AMERICAN AGrRIOULTURIST. 
1880 .] 
her, and I rather think my home-made Baby 
Tender will be a comfort. Some bright bits of Brus¬ 
sels carpet, which I have been saving, will, when 
nicely bound, comeinplace as arugfor baby’s box. 
Household Notes and Queries. 
Potting Down Carpets.— One of the most tire¬ 
some incidents of house cleaning, is the putting of 
the carpet upon the floor, and so much depends up¬ 
on its being done well, that it is a matter of no lit¬ 
tle anxiety with many 
neat house - keepers. 
The stretching of the 
carpet so that it will fit 
closely to the floor, is 
the important point. 
Carpet stretchers of va¬ 
rious kinds, may be had 
at the stores, at greater 
or less cost, but a home¬ 
made one can be con¬ 
structed in a few min¬ 
utes, and at little or no 
outlay. This is made, 
as shown in the engrav¬ 
ing, by nailing a short 
piece of hard-wood to 
a suitable handle; into 
this piece, or head , a 
number of nails are 
driven, and afterwards 
sharpened with a file, to 
A CARPET STRETCHES. form teeth which wiU 
catch hold of the carpet. The stretcher thus made, 
Is to be used with a pushing motion, and it will be 
found to save much strength, keep knuckles from 
getting sore, and the back from many an ache. 
Stoves, and their taking Down, will soon oc¬ 
cupy the attention of house-keepers. In many 
dwellings, the stoves, with the exception of that in 
the kitchen, are all taken down, and put out of the 
way at house-cleaning time, and before the end of 
this month, there will be many a cold sitting room, 
and generally desolate, not to say 6ick, household, 
from this very reason. There are pleasant days in 
April, and warm, sultry ones in May, but they are 
followed by cold spells, which call, and often loudly, 
for a fire in the room, for the comfort and health 
of the inmates. Of course a stove takes up some 
6pace, and a room with the stove removed is more 
capacious, but when space is obtained at the ex¬ 
pense of all comfort in the room, it is bought too 
dearly. Both comfort and health are in favor of 
the old principle, of not taking down the stove 
until its use is at an end, be it at the end of June, 
or when the stove is worn out. In our changeable 
climate there is hardly a month without a day 
on which a little fire at night, or in early morning, 
is not desirable, especially for invalids, and there 
6hould be some room, other than the kitchen, where 
one may he started at a moment’s notice. 
Is Rhubarb Wholesome? — Every once in a 
while there appears a newspaper paragraph stating 
that the acidity of Rhubarb stalks is due to Oxalic 
Acid, and therefore poisonous. This would be 
“ important if true,” but fortunately for those who 
find in Rhubarb a most acceptable substitute for 
fruit, it is not true. The acidity is due to a mix¬ 
ture of Malic and Citric acids ; the one being the 
acid of apples and the other the acid of lemons. 
Mildew on Cotton Cloth. 
Every house-keeper is aware that the unwelcome 
dark spots known as Mildew, are more apt to ap¬ 
pear upon articles of cotton or linen that are starch¬ 
ed than upon those which have not been so treated. 
All cotton goods are starched in their manufacture, 
indeed before they are manufactured in the sense 
of being woven. The yarn, as the threads are call¬ 
ed, whether it is to form the “weft” or “woof” 
of the fabric, is “sized” as it is termed, which is 
simply dressing the yam with a paste of some form 
of starch ; the fine threads which are wound upon 
one roller are transferred to another roller that is 
placed several feet distant from the first. As the 
threads or yarn slowly pass from one roller, the 
paste or “size” is applied by means of a brush. 
The sizing thus applied to a certain extent strength¬ 
ens the threads, and as it makes them vastly more 
manageable in the process of weaving it is a proper 
thing to do. But some weavers having learned that 
a sized thread was a great deal larger than one not 
sized, have shown much ingenuity in coating a 
small thread with a great deal of size, and not only 
this, but have contrived to add to the sizing China 
Clay and other substances, and thus coat the 
threads with a large amount of foreign matter. 
Cloth woven of such threads, while it appears 
very close and heavy, when washed loses all this 
filling and appears in its real character—a poor, 
thin, slazy stuff, quite unlike that for which it was 
bought. English manufacturers, especially, have 
carried on this excessive sizing and filling with 
goods for the Eastern markets, and for the half 
savage people in Africa and elsewhere to an 
enormous extent. One of the first things such 
people buy is cotton cloth, and wherever American 
cottons, with only the necessary amount of sizing 
have appeared in competition with the oversized 
stuffs, the latter have been driven out of the 
market. But another trouble has come upon the 
makers and sellers of highly siz§d stuffs ; they have 
proved to be highly susceptible to mildew, and 
great losses have been sustained on account of the 
injury from this cause. Indeed so important has 
this matter become to English manufacturers that 
A MAGNIFIED VIEW OF CLOTH WITH MILDEW. 
a book has recently appeared for their benefit, en¬ 
titled “ Sizing and Mildew in Cotton Goods.” .We 
have often shown that the plant mildews, like those 
of the grape, lettuce, etc., and the various moulds, 
are really a minute vegetable growth, consisting of 
plants, so small as to only be seen when highly 
magnified, but just as much plants as a cabbage or 
an oak, and like these larger plants they must have 
something to live upon. The leaf, and other part 
of the plant bearing these mildews and moulds, are 
fed upon by these minute plants and their sub¬ 
stance broken up and destroyed ; so with the cloth 
mildew; it feeds upon the starch used in sizing, 
and if it does not feed upon the fibre of the cloth 
itself, it so injures it as to cause it to decay and 
become worthless. We may look upon the injury 
mildew causes these oversized cotton goods with¬ 
out any very great regret, as it is one of many ways 
of expressing the fact that “honesty is the best 
policy,” and may even find in the mildew a beauty 
which the dishonest manufacturer fails to see. The 
work referred to gives illustrations of the mildew 
as seen by the microscope, one of which is here re¬ 
produced. The engraving shows a highly magni¬ 
fied bit of mildewed cloth, in which the threads are 
shown very large, with the various kinds of mildew 
plants running over and among them as irregular 
twisted and knotted lines. “ No less than 27 dif¬ 
ferent kinds of moulds and mildews have been de¬ 
tected on cocton cloths.” The mildews which 
annoy the house-keeper are similar in appearance to 
those here shown. The best preventive of mildew 
is dryness, as the minute plants can not appear 
151 
and make their growth without a certain amount of 
moisture. Fabrics that are to remain for a long time 
unused should be put away without first starching. 
Work with Scroll or Fret Saws, 
Within a few years, scroll or fret-saws have been 
brought to a great perfection, and the use of them, 
is to some a profitable employment, while to others 
it affords an attractive and pleasing pastime. The 
products of the scroll-saw are becoming frequent 
in household conveniences, and in the decorations 
of the parlor and drawing room. The windows of 
store-keepers 
who deal in 
these goods, 
present finely, 
and frequent¬ 
ly elaborately 
wrought de¬ 
signs on ex- 
hibition, 
which are tru¬ 
ly works of 
art. In the 
a c c o m pany- 
ing engrav¬ 
ings,two spec- 
i m e n s of 
scroll - work 
are given — 
those that 
workmen of 
average skill 
could make in 
a short time. 
The design in figure 1, is for a carved frame for a cabi 
net photograph, some small painting, or other pic¬ 
ture, the whole to rest on an easel, wrought from the 
same kind of wood. Figure 2 shows an easel of an 
elaborate design, with tjie picture itself in scroll¬ 
work. The number of designs, of which those 
given are but samples, is limited only by the skill of 
the artist, and that of the workman at the saw. 
The dealers in scroll-saws, have a very large assort¬ 
ment of suggestive designs, which they distribute 
freely in the form of sheets and catalogues—and of 
themselves make a very pretty collection. The use* 
to which scroll-work can be put in the household, 
are various; wall pockets, thermometer frames, 
brackets, card baskets, lamp mats, toilet cases, card 
holders, etc., etc., are but a few of the many. 
Those designs that are purely for ornament, can be 
used to decorate the windows by suspending these 
near the glass by a fine thread, where they show off 
to good advantage, both from within and without. 
But in order to get the very best effect, the scroll¬ 
work should be of the whitest of wood, and then 
provided with a black back-ground. Merchants 
have in many 
cases availed 
themselves of the 
attractive and 
pleasing contrast 
thus produced, 
by putting their 
names, or those 
of their goods, 
in white - wood 
scroll-work, and 
then providing it 
with a black 
back-ground, in 
their shop win¬ 
dows, or show 
cases. In house¬ 
hold decoration, 
nothing seems 
more appropriate 
than black vel¬ 
vet, but any 
other rich cloth of the same color would answer. 
Ornamental work like that shown in the engravings, 
may be of any size, but for ordinary mantels, a back¬ 
ground of a square foot in area, is the most accept¬ 
able. The whole, when completed, can be placed 
upon an easel. The low price of scroll saws.puts 
them and their products within the reach of all. 
Fig. 2.— EASEL AND PICTURE. 
