubbed with melted Suet and 
Glycerine, half and half. At night, apply plenty 
of this mixture, warm it in by the fire, and put on 
a pair of old kid or other gloves before retiring. 
Sponges. —There are few things of more impor¬ 
tance than a sponge in the household, in fact, each 
member should have one. But having and keeping 
one are different things. It is often the case that 
sponges become slimy and worthless from neglect. 
A sponge should be thoroughly dried after using it; 
if it were only well squeezed out, it would be bet¬ 
ter than letting it remain filled with water. An old 
and unpleasant smelling sponge may be renovated 
by soaking in a solution of Washing Soda, and 
afterwards thoroughly washing and drying it. 
TOYS & Ml MiS* WLOTOTo 
The Doctor’s Talks. 
Last month I had a little to say about Falling Bodies, 
and this, you know, is a part of the subject of Gravity, 
about which many things must be left unsaid, but of 
which you will read when you get older. There is, how¬ 
ever, one application of gravity and the laws of falling 
bodies in such general use, that I must say something 
about it, and this is seen 
IN THE PENDULUM. 
If we suspend a ball, or other weight, by a string, as a, 
figure 1, it will hang perpendicularly; if we now carry it 
to one side, as to c, and let it go, it can not fall directly 
downward, but. being confined by the string, it will fall 
in a curve. But instead of stopping at the point, b, 
whence it started, it has acquired velocity enough to car¬ 
ry it to d, as far from the perpendicular as c is. It will 
then fall back, and go to c again, then back again, and so 
on. It would keep on in this way, were it not for the re¬ 
sistance of the air, as will be explained at another time. 
The portion of a circle through which the pendulum 
moves is its arc, and the movement of the ball or pendu¬ 
lum its oscillation. In our clocks we use the pendulum 
AS A MEASURER ©P TIME. 
The story is told that Galileo, the famous Italian phi¬ 
losopher, being in a church one day, noticed that a chan- 
deli r, hung from a lofty ceiling, moved back and forth 
with great regularity, and it is said that this led him to 
the invention of the pendulum for measuring time. The 
simple pendulum is a weight attached to a rod; the 
weight is usually made flat, so that it will have but little 
resistance in passing through the air. There are several 
laws which govern the vibration of the pendulum, but 
we need consider but one at present, and this you 
can show by a very pretty experiment. This law is that 
the time of vibration depends upon 
THE LENGTH OF THE PENDULUM. 
The short pendulum will beat much faster than the 
long one. Take three bullets, and hang them by threads 
as in figure 2. This may be easily done by cutting a 
small slit in the bullet with a strong knife, laying the 
thread in the slit, and then closing it up by slightly ham¬ 
mering upon the cut. By setting these in motion, you 
will see that, while the lower one beats very slowly, as if 
it had a plenty of time, the upper will go as if in a great 
hurry. If the length of the first pendulum be (along the 
dotted line) one foot, the second four feet, and the lower 
one nine feet, and they are set in motion at the same 
time, the upper pendulum will make three oscillations, 
while the lower makes but one, and the middle one 
makes one and a half. This illustrates a law of vibra¬ 
tion, which is difficult to give here; I only introduce it 
that you may see that the length of the pendulum makes 
the vibration quicker or slower. Even a little difference 
in the length of the pendulum is of importance when it is 
USED AS A TIME MEASURER. 
In clocks, the weight is called the “ bob.” and the wire, 
or whatever the bob is hung by, is the “ pendulum rod.” 
If the rod remained always of the same length, the beats 
would be the same. But being usually of metal, the rod 
is longer in warm weather, and shorter in cold, for no 
doubt you all know that metals expand with heat and 
contract by cold. Hence in even the commonest clocks 
there is a contrivance for making the pendulum longer 
or shorter, usually by means of a screw at the bottom. 
The length of a pendulum beating seconds is 39 inches 
and a fraction (39.1393 inches!, one to beat half seconds, 
will be about 9£ inches (9.7848 inches). Many ingenious 
attempts have been made to make self-regulating pen¬ 
dulums, that shall be of the same length in all temper¬ 
atures. These are very necessary for very nice clocks. 
THE GRIDIRON PENDULUM 
is one frequently seen. The principle upon which it acts 
is shown in figure 3. Here, the parts shown in black are 
of steel, while two upright pieces are of brass. It will 
be seen that when the steel expands, the bob will be low¬ 
ered, but the brass also expands, but as it expands dif- 
