AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
375 
NO. I.—TALK ABOUT MAKING BEDS. 
Ah! here come my girls to visit with their old grand¬ 
mother; and I’m happy to see your smiling faces. It 
seems like Spring time when your pleasant looks say so 
plainly. “ we love granmother.” I feel young again as 
you gather round me, and l almost want to jump up and 
play “ Puss in the Corner ” with you, but the rheumatism 
wont allow it, and so I must sit in my rocking chair and 
chat with you. 
How you all grow. Why, instead of little girls, I shall 
soon see young ladies around me, and everyone will want 
to be a young lady that grandmother will be proud of. 
What a fine chance you have to learn—good schools, 
and good books, and newspapers. Ah ! they didn’t have 
such times when 1 was a girl. But some things can’t be 
learned from school-books. I wish my girls all to be good 
housekeepers as well as good scholars; to know how all 
the work should be done, even if they do not have to do 
it for themselves. Would you like to hear about grand¬ 
mother’s v ay to have the work done! 
“Yes, y-:s ; for then we’ll know how to ploy keep 
house." 
That’s ri-.ht; such plays will help you to grow up use¬ 
ful as well as happy. Well, a good-housekeeper will 
know how to make a good bed, for that’s a wonderful com¬ 
fort. especially to old folks, and so I’ll talk with you about 
that, to-day. 
First, you want a good bedstead. I’m glad they have 
good ones now-a-days. Why, when I was a little girl, I 
had to climb up into bed as if I was hunting hen’s nests 
on the hay mow. One night I dreamed I was falling 
down, dowm, oh, how far down! and thump I came on 
the floor, w ith a bruised head and a sprained shoulder. 
Fig. 2 is a nice bedstead, made in the French style. When 
fathei buys one, ask him to please get it like this.; it need 
not cost more than the old-fashioned kind. See how low 
jt is, not more than a foot or eighteen inches from the 
floor. Then, too, there are sideboards to keep you in 
If your bedstead is high, ask father to please saw off the 
posts, so that you wont have such a tumble as I did. 
What will you fill the bed with ? 
Feathers,” “ hair,” “ husks,” “ straw.” 
Feathers are good in Winter but not in Summer. They 
will nestle around you like little goslings snuggling up to 
to the old goose. This will keep you too warm and make 
you weak. Hair matlrasses are best for Summer. It will 
be nice work for you this Fall to gather a large pile of 
corn husks and slit them fine, and they will make a very 
pleasant cool bed. Fresh oat straw covered with a cotton 
comforter is also good. Cotton makes the best bed clothes. 
Woolen is too heavy. I remember ortce dreaming I was 
a cheese in the press, and they pressed me so hard I was 
afraid the hoop would burst When I awoke there were 
three heavy woolen blankets over me. 
Sewing patch-work quills is just the thing for begin¬ 
ners, and when nicely quilted they will be nicer than any¬ 
thing else for bed-clothing. Linen sheets are pleasant 
for Summer, but not warm enough in Winter. 
HOW TO MAKE THE BED. 
A poor cook may spoil the nicest food, and an ignorant 
girl may spoil a good night’s rest by making up the bed 
wrong. Every ene ought first to open the windows if it 
is not too stormy, and lay off the 
clolhes on chairs to let them air, 
at least an hour. Tnis will free 
them from the perspiration (or 
sweat) which has passed off from 
the body. It is mother neat nor 
healthy to sleep in a bed that is 
not properly aired. Afier airing, 
stir the straw well and lay it even, 
sj that the bed will not feei like 
a pile of apples or corn cobs. The 
feathers should be shaken into the 
middle of the bed. and the bed be 
turned over. They should then be 
spread evenly, making the he&J 
a little higher than the foot. A 
good bed-maker always leaves 
the bed lying up loose. The bols¬ 
ter comes next; shake it up 
thoroughly, and lay it on smooth 
and lightly. 
When we put the sheets on, the 
marked part should be placed at 
the head, so that the same end 
will always be near the face. Lit¬ 
tle girls will have to try a good 
many times befote they can 
spread a sheet smoothly, with the 
seam exactly straight in the mid¬ 
dle of the bed I! is very pleasant 
these cold nights to be well tucked 
in, so we must leave enough of 
the clothes at the foot of the bed. Now, if you spread 
the quilts on carefully, the prettiest one outside, your bed 
will be made. 
“ Oh, grandmother, you’ve forgotten the pillows.’’ 
Sure enough, we must remember them, though if the 
bed has a high bolster, perhaps we can sleep better with¬ 
out them. But it is better to have pillows without the 
bolster. If both bolsters and pillows are used, they should 
not be made too large, for the neck should not be bent 
when we are lying down, because it prevents breathing 
freely, and that is not healthy. Before we put on the pil¬ 
lows we turn down the quilts and the upper sheet, so 
that the pillows will just cover their upper edge. The 
loose part of the pillow case should be on the outside of 
the bed. 
That’s the way grandmother likes tohaveherbedmade, 
and I hope, dear girls, that you’ll have many a good 
night's rest on the beds she taught you how to make. 
Well. I am tired now. You may run and play, and 
when I get rested I will have another talk wilh you 
about something else. I will trv to tell you from time to 
time all about housekeeping. 
The Sewing Machines are Going. 
We hear in various directions from persons who are 
filling up their lists to secure the valuable premium of a 
Sewing Machine. Thus, a letter just in says; ”... Save 
a Machine for me. I got the first 100 names far easier 
than I expected. The remaining forty-four, I shall get 
in two or three days more, in a neighboring town where 
I am acquainted.” 
Many others speak equally hopeful, and we are much 
pleased at what is being done in this way ; first , because 
many families will thus be supplied with a valuable labor- 
saving implement, who might not get one otherwise—at 
least not so easily; and second, because by this means 
thousands of families will have the Agriculturist brought 
to their notice, who would not otherwise reap the ad¬ 
vantages to be derived from its perusal: and thirdly , 
though this offer involves a pecuniary loss to us the first 
year, we expect ultimately to be benefilted. We are 
working for the future quite as much as for the present, 
so far as pecuniary reward is concerned. 
We must beg to correct a little distrust indicated by the 
queries of two or three persons, who have not been long 
enough acquainted with the Agriculturist to learn that 
the Publisher fulfills his promises to the letter. The 
Wheeler & Wilson Sewing Machines we offer are of the 
very best manufacture —not “second-hand or cheaply- 
made affairs, got up for distribution.” For this premium 
we ourselves select the best machines we can find among 
those sold by the Company, at $50 each. We know these 
machines are first-rate—equal in every respect as far as 
machinery ar.d working capacity is concerned, to those 
sold for $100. We say we know this, because within the 
past month we have purchased, for our relatives and 
friends, several of these same $50 machines, and they 
have proved themselves right in every respect. They do 
not differ in perfection of working parts, from the $125 
machine which we have used in our own family tor 
nearly a year past, with the gieatest satisfaction. 
We repeat; No Sewing Machines are made which are 
better adapted to general family use than the machines 
we offer. We have already secured a dozen, to be given 
as premiums, and have also contracted for as many more 
of the same kind as will be required. As some curiosity 
has been expressed, to know how we can afford to fur 
nish so costly a paper at so low a price, and yet give so 
large a premium, we will explain that our general, large 
circulation pays expenses, and the additional subscribers 
obtained through this offer will only cost us the white 
paper, press-work, folding, and mailing ; and, further¬ 
more, the Sewing Machine Company, for the purpose of 
forwarding our enterprise, have generously offered the 
machines for this special purpose, at the lowest possible 
wholesale rates. 
P. S.—A letter from a gentleman in Missouri, received 
since writing the above, says ; “ I can not see w hy a man 
with a house full of girls should not have one on the same 
terms as a lady.”_He can. The ladies will get the 
benefit in any case—and the gentlemen too ; for we know 
that that home will be a happier one for the father and 
brothers where the sewing is all done Up by daylight, 
than the one where it must be “round” all Ihe evei ing, 
and to a late hour. We at first offered this premium to 
ladies only, with the idea that many of them could and 
would do the canvassing without the aid of the men. 
But we now conclude to throw the offer open to all. Let 
hundreds, instead of dozens, take hold of the matter. 
Few persons can earn $50 more easily, and at the same 
time forward so good an enterprise as that of stirring up 
a whole agricultural community to read a valuable work 
devoted to the development and improvement of their 
own calling. 
-- — ■ -- 
That Best of all l>ic<ionarIcs< 
“ Webster’s large Unabridged,” is still offered as a pre¬ 
mium to any person sending us forty subscribers for a year, 
(one-half or more of them ne cones.) We know of no 
better prize than this. It contains nearly fourteen hun¬ 
dred large pages—the printed matter on each page being 
six and a half, by nine inches—and containing three 
closely-printed columns of valuable matter, giving full 
information upon about every word in the English lan¬ 
guage, besides the pronunciation of names of cities, towns 
and countries, and of Scripture and Greek and Latin 
name*. The copies we offer are well and strongly bound 
in leather, and new from the publishers. The regular 
retail price is six dollars. We of course buy them in 
large quantities at w liolesale prices, or we could not offei 
them as we do. They can be sent to almost any part of 
the United States—except to points remote from routes 
of travel—by express, for from twenty-five cents to one 
dollar. When sent by mail, prepaid, the postage is one 
cent an ounce, or one dollar and twelve cents, as ihe 
book weighs seven pounds. 
Into which, are thrown all sorts of paragraphs—such as 
Notes and Replies to Correspondents, with Useful or 
Interesting Extracts from their Letters , together with Glean¬ 
ings of various kinds from various sources. 
Basket Full— And running over. We are sorry to 
cary into next volume, notes upon some 200 letters—but 
the Index stretches out two pages more than we had 
planned for, when stereotyping the inside sheet. We are 
happy to announce that we expect soon to have the con¬ 
stant assistance of an additional competent office editor, 
and hope then to be more prompt in responding to the let¬ 
ters, notes, queries, etc., of correspondents. 
Money Come—Names Wanted I—We have 
money-letters from S. L. Beranger ($5) and T R. 
Mitchell ($1), but nothing in or upon the letters or 
