350 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[September, 
again. Keep the dust low, sweeping just hard 
enough to move it quickly along before the broom. 
If you have a very dusty room to sweep, cover the 
furniture, or that which is upholstered, and the 
shelves and tables with books or small articles upon 
them, and afterwards shake the covers out of doors. 
Then, when you do the dusting, if the carefully 
swept carpet shows a tine coating of dust settled 
back upon it, you can if you choose wipe it over 
with a large clean cloth ; shaking it out of doors. 
Bare Floors—Bless them ! 
that is, when they are clean, and 1 don’t have to do 
the scrubbing myself. I do like clean bare floors 
in summer, especially when I am a little girl with 
bare feet—well, they should be swept in the direc¬ 
tion of the grain of the wood. Of course this takes 
all of the dust out more thoroughly, as all of the 
little cracks in the wood, as well as the long cracks 
between the boards, run that way. When the 
boards have shrunk apart it is often a tedious mat¬ 
ter to keep the cracks clean, but this ought to be 
done—and “not leave the other undone,”—that is, 
the child training and the reading, and the posies 
in the window, not to mention the cooking, and 
washing, and ironing, and sewing, etc. Learn to 
sweep with a broom held straight, so that it will 
not wear one-sided. Never set it down on the 
brush end, but either hang it by a string or stand 
it brush end up where it can not be knocked down. 
Mending' the Clothes-Boiler Again. 
The last time, the leak was right in the soldering- 
on the outside of the boiler, where it had been 
mended along the outer lower edge next the stove. 
I suspect that this came from setting the boiler 
upon the too hot stove, right side up, to dry before 
putting it away. A boiler ought to be washed and 
wiped carefully, and then exposed to the hot sun, 
or turned bottom upwards across one corner of the 
stove in which there is only a very moderate fire, 
for a few minutes until perfectly dry. This drying 
will prevent rusting, and most leaks come from 
rust. Turn it across a corner so that the handles 
may not be melted off if you should forget to re¬ 
move it from the stove at the proper time, or if the 
fire should be hotter than is proper. But if you do 
get a leak in the soldering, so that a fine stream 
spurts out from the full boiler, of course you can’t 
stand there all day and hold your finger on the 
spot, especially after the water boils. Well, then, 
you can do as I did. I drove a very small tack— 
the very smallest kind—gently into the hole until 
it filled and stopped it entirely. One day when 
there was a leak along the same seam, though in a 
different place, I mended it with plaster of Paris. 
A very little, mixed with just enough water to 
thoroughly wet it, and quickly applied, sets firmly 
into the crack as it dries, and answers the desired 
purpose, at least, for a time. It should, of course, 
be done when the boiler is empty and dry. 
Easels as Ornaments. 
Within a few years the painter’s easel has become 
an important aid in ornamenting rooms. It is not 
especially decorative of itself, but it is largely em¬ 
ployed for the display of ornamental objects. We 
find it in use, of the full size, for the support of a 
choice painting, or select engraving, in a favorable 
light; of less than half size, to stand upon a table 
and hold small pictures or some choice illustrated 
work, down to miniature easels, a few inches high, 
to place upon the mantel-piece, a bracket, or else¬ 
where, to hold photographs, choice bits of china, 
or other article of ornament, that may be best 
shown in the position allowed by the easel. In 
making an easel, whatever its size, there is the 
widest choice of material. A large easel may be of 
pine, to be painted and decorated in a variety of 
styles, or it may be of costly woods, and these ad¬ 
mit of a variety of ornamentation in the way of 
carving, and they are often susceptible of high 
polish. With small easels, where strength is not 
needed, a variety of materials may come into ser¬ 
vice ; pine stems, reeds, rattans, rough twigs of the 
elder, and various other shrubs, and we have seen 
quite small ones made from twisted wires. What¬ 
ever the material, or the size, the structure of the 
easel is essentially the same. The engraving, fig. 
1, shows a method of making that will answer for 
both large and small sizes. Six strips or pieces are 
needed ; two serve for outside uprights, two for 
cross-pieces above and below; a center upright 
strip between the two cross-pieces, to add to the 
firmness, and a 
strip as long as 
the two outside 
pieces to form a 
third leg; this, 
in a large easel, 
is firmly attach¬ 
ed to the upper 
cross-piece, by 
means of a 
hinge. Of 
course, when 
much weight is 
to be borne, the 
parts should be 
firmly put to¬ 
gether with 
screws, or the 
pieces, where 
they cross one 
another, may be 
and the joints 
Fig. 1.— EASEL FRAME, 
halved together and glued, 
strengthened by means of wooden pins put in with 
glue. In a large easel, holes are made at about six 
inches apart in the side pieces ; these are to hold 
large-headed pins, which may be of wood or metal, 
upon which the picture rests, and this may be held 
at any desired higlit by placing the pins higher 
or lower in the holes. In small easels, this contri¬ 
vance for raising and lowering the picture, or other 
object, is not needed, as the lower cross-piece is at 
a convenient higlit, and in this are placed the pins 
as shown in the engraving. The pieces for a small 
rustic easel may be split, each being a half cylinder, 
and put together with tacks, or what is preferable 
in such work, fine copper wire, which can be man¬ 
aged to appear very neat, and be at the same time 
strong. The leg-piece, in a small easel, is best at¬ 
tached by wire. Among the recent novelties, that 
the mania for “ decoration ” has made popular, are 
“ picnic plates.” These are very thin plates, turned 
from wood ; they are very cheap, answer all the pur¬ 
poses of plates at a picnic, and do not break. The 
cheaper kinds are made of basswood, or some light 
colored wood, while others, of beautifully marked 
Bird’s-eye Maple, and more choice woods can be had 
for a little more. It is a pleasant custom with those 
ladies who are handy at decorating with the brush, 
to take the plates of the gentlemen, and embellish 
them with some design commemorative of the oc¬ 
casion, which of course the owner of the plate will 
duly treasure. We have seen such plates made 
into remembrances of an autumnal picnic, by ex¬ 
quisitely painted 
representations of 
autumn leaves. 
Plates thus embel¬ 
lished show to ex¬ 
cellent advantage 
supported upon a 
small easel on the 
mantel-piece. Fig¬ 
ure 2 shows how 
one of these plates 
was converted into 
a “trophy” for a 
smoker. Whether 
it was to remind 
the recipient that 
he made himself 
annoying at the 
picnic, or to com¬ 
mend him for ab¬ 
staining from his 
favorite pipe on 
that occasion, we 
can not say. At all events, his picnic plate was 
converted into a really decorative trophy. Two 
eagle-clawed clay pipes, with their stems crossed, 
are attached to the plate by means of very fine wire, 
passing through, and twisted on the back. A neat 
ribbon bow appears to tie the pipes together. Be¬ 
Fig. 2.—EASEL WITH PLATE. 
tween the bowls of the pipes is a group of leaves, 
and above a cluster of moss roses, all delicately 
painted.—This will serve as a hint to those who 
would convert such plates into “ trophies”—those 
skilled in painting will find them to furnish an ex- 
velleut material on which to sketch in colors. 
A Cheap and Neat Paper Rack. 
The accompanying engraving shows a paper rack 
which is easily made from such a box as the dry- 
goods stores are very willing to part with. A 
paste-board box, about one foot square and six 
inches deep, will be a convenient size. One end of 
the box proper is cut down along the corner, where 
it is joined to the sides, and is turned down in line 
with the bottom. This piece, when the square cor¬ 
nel's arc cut off, in any way that suits the taste, 
forms the top of the rack, a, in the middle of the 
upper part of which one or more holes are made 
by which the rack is hung to the wall. The other 
three sides, b, (the other two hid from view in the 
engraving) are cut down to about two inches, this 
depending somewhat upon the size of the box. 
The cover, c, is then fastened to the newly fash¬ 
ioned bottom by a number of ribbons, as shown 
upon one side in the engraving. Here agaiu the 
taste may be exercised as regards the size and color 
A CHEAP PAPER RACK. 
of the ribbon, and the number of ties. If preferred, 
a piece of thin leather, or even strong cloth, can be 
used to keep the two parts together. The cover 
and sides may be decorated with small pictures, or 
in any manner that may be desired. These general 
directions will allow one to make a useful paper 
rack, or “catch-all,” at a very slight outlay. 
The Buffalo Moth. 
—*>- — 
First; As to Its Name .—The ordinary Clothes Moth 
is the caterpillar of a true moth—or “ miller ” as it 
is popularly 7 called. Butterflies and Moths make up 
the order of Lepidoptera, or scaly-winged insects. 
The wings of these are covered with minute scales 
easily removed by a touch, which are beautiful ob¬ 
jects under the microscope. Butterflies fly in the 
day, and have their antennae or feelers straight, 
stiff, and with a knob upon the end, while moths 
fly mostly at night, and have their antenme or feel¬ 
ers taper-to a point. The term moth has, to the en¬ 
tomologist, a definite meaning. The destructive 
caterpillar, which has received the name of “ Buf¬ 
falo Moth,” is not the larva of a true moth, but of 
a beetle, an insect belonging to an entirely different 
order, the Coleoptera, which, for the most part, have 
a pair of delicate wings quite enclosed, when at rest, 
by a pair of generally very hard and horny or leath¬ 
ery wing-cases. The Lady-birds, the Rose-bug, the 
June-bug, etc., are common examples of this class. 
We do not wonder that an .eminent entomologist 
wrote us that, “when you speak of the Beetle of 
the Buffalo Moth, you puzzle us old -fashioned bug- 
ologists.” But the uame “Buffalo Moth” is,, 
