AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
>509 
For the American Agriculturist. 
Preserving Specimens of Birds and 
Animals. 
BT ROBERT L. WALKER. 
The following plain directions for preserving 
specimens of birds and animals are given by a 
practised hand, who condensed them from three 
or four different processes which he had tried 
without satisfactory results. Secure the bird or 
animal with as little injury as possible; sprinkle 
plaster Paris wherever there is any blood, to 
absorb it. You will need a very sharp small- 
bladed knife, a pair of sharp pointed scissors, 
a pair of wire nippers, a pair of cutting nippers, 
different sized wires, and glass beads for eyes. 
You will also need arsenic, powdered plaster of 
Paris, cotton, and arsenical soap, which is made 
as follows: Take 8 oz. white oxide of arsenic, 
8 oz. hard rosin soap, 1 oz. quick lime, li oz. 
salts of tartar, 1 oz. gum camphor. Dissolve the 
soap in a sufficient quantity of rain water by 
heat, to make a mixture the consistence of 
cream. Add the arsenic and lime, previously 
well mixed. Then remove from the fire and add 
the other ingredients, previously powdered and 
mixed. Add warm rain-water until it becomes 
the consistence of good thick cream. Then put 
into a wide-woutlied jar and cork air tight. 
Having every thing ready, we will now pro¬ 
ceed to skin the bird. Make an incision through 
the skin from the lower end of the breast bone 
to the anus; separate the skin on both sides from 
the body, until you reach the knee and expose 
the thigh, take the leg in one hand and push the 
knee up, and loosen the skin around it until you 
can place the scissors underneath and separate 
the joint and muscles. Sprinkle arsenic on the 
skin to prevent adhesion, loosen the skin about 
the base of the tail, and cut through the back¬ 
bone at the last joint, taking care not to sever 
basis of the quills; suspend the bird by placing 
a wire hook in the back or rump, and invert the 
skin, loosening it carefully from the body. On 
reaching the wings, loosen the skin from around 
the first bone, and through the middle of it, or 
if the bird is small, separate it from the next at 
the elbow. Continue the inversion of the skiu 
by drawing it over the neck until the skull is ex¬ 
posed. Loosen the ear from the skull without 
cutting or tearing it. Cut the membrane around 
the eye-balls, and dig out the eyes, then clean 
out the sockets, and fill them with cotton mixed 
with the arsenical soap. Take out the throat, 
tongue and all other fleshy parts. Then take 
the brains out from the back part of the skull, 
which cavity fill with cotton and arsenical soap. 
Dust every fleshy or bloody place with arsenic. 
Take a wire the length of the bird, pass it into 
the skull and out at the tail, then take two pieces 
of wire and pass one through the wings close to 
the bone; the other you will pass up through the 
sole of the foot, along the leg bone and on to the 
wire in its back; fasten the back wire and leg 
and wing wires securely where they cross each 
other. Then force the glass beads or eyes into 
the sockets. Stuff cotton anointed with tliesoap 
into the upper part of the throat. Next make a 
roll of cotton less in thickness but same length 
of the original neck, anoint it with the soap, 
put it into the skin, and push it up to the base 
of the skull. Fill the body up. with cotton anoint¬ 
ed with the soap. Sew it up, commencing at 
the upper end and passing the needle from the 
inside outwards. Then press the body into its 
natural shape, bending the wires to suit. Lay it 
away until it dries and the skin becomes hard. 
The directions for birds will answer for animals. 
The incision must commence between the fore 
legs and extend down to the tail. Be very care¬ 
ful not to stretch the skin. Smooth the fur 
down, and press into natural appearance. 
Convenient Quilting Frame. 
The quilting frames'in ordinary use are an 
almost unmitigated nuisance. Except in the 
largest apartments they monopolize the room, 
and resting loosely upon the backs of chairs are 
frequently thrown down by a thoughtless urchin, 
to the great annoyance of the good housewife. 
The following plan, contributed to the American 
Agriculturist by S. A. Newton, Susquehanna Co., 
Pa., remedies these inconveniences, and also 
gives a much better means for stretching and 
holding the quilt to its full tension. The two 
bars A are from 7 to 8 feet long, or a foot longer 
than any quilt. They should be 2£ inches thick, 
made eight square, and perfectly straight. A 
strip of cloth, b, is tacked to each bar, to which 
the quilt is to be attached. One end of each 
bar is fitted with a rachet wheel, c. These rach- 
et wheels are attached to iron caps which fit 
upon the head of the bar. The pinion of the 
wheel has one end sharpened to insert in the 
bar, and the other extends outward through an 
opening in the horse which supports the bar. 
The other end of each bar has the cap and pin¬ 
ion without the rachet wheel. The caps serve 
as bands to prevent the ends of the bars from 
splitting. The horses are made of convenient 
hight, with a sufficient spread of legs to stand 
firmly. Two dogs, d, are attached to one of the 
horses, to work in the rachet wheels, and hold 
the quilt in place when stretched. The bars of 
the horses should be just long enough for quiit- 
ers on opposite sides to reach over the quilt bars 
and meet half way. As fast as a section of the 
quilt is finished, another part is unrolled by lift¬ 
ing the dogs and rolling the bars, until the whole 
is completed. If rachet wheels made of iron for 
the above arrangement can not be easily pro¬ 
cured, they may be made of hard wood, and fit¬ 
ted directly upon the ends of the bars, which 
could be reduced in size to work in inch holes 
in the horses. 
Something Useful and Ornamental—News¬ 
paper Receptacle. 
To the Editor of the American Agriculturist. 
We are making an ornament for our sitting 
rooms, in this part of the country, in the form 
of a newspaper receptacle. It is so useful, and 
at the same time so beautiful, that we wish 
every family had one. Take a common liat- 
box, cut it down lengthwise into two equal 
parts, either through the wide or narrow sides. 
Each half, with half the cover for a back, 
makes one receptacle. Cover with some deli¬ 
cate color of wall paper. One yard of paper 
will, with economy, cover three. Put on a bor¬ 
der to harmonize with the paper around the up¬ 
per and lower edges, and sides of the box. 
Crimson and gold is pretty, with almost any 
colored paper. Fine gilt leaves—cut out and 
put on in the form of a vine for a border, are 
also beautiful. Then look over your old illus¬ 
trated magazines for a choice engraving, and 
when you find one to suit you with regard to 
subject, size, and shape, cut it out and paste it 
upon your receptacle, taking care to have it di¬ 
rectly in the center of the front, equi-distant 
from the sides and edges. Put a narrow gilt 
border around the picture, unless it is oval. A 
square picture, or one that is a little wider than 
it is long, looks prettiest. Put in three cords, 
each a yard or a yard-and-a-quarter long, one in 
front, and one on each side, bring them togeth¬ 
er and join them with a pair of tassels, or a 
pretty bow of the cord. The holes for the cord 
should be made small, and near the upper edge 
of the receptacle. Put in the newspapers neatly 
folded, and hang it in the brightest part of the 
sitting room, just opposite the door that hus¬ 
band or brother comes in at, and you may de¬ 
pend upon it it will add greatly to the attrac¬ 
tions of your home. We advise every lady that 
has not already something of the kind to make 
one immediately, and henceforth have a place 
for the last newspaper. Gertie Eloise. 
For the American Agriculturist. 
A Short Story for the Times.* 
Best Medicine for a Sick Wife, and How 
to Obtain it. 
“Good morning, neighbor Slack. How do you do? 
How is your family? you are looking downcast.” 
“ Good morning, neighbor Thrifty. Wife is not 
very well. I’m not sick, but am rather blue—about 
discouraged. With the war and hard times, poor 
crops and wife half sick all the while, its pretty 
hard getting on. I wish some one would come 
along and buy my farm ; I’d move into the village 
and try my hand at something else.” 
“ Sorry to find you feeling so badly. Is Mrs. 
Slack no better to-day ?” 
“ No, and if she was, she’d over-do and get down 
again to-morrow. We don’t feel quite able to hire 
house-help, and with all her work and her sewing 
which keeps her up late at night, it’s no wonder 
she, poor woman, does not feel any better. She 
thinks if she had a sewing machine like your wife’s, 
6he could do better, but we have not felt able to 
buy one. How it is that you keep so forehanded, is 
more than I can tell. My farm ought to be as good 
as yours, for it’s the same kind of soil and as large; 
four years ago I thought myself more forehanded 
than you, and my wife was stronger than yours.” 
“Just so. When we commenced here the bal¬ 
ance was in your favor I am sure.” 
“ Yes, yes, but some folks are born to misfortune, 
and that’s precisely my case.” 
“ Fortune favors those who favor themselves. I 
don’t believe much in this theory about fortune, 
or luck. Management is the thing after all.” 
“ Pray give me a hint or two about management. 
Talk plainly, for I am despondent enough to catch 
at any word of advice, however plain.” 
“Well, pretty large results sometimes .spring 
from little things. ‘ Tall oaks from little acorns 
grow,’ we used to repeat in childhood. My first 
start was from that extra crop of wheat, four years 
ago. You know I turned in a great growth of clo¬ 
ver, while you fed yours down; and though you sold 
the most butter, I had a double crop of wheat 
which brought $1.50 a bushel that year. This 
put me out of debt, while all the proceeds of your 
butter went to pay the doctor’s bill for your wife, 
who broke down over the butter bowl.” 
“That’s so. But it was your good luck that led 
you to plow under the clover.” 
“ No, it was not luck. I read a chapter about the 
use of clover in my agricultural paper, and followed 
its recommendations, because they stood to reason. 
nt to us by a Michigan 
