184r 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[Mat, 
hard and long; after this would 6weep all of the 
dirty water out, and rinse the floor with as many 
waters as they could afford. When at last the well- 
soaked floor was dry, it was undoubtedly clean, but 
it looked dark and somewhat weather-beaten, in 
consequence of remaining wet so long. It is a 
question of health with me, in winter, to have a 
floor dry as soon as possible. A little lye in the 
water has an excellent effect upon floors. It may 
be poured directly upon decided greasy spots, 
but the whole floor is whitened with very little 
hard rubbing, if a 6mall amount of lye is mixed 
with the water. Too mueh makes the boards yel¬ 
low. How much should be used depends upon its 
strength. Never put lye into the water with which 
you wash a painted floor, else you gradually but 
speedily remove the paint with each cleaning. If 
you let an inexperienced hired girl have her own 
way with a painted floor, she will probably use her 
boiling suds upon it, and soon remove nearly all of 
the best paint. Clean warm water is best for paint¬ 
ed floors. If you have a nice bard-wood floor, be 
thankful, especially if it be of white ash, but never 
let its spotlessness become dearer to your heart 
than the family peace. You learn by experiment 
how much nicer one of these hard floors look, 
when washed with clean suds, than when washed 
with the boiling suds of Monday. 
Let those who like get down upon their knees, 
and scrub their floors with brushes and floor-cloths 
—such work is not for me nor mine, and I consider 
it pitiful business for any one. I hear of long- 
handled scrubbing-brushes, and doubtless these 
are suitable for human beings in the work of floor 
cleaning. What I most want is a cheap and easy 
mop-wringer, for I dislike extremely to put my 
hands into the mopping water. Of such a wringer I 
have heard, but have had no experience of its merits. 
Bathing: How often, and When. 
Habit has something to do with our supposed 
necessities in regard to bathing. Some respectable 
persons never bathe the whole body except in warm 
weather. Others cannot be comfortable, cannot 
feel clean, without a daily bath. Those who have 
a daily bath usually take it on rising from bed in 
the morning. For this purpose, some use water of 
any temperature which the season may make most 
convenient, even taking icy water in winter, and 
bathing in a cold room. Some who have followed 
vines.— (See next page.) 
this practice for years, have become convinced that 
it has wrought much mischief, and that only great 
robustness of constitution ever enabled them to 
endure the tax upon their native vigor so long. 
Most physicians do not advise so frequent bathing, 
considering a weekly or semi-weekly bath sufficient¬ 
ly frequent for cleanliness. Something depends 
upon the season or climate, and much depends 
upon the manner of bathing and the previous con¬ 
dition of the bather. It is an established rule that 
no general bath should follow very closely upon a 
meal. The stomach should be allowed to monopo¬ 
lize the first consideration for at least an hour after 
filling it, during which time no great demand must 
be made upon brain, muscles, or skin. The stom¬ 
ach, when full, demands more than its usual por¬ 
tion of blood, so that the surface of the body is 
sometimes made chilly on account of a heavy or 
is applied to the skin, an immediate demand for 
blood is made at the surface of the body, and of 
course stomach and skin cannot both successfully 
make these demands at the same time. Sudden 
death has been known to result from a full bath 
immediately after eating. I can’t help thinking 
that many little children have suffered from the 
carelessness or ignorance of their mothers, or 
nurses, in regard to this rule. I have known more 
than one mother to bathe and dress her little child 
immediately after its dinner, just because this time 
was most convenient. This rule, however, does 
not apply strictly to infants while fed wholly on 
milk. The stomach of a little babe holds but a 
very small quantity, and this being wholly fluid, 
does not require a very long period for its digestion. 
It does not seem necessary to wait more than half 
an hour after nursing a baby, before giving it its 
mild little bath, which, of course, is never given in 
a cold room. If you wait too long, baby sometimes 
gets very hungry and complains loudly before the 
dressing is all completed. Physicians sometimes 
recommend that baths be taken when the body is 
at its greatest point of vigor, or near noon, but 
however this may apply to sick persons in respect 
to their curative baths, it cannot well be obeyed by 
busy people in their weekly or semi-weekly baths 
for cleanliness. A housekeeper will usually take 
her bath on rising in the morning, or when she 
changes her clothes after the dinner work is done, 
or when she goes to bed. One should not bathe 
when much fatigued, but if not especially weary, a 
bath just before bed is a good thing—not a “ tonic ” 
or cold bath, but a good washing with comfortable 
water, rapidly given if the room is cool; but if 
possible the room should be warm. 
Graham Bread. 
This is an easy and a good way to provide loaves 
of graham bread. When making common white 
bread, set enough sponge at night to spare a little 
for a graham loaf next morning. For one common 
tin-loaf take-a little more than a pint of the sponge, 
add a table-spoonful of sugar, and stir it thick with 
graham flour. Stir well with a spoon, but do not 
knead it or it may be too hard and dry. Turn it in¬ 
to the buttered pan, let it rise in a warm place, and 
bake it slowly for an hour or longer. 
Of course several loaves may be made in this 
way, setting a fine flour sponge at night, and stir¬ 
ring graham flour into the whole. Most people 
will prefer this to loaves of undiluted graham 
bread. Unless you put in sugar or molasses, your 
graham bread made with yeast is not half so sweet 
as graham gems, especially if these are mixed with 
sweet milk, either new or skimmed. Many prefer to 
steam graham loaves for an hour, and finish by bak¬ 
ing about 20 minutes—to prevent a hard crust. 
Sour Milk and Soda. 
I presume I can say nothing under this head that 
has not been said before in these columns. But I 
perceive that there are experienced housekeepers 
who have yet to learn how to use soda with sour 
milk. A woman of double my experience told me, 
not long ago, that she had now got so that she 
could make sour milk buscuit that her folks would 
eat. Now she mashed the soda and mixed it with 
the flour, then stirred in the sour milk or butter¬ 
milk. Before this she “ put the soda in a cup,” but 
the buscuits were always streaked and spotted. 
This would not happen, I am sure, if the right 
quantity of soda was taken, and if the soda was 
carefully dissolved in water, either warm or cold, 
stirred quickly and thoroughly into the 60 ur milk, 
and rapidly beaten up with the flour. 
In giving directions to another, I think I should 
advise a thorough incorporation of the soda with 
the flour, after both soda and sour milk have been 
exactly measured. For then the effervescense (or 
foaming) would all take place in the dough, the gas 
would raise the flour, and the mass would surely 
be light. A careless cook will perhaps mix her 
sour milk and soda together, and while it is foam¬ 
ing and settling again to quiet, she is perhaps get¬ 
ting her flour and hunting up her rolling pin, and 
of course she doesn’t “have good luck ” with her 
biscuit. If she would get everything ready, even 
the buttered tins, and then measure out a level tea¬ 
spoonful of soda for each teacupful of sour milk, 
or a rounding teaspoonful for each pint, then dis¬ 
solve entirely the soda in a cup by itself, and stir¬ 
ring it quickly into her sour milk or butter-milk, 
(sour of course), pour the whole into the flour be¬ 
fore the foaming fairly begins, and work it together 
quickly—there would be no streaks and no heavi¬ 
ness. But the best thing to do with baking soda, 
A DOOR SURROUNDED BT 
