1880 .] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
237 
gest the face of the brush when it was new. Such 
a brush pin-cushion is shown in the accompany¬ 
ing engraving. If further changes are desired 
a new back can be made by covering the old one 
with cloth, upon which a design in needlework can 
be made. A loop may be placed at the upper end, 
by means of which the cushion can be hung up in 
a convenient place. The binding around the cush¬ 
ion, and the other parts; in fact, the general make 
Up will allow the exercise of a wide range of taste. 
The Sweet Potato Vine. 
An easily managed, and at the same time most 
beautiful vine for the window is that of the com¬ 
mon Sweet Potato. The rich, luxuriant foliage of 
a vigorous vine is not so much appreciated as it 
ought to be, partly because of the general impres¬ 
sion.that a food-producing plant is not likely to be 
ornamental, hence the sweet potato is very little 
known as a beautiful climber. The treatment of 
the plant is very simple. A vase or any glass ves¬ 
sel, of convenient size to hold sufficient water, is 
all that is necessary. Select a good sound sweet 
potato, of a size that it will rest upon the edges of 
the vessel, while the lower end dips into the water. 
The plant being of tropical origin, a good degree of 
heat is required for its best development; a temper¬ 
ature of about 80 degrees is best. When once 
started, and given a plenty of light so soon as the 
leaves are putting forth, a handsome living, grow¬ 
ing, window ornament may be produced. It is bet¬ 
ter to have a few strong and vigorous shoots than a 
mass of inferior ones; therefore if many shoots 
start, remove all but a few of the best. When the 
vines begin to grow well, they should be provided 
with a support, and trained entirely around the win¬ 
dow, some of the shoots passing up one side, and 
some the other. A pretty ornament may be made 
by letting all shoots grow that will, and allow them 
to flow over the sides of the vase and hang down 
in a graceful manner. The chief care will be to 
beep up the regular supply of water which the 
plant will require in considerable quantity, as it is a 
vigorous grower, and to keep the leaves free of dust. 
How to Make a Flag. 
"H. C. M.,” Rockland Co., N. Y., who is proba¬ 
bly inspired by the approach of the 4th of July and 
its associations, writes to ask how to make a flag, 
and adds that “it will be of interest to all your 
readers that love the American Flag.” In the first 
place the material for a flag for service is Bunting, 
a thin fabric of wool, made especially for the pur¬ 
pose. This is light and strong, and bears the con¬ 
stant whipping by the wind better than any other 
material. Flags for certain uses are made of silk, 
and if for merely decorative purposes may be made 
of any desired stuff. The flag consists of two parts, 
the Field and the Union. According to the regula¬ 
tions, the depth of a flag should be 10 / 19 ths of its 
width. In ordinary usage, half as broad as long 
will come near enough. The depth of a flag is 
called its head, and its length, from the staff out¬ 
ward, the fly. The Field consists of 13 stripes of 
red and white, standing for the 13 original States, 
beginning at the top with red. The Union is in 
the upper corner next the staff. It is seven stripes 
deep, and four-tenths the length of the field ; it is 
blue, with white stars, one for each State of the 
Union. We do not know if there is any regulation 
for the size of the stars. Formerly the small stars 
were grouped to form one large star on the blue 
field of the Union, but now the regulation is that 
they shall be “ in equidistant horizontal and verti¬ 
cal lines.” The better way to fix upon the size for 
the stars is to first make a paper pattern ; cut the 
stars from paper, and change the size until the pro¬ 
portion seems right. Recollect that a star should 
always be five-pointed, with one point pointing up¬ 
wards. We hope that these dimensions will help 
“ H. C. M.” and many others to make a handsome 
American Flag, and, “ Long may it wave.” 
Cooking Spinach and other Greens. — 
Bacon and Greens, or “Gammon ami Spinnidge,” as 
the old writers have it, is a combination not to be 
commended. In the old way of cooking greens with 
a piece of bacon or pork, not only is their delicacy of 
flavor lost—an important matter with Spinach—but 
the greeDS themselves become so thoroughly im¬ 
pregnated with fat as to be indigestable by most 
persons. The proper way with Spinach is, after 
washing and picking over carefully, to put it into 
a plenty of boiling water and allow it to cook, with 
the cover off, until tender ; usually about half an 
hour. Then drain, chop fine, and place in a sauce¬ 
pan on the stove with a generous lump of butter 
until quite hot, then serve. Dandelions and other 
greens treated in this manner are greatly improved. 
A Balance Picture Holder. 
It was several years ago that the modern view of 
matrimony (?) was illustrated in pasteboard needle- 
A BALANCE PICTURE HOLDER. 
work in so many parlors and sitting-rooms. A 
heart—human, it was understood—was placed in 
one scale pan, and a dime, or even an old-fashioned 
three-cent piece, in the other, of a balance that did 
not balance—the great heart being too little to 
overcome the weight and therefore importance of 
the coin. The illustration of the Balance Picture 
Holder may suggest that old household ornament. 
As far as being a balance goes, it is a deception, 
but looked at in the light of a neat picture holder, 
it is undoubtedly a pleasing success. In the pic¬ 
ture balance there are no scale pans, and the arm 
of the balance is stationary. It may be made to 
move as in a regular balance, but it will not be 
found as satisfactory as when made immovable. 
The bottom may be made of any nice piece of 
wood, and worked into any shape desired. The 
same may be said of the standard and the arms. 
In the choice of pictures it will naturally suggest 
itself that they should, in a certain sense, be bal¬ 
anced. Some may prefer to put the extremes of 
age against each other, as the grey-haired and ven¬ 
erable grandparent, and the latest new comer into 
the family. Again, others may wish to show the 
power of contrast in the extremes of beauty; in 
fact, there are many views to take in the matter of 
striking a balance in an instrument like this, and 
that question must be settled—and it is not diffi¬ 
cult—in its own way to suit each individual case. 
Around the House.— The men folk are gener¬ 
ally annoyed at the sight of untidiness when it is 
within the house, but are frequently oblivious to 
the same when it is out-of-doors. It does not mat¬ 
ter whether the occupant of the house owns the 
grounds or not, the surroundings should always be 
neat and attractive. No one gets so much satisfac¬ 
tion from a clean door-yard as the person who 
passes through it in going out and coming in, at 
least twice a day, and in most cases many more— 
the one who lives in the house. It is a false prin¬ 
ciple to “ clean up ” for the sake of the impression 
it will make upon a chance comer or passer-by. 
If there is any time above all others when the 
door-yard should be “put to rights,” that time is 
when the grass is starting, when the flower beds 
are to be arranged, and the work of the hands of 
man is followed by the first, vernal activities of 
nature. But all through the season, an hour now 
and then in the yard pays well. The great excuse 
is the lack of time ; but the busiest man has hours 
that he can spend in making the surrounding of the 
home look tidy ; and the hours thus spent will be 
a recreation. It is the little matters of detail that 
count so much, the one way or the other, in the 
general appearance of a home. Be neat around 
as well as in the house for its own sake. 
Home-Made Feather Duster. 
A Feather Duster is an article, the convenience 
of which every housewife appreciates, but it is 
often too expensive for many farmers to buy. For 
all such, some hints as to bow a duster of equal 
utility and durability to a store one may be made 
at home from the feathers that would otherwise go 
to waste, may be useful. If beauty is not sought, 
any round stick of the .proper size, such as the end 
of a broom handle, will serve for the handle of the 
brush ; if one happens to have an old duster handle 
that can be used once more. With a saw make a 
series of grooves or deep notches in the lower end 
of the handle. By the aid of a hammer the lower 
portion of each quill should be so flattened as to 
pass into the grooves. As fast as the feathers are 
put in they should be tied with strong twine ; and 
as the work proceeds glue should be added, that 
the feathers may be the more firmly fastened. In 
this way new rows of feathers, followed by the 
twine and glue, may be added, until the end is com¬ 
pletely covered and the duster is of sufficient size, 
after which the finishing row of large feathers, 
selected for the purpose, is placed around the 
whole, and tightly bound with twine. Outside of 
the base of this last row of feathers, a neat strip of 
leather may be glued to both improve the appear¬ 
ance and render the feathers more secure. A brush 
thus made, will serve all the purposes of a pur¬ 
chased one, and if the work is carefully and thor¬ 
oughly done, it may present as neat an appearance. 
A Cheap Glue Pot. 
Glue would be much more largely used in the 
household when a break occurs in the furniture, 
and many other ar¬ 
ticles, if there was an 
easily worked glue pot 
at hand. A glue pot 
need not be expensive, 
as the one in figure 1 
goes to show. Two tin 
fruit cans—one of the 
most common things 
to be found around the 
house now-a-days —■ a 
larger sized one for the 
water vessel, and a 
smaller one for the 
glue, is all that is nec¬ 
essary. The larger 
can is opened at one 
end, and the strips of 
tin turned back to 
make an opening, into which the smaller one fits 
closely, as shown in figure 1. The bails are added 
for convenience in handling, but are not essential 
to the make-up of the 
glue pot. A second 
form is shown in figure 
2 , in which the same 
sized cans are used, but 
the top is entirely re¬ 
moved from the larger 
one, and the glue can 
is held up from the 
bottom by a tripod of 
twisted wire, passing 
around the small can 
just below the rim, the 
ends resting on the up¬ 
per edge of the water 
vessel. This is the ex¬ 
treme of Simplicity in 
a glue pot; but at the Fig. 2.— glue pot with 
° 1 . WIRE 
same time it is com¬ 
plete. With the two cans and a bit of wire, the 
construction of this useful household affair is only 
a matter of a very few minutes. Let us have one. 
