AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[January, 
Q2 
a change every time their mittens get wet with 
snow and cold rains, they will confer a great 
favor. They may, if they please, stitch together 
as many kinds and colors of cloth in a pair of 
mittens, as there were in Joseph’s coat. Willcox 
& Gibbs, 1ST. Y. City, will supply full -size pat¬ 
terns free. 
More About the Sock Pattern. 
“ Ready Knitter ” writes, that the pattern and 
directions for knitting socks, given in the Dec. 
Agriculturist , are entirely orthodox, so far as 
they go, as was proved by several sets of nimble 
fingers she saw at work upon the socks after 
the appearance of the paper. They understood 
all the directions, and followed them until they 
got through with: “ Knit as many times across 
as there are stitches on, then narrow five times.” 
But what then? Surely, not bind it off; it 
would take a veteran square heel to fill out such 
a sock. “ Ready Knitter” completes the direc- 
tions-thus: “ For the heel, knit as many times 
across, as there are stitches on; narrow gradu¬ 
ally, two stitches on every needle, (not the seam 
needle,) until the number is reduced one-half; 
then bind, and you will have a round, well¬ 
shaped heel.” 
For the American Agriculturist. 
Washing Quilts and Comforters. 
“Don’t look at this quilt, I beg of you,” said 
an invalid lady the other day, as my eyes in¬ 
voluntarily wandered over a once handsome 
patchwork quilt, spotted here and there in an 
unaccountable way. “ You see,” she continued, 
“ it was nearly night before we wet it on the 
last washing day, and the girl rubbed some soap 
on the dirty spots, and put it in the suds, and 
then forgot it until morning.” 
Row, if there is anything needed to drive a 
woman crazy, it is to see a pretty quilt, that she 
has worked at for days and months, and prided 
herself on, spoiled in the wash. 
Every good housekeeper has her bed clothes 
washed in the morning, so that they may have 
the benefit of the whole day to dry, and then 
there is no danger of their being forgotten over 
night. Handsome calico quilts are generally 
supposed to have deep red, green, or orange col¬ 
ors in them, that contrast so well with the 
white; if they lie wet over night, or are left out 
in frosty weather to dry, ten to one, they will 
never look well again; but if hurried through 
of a fine morning, and dried before night, they 
will look almost as fresh and new as they were 
when first made. A friend has a pretty quilt 
that was taken for a new one not long since, 
but she said: “ The quilt is thirty-three years 
old, and was pieced by my mother before she 
was married; it has been washed a score of 
times, but I have never used it much because 
the hands that pieced it have long since rested 
from their labors.” 
And to young housekeepers let me say, al¬ 
ways try your calico by thorough washing- be¬ 
fore putting it in a quilt, and, except for a com¬ 
forter or common quilt, never use calico that 
will not stand boiling. 
I believe in pretty quilts, and think they are 
an important feature in the beauty of the house, 
just as much as wall paper, painting, or pic¬ 
tures. For a spare bed-room, or “stranger’s 
room,” I remember a mother that always used a 
white Marseilles for the top quilt, and it was the 
most simple and elegant. In common bed¬ 
rooms, a calico quilt looks clean longer, is less 
expensive, and answers the purpose equally well. 
And now a .word as to comforters. I think 
they are the most expensive bedding people use, 
though they come the cheapest. What house¬ 
keeper does not look back this snowy day to 
her Fall washing of bed clothes, and think of the 
sigh of relief she heaved when through with it; 
and the comforters, she dreaded them more than 
all the quilts and blankets together. There are 
fine lamb’s wool blankets in my house to-day 
that have been in wear half as long as I have 
myself; they have worn out several sets of com¬ 
forters, and have been far more comfortable and 
certainly cheaper and cleaner. It is impossible 
for a woman to get a comforter right clean, ex¬ 
cept by ripping it out, washing the batting, and 
making it over; and this is one hard day’s work 
for the best hired girl she ever had. 
The fact is, we dread the washing of our com¬ 
forters so much, that where we wash our blan¬ 
kets and quilts twice, we only wash the com¬ 
forters once, though they need washing the 
most, from the fact that they hold, in their thick 
folds, more of the perspiration and impurities 
that escape from our bodies during sleep. 
Carroll Co., III. Mrs. M. J. STEPHENSON. 
Double Glazing’ vs. Double Windows. 
As usually constructed, double windows in¬ 
terfere with ventilation of living rooms, for sel¬ 
dom indeed is there other provision for a sup¬ 
ply of fresh air. Row instead of using double 
sashes, if we simply put in double pieces of 
glass (one on the outside and one on the inside 
of the same sash) we may raise the sashes as 
usual. Two thicknesses of glass with the quar¬ 
ter inch space of air between them will keep out- 
a great deal of cold and save fuel. At the same 
time the rooms will be likely to become warm 
while the air is still pure, and the result will be, 
that in order to cool them a sash will be lowered, 
and thus a supply of pure air maintained. 
When a single thickness of glass is all that de¬ 
fends us against the temperature of zero, 
which prevails without, the air of the room 
is so rapidly cooled that admission of fresh air 
is prevented by all possible means. The win¬ 
dows are “calked,” the doors are “listed,” and 
every thing made as close as possible. By hav¬ 
ing the windows double glazed, the obstruction 
of the view by the accumulation of frost is near¬ 
ly if not entirely prevented. 
A Cellar. 
Whoever is at housekeeping, even in the most 
humble way, will appreciate a good cellar. 
There are multitudes, nominally keeping house, 
who really have nothing to do with housekeep¬ 
ing ; these are they who build fine houses, and 
follow and set the fashions in such things. We 
need cellars to preserve things which must be 
kept at a uniform and rather low temperature, 
and which are benefited, or at least not injured, 
by moist air. The cellar should always be cool, 
moist, dry, rat-proof, well ventilated, and light 
or dark at pleasure. To secure these qualities 
it should be below the surface of the ground, 
with cemented walls and floor; if in wet 
ground, the water should be cut off by drains 
in the foundations, and the floor should have 
slope enough to carry off into side drains water 
spilt upon or used for washing it. 
Cellars are often dry in Winter and moist in 
Summer, because, as the season changes, they 
are either warmer or cooler than the outer air, 
and so part with or attract moisture. On this 
account, ventilate cellars on moist, warm days 
in Winter. The introduction of hot-air fur¬ 
naces into cellars to warm the rest of the house, 
has the effect direfully to warm and dry the cel¬ 
lars, and entirely ruin them for keeping vegeta¬ 
bles, fruits, cider, etc.; and the modern fashion 
of basement rooms and cellar kitchens which is 
prevailing to some extent even for country 
houses, is equally ruinous. If a cellar kitchen 
is desirable, dig a cellar beneath it. 
WHAT MAY BE KEPT IN A GOOD CELLAR. 
1st. Fruits —particularly apples. 
2nd. Roots —potatoes, turnips,carrots, parsneps. 
beets, salsafy, etc., the most sensitive of which, if 
packed in earth, will scarcely grow at all until 
near Spring, and will not shrivel a particle. 
3d. Growing Plants. —Cabbages, cauliflowers, 
and broccoli, which will gradually head and 
come to perfection during the early part of 
Winter; celery, which grows and bleaches as it 
never does out of doors; endives, which, taken 
in and planted in beds, grow without care, 
beautifully blanched, and form a most delicious 
winter salad ; and to these may be added leeks, 
chives, parsley, and many other plants. 
4tli. Cider, wines, bottled fruits, etc. 
5tli. Many tender plants, which will not bear 
our winters, as for instance, all tender roses, pe¬ 
largoniums and geraniums, oleanders, lemon- 
scented verbenas, jessamines, Daphne odor at a, 
etc. All these, and yet we have hardly begun 
to tell the uses of a cellar, never wet, never dry, 
never warm, never cold, never airy, never close, 
and dark or light at pleasure. We regard such 
a cellar as indispensable to economical house¬ 
keeping, but as a luxury is it not worth enjoying ? 
For the American Agriculturist. 
Rat Proof and Water Tight Cellars, 
In tbe foundation of the cellar wall, it is often 
and wisely recommended to lay a course of 
flat stones below the surface of the cellar floor, 
projecting four or five inches beyond the rest. 
If rat's dig under the foundation from the out¬ 
side, to come up on the inside, they will strike 
their noses against this projecting ledge, and 
supposing the whole floor to be made of quarry 
stones, they will back down and give up. This 
will answer in most cases; but to make sure 
work of it, and besides to get a dry and smooth 
cellar floor, it is advisable to cover the whole 
cellar bottom with water lime cement. . 
And this is the way to do it. If the house is 
already built, and the cellar is rather low be¬ 
tween joints, it will be best to excavate and 
deepen the whole surface three or four inches. 
Having made a new smooth surface, sloping a lit¬ 
tle towards one corner, for the benefit of drain¬ 
age, bring in a load or two of small cob¬ 
ble-stones, say of goose-egg size, and spread 
them evenly over the ground. Then put on a 
layer of coarse gravel and rake it down smooth, 
preserving, carefully, the slight descent to one 
corner, where there is to be kept an open outlet 
into the cellar drain. 
Row prepare the cement, a little at a time, 
using the best of materials, and mixing two parts 
of hydraulic lime with three parts of clean sand. 
Spread it on about two inches thick, as soon as 
mixed, leaving the work finished smooth as 
you proceed. At the sides of the cellar, plaster 
up the walls eighteen inches from the floor. 
Make a shallow gutter in the cement all around 
next to the walls, to carry off any water that 
may chance to get on the floor. This gut- 
