AMERICAN AGHICULTUEIST. 
277 
18G1.] 
rations of this kind may be made of endless va¬ 
riety—what we desire is that they may be more 
frequent; that every house, however humble 
may be beautified and blessed with these and 
similar attractive objects which are within the 
reach of all. 
Love of the Garden. 
Our roll of subscribers contains—we are hap¬ 
py to know—many clergymen ; and it gives us 
great pleasure to receive from them, as we do, fre¬ 
quent words of encouragement and approbation. 
At one time, a letter speaks of our articles on 
fruit-growing, at another, on farm management, 
and again on our Domestic and Youth’s De¬ 
partment. To-day, a friendly word comes for 
the flower-garden and lawn, and on one let¬ 
ter page, the writer discourses thus pleasantly: 
“ I hardly know why it is, but my love of gar¬ 
dens and of universal nature increases with my 
age. Sometimes, I fear that my senses of sight 
and smell and hearing are getting a little blunt¬ 
ed, yet when I go into my garden, the freshness 
of youth returns to me. The fragrance of flow¬ 
ers, and their forms and colors, are as delight¬ 
ful as ever. Trees and shrubs and vines and 
verdant grass have an unfading charm, and I 
trust they will ever have. A few roses, fresh 
plucked every morning by my daughter, adorn 
my study-table, and greatly help forward my 
sermon. A cluster of grapes or a pear from the 
garden often refreshes my lips fevered by 
studious toil, or when exhausted by preaching. 
“ With rural comforts and pleasures at com¬ 
mand, of which these are only a specimen, it 
seems strange to me that so many persons wil¬ 
lingly deprive themselves of their enjoyment. 
The “ almighty Dollar ” (if we may so speak 
without blasphemy,) is the idol of not a few, 
and just enough to eat and drink, is the supreme 
good of many others.The influence of your 
Agriculturist in inspiring a love, and an intelligent 
love, of gardens and refined country life, is valu¬ 
able beyond all calculation. Go on and prosper!” 
Our clerical friend will please accept our thanks 
for these words of encouragement and approval. 
It is a source of much gratification to us to know 
that our pages exert so salutary an influence. 
It is in our hearts to do still more to inspire our 
countrymen and country women with a love of the 
true and the beautiful; for not only does such 
a love make its possessor happy, but it improves 
him. God made this w T orld, with all its beauty 
included, and He is pleased to have us love and 
study what He has created. Let us, then, strive 
to adorn our homes with every possible com¬ 
fort and refinement, and, not the least, with ru¬ 
ral embellishments—with trees and flowers, and 
plots of verdure, and orchards and gardens. 
---- -»8»' --- 
To Copy Leaves of Plants on Paper. 
Take a sheet of paper, and rub over it the thin¬ 
nest possible film of oil; then hang it up in the 
air to partially dry the film. Next cover the 
paper with lamp-black soot, or soot from a large 
tallow candle, by holding it extended over a 
smoky flame, and pressing it gently, but with 
care, into the flame, in order to cover the paper 
with smoke, but of course so as not to set it on 
fire. Having done this, put it into a damp place 
to take the curl out, and when cold and flat, 
lay on the smoky side the leaf intended to be 
impressed or printed; then press with a soft wad 
every part of it, so as to take up a portion of the 
black: this finished, place the leaf gently on a 
sheet of drawing-paper, and put a piece of pa¬ 
per and a Aveight of books, or pressure, upon it. 
When the whole is removed, there will appear a 
very beautiful, black impression, resembling a 
lithograph of the leaf so treated, showing its 
true line, its veins and fiber, quite distinct and 
true to nature. Fleshy leaves of annuals and 
similar plants, are better to copy than ever¬ 
greens. For a simple method of taking impres¬ 
sions Avliick possess the advantage that they 
may afterwards be colored by hand, instead of 
lamp-smoke and candle-smoke, printers’ ink may 
be used, as Avas done by Kniplioff in his cele¬ 
brated botanical work, which extended to some 
dozen volumes folio, and was published more 
than a century ago, and was the first successful 
attempt at nature-printing on a large scale. Im¬ 
pressions taken in printers’ ink may also be col¬ 
ored, and Knipliofl’s work Avas published both 
plain and colored .—Septimus Piesse. 
Fig. 1. 
Apparatus for Washing Day. 
Fig. 2. 
To the Editor of the American Agriculturist . 
The descriptions of improved apparatus of va¬ 
rious kinds which I find from time to time, in the 
American Agriculturist , often make my pocket 
ache. But you knoAV that money is by no means 
plenty among most farmers, and economy is one 
of the first necessities of successful farming un¬ 
der ordinary cir- 
cumstances. 
Therefore Ave 
have to exercise 
o u r ingenuity, 
and make the best 
substitutes possi¬ 
ble, for those de¬ 
sirable imple¬ 
ments we can not 
afford. I send 
you the descrip¬ 
tion of tAvo arti¬ 
cles which' have 
long been in use in some sections, but which 
may be new to many of your readers. Our oavu 
are of home manufacture, and can easily be 
made. The first, Fig. 1, is designed to remedy 
the “clothes line nuisance,” which you described 
in the July No. The illustration needs little 
explanation. It consists merely of a small box, 
in which is placed a roller, with its ends run¬ 
ning in auger holes on the two sides. At one 
end a crank is attached, and the box is then 
securely fastened Avith screAvs through the front 
board upon the top of a post. Three other 
posts are set to form a square or parallelogram 
with the first. The clothes line has one end 
fastened to the roller, and on the other end an 
iron ring is tied. It is wound upon the roller by 
turning the crank. When wanted for use, the 
loose end is carried through an opening in front 
of the box, then around the three posts, and 
back to the top of the box, where it is secured 
by a hook which drops in the ring on the end of 
Fig. 3. 
the line. To keep the line in place, the crank is 
turned until it is tight, and then held by a pin 
inserted in the side of the box. After the clothes 
are taken in, the pin is removed, the 
hook slipped from the ring, and by 
turning the crank, the line is easily 
wound upon the roller, secure from 
being Avet, and ready Avhen wanted. 
The illustration is magnified, and 
the back board of the box left off, 
to show the roller. A bottom may 
be added to the box, if desirable, 
Avhich will give a convenient place IjjYjl 
for keeping the clothes pins. §\j| 
Fig. 2, represents a folding 
clothes horse, Avhich takes up very 
little room Avlien not in use. It is 
made Avith a center post and four up¬ 
rights, and slats running at right angles to them. 
The pieces may be of any desired length. Each 
horizontal slat is screwed to the post and to the 
upright: the holes in the slats are made a little 
larger than the screws would require, so that they 
form pivots on which the slats turn. On each 
bottom slat is a staple to receive a hook fasten¬ 
ed to the middle post, by which the whole is 
held in place when used. Fig. 3, represents the 
apparatus, nearly folded together. The folding 
makes it convenient where house room is scarce. 
--- -- 
Cheap Appara tus for Drying Fruit. 
A very simple apparatus for drying apples 
was used by our grandmother, and for aught Ave 
knoAV, by her grandmother, and Avlien a boy Ave 
made them for home use, but we have seldom 
seen them in use recently. The following 
sketch illustrates the apparatus referred to. 
It is a Avooden frame made of tAvo upright 
strips, about tAvo and a half or three inches 
wide, and nearly an inch thick, joined at top 
and bottom by tAvo cross pieces about three 
feet long. One or tAvo more cross pieces 
may be put in to strengthen it if desirable. 
Common shingle nails are then driven into the 
uprights about four inches apart, and the strings 
of apples are hung across upon these nails as 
seen in the figure. They are so simple, that 
any apt boy can make one in half an hour. 
They save the labor of moving the strings 
separately, and enable the liouscAvife to carry on 
the process of drying in stormy weather, by the 
fire, when the fruit might otherwise spoil. 
In sunny weather, the frames can stand against 
the south side of the house, or if the foAvls are 
troublesome, they can be hung up on nails 
driven for the purpose. In case of a rain, or a 
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frosty night, they can be removed to the kitch¬ 
en in a very feAV moments Avithout taking the 
strings from the nails. They can be put near 
the fire, and the drying process can be car¬ 
ried on very rapidly. Each frame six feet long 
will accommodate about 18 strings of apples, 
pears, peaches or other fruit. They will save 
