364r 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
[July, 
arrangement. Some men suppose that only women 
are so silly as this, but I know of men as well as 
women who in almost all of their work, plan the 
ruffle to the shirt before they know where the shirt 
itself is coming from. 
The exterior of the house I would build has 
never presented itself very clearly to my mind, but 
by observing the mistakes and the successes of 
other house-builders, I have come to consider my¬ 
now TO SLING A HAMMOCK. 
self competent to make a few suggestions to young 
house-builders. In the first place I wish I could 
convince of their mistake some of those who are 
paying out their earnings for house rent, year after 
year, in the belief that they cannot afford to build 
or buy a house. Their notions arc too high. By 
saving carefully with a purpose to obtain a home 
of their own, they could soon get money enough to 
begin to pay for it. By beginning small, if they 
build, and by attending first to the essentials of 
comfort and convenience, leaving ornament to the 
last, they could gradually secure a good home. 
Tile Baby’s Journey. 
He is full of eagerness to start—to have on his 
cap and cloak, and get ‘‘ out doors ” anywhere, but 
a journey is not altogether happyfying to the little 
one. Every one knows the misery of a crying 
child in a railroad car. We all know, too, how 
wearing to the nervous system is a long journey 
sometimes, and one which is not long to us maybe 
very wearisome to a baby. So we ought to plan 
from the outset to make the journey as easy and 
comfortable as possible for the child. Its clothing 
should he arranged with regard to this. A hat or 
cap which is easily knocked over the eyes, is less 
comfortable than a soft little bonnet. A soft cap 
can be securely tied on, but a hat with a brim will 
pretty surely prove a source of annoyance. If the 
little one’s eyes are weak, some protection from a 
glare of light should be given, by the cap visor or 
a veil or sun-bonnet. It is not safe to disregard a 
child’s complaints or signs of uneasiness on ac¬ 
count of its eyes. 
If the baby is to enjoy its journey, it must be 
dressed in accordance with the weather. It seems 
unnecessary to say this, but I remember seeing two 
little girls, under seven years of age, come into a 
city library with their mother, on a bitter cold day, 
the week before Christmas two years ago, wearing 
fur caps and short fur sacks, and silk dresses, and 
with no clothing below the knees except thin cot¬ 
ton stockings and kid shoes. Such thoughtless 
exposure is growing less common as knowledge 
increases. It is not often that children are dressed 
too warm, but this is sometimes the case, and the 
evil is quite as great as when too little clothing is 
used. In hot summer weather, babies should be 
burdened with as little clothing as possible, and 
that little should be loose and easy. 
The baby, when traveling, will tire out very soon 
if some one is constantly trying to amuse it by 
calling its attention to various objects. Very sim¬ 
ple things interest babies, and it is better that they 
should be only tranquil and contented than to be 
mentally exercised with any stronger emotions. It 
is tiresome to almost any one to look from a car 
window long, however beautiful the landscape. 
The rapid changes aud the great number of inter¬ 
esting objects, weary one. One thing that makes 
babies cross when traveling is, the indiscriminate 
cramming to which their stomachs are subjected. 
If a baby is tired—simply tired aud nothing more— 
it must have something to eat. It must eat if it is 
sleepy, or cold, or too warm, or if it already has a 
stomach-ache from too much eating. The plain 
crust of bread that might per¬ 
haps be its portion at home, 
would never do on a journey, 
of course, so cookies are prob¬ 
ably offered to appease its 
supposed hunger, and if these 
will not do, very likely there 
are candies in reserve. If ever 
a baby needs plain food, it is 
when on a journey. At some 
hotel tables, it seems impossi¬ 
ble to give a young child a 
decent meal, for sometimes 
one cannot even find plainly 
cooked good potatoes or 
sweet, light bread. With either 
of these and good milk, any 
baby ought to make a com¬ 
fortable meal, but meat is too 
difficult of mastication and too 
strong food for babies, except 
in very small quantities ; and 
cake and pastry do more harm than good. Ripe fruit 
properly given, does not hurt quite young babies. 
It should not be very sour, and should he given 
without sugar and with coarse seeds and skin re¬ 
moved, and should be sufficiently soft (of course 
it should he ripe), to allow of an easy separation of 
its particles in the mouth. Too large a proportion 
of fine crackers will produce constipation, and 
cakes, candies, aud sugar have the same tendency, 
and all tend to make the child uneasy and cross. 
When the journey is sufficiently short—in time 
rather than in distance—it is best to take at least a 
part of the baby’s luncheon from home. Plain 
light biscuits, or graham crackers, mixed with 
milk, are very good for this purpose. Nothing 
sticky or greasy should he given the baby, or any 
small child, to eat in its hand when traveling. The 
condensed milk made in American factories, is 
recommended by those who understand the sub¬ 
ject, as safer for a young babe who must have reg¬ 
ular rations of milk, than such specimens of milk 
as one might chance to buy iu various places. 
It is an excellent plan to take along some of the 
baby’s familiar playthings. Both mother and child 
find it wearisome enough to wait in strange rooms 
where there is nothing that the baby may take to 
play with. At the houses of friends the case is 
scarcely better, for an active child will surely get 
into mischief if it finds nothing upon which it may 
legitimately employ its powers. Before brackets 
became so fashionable, 
it was. often a very try¬ 
ing ordeal for a mother 
to spend an afternoon 
with her babe iu a child¬ 
less friend’s parlor, so 
many small ornaments 
were lying about within 
a child’s reach. It is 
sometimes very annoy¬ 
ing to a mother, and 
fretting to a child to 
have nothing at all 
within reach which the 
baby may take to play with. Every hospitable 
matron ought to keep something on hand 
to meet such emergencies—a strong doll, or a 
clean little cart, a box of building blocks, or a 
set of cheap dishes. But every mother who takes 
a journey with her baby, would do well to go equip¬ 
ped with a few small playthings. If she values her 
own peace as well as that of her child, and if she 
would not make her visits to her friends inflictions 
grievous to be borne, she must preserve the baby’s 
regular healthy habits, giving it comfortable cloth¬ 
ing, plain nourishing food, plenty of wholesome 
sleep, and very little excitement of any kind. 
I.—REEL. 
One Wiiy to Mend tile Boiler. 
Sometimes it happens that a boiler begins to leak 
when filled with clothes and suds. This is very in¬ 
convenient, especially if the leak is of sufficient 
magnitude to affect the fire and keep it low. Such 
leaks are usually in the seams of the boiler, along 
the joint between the 
bottom and side. To 
remedy it, hold the wet 
clothes aw'ay from that 
side of the boiler with 
your clothes stick, 
while you sift from 
your hand a spoonful 
or more of fine corn- 
meal. ' This will settle 
to the bottom of the 
boiler and he carried 
into the crack where it 
will swell in sucli a way 
as to stop the leak. It 
does no injury to the 
clothes, as it ail rinses 
away easily. Such 
mending as this may 
keep the boiler from 
leaking again for two or 
three weeks if the meal 
is not too carefully 
wiped away from the 
2. -HEEL AND BIRD-HOUSE. crack {n clea ning the 
boiler. When a hole is found in the bottom of the 
boiler, and it is not convenient to have it properly 
mended, it can be temporarily prepared for use by 
pulling a small rag into the hole by one corner, to fill 
up the opening. With water in the boiler, the fire 
does not bum away the rag so as to allow the water 
to escape. Leaks iu the scams of vessels are not ea¬ 
sily mended without a soldering iron; bnt in the 
absence of that useful tool a piece of tongs or 
poker, or other small rod of wrought iron, long 
enough to be made red hot, can be used in connec¬ 
tion with soldering fluid described here a few 
months ago. The work done by such a rude tool 
will not be of the most finished description, but it 
will answer the purpose of simply stopping the 
leak, as we have lately proved. 
■ — ■ irHii 'j > 'firm*™ 
Some Household Conveniences. 
BY L. D. SNOOK, YATES CO., N. Y. 
A Self-Winding Clothes Line.—A clothes 
line well cared for will last very much longer than 
one exposed to the weather, and though it is hut 
very little trouble to take in a line, it is often left 
Fig. 3.— COAT-HANGER. 
out from one week to another to the great annoy¬ 
ance of those who have to pass across the place it 
occupies. It is not difficult to contrive an affair 
which shall he self-acting, and will wind up the line 
as soon as it is loosened. Figure 1 shows a large 
wooden spool with an axle or journals ; the spool 
B is about six inches, and the journals about one 
inch in diameter, the journal A being four inches 
long, while the other is but one inch in length. 
The ends of these rest in holes in supports which 
are not here shewn. A small strong cord is fast¬ 
ened to and wound around the journal A, and 
there is attached to the cord a weight T, of about 
