1882.] 
AMERICANS AGRICULTURIST. 
211 
Christmas and Other Winter Decora¬ 
tions—Begin Now. 
When the time is at hand to prepare for Christ¬ 
mas and other holiday decorations, whether in the 
church, the Sunday school, or the home, how many 
have wished that they had made preparation last 
summer? The things most heeded then, besides 
the evergreens that are at hand, are, dried ferns 
and grasses, and those bright persistent flowers 
known as “Everlasting.” The ferns and grasses 
we may speak of later, but the time for the ever¬ 
lasting flowers, if they are wanted for winter, is 
now. There are so many plants the flowers of which 
have a papery texture, that allows them to keep their 
form and color when dried, that some seedsmen give 
in their catalogues a separate list of the seeds of 
“Everlasting Flowers.” It may be said of these, 
that they are mostly from tropical countries, and 
that their seeds should not be sown too early, as 
the plants succeed best in our hot summer weather. 
It is very easy for those who grow flowers at all, 
to have an abundant supply of these “Ever¬ 
lastings,” if they observe a few precautions. It is of 
the first importance to cut the flowers just as they 
are about to open, before they are in full bloom ; 
otherwise they may fall apart. The next point is, 
to tie them in small clusters, and hang them in a 
room free from dust, where they will dry thoroughly. 
When quite dry they may be laid away on shelves 
or in boxes, until wanted for use, hut not packed 
so that they will crush one another out of shape. 
A vast number of these flowers are imported from 
Europe, and meet with a ready sale as the holidays 
approach, but the majority of these, indeed all the 
best of them, can be grown in an ordinary garden. 
We enumerate, alphabetically, the most desirable, 
the seeds of which are to be had of the principal 
seedsmen. Acroclinium roseum, and album, among 
the best. Ammobium alatum, small globular heads 
of white flowers. Gomphrena globosa, sometimes 
called “ Bachelor’s Buttons,” and “Globe Amar¬ 
anth.” The globular heads, white, pink, red and yel¬ 
low, should be cut very early. Helichrysum bractea- 
tum, and others; these are the best known “ Eternal 
Flowers,” and the catalogues give about a dozen 
varieties, from white and yellow, to dark crimson. 
Their flowers are the largest and most showy of all. 
Helipterum Sanfordi has large clusters of minute 
yellow flowers. Rhodanthe maculata, Manglesii, and 
varieties, are the most delicate of all. The flowers 
are small, but so beautiful, that they are worth the 
extra care that they may require. The Xeranthe- 
mums, of which there are several, are good white 
flowers. The seeds of all are best sown in boxes, 
where the plants can be cared for until large enough 
to set out in the garden. Of those named, the 
Helichrysums are the strongest growers, and need 
the most room, at least two feet apart. The seeds 
of the Gomphrenas or “Globe Amaranths,” are 
often slow to start, and it is better to pour scalding 
water over them and allow it to cool, before sowing. 
Abusing The Sense of Taste. 
BY A MINNESOTA HOUSEKEEPER. 
The sense of taste, like all others, is capable of 
cultivation, and may add greatly to our pleasures, 
while also serving a useful purpose, and yet no 
other one of our five senses is more frequently 
made to minister to human degradation. The fault 
begins in childhood—even in infancy—and here is 
the most fruitful source of the intemperance that 
devastates the land. The notion is very common 
that stimulants are craved by every one. Those 
who assert this, are probably themselves the victims 
of stimulants, and thus misjudge the desire for them 
to be universal. But thousands can testify that no 
such craving is even consciously felt. Much ob¬ 
servation and inquiry has convinced me, that this 
craving is not natural, that it does not exist when 
the stomach is supplied habitually with healthful 
nourishment and with that alone. This mistake is 
the result of another erroneous notion, viz: that 
children naturally crave sugar, candy, pickles, and 
other artificial sweets and acids. Human stomachs, 
and the tastes that should serve them, are usually 
tej^astray, almost from birth. The infant is fed to 
supply it with the nourishment required for its 
growth, health, and comfort. It is a duty and a priv¬ 
ilege to make that food as agreeable to the taste as 
we can, without interfering with health, comfort, or 
growth. It has been proved over and over again, 
in private experience, that babies and children well 
nourished on plain food, are healthy and happy 
without sugar, except as they get it in their natural 
vegetable and animal food. They get all the acids 
they need in the same way, especially from a mod¬ 
erate amount of fruit, and their teeth are sound, 
and their spirits lively. Supply the same well-fed 
children with candies, at first they care little for 
them, hut a craving is easily cultivated, and the 
more they have, the more they want, unless made so 
sick by overeating of sweets, as to associate them 
with the pain they have imposed. This seldom 
happens. Following the craving for sweets, or ex¬ 
cessive eating of fats, thus cultivated, comes the 
morbid desire for pickles. Cloyed and wearied by 
concentrated and indigestible substances, the appe¬ 
tite refuses plain food and nourishment, and the 
stomach is too weak and weary to carry on its nat¬ 
ural healthful work. Of course it needs, first rest, 
and then careful nourishment, made very easy at 
first, until the stomach recovers its power. This is 
seldom realized, and the lash is applied instead, in 
the form of some kind of stimulant, which shall i 
make the weary stomach work, whether it feels 
like it or not. This gives temporary relief, but the 
craving for stimulants is very speedly established. 
In some cases it may be inherited—“the sins of 
the parents visited upon the children.” 
Good aud Bail Cooking. 
House-keepers or cooks do a vast amount of mis¬ 
chief by the perversion of taste, and the subsequent 
derangement of the stomaeh. Making sour bread 
is one of their most common sins. Many do not 
know when bread is sour, and supply it with a dis¬ 
tinctly acid flavor, believing that it is very “ nice,” 
because it is so very light. They suppose bread is 
sour only when all the vinous firmentation has 
changed to the acetic. Bread is sour as soon as it 
tastes at all sour. This may go on increasing, but 
to the best bread-maker the least acid flavor is a 
source of grief. Really good bread is positively 
sweet, aud will be just as light and spongy as the 
nicest sour bread, if good material and proper care 
are used. In families where the taste is perverted 
by sour bread, other abominations are usually tol¬ 
erated—biscuit tasting either of excess of soda, or 
of bitter buttermilk ; vegetables seasoned with bad 
butter, pie-crust strongly flavored with lard or tal¬ 
low ; cake tasting of rancid butter, etc. Along 
with this diet naturally goes a deal of spicing to 
cover the had flavors, or much washing down with 
hot, strongly seasoned coffee or tea. Sour bread is 
never good in milk, and children prefer to lunch on 
pie or cake, rather than on sour bread and milk or 
butter. The whole family eat as little bread as 
possible, and the butcher’s bill is Very heavy—and 
they call all this “good living! ” Just count the 
empty bottles labelled “ Bitters ” or “ Blood Puri¬ 
fier,” that lie around the house,.where sour bread 
and “good living” (as generally understood), 
either or both hold sway ! 
The plainest food can be made to taste very good 
simply by selecting, preparing, and preserving it. 
Those who eat food selected and prepared with 
chief reference to its nourishing qualities, eating 
moderately to gratify a natural appetite, instead of 
a morbid craving, really enjoy eating more than the 
gormand or glutton, whose chief pleasure is in eat¬ 
ing, and who must have everything fixed up “good,” 
with condiments or hot sauces, and washed down 
with stimulants. He becomes incapable of detect¬ 
ing and appreciating delicate flavors, and so wears 
out the sense of taste, that it is hard work to find 
anything that he can relish; while a dish of good 
bread and good unskimmed milk, seems very delic¬ 
ious to people with undepraved appetites. Recently 
I heard a little girl who does not like bread and 
milk, say of a piece of bread and butter, that “ no 
cake could taste better ! ” The bread was made of 
good whole wheat flour, stirred up with nothing 
but water, and baked in gem irons. It was spread 
with creamery butter, and I think any one to be 
pitied who would not like the taste of such gems 
and such butter. Thorough chewing adds to the 
pleasure of the sense of taste, this taste resides in 
the tongue, and in the soft palate and its arches. 
One common way of abusing the sense of taste is, 
by eating fast with very slight chewing, so that the 
food is not retained in the mouth long enough to 
give the nerves of taste a chance to fairly taste the 
quality of the food eaten. But for this rapid eating, 
and washing down with agreeably flavored drinks, 
much that is usually eaten would be rejected as 
either hitter or tasteless. 
An Egg Tester. 
A bad egg is never welcome, and any simple de¬ 
vice that will quickly and satisfactorily detect the 
quality of an egg, is important; we have mauy 
calls for something of 
the kind. Sixteen years 
ago (Feb., 1866), we gave 
the very simple method 
shown in fig. 1. The 
egg is so held that the 
hand cuts off all direct 
rays of light from the 
eye, except those passing 
through the egg. The 
egg maybe held towards 
the sun, or better, to¬ 
ward the light from a 
lighted candle or lamp in 
a dark room.Figure 2 shows a tester we de¬ 
scribed 11 years ago (Dec. 1871). It is a tin cup 3 
inches high, and 21 inches in diameter, narrowed 
in at the top to hold an egg endwise. A small 
mirror is placed as shown by the dotted line. The 
light passes through the egg, and forms an image 
upon the mirror which is distinctly seen at the side 
opening. The same principle is used in the tester 
shown in fig. 3, only more than one egg is examined 
at once. This is a small, loiv box, either of wood 
or paste board, with 
a number of “ egg 
holes ’ ’ cut in the 
cover. A mirror is 
placed w'ithiu, and 
one side of the box 
is cut away for ob¬ 
servation. If the 
interior of the box 
Fig. 3.— a box egg tester. is P ainted black, 
the effect will be 
better. The quality of egg is determined by their 
degree of clearness. A good egg shows a clear 
reddish translucent light. The ease with which 
testers can be made and used, should insure good 
eggs for the table, and fertile ones for incubation. 
Fig. 1.—THE OLD WAY. 
