224r 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[June, 
about all of her time, and lier daily and weekly 
round of work takes her full time and strength, so 
that she has as little inclination as opportunity to 
go roaming abroad for exercise. Last summer, for 
the second time in eight years, I had my cook-stove 
in a shanty, or rough 
“ lean-to ” shed, adjoin¬ 
ing the house. How can 
I ever again be contented 
to spend a summer with 
the family cook-stove iu 
a walled-up kitchen, being 
myself the family cook ? 
No house is worth the 
name of home which has 
nowhere about it a shady 
porch or airy shed where 
a housekeeper or a hired 
girl can sit down in cool 
comfort, to shell the peas, 
hull the strawberries, or 
peel the potatoes, where 
she can set her ironing 
table, and wash her dishes 
without foregoing fresh 
breezes, and near neigh¬ 
borhood to grass and 
vines. Thoreau, who had 
a contempt for such 
treasures as most mortals 
love to lay up here below, 
observed that when a man 
had compassed his desire 
EGG BEATERS. , . . . , ., 
and got him a house, it 
6eemed after" all to be the house that had got him. 
So it is with many women—their houses keep them 
quite as much as they keep the houses. 
Ants in tlio House. 
In some localities small, black ants are very 
troublesome, early in the summer. They get into 
every sweet and sweetened thing to which they can 
find access, and though they tumble into the syrup 
and commit suicide, in droves as it were, by droves 
are their lessening numbers reinforced. Do they 
smell out the sugar, and molasses, and preserves ? 
Give them something else to smell. Lay sage 
leaves or tansy leaves upon your pautry shelves, or 
in the cupboard, where the sweet things stand, and 
the fastidious invaders of your sugar-bowl will pre¬ 
fer to go elsewhere in search of food. Only the 
tightest fitting covers can keep them out. But I 
am told by one who says she has tried it, that a 
line drawn with chalk on the shelf around an open 
sugar-bowl proves an impassable barrier to the ants. 
A dish set into a saucer or plate of water, is pro¬ 
tected from ants. There is a little red ant found 
in some places, which meddles with all kinds of 
grease, as well as with sweets. 
A Boiler for Summer Use. 
During the warmest days of summer, when the 
heat of the kitchen-stove seems intolerable, a port¬ 
able boiler that may be 
used out of doors, will 
be found very conveni¬ 
ent. Such a boiler may¬ 
be made of heavy tin¬ 
plate, as shown in the 
accompanying engrav¬ 
ing. One of convenient 
size may be 10 to 14 
inches in diameter, and 
16 to 18 inches high. 
It should be mounted 
upon three stout legs, 
and have a tap soldered 
into it near the bot¬ 
tom. In the center is 
a Hue of tin-plate, lined 
inside with sheet-iron, 
and from 3 to 4 inch¬ 
es iu diameter, hav¬ 
ing a wire grating at the bottom, and reaching a 
few inches above the cover of the boiler, through 
the center of which it passes. There are handles 
upon the boiler, by which it can be lifted and rc- 
SU.UMEIl BOILER. 
moved from place to place, and handles also upon 
the cover. A shelf may be affixed to the legs, a 
few inches beneath the boiler, upon which an ash- 
pan may be placed. The boiler is heated by a small 
quantity of ignited charcoal in the bottom of the 
flue, and the small quantity of fuel required gives 
out very little heat, beyond what is needed to boil 
the water. A gallon or two of water may be 
brought to a boiling heat by this boiler in less than 
30 minutes. We have seen these boilers used in 
cities, where they will be found quite as convenient, 
as in country houses. They can be easily made by 
any tinsmith, and are not patented. 
Some Household Conveniences. 
BY L. D. SNOOK, YATES CO., N. Y. 
Egg-Beaters. —Various styles of egg-beaters are 
sold in the stores, and do their work satisfactorily, 
but probably half the 
house-keepers are with¬ 
out any beater at all, 
but beat the eggs with 
a common fork or table 
spoon. An affair similar 
to the beaters herewith 
illustrated, wiil be 
found greatly superior 
to the fork or spoon, 
and quite as useful as 
some of the patented 
kinds ; it can be made 
in a few minutes by al¬ 
most any one, and will 
Fig. 3.— cork-puller. be found W eU worth 
the little trouble required. That shown in fig¬ 
ure 1 is the simplest form; four moderately stiff 
wires, B, A, are inserted with holes made in handle 
A, the ends being curved over as shown in the en¬ 
graving. The total length of each wire is 9 inches, 
and the length of the bow or curve, 2 inches, if at 
the curve the two iuside wires be beut so as to 
stand one-quarter of an iuch above the outside 
ones, it will be more effective. The one in figure 2 
is so plainly shown that a description is not needed. 
Wire Cork-Puller.—W hen a cork has iu any 
Fig. 4.— KNIFE-CLEANER. 
manner found its way to the iuside of a bottle, it 
should be removed before the bottle is used again. 
It may be easily extracted by means of a cork- 
puller like that shown in figure 3. It is made by 
attaching a piece of steel wire, 1 foot long, to a 
bit of wood 3'/'2 inches long and 3 / 4 of an inch in di¬ 
ameter. To use it, force the bow part into the bot¬ 
tle and reverse the bottle so that the cork will be 
caught by the bow, when it may be readily pulled 
out. A bit of hoop skirt wire will answer in place 
of round wire. 
Knife-Cleaner. —Iu the American Agriculturist 
for August, 1875, I gave a very neat and useful 
knife cleaner, but as it was somewhat complicated, 
offer the one shown in figure 4, as being cheap and 
simple. The bottom board E, is y 2 inch thick, 11 
inches long, and 6 inches wide; the side strips A, 
l‘/ 4 inches v-ide and 3 /s of an inch thick. Near the 
center of the board is attached, by screws from the 
bottom, a wedged shaped piece of bai-d wood, B, 
l a / 4 inches wide, 6 inches long, V 2 inch thick at its 
smallest, and 2 inches thick at its largest end. The 
scouring brick, rag, and other materials, are kept 
in the box. When a knife or fork is to be scoured, 
the blade is laid fiat and lengthwise upon the in¬ 
clined plane B, when the scouring material is ap¬ 
plied by means of a rag or brush. [A large cork is 
better than either.— Ed.] The knife is easily kept 
in position, and the scouring material can be ap¬ 
plied with the necessary pressure without the 
danger of breaking or bending, as by the common 
method of resting one end only upon the table or 
board. Instead of fastening the part B permanently 
with screws, it may be hinged as at P, P, and after 
the knives are scoured and wiped, the piece may 
he folded upon its side aud the knives polished by 
passing them over a strip of leather attached to the 
side, but not shown in the engraving. 
Are Women Enemies of Agriculture ? 
Many will be startled by the above question, and 
will utter an indignant “No !” Still we must in¬ 
sist that many of these women are the farmer’s 
enemies, but qualify the assertion by admitting 
that they are only indirectly, and for the most part, 
unwittingly so. Within a few years the fashion has 
become common, and we are sorry to say is increas¬ 
ing, of using small stuffed birds, or the head and 
breast only, or the wings or tail, to decorate bon¬ 
nets and hats ; a bird's wing being a very common 
ornament for the hats of young girls. This use is 
not confined to the plumage of the brilliant and 
highly colored birds, but almost every land of wing 
and feather is brought into the service. For every 
decoration of this kind, there is one bird the less. 
If the plumage of hawks and such birds only was 
used, it would not matter so much, but our useful 
insect-eating birds, including those social birds 
which prefer to build near our dwellings, are indis¬ 
criminately slaughtered, and everything that can 
fly, from a humming-bird upwards, finds a ready 
sale to meet the demands of this fashion. So we 
say that those women who wear the plumage of 
our useful birds for ornaments, are, unintentionally 
it is true, enemies to agriculture. Every bird thus 
sacrificed, means so many more insects, and more 
insects mean less grain and other field crops, less 
fruit in the orchard, and fewer vegetables in the 
garden. To such an extent has this slaughter 
reached in England, that the papers are discussing 
it, and amendments to the bird laws are proposed. 
I 11 this country the evil is also a serious one, and 
the number of birds is being rapidly diminished. 
Women can put a stop to this indiscriminate “mur¬ 
der of the innocents ” if they will, and they only 
need to have their attention called to it to do it. 
Let every one refuse to wear these feather orna¬ 
ments. Aside from the economical view—and it 
has a direct bearing upon agriculture and horticul¬ 
ture—we are sure that no one of proper feelings 
would wish to adorn her person at the cost of the 
life of a happy creature which, ivhen alive, was 
most likely useful, and at any rate added to the 
beauty of the world. You who read this, would, 
you destroy the life of a bright and beautiful sing¬ 
ing bird ? If you wear the spoils it is proof that 
some one has done it for you ! The case needs 
only to he stated for all sensible women to forego 
such ornaments and let the birds live. 
A Foot Scraper for the Door-step. 
The careful housewife lias a sharp eye for muddy 
feet, and her attempts to enforce habits of cleanli¬ 
ness upon the boys, not to mention older folks who 
wear boots, often lead to forcible remonstrances. 
How can one keep his boots free from mud while 
he is working about a farm ? The dust brought in 
upon the feet makes work for the women folk, who 
have plenty to do without this extra task, and men 
are apt to be forgetful about these little household 
matters. As a good reminder then, let every door¬ 
step he provided with a foot scraper and a hoot 
cleaner. A very useful one may be made of a 
piece of plank a foot wide, and eighteen inches 
