AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
53 
Cheap Home-made Glass Cases for 
Growing Plants. 
“ Elsie ” inquires for “ the cheapest possible 
case for growing a fern or two.” The writer has 
somewhere seen a plan like this proposed : Take 
four of the largest panes of window glass you 
can find, hind each of them at the edges with 
wide linen tape, drawing the tape over the edges 
of the pane firmly, and sewing it down. When 
all have been bound, sew the ends together, four 
square. This will give you a glass box having 
neither top nor bottom. Now set out the ferns 
or other plants in a neat wooden box, an inch 
larger all around than the glass case. Set your 
case over this, and for a cover, lay on a pane 
of glass, open at the edges a trifle, to admit air. 
Here is another hint: Get at the crockery- 
store one or more bell-glasses or shades, such 
as are often used for covering bouquets of arti¬ 
ficial flowers. Then provide a flower-pot of 
some handsome pattern, the diameter of which 
is about a quarter of an inch larger than that of 
the glass. Now, fill the pot with sandy loam 
and a little leaf-mold, and set out in it one of 
the lycopods or lichens which are often found 
in green-houses. Cover the same with the 
glass shade, and forget not to water it occasion¬ 
ally. The plants will soon grow, and ere long 
fill the bell-glass with their fine and beautiful 
foliage. This is very pretty as an ornament for 
a lady’s sewing-table in Winter. A student’s 
window, near where we now write, is graced 
with one of them. 
Plants Protected from Frost by Water. 
Dingler’s Journal (German) states, as a new 
discovery, that a few pails of water set among 
in-door plants, which are liable to injury from 
freezing, will protect them perfectly in quite se¬ 
vere weather.—This is no new discovery, but 
has long been practiced. Water, when passing 
from the liquid to the solid or frozen state, gives 
out a large amount of heat that was previously 
latent. A considerable body of water would 
thus keep a room sufficiently warm to prevent 
the destruction of many plants only half hardy. 
But with only a small quantity of water, ox 
when the cold is intense, the juices or water in 
the fibers of the plants will congeal, and by its 
expansion destroy the organization, and induce 
disease and decay. 
The Dove Flower—( Peristend alata.) 
Within the past few years, this beautiful plant 
has been admired by thousands of our country¬ 
men while passing across the Isthmus of Pana¬ 
ma, on their way to or from the gold fields of 
California. Its chief beauty consists in the form 
of the central portion of the flower, which re¬ 
sembles'a white dove, with out-stretched wings, 
just settling into its nest of white satin. The 
little beak of this imaginary dove is tipped with 
carmine, and its wings are slightly speckled 
with p urple. The flowers are produced on a stem 
two to three feet high, and continue in bloom a 
long time, emitting a delightful fragrance. No 
one, after seeing this curious plant in bloom, 
will wondes at the early Spanish settlers naming 
it Espiritu Sancta, or Holy Spirit. These fanci¬ 
ful and superstitious people were ready to seize 
upon every object, that would in any way con¬ 
tribute to strengthen a belief that God mani¬ 
fested himself to them more than to any other 
people. The natives of Panama, seeing the 
Spanish worshipping this humble plant, soon be¬ 
gan to look upon it with veneration, and now 
believe there is sanoitity in its very fragrance. 
It belongs to the family of the orchids, many 
of which are air plants, and is found growing 
in low, marshy ground, upon old decayed wood 
and bark mixed with earth.—A friend of ours 
sent us, a few years since, a dozen of the bulbs, 
with a box of soil in which they were found 
growing. This soil was composed of decayed 
vegetation, mixed with a large proportion of 
soft stone, resembling half burned brick. The 
bulbs were potted in this soil, covering the lower 
end about one inch. They received very 
little water until they showed their flower stems, 
which was in two or three weeks, and were 
then watered quite freely, until. they were done 
blooming, and the bulbs were mature, at which 
time Tfater was withheld, and the bulbs were 
allowed their period of rest. To grow this 
plant successfully, requires a temperature of 85° 
to 95°, and a humid atmosphere.—Soft bricks, 
broken up into small pieces, mixed with moss 
and a little sandy peat, is a good soil for them. 
Put two or three bulbs into an eight inch pot, 
and keep them shaded from the direct rays of 
the sun. They are sold by most of the leading 
dealers in plants. Many keep them growing in 
pots of earth, on sale, at $2 to $3 each. 
Newspapers Good for Bed Blankets. 
The present cold weather, the high price of 
cotton used for quilts and “comforters,” and 
the recent increased cost of wool adapted for 
blankets, all suggest to us to remind the read¬ 
ers of the American Agriculturist that common 
newspapers make a very good addition to the 
bed covering. Several papers can be pasted at 
the edges to form a large single sheet, to spread 
on the outside of-a bed or even under the out¬ 
side cover. The paper itself is a good non-con¬ 
ductor, and aids to retain much of the heat that 
would otherwise escape. A much more effect¬ 
ive covering is made by placing two of the large 
pasted sheets together, and fastening them at the 
edges, and at a few other points. The thin 
space of air between the sheets is an admirable 
non-conductor. A cover of this kind is quite as 
effective as a closely woven woolen blanket. 
We have heard of an over-coat lined with paper 
stitched to the inside. Those who have not 
tried it will be surprised at the effectiveness of 
these bed coverings, which can be prepared in a 
few minutes from newspapers that would other¬ 
wise go to waste. (Of course no one would think 
of spoiling the Agriculturist by using it thus.) 
For the American Agriculturist. 
Hints on Dressing and Roasting a Turkey. 
A turkey is one of the daintiest dishes, and in 
some parts of the West a commoner one than 
roast beef. Much, however, depends upon the 
manner of cooking. I well remember “ fixing ” 
my first turkey. I had had servants to do such 
things, until I was a woman grown, and (like 
other foolish girls) I never troubled myself to 
learn “ how to stuff a turkey,” until I had to do 
it from necessity... .When Jonathan brought 
home that first turkey, I was perfectly helpless, 
and was actually obliged to send for a neighbor 
to show me w r hat to do with it. She was an old 
English cook, whose superior I never Knew—at 
least so far as dressing a turkey is concerned. 
“ It must hang up by the heels,” she said, “ for 
half an hour after the head is chopped off, for 
all the blood to drip out. Then- lay .it in a large 
dish pan, and saturate one half of -it with water 
nearly boiling, and while stripping the feathers 
off the warm parts, have the other side down in 
the water heating. It should be singed, before 
the entrails are taken out—and the flame of pa¬ 
per is preferable to that of straw for singing. 
The stuffing —The liver, heart, gizzard, and 
neck, together with the sheet fat, are then wash¬ 
ed, put down in a pot, and boiled for an hour 
or more, after which the meat is transferred to a 
chopping board, and made as fine as mince 
meat. The soup obtained from, these parts, 
having been poured on the bread destined for 
stuffing, (stale bread is best, as it will crumble 
down easily), a little ground sage, pepper, and 
salt, with a couple of beaten eggs, are added to 
the mixed meat and bread, and the stuffing is 
ready. If the turkey has no extra fat to spare 
for stuffing, a piece of beef suet,’about the size 
of a small teacup, is an excellent substitute, 
chopping it very fine, however, 
After stuffing the turkey, sew up the apertures 
with a coarse needle and thread, and if the fowl 
is not young, parboil it before roasting. Some 
slices of fat beef or pork, laid under and above 
the turkey in the frying pan, will save the 
trouble of basting, and keep the meat juicy. A 
little water must be added to the pan from time 
to time, to keep the temperature below the fly¬ 
ing point. Onion gravy is generally liked. For 
one cup of dripping or fat, two cups of boiling 
water is the allowance, together with a finely 
chopped onion, and two tablespoonfuls of flour. 
The flour better not go in until the onion is 
cooked. It should also be mixed with cold wa¬ 
ter. Use pepper and salt according to taste in 
the gravy, and also a little inside and outside of 
the turkey before stuffing. Mbs. M. J. S. 
Fair Haven. III. 
“Clinker” in Stoves. 
If only the first quality of coal be used, there 
will be little trouble from “ clinker ” fastening 
upon the sides of the stove. It is composed of 
various mineral impurities which are melted 
by the intense heat, and hardened by contact 
with the cooler lining of the stove. Care is need¬ 
ed in storing the coal in the cellar or other place, 
that no sand be intermixed, as this will cause 
clinker. The silex of which the sand is partly 
composed, and the potash of the ashes unite, 
and form a glassy substance, which adheres 
very tenaciously to iron or brickwork. If a 
stove becomes clinkered, place a few oyster 
shells in the fire close to the clinker. By re¬ 
peating this process a few days the clinker will 
be loosened so as to be removed easily without 
breaking the lining. So -says a correspondent. 
