AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[JuiiY, 
276 
THIS? IMTOEMM). 
H3g" For other Household Items see “ Basket ” pages. 
A Fungus Fern Bracket. 
There is no class of plants the individuals of 
•which possess more beauty of form and grace of 
outline than ferns. They are generally and gener¬ 
ously distributed through the rocky highlands and 
wet lowlands, and if these fine, delicate plants are 
not employed to lend their grace and beauty to 
the household, it is our own fault. It must be ad¬ 
mitted that there is some work in feru-colleeting, 
but with a little care it can be made a pleasant 
task. A large portfolio is the most convenient for 
gathering the ferns, which should be well supplied 
with smooth sheets of paper, into which the fronds, 
as their leaves are called, are to be carefully placed 
so soon as they are picked. If a basket or box is 
used, the delicate leaflets are apt to get crushed 
or broken, and if not kept wet will soon wilt and 
roll up, and are spoiled for pressing. After the 
portfolio is filled, or a sufficient quantity has been 
gathered, the fronds with their papers should be 
placed between other papers (newspapers will an¬ 
swer) and pressed. The simplest press is the best; 
putting the pile of papers under a board with a 
heavy stone or other weight upon it, is the ordinary 
and best method of drying and pressing plants. 
Those who do not find stones abundant can use 
instead, for a weight, a box containing old iron, or 
even dry earth, though in that case the box must 
be made very tight, by pasting paper over the cor¬ 
ners. If much pressing is to be done it will make 
the work easier if a piece of hoop be fastened to 
the box as a handle to lift it by. If the box has a 
cover, and the whole is papered, the affair will look 
all the neater. The specimens will need to be 
changed into fresh, dry papers the next day, and 
at intervals until thoroughly dried. In changing 
the drying papers, do not disturb the ferns; they 
are to remain in the fold of paper in which they 
were first placed, and in changing, the paper with 
the plants is to be placed between dry papers, 
while the damp dryers are to be exposed to the sun 
for a short time. When dry, the ferns are to be 
put away in the folds in which they were dried, 
and kept under sufficient pressure to prevent them 
from curling up, until wanted for use. The dried 
fronds may be used for decorative purposes in vari¬ 
ous ways. One of the most attractive forms is 
given in the accompanying engraving, taken from 
Mr. J. H. Batty’s new work on “ Practical Taxi¬ 
dermy and Home Decoration.” The design is a 
Fungus Fern Bracket, and requires a member of 
another family of plants, the Fungi. Those who 
go much into the woods will have little difficulty in 
finding specimens of this kind ; they are found at¬ 
tached to trees, projecting like a little shelf not far 
from the ground. These are often called Agarics, 
an incorrect name ; their proper botanical name is 
Pblyporus. They grow witli the smooth surface 
upwards, the reverse of the position in the engrav¬ 
ing ; are quite common in the woods, and some 
specimens are of themselves curious in structure 
and even beautiful in appearahee. Having the 
fungus, it is to be mounted upon a shield, or back, 
made by cutting out a piece of thin wood in auy 
desired pattern. The shelf-fungus is glued to this 
back near the bottom. The upper surface of the 
shelf may be covered with fine mosses that have 
been dried for the purpose. The moss should be 
glued on rather compactly, as it furnishes a bed 
into which the stalks of the fern fronds are stuck, 
and thus, aided by glue, are held in place. The 
arrangement of the fronds will depend much on 
the individual’s taste, but, as a rule, the largest 
should be at the rear, with the smaller and more 
delicate specimens in the foreground. Fine grasses 
can be added, and here and there a butterfly may 
have seemed to have alighted upon the fronds, but 
to our taste simplicity is a prime element of beauty 
in all matters like this, and it is easy to overdo. 
Home Topics. 
r.V FAITH ROCHESTER. 
Bachelor House-Keeping. 
I suppose everybody knows what ‘‘grass-widow” 
means—a woman living temporarily absent from 
her husband. I can think of no corresponding 
term to apply to a man in like condition, unless it 
is “ grass-widower.” I know of one who is just 
setting up his cabin on a northwestern prairie, pre¬ 
pared for a summer campaign of “ breaking ” prai- 
j rie-sod. A boy of fourteen is with him as “ chief 
| cook and bottle washer.” I feel a deep interest in 
their work, particularly in the house-keeping. The 
boy’s success or failure in cooking, washing, etc., 
will bring credit or discredit to his mother—and 
that’s me. I have lately heard the father inquire 
j anxiously concerning his capabilities—“ Do you 
knowhow to cook oat-meal?” “Can you make 
such graham bread as this?” “Does he under¬ 
stand the knack of making dried apples eatable ? ” 
“You know how mamma seasons the macaroni, 
don’t you ? ” etc. Both are very fond of milk, and 
if they get a cow, or find good milk for sale close 
at hand, the cooking and eating business will he 
simplified. Milk goes well with almost everything 
that our folks eat, as we never use pickles, and vine¬ 
gar very seldom. To make sure of cooking the oat¬ 
meal, cracked wheat, rice and hominy, properly, 
they have taken along a steamer made after the 
farina-kettle plan. They are directed to use one 
part oat meal, rice, hominy, or cracked wheat, to 
four parts of cold Water in the inner kettle, with 
plenty of water to keep up boiling in the outer one. 
To secure good graham bread, they have provid¬ 
ed the best of graham flour and the dried “Nation¬ 
al Yeast Cakes.” The cook will set a thin sponge 
at night, with half a yeast cake, and flour and warm 
water enough to make a large dripping-pan loaf 
(all they can bake at one time in their oven), and 
in the morning he will add sugar and graham flour 
until he has a still batter well beaten. This will be 
turned into the buttered bread-pan without knead¬ 
ing, allowed to rise quite light and then baked. It 
is pretty sure to be good every time, for the same 
cook has gone through the same movements many 
a time,simply helping his mother,but unconsciously 
educating himself to be a great help to his father in 
this emergency, and possibly to himself later in life. 
To Make Dried Apples Eatable. 
Concerning this fine art there is great lack of 
knowledge among the people. I don’t know the 
various ways by which they go astray, but I do 
know that if you have good dried apples, and cook 
them properly, you may have delicious and whole¬ 
some sauce. I have heard of their being cooked in 
an iron kettle, and of course they were not liked. 
No rusty tinware is allowable to cook or keep any 
kind of fruit. Bright new tin, a porcelain kettle, 
or stoneware may be used. Look over the slices or 
quarters, removing not only cores, b® decaying 
portions—those that have partially decayed while 
drying, and are black and of bad flavor. A few 
such slices spoil the flavor of the whole dish of 
sauce. If dried apples are not soaked over-night, 
three hours are not too long to give to their slow 
cooking. It makes no difference in the result 
whether they are soaked or not. Dried apple sauce 
is high in favor in our family. We use a variety of 
fruit, but none more than apples, in one form or 
another. Good apples, properly dried, come in well 
after the season for fresh apples is over. The cook 
referred to above, expects to cook a gallon jar 
nearly full of apple sauce at a time, for himself and 
his father. He will fill the jar less than a quarter 
full of the washed slices (if you soak them be sure 
and do the washing first, and then cook them in 
the same water in which they were soaked), and 
add cold water until the jar is three-fourths filled. 
After a time they will swell and threaten to run 
over, but they may be stirred down and will soon 
shrink to the original proportion. When they have 
cooked thoroughly soft, sweeten them with the best 
of sugar, and boil a few minutes longer. Nothing 
is better for flavoring apple sauce than good maple 
sugar. We always use the granulated sugar. Wo 
like to cook fruit in an earthen jar because it can 
be set aside and kept in the same vessel. It never 
imparts any taste, and is easy to clean. The gallon 
and half-gallon jars in which my butter often comes, 
prove very useful about the house, though I can 
returu them when I choose. 1 have used the stone 
jars for years, and have never broken one by cook¬ 
ing, unless the fruit, or other contents of the jar, 
has boiled dry. They cannot bear sudden trans¬ 
itions from great heat to severe cold, or the contrary. 
Soaking 1 the Clothes. 
I am afraid our inexperienced house-keepers, be¬ 
fore referred to, will get into trouble by soaking 
their clothes too much. I suspect they will often 
have to use hard water for washing. The boy has 
seen me soaking the clothes over-night, sometimes 
lately with the idea that I was gaining time, but I 
think now that I have usually lost more than I have 
gained by the operation. A brief soaking in warm 
suds just before washing is much more effective, I 
think, than all night soaking in clear cold water. 
To soak clothes in hard water is worse than useless. 
To Prepare Hard Water for Washing. 
I cannot find definite directions anywhere, and 
perhaps no exact rule can be given, since water, 
with lime as an ingredient, has different degrees of 
hardness. Some soften a barrel of water at a time, 
by tying ashes in a bag—two or three quarts for 
each barrel, I have been told—and leaving this in 
the water over-night. The same ashes would not do 
for the next barrel, of course. Others make a 
white lye by boiling a kettle nearly full of ashes 
and water. This is added to the hot water in the 
tub, or, better still, to the water heating in the boil¬ 
er. In the latter case, as the water heats, a white 
scum rises, which can be skimmed off, and leave the 
water clear and soft. Miss Parloa, in an excellent 
little book, entitled “First Principles of Household 
Management,” gives very clear directions about 
washing, but concerning the use of hard water she 
only says “if the water is hard, add a little wash 
ing soda or borax.” The most expensive way to 
soften the water is to use borax, but it is the most 
satisfactory method. It is a great aid in washing 
with soft water, and whatever is not taken up in 
softening the hard water, remains to make the 
cleansing of the clothes more easy and effectual. 
Water Filters.— Impure water is perhaps the 
most common source of those diseases frequent at 
this season, and known as summer complaints. 
The hot weather favors the development of those 
low organisms that only the microscope reveals, 
but are at the same time very dangerous when 
taken into the system in any considerable quanti¬ 
ties. At this season also water is the most scarce, 
and it often happens that other than the regular 
source of water, the well, is resorted to for water 
for household use. In all such cases, if one is not 
sure that the water is pure, it should be filtered, 
