Q78 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[September, 
more than half the labor of the ordinary process 
of drying, and will enable the housewife to ap¬ 
ply artificial heat whenever she desires. 
-- ^-4 -—a©**—--- 
For the American Agriculturist . 
Packing Apples in Leaves. 
Last year, just as we had finished apple gath¬ 
ering, I read in some newspaper, (not the Agri¬ 
culturist,) that it had been 1 proved conclusively ’ 
that the one true way of keeping apples was, to 
pack them in dry forest leaves. I gathered 
leaves accordingly, upon a dry windy day, and 
packed three barrels the next day, all Spitzen- 
bergs, hard and sound, placing them according 
to directions in a cold, dry place. One day in 
January I went down to see how my treas¬ 
ures were keeping. Rotten, one third of them 
already ! green and moldy, many of the leaves 
actually wet. Too damp when put up evident¬ 
ly. Next season I mean to put apples and 
leaves enough to fill one barrel in a warm room 
for a few days, where they will become exter¬ 
nally quite dry. I shall then place them in a 
shed where vegetables unprotected will freeze. 
What chance have I of finding my apples sound 
if I leave them undisturbed till the last of April ? 
Can any readers of the American Agriculturist 
tell me ?—[Not much.— Ed.] Louise. 
Cure for Whooping Cough—A Second 
Attack, and the Remedy. 
We have seen it stated in some recent medical 
journal, (name not remembered), that a consid¬ 
erable number of cases were on record where 
Whooping Cough had been either cured or 
greatly modified, by giving the patient from one 
to two tablespoonfuls of strong coffee three or 
four times a day. The coffee must be pure, fresh 
burned, and fresh ground, as strong as water 
will make it, and sweetened, but taken with¬ 
out milk. The amount to depend upon whether 
the child is accustomed to the use of this bever¬ 
age or not. (No judicious parent will allow a 
young child to take coffee at all, except as a 
medicine.) We can not vouch for the remedy; 
it will be little trouble to try it, though there 
might be risk in giving too large doses of very 
strong coffee to a young child. 
We have had a little experience with this dis¬ 
ease, which may be interesting to others. When 
about 30 years old, we had a second attack of 
whooping cough, taken when debilitated with 
long watching over a child that died from this 
disease in combination with inflammation of 
the bowels. Anxious friends declared that we 
were fast going to the grave with “ consump¬ 
tion,” and we were booked for a tour to the 
Southern Islands. 
As we had certainly had the whooping 
cough in childhood, and as the popular opinion 
was that this disease never attacks one the sec¬ 
ond time, the real trouble was not suspected— 
not even by our physician. Happening to come 
under the inspection of Dr. Worthington Hook¬ 
er, of New-IIaven, at a clinical lecture of the 
New-Haven Medical College, he pronounced 
our severe coughing of 8 or 10 hours in 24, “a 
second attack of the Whooping Cough.” He at 
once prescribed a “ Noel’s Plaster,” 4 inches 
wide, to be placed along the whole spine, from 
the back of the neck downwards, with assafoeti- 
da 2 inches wide along its middle part. An as- 
safoetida pill, of moderate size, was to be taken 
morning, noon, and night; and five drops of 
“Fowler’s Solution of Arsenic” to be taken 
three times a day. The directions were fol¬ 
lowed for a week; our “ consumption” depart¬ 
ed; the distressing cough was broken off “as 
short as a pipe stem ”; and from the hour of be¬ 
ginning to use the prescription to this day, we 
have not had so much as a single “ hack ” of a 
cough, except from an accidental obstruction of 
the throat by dust or other foreign matter. 
Both the assafeetida and the arsenical solution 
are specifics for spasmodic coughs, and the triple 
application, above referred to, was a pretty se¬ 
vere one; but the long continuance, and the se¬ 
verity and emaciating character of the cough, 
called for vigorous medicine; and the result was 
most happy. We would not, of course, advise 
others to follow the prescription except under 
the advice of a competent physician, but those 
afflicted with a first, or a suspected second at¬ 
tack of whooping cough, might do well to show 
this chapter to their physician at least. 
-— --- o =—-- —- 
A 840 Cure for Stammering 
A correspondent of the American Agriculturist 
asks us, first: if there is any reliance to be placed 
in a certain “ Professor ” wdio advertises “ to 
cure the worst cases of stammering, or ‘ stutter¬ 
ing,’ for $40 ”; and second, if we can advise any 
remedy, as she has a son badly affected. We 
will answer both questions by saying that the 
secret for which the $40 is asked, has long been 
known, though we have had no occasion to 
verify its utility; and further, that she can have 
the secret from us for $1, viz: the $1 she has 
already paid for the Agriculturist this year. 
Here it is: Let the stammerer begin at once to 
beat time for every word he utters , either in talk¬ 
ing or reading, just as if singing the words. If 
this does not stop the hesitancy, then try beating 
time to every syllable, and afterwards gradually 
run into beating for words, and then for sen¬ 
tences. The beating can be done with the foot, 
or with a hand, or one finger of the hand, or by 
striking the finger and thumb together. Thus: 
“ When (beat) in (beat) the (beat) course (beat) 
of (beat) liu- (beat) man (beat) e- (beat) vents, 
(beat) etc.” A persistent course of measuring 
the words until the stammerer can read and talk 
straight forward, though slowly, for an hour at 
a time, will doubtless overcome the habit of 
stammering. We do not say that this will al¬ 
ways effect a perfect cure in the worst cases, 
where the stammering or habit has been long es¬ 
tablished, but from the nature of the defect, it 
must be greatly modified, if not cured. And at 
least here is all you w'ill get if you send your 
$40 to the “ Professor,” who has no more skill, 
and no more right to the “ secret ” than we have. 
-♦-«-- 
For Consumptives. 
Cream versus Cod-liver Oil. 
During a few years past “cod-liver oil” has 
been the great popular panacea for consump¬ 
tion ; tens of thousands of barrels of so-called 
cod-liver oil have been sold at enormous prices, 
and consumed. We say “so-called” for it is 
quite certain that a very large proportion of the 
material sold under this name has been mainly 
lard oil. We think little harm has been done by 
the deception, except by the cheat involved in 
selling for $1 per pint bottle, an article costing 
less than $1 a gallon. There is no doubt that 
thousands of cures have been effected by the use 
of both the pure cod-liver oil, aud the spurious 
lard oil. Faith in the article (that is in the la¬ 
bel on the bottle, and in the advertisments of the 
sellers) has in many cases dispelled fear and 
started the patient on the high road to health; 
while the real nourishment afforded by the oil 
is often just what is needed by the dyspeptic pa¬ 
tient suffering for lack of nutriment. Indeed, it 
is believed that to the carbonaceous elements of 
the oil, which are essential to good respiration, 
is mainly due the benefit that has been derived 
from the much lauded cod-liver oil. Acting upon 
this belief, one of our first physicians, Dr. Alon¬ 
zo Clark, who is perhaps the highest authority 
of our city, has proposed the use of pure sweet 
cream as a substitute for the oil. Cream is es¬ 
sentially an oil, very similar in its composition to 
the cod-liver oil, lard oil, and others of like char¬ 
acter, while it is far more palatable, and vastly 
cheaper. The Medical Reporter says that a con¬ 
sumptive patient, now under treatment, is tak¬ 
ing cream with better effect than was experi¬ 
enced under the cod-liver oil previously tried. 
Our advice is, for all who have, or think they 
have consumption, to adopt a cream diet. Eat 
the pure sweet cream abundantly, as much of it 
as the stomach will digest well. Eat it alone, 
on bread, with baked sweet apples, and at eveiy 
meal. Eat it believing it will cure, and we 
doubt not that it will prove quite as effective as 
the purest cod-liver oil that can be bought. 
* -- - - ' - 
What is in the Bedroom ? 
If two persons are to occupy a bedroom dur¬ 
ing a night, let them step upon weighing scales 
as they retire, and then again in the morning, 
and they will find their actual weight is at least 
a pound less in the morning. Frequently there 
will be a loss of two or more pounds, and the 
average loss throughout the year will be more 
than one pound. That is, during the night there 
is a loss of a pound of matter which lias gone 
off from their bodies, partly from the lungs, and 
partly through the pores of the skin. The es¬ 
caped material is carbonic acid, and decayed an¬ 
imal matter, or poisonous exhalations. This is 
diffused through the air in part, and in part ab¬ 
sorbed by the bed clothes. If a single ounce of 
wood or cotton be burned in a room, it will so 
completely saturate the air with smoke that one 
can hardly breathe, though there can only be 
one ounce of foreign matter in the air. If an 
ounce of cotton be burned every half hour dur¬ 
ing the night, the air will be kept continually 
saturated with smoke unless there be an open 
door or window for it to escape. Now the 16 
ounces of smoke, thus formed, is far less poison¬ 
ous than the 16 ounces of exhalations from the 
lungs and bodies of the two persons who have 
lost a pound in weight during the eight hours of 
sleeping, for while the dry smoke is mainly 
taken into the lungs, the damp odors from the 
body are absorbed both into the lungs and into 
the pores of the whole body. 
Need more be said to show the importance of 
having bedrooms well ventilated and of thor¬ 
oughly airing the sheets, coverlids, and mattres¬ 
ses, in the morning, before packing them up in 
the form of a neatly made bed ? 
Cheap Clothing—A Dear Bargain. 
To the Editor of the American Agriculturist : 
Being at one time on a visit in New-York 
City, I determined to improve the opportunity 
to buy some clothing, which of course would bo 
much cheaper there than nearer home. Ac¬ 
cordingly I visited an establishment whose ad¬ 
vertisements I had often read, and looked at 
their stock. I wanted garments for every day 
wear, and therefore was not particular about the 
fineness or finish, and was not long in purchas’ 
