434 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[November, 
the pie dish, as the custard bakes, and forms a good 
crust. It may appear to be soaked, as custard pic 
crust often is, but it is not in the least “ clammy.” 
It dissolves easily in the mouth, and is entirely di¬ 
gestible. A pleasant cream pie is made from the 
same recipe, leaving out the eggs, and usiug 
creamy milk or thin cream. 
Sweet Milk Gems.— To my taste there is no 
more delicious graham bread than gems mixed 
with sweet unskimmed milk, without salt or bak¬ 
ing powder. Like water gems, they require a hot 
oven, though this is not quite so essential for any 
form of bread mixed with milk. As there is no so¬ 
da, or yeast, or baking powder to make them 
light, all depends upon the thorough stirring to¬ 
gether of the flour and water, and a quick, steady 
baking. Skimmed milk is little better than water. 
One Way to Remove Grease-Spots. 
I saw a lady dressed in a beautiful blue silk, with 
a fresh spot of grease made upon the skirt by her 
little child. “I can take it out with soft bread 
crumbs,” said she. Then she told how successfully 
she had removed worse spots, made by butter, on 
the same dress. She rolled or softly rubbed freshly 
cut (but not new) bread over the place, one fresh 
piece after another, each one soaking up a part of 
the oil, until the place was left clean, she said. 
A lady who was present when this was told, said 
that she now understood better the philosophy of 
a direction given her for extracting a very bad 
grease spot from a carpet. She was told to make a 
kettle of common mush, and put a thick plaster of 
it over the grease-spot, and a second one after the 
first had dried and was removed. She was told 
then to wash it with clean suds, and was assured 
that the grease would be extracted. She did not 
try this recipe, but you can- if you like. Or you 
can provide yourself with a much praised 
Cleansing Fluid. — Dissolve four ounces of 
white castile soap in one quart of soft water. When 
luke-warm, add four ounces of water of ammonia, 
and one ouuce each of ether and glycerine. Bottle 
the mixture without delay, adding more water if it 
grows hard with keeping, or on account of cold. 
The ammonia, ether, and glycerine can be meas¬ 
ured and mixed by the druggist. 
Some Features of Comfortable H lines. 
It seems impossible to secure that great desidera¬ 
tum—a “ cozy little house with a good many large 
rooms.” So take your choice. If you can not 
build a large house, choose between rooms large 
and few, or many and small. Either extreme is 
uncomfortable at times, but there is a middle course. 
One would like at least one room large enough to 
look hospitable toward a piano, and comfortable 
for large family gatherings or sociables, allowing a 
chance for different conversational groups, and for 
childrens’ games. Folding doors between sitting- 
room and dining-room, or between any two rooms 
of nearly equal grade, make it possible to turn two 
small rooms into one large apartment when desired. 
Large sleeping rooms suggest better ventilation 
than small ones, but if the large room must be used 
for several beds, it had better be partitioned off if 
possible, so as to secure needed privacy to individu¬ 
als. Emerson says somewhere, that often the chief 
advantage of college life lies in the separate fire and 
light which it affords the boy who could never 
have these at home. The needs of a growing family 
should be considered in building a house—pleasant 
private rooms for the children as soon as they 
are old enough to appreciate and profit by them. 
Generally, sleeping rooms should face the east, 
rather than the w’est. The morning sun then looks 
in to sweeten the bedding and purify the room, and 
eastern rooms are 
more comfortable 
on summer even¬ 
ings. It is a great 
convenience to 
have access from 
the sleeping room 
to eastern piazzas 
or balconies, where 
bed-clothes may be 
easily aired and 
sunned. A little 
forethought in the 
arrangement of 
chambers, may se¬ 
cure good ventila¬ 
tion through all of 
the rooms from all 
points of the com¬ 
pass, by placing 
doors and windows 
with reference to 
this. Rooms not in 
constant use, and 
left open during the day, may thus get the benefit of 
changing winds. Small windows through closets 
into adjoining rooms, will aid in this matter, greatly 
to the advantage of the closets. Every sleeping room 
should have its own closet, provided with some 
means of ventilation. In planning a sleeping room, 
always look out for a good place to set a bed, with¬ 
out interfering with doors or windows. See that 
there is a chance for ventilation without a draught 
of air across the bed, or upon its head. Study how 
the different doors may open, so as best to econo¬ 
mize space. Sometimes two or three doors open 
into each other in a most uncomfortable manner. 
For a summer afternoon comfort, a piazza or 
generous porch—even a board platform without a 
roof—is much to be desired upon the east side of 
the house, without reference to the way in which 
the house fronts. In winter, south windows are 
delightful, admitting full floods of sunshine. Bay- 
windows, French windows, triple windows, double 
windows—whatever you like—but do not forget the 
main idea of a window. You wish to admit light 
and to give a good outlook. So let the frame-work 
be subservient to the clear glass, so that your pic¬ 
ture, as you look from the window, may have as 
little obstruction as possible, even in winter, wdien 
sealed against outside cold. In summer, it ought 
to be capable of opening wide, with a window¬ 
awning, perhaps, if no shade-tree protects it suf¬ 
ficiently from the sun’s fierce rays ; but in cold 
weather you need all the sunshine it can admit. 
A fire-place is another necessity for the sitting- 
room, where wood is plenty. A pantry should 
have a cool corner to itself, looking to the north, if 
possible, or to the east. Beauty of exterior is cer¬ 
tainly of great importance, but I do not believe it 
lies in this or that style of architecture or trimming, 
so much as in fitness to its surroundings, and in 
honest expression of the desire for a comfortable 
home, expressed with good taste and with modest 
deference to the taste of the most cultivated people. 
Baby Jumpers anil Crooked Legs. 
A woman who has used a baby jumper, such as I 
described a few months ago, asks me if I suppose 
it was the cause of her childrens’ bandy legs. Two 
who have used it most, she says, have become more 
or less misshapen in their limbs. If they had not 
both been veiy fat babies, and so early walkers, I 
should mistrust the jumper more than I now do. I 
think there is always danger of deforming the legs 
of children when they are encouraged to stand and 
walk very young, and this danger is increased if a 
child is quite fleshy. Lately a woman wrote me 
that her baby had crooked legs, owing to his hav¬ 
ing learned to walk so young, so that they were 
obliged to get braces for his legs. In this case no 
jumper had been used, and so it has been in all 
other cases I have known except the one mentioned. 
Speaking of jumpers, a lady in Ohio writes me 
about hers. She uses no spring pole, but has a 
hook “ such as lamps are suspended by,” she says. 
' This is fastened into the ceiling, and a common bed 
spring attached. The rest of the jumper is made 
after the description given in these “ Topics ” not 
long ago. It seems to be a great success, and here 
is one chance to observe the effect upon baby’s 
limbs ; for my correspondent writes that her baby 
is so fond of his jumper that he eats in it, goes to 
sleep in it, and has even remained happily in it 
three hours at a time. 
A Clothes Dryer for a Mantle Shelf. 
BY L. D. SNOOK, YATES CO., N. Y. 
In most houses the stove has taken the place of 
the open fire, and though the fire-place may be per¬ 
manently or temporarily closed up, the mantle 
shelf originally built with it, is found quite too 
convenient to be abolished with the fire-place. In¬ 
deed, so desirable is a shelf of this kind, that recent 
houses built with reference to the use of stoves 
only, are almost al¬ 
ways furnished with 
mantle shelves to the 
chimneys, though 
there are no fire¬ 
places below. This 
shelf, besides being 
useful to hold lamps 
and other things, may 
be converted into a 
convenient clothes- 
dryer. The great 
number of portable 
clothes dryers that Fig. 2.—bracket. 
have been patented, 
shows that there is a demand for such things. 
However objectionable it may be to dry clothes in 
the house, there will be occasions when it is 
necessary to do it, and the simple arrangement here 
given will answer quite as well as a more expensive 
patented one. The dryer in use is shown in fig¬ 
ure 1; B, B, are two strips of wood, two or three 
feet long, as may be desired, and 14 x 1 inch at one 
end, and tapering to 1 x 4-inch at the other. At 4 
inches from the shelf, and every 4 inches towards 
the smaller ends, small holes are bored, through 
which to pass the lines, P, P. The manner of attach¬ 
ing the arms to the shelf, is shown in figure 2, 
which represents one of the brackets into which 
two small iron hooks, II, II, are driven in such a 
manner that when the arm, B, is inserted, it will fit 
snugly against the hooks, and also against the un¬ 
der side of the shelf. In case the shelf has no 
brackets, the arms may be supported by means of 
iron staples, made of the proper shape and size to fit 
the arm,and driven into thelowmr side of the mantle. 
When not in use, the arms can be removed, and 
the affair rolled up to occupy a very little space. 
How Candles are Made. 
It seems probable that we shall have to go 
through a period when every economy must be prac¬ 
ticed. Money is not and will not be so plentiful as 
it has been when it was made of paper, and printing 
presses were used to “ coin ” it. Many of the little 
economies which were formerly common in farm 
houses, will come in fashion again, and the use 
of home-made candles in place of “ store ” candles 
will return. Some young housekeepers never knew 
how candles were made, and would like to learn, 
while some of the older ones, who have forgotten, 
wish to be reminded. If clear tallow is used, the 
candles will crack and break. This is because it is 
too hard, a quality depending much upon the man¬ 
ner in which the animal has been fed. Dry food. 
Fig. 1.— clothes dryer on mantle shelf. 
