1871.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
465 
TOY <k TO&TOTOo 
The Doctor makes a Proposition. 
How many boys and girls, if they wished to give a 
stranger a map of the road from their house to the school- 
house, or to the house of a distant neighbor, could do it 
correctly? Such a map should show all the turns of the 
Fig. 1.— MONEY-BOX COMPLETE. 
road, "and point out all the prominent landmarks, so that 
one who took it for a guide should feel sure that he was 
right. Being able to draw objects correctly is a pleasing 
and often a very useful accomplishment, but it is of more 
importance to know how to draw a map or a plan cor- 
Fig. 2.— ONE PIECE OF MONEY-BOX. 
rectly. How many of you can draw a plan of your own 
place properly, giving the relative size of the lots, the 
building, and all that is upon the farm? Now, let ns 
Fig. 3. —SINGING CRICKETS. 
have a little trial of this, and see how much we know 
about it, and I propose to have a little competition, into 
which girls as well as boys can enter. The steam-engine 
that I offered for a premium last winter was for boys 
only. The girls did not like that arrangement, and I do 
not blame them that they found fault at being shut out 
from competition. 
Now, wllat I propose is to offer premiums, which will 
be named below, for the best map or plan of the farm or 
place that the boy or girl lives upon. Not a picture, you 
understand, but a map. It must show the fields and 
other inclosures in their proper proportions, the posi¬ 
tions of house, barns, and other buildings, the roads and 
paths, and if there is a pond, brook, hill, or unusually 
big tree or rock, the places of these should be marked 
down. A piece of strong twine, with a white thread ! 
sewed through it for every foot, will answer for most of 
the measurements, and the relative sizes of the fields can 
be found by counting the fence sections. Of course 
proper reference should be had to the points of the com¬ 
pass. The scale upon which the map is made must be 
determined on, but about this your father or some older 
person will give you advice. It is well to draw the plan 
first in pencil, and after all the necessary corrections are 
made, carefully ink over the lines. 
I have spoken about a map of the farm, but this should 
not exclude those who live bn smaller places. Those 
who have only village lots, can make maps of those, only 
they should be more minute than those of larger placer, 
and show all the paths, flower-beds, principal trees, 
shrubs, and the like. What I wish, is to encourage a 
habit of accurate observation and the ability to represent 
things upon paper in their proper position. The neat- I 
ness in the drawing and apparent accuracy will bo con- J 
sidered in awarding the prize, and each boy or girl will 
sign the map or plan as an assurance that it is his or her 
own work. These must reach me by February 1st, 1872, 
and be directed “The Doctor,” 215 Broadway. The 
best plan will be published, if I see proper, but this I do 
not promise. 
For the best map or plan, Five Dollars .....$5.00 
For the 2d best, Hearth and Home one year, equal to $3.00 
For the third best, American Agriculturist for one 
year, equal to. .$1.50 
Ahout OavastnMsisi E®reseBaf«». 
December 25th will soon bo hero, and every boy and 
girl knows that to be the date of Christmas. And prob¬ 
ably almost all of them have their minds fixed upon 
Christmas presents. Some are thinking what they shall 
get, but we hope that more are considering what they 
will give. It is very easy for those who have a plenty of 
money to purchase gifts, but we think that those presents 
which are made by the giver's own hands are most ac¬ 
ceptable. It is not the thing given that is valued so much 
as the love and kindness that prompted the giving at all. 
While you are contriving some little gifts for your young 
friends, don’t forget the older ones. Parents, grandpa¬ 
rents, and good old uncles and aunts like to feel that they 
are remembered in these holiday times: no matter how 
small the gift, it shows that their happiness has been 
thought of. Girls at these times have a great advantage 
over boys, as there are so many pretty and useful 
things that they can make with the needle, or crochet, or 
knit, while boys, with every desire to make holiday gifts, 
are much puzzled what to do. In former volumes we 
: have given patterns for brackets and little picture-frames, 
which may be readily cut from thin wood, by the skillful 
use of the jackknife. A neat bracket or small frame for 
a photograph is an acceptable present for almost any 
one, especially to an older person. Boys that are handy 
with tools, can make small boxes of black walnut, red 
cedar, or any other pretty wood. Here (fig. 1) is a draw¬ 
ing of a money-box, which would be a clever present for 
a boy or girl. It is made of six pieces, all of the same 
size, and like that shown in figure 2. At a short distance 
from the end of each piece a groove is cut, as wide as the 
; thickness of the material, and half-way through the wood. 
I -This can be cut by the aid of a knife and a small chisel. 
The box, when put together, is like figure 1. There are 
no nails or other fastenings to hold the sides of the box 
in place—they bind one another. Should there be a diffi¬ 
culty in getting the last piece into its place, widen the 
grooves a trifle. It should go together with some difficulty. 
Figure 3 shows “ singing crickets,” a toy that is very 
amusing to small children. A central, upright stick has 
a piece at each end cut to form five points. Between the 
lower and upper points are stretched pieces of very fine 
wire, such as is known as “ binding wire.” The insects’ 
bodies are made of clay, mixed up with gum-water, rolled 
into a cylinder about an inch long; a small hole to receive 
the wire is made by means of a pin near one end, and a 
bit of feather is stuck in each side, to servo for wings. 
When these are dry they may be painted some gay colors 
and strung upon the wires, two or three upon each wire; 
a little section of a small quill is put upon the wire be¬ 
tween each two crickets, to keep them apart. When the 
stand is turned over, the things slide down the wire, but 
the hole through which the wire passes, being near one 
end of the body, they do not fall readily, but drop down 
with a series of jerks, which give them a curious 
Fig. 4.— THE CURIOUS BARREL. 
fluttering motion, and at tire same time the vibration 
of the wires makes a sort of musical sound. 
An ingenious friend of ours got up an amusing toy for 
a fair, which we figure here, as it may please some. The 
toy (fig. 4) appears like a barrel, which should have 
some marks upon it to attract attention. While aperssu 
Fig. 5. —WHAT WAS IN THE BARREL. 
is looking at it, it suddenly changes into a bear (fig. 5). 
How this is done will be seen by consulting the lines in 
fig. 5. One half of the barrel folds over upon the other- 
half and discloses the body of the bear. This is, of course, 
done by one in the secret, who pulls a thread that moves 
the parts. The head is upon a separate piece and hinged 
421. Geographical Puzzle—A celebrated Southern 
locality. 
upon the back of the toy, and turned down so as to be 
out of sight. It is raised in place by means of the same 
thread that moves the half of the barrel. To make this 
requires some skill in drawing, though for a small toy 
