1879.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
231 
Cow’s milk is always recommended as the very 
best substitute for mother’s milk, but it is usually 
considered too rich, and is often diluted oue-half 
with water, and by most nurses is sweetened a 
little. Many have believed that babes are saved 
acidity of stomach by leaving out the sugar. Some 
do not dilute the milk so much, and occasionally it 
has been found to nourish the child best when 
given without any previous preparation, except a 
little warming when the babe is quite young. It 
should always be the milk of a fresh cow, or one 
not long past calving, and from the same cow. 
An acquaintance lately tried to raise her baby on 
diluted cream, which she had heard recommended 
as the best food for infants. Before the babe was 
a month old, it nearly died of sore mouth, and it 
seemed to me the result of its cream diet. For I 
have learned to associate sore mouths and sore 
throats with grease —a rather hard name to give to 
anything so good as cream. The baby’s diet was 
changed to new milk (by no means skimmed, but 
not all cream, as before), and this seemed au ad¬ 
vantage to its health. It was dosed with some 
patent medicine also, and I presume that is sup¬ 
posed to have relieved its sore mouth. Perhaps 
that, too, caused the habitual constipation which 
followed, with other troubles. Then graham gruel 
was recommended by one who had tried it with 
good success among her own babes. It was made 
in the usual way, and was boiled not more than 
fifteen or twenty minutes, then strained so as to 
remove the bran,' and seasoned with milk and 
sugar. But this did not set very well on the child’s 
stomach, and oatmeal gruel was prepared for it in 
the same way, only it was boiled two hours. This 
agreed with the child well, but did not correct the 
constipation. So the mother made her graham 
gruel as she did the oatmeal gruel, cooking it in 
an earthen jar, set in a kettle of boiling water, and 
kept boiling gently for two hours, and this she 
finds the best food the babe has had. It thrives 
well, and its trouble is removed. It seems to me 
that if she would leave out the sugar, she might 
be able to get along without the “ soothing syrup ” 
she also uses. (I can’t lose this opportunity of 
testifying again that I would never, never give 
the soothing syrup,) and avoid doctoring the poor 
child now and then for sore throat or colic. 
More Baby-Tenders. 
As we expected, the “ Baby’s Play House,” given 
in April last, has called out several other contri¬ 
vances, all having the same end in view, but reach¬ 
ing it by different methods—the care of that “ well- 
spring of joy ”—the baby. We give now plans by 
“D. W.,” Minerva, Ohio, who thinks the affair de¬ 
scribed in April, may be useful in some cases, but 
proposes one that he thinks better suited for gen¬ 
eral use, especially if the mother must busy herself 
in the kitchen for most of the time. He writes: 
When our little boy was very small, a maiden aunt 
told us of an arrangement used by a relative in 
the country, which was simply a “store-box,” with 
slats in front, and a good thick quilt in the bottom 
to keep baby from tbe cold floor, where, before he 
could walk, he was placed, and the mother knew he 
was out of danger and amusing himself. Having 
a small bedstead with high legs and posts, I sawed 
off the legs all but about two inches, and put on 
castors; I also took off some of the tops of the 
posts. This made a sort of box about 30x41 
inches, with smooth sides some 12 inches high. It 
had a canvas bottom, and I placed over this a i- 
inch board floor, and around the box, above the 
sides and ends, two railings made of v hy 1-inch 
stuff. Here we had a movable play-house for baby, 
with good tight bottom and sides, giving him thor¬ 
ough protection from drafts and dirt. Besides, hav¬ 
ing castors, the mother could push it to or from the 
stove as the temperature of the room might require. 
The Baby’s Hammock. 
We had another arrangement, which, when baby 
was very small, its mamma thought very nice—a 
hammock. A frame was made of lx2-inch stuff, 
about 20x32 inches. In the side pieces there were 
placed small railings, which kept the little fellow 
from rolling out, and it had a canvas bottom. This 
was swung from the ceiling with four strong cords, 
having, iron rings which went over screw-hooks in 
the ceiling. There were two places in the ceiling 
where it could be swung, one nearer the stove than 
the other, for warm or cold weather. With a soft, 
comfortable bed made on the hammock, baby would 
lie for a long time; and instead of having to sit 
down, in her busiest moment perhaps, when baby 
might become fussy, and rocking the cradle, all the 
mother had to do as she passed to and fro, was to 
give the hammock a push, and away it would go 
for several minutes, the swinging motion being 
better for the child than the rocking of the cradle. 
When the baby got too large, the hammock was 
dispensed with. We have still other Baby-tenders. 
Household Hints and Helps, 
Fruit Dryer.— If any our correspondents have 
a contrivance for drying fruit different from any 
that we have published, they will aid several who 
have sent us inquiries for the best fruit drier. Of 
course we do not refer to any of the patented af¬ 
fairs—those we know about, but something that 
any one can make from inexpensive materials. 
Another Coal Box. —We add to the several 
plans of coal boxes already given one of which the 
sketch was sent by D. W., of Minerva, O., to whom 
we are indebted for the Baby Tender. The accom¬ 
panying section (fig. 1), is from front to rear. The 
lower part of the box is 15 by 26 inches, and sits 
upon a base 3 iuches high. The whole hight of the 
box is 26 inches, and 
the narrower, upper 
portion, is 15 inches 
square. Within is a 
sloping partition d, 
which divides the in¬ 
terior into two com¬ 
partments, 1,for the 
coal, and 2, to w'hich 
there is access by a 
door at h, holds kind¬ 
lings and paper. At 
the top there is a lid, 
< 7 , which opens as 
showm at a. At e 
is a slanting board, 
upon which the coal 
is shovelled up; 
Fig. 1.—COAL BOX. 
above this is the sloping lid, c, which opens up¬ 
ward as at b. Our correspondent says that if the 
lid, g, is covered with zinc, it makes a very con¬ 
venient place upon which to set hot articles. 
Trapping the Mosquito. —“J. R. F.” writes, 
referring to an article with this title in the Ameri¬ 
can Agriculturist for November, 1878 : “The above 
is all very well for Boston, but would be entirely 
inadequate in the land where the mosquito flour¬ 
ishes. Here is the way it is managed here by the 
ladies of the house, and which has proved very ef¬ 
ficacious. They take a shallow tin vessel, as the 
lid of a blacking box, and attach it by a small nail, 
through the center,to the end of a broom handle or 
other convenient stuff. Place in the vessel about a 
teaspoonful of coal-oil, and apply as recommended 
in the article referred to above. Instead of climb¬ 
ing on high chairs and chloroforming the insects by 
holding it throe seconds to the ceiling, you will 
have the satisfaction of seeing them drop instan¬ 
taneously into the bath prepared for them, where 
they are at once placed hors de combat, and that too 
before the trap comes nearer than two or three 
inches of .the victim. This plan is cheap, simple, 
sure, deadly, and wonderfully expeditious. Try 
it. No patent on it.”—By “ coal-oil,” we infer that 
our correspondent means kerosene. A small tin 
cup wired to a staff would be better, as it will be 
difficult to prevent leaking around the nail. If not 
kerosene, we will thank our friend to specify. 
A Scouring Board.— Our correspondent D. W. 
suggests a convenience, former¬ 
ly more frequently seen in kitch¬ 
ens than at present, a board 
upon which to do the work of 
knife-scouring, with a box to 
hold the materials. The engrav¬ 
ing, fig. 2, shows the affair. The 
board is 9 by 19 inches; the 
box is large enough to hold a 
Bath, or scouring brick, cloths, 
etc., and has a lid to shut down 
when not in use. A ledge all 
around the board to keep things 
from falling off and a ring to 
hang it by complete the affair. 
The use of knives with plated 
blades does away with much of the labor of scouring. 
SOTS <k arnWHMo 
The I>octor’s Talks. 
When I undertook to tell you some of the common facts 
about Gravity, the Center of Gravity, etc.. I was surprised 
to find how difficult it was to say that which I wished to 
tell you, and not use terms which you would not he like¬ 
ly to understand, or to refer to tilings which I was sure 
you had not learned. If we talk about the forces , which 
act upon matter, we must in the first place know what 
is meant by matter; this led me to promise to tell you 
SOMETHING ABOUT MATTER. 
That some talks on this subject will be welcomed by 
many of you, I know from the questions that some of you 
have asked, and the father of some of the youngsters lias 
written to ask that I accompany these articles by ques¬ 
tions, so that lie can make sure that his young folks 
understand it all. I can hardly do this, for no other 
reason than it. would make these familiar Talks look too 
much like school lessons, and I don’t want you to be 
prevented from reading them because they look too 
much like tasks... What I say just here is to 
THIS PARENT AND OTHER PARENTS. 
I have a great distrust of this question and answer 
teaching. If I were on a school board, I would not allow 
a book to be used that had “ questions” in it, or employ 
a teacher that would use the questions furnished by some 
one else. If a person is not so thoroughly at home in a 
subject that he can teach it not only without questions, 
but without a book, he should not teach at all. 'I’lie book 
Is for the scholar. A teacher should never open one in 
his class. If he has not his lesson many times better 
than the scholars—let him not teach.—But to come back 
to the young people. You will recollect that last month 
I could not get along without answering the question, 
WHAT IS MATTER? 
The briefest possible definition is: “Whatever occu¬ 
pies space.”—A pea or a planet, will answer this defini¬ 
tion. In this talk, I shall have to be rather dry—and give 
some definitions, but you must not be impatient for the 
experiments that I hinted could be given. We are now 
laying our foundation to build upon, and you know if the 
foundation be not solid, the structure will be shaky. It 
is not necessary for me to say that there are different 
kinds of mutter—yon know that already, it is as easy as 
bread and butter—two very unlike kinds of matter. Just 
now then we speak of matter in general—the kinds of 
matter will come along later. Now matter has certain 
properties or qualities, or peculiarities, which must be¬ 
long in common to every thing that surrounds us ; to a 
Fig. 2. 
