1864 .] 
AMF.R TO AN AGRICULTURIST. 
at a time. Iii Spring, as soon as the soil is in 
good woi'king'condition, the grafted plants are 
set out in nursery rows. The usual method of 
planting is to open a trench and set them at 
about 18 inches apart, and cover so that the 
junction will be entirely below the surface. By 
making the cuts clean, with a sharp knife, 
joining so that the inner bark of stock and cion 
will be in contact, and binding carefully with 
waxed cloth, there is little danger of many 
failures. Root-grafting is largely practised in 
nurseries, though there are some who consider 
that trees produced in this way are never as 
vigorous and shapely as those obtained by bud¬ 
ding, or by grafting stocks which have been long 
enough planted to become well established. One 
great advantage of root-grafting is, that it can 
be done in-doors, and at a season when outside 
work cannot be prosecuted. Trees started in 
this way, will in favorable situations make as 
good a growth as from buds. The term root- 
grafting is sometimes applied to grafting on bits 
of roots, a method not to be recommended. 
tme rougBromp. 
Get a Home and Keep it. 
A leading object with every young man should be 
to secure for himself apermanent home. And for 
its greater stability, it should consist partly in land, 
and up to a certain limit, the more of it the better, 
if paid for. The house should be as comfortable and 
attractive as one has the means of making it. It 
Ihould be one that the heart can grow to, and will 
cling around more and more firmly with every pas¬ 
sing year. Its owner should desire and purpose to 
keep possession of it as long as he lives, and his 
children should grow up feeling that there is one 
place fixed and stable for them, amid all changes. 
Americans are altogether too roving in their hab¬ 
its. We build houses cheaply, and pull them down 
without regret. Or we sell out and move away a 
half-dozen times in a life time, in the vain hope of 
bettering our condition. How much better to 
choose a homestead early iu life, and then lay plans 
with reference to abiding there. Even though our 
gains be less than are promised elsewhere, a'certain- 
ty should seldom be given up for an uncertainty. 
“A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.” 
Only those who have experienced it, know how 
firmly a family become attached to their long-loved 
homestead. No children love home so well as 
those who have known only one. As the young 
become of marriageable age, they should go out, 
one by one, from the old homestead, feeling it to be 
the model after which their own should be establish¬ 
ed, and knowing that this will remain unchanged 
as long as the parents live, a place to which they 
can return, and where they will be ever welcome. 
A pleasing writer confirms our doctrine thus: 
“There is a great gain in being settled down. It is 
two-fold. Each year accumulates about the farmer 
the material by which labor is lessened. The 
rough channels of labor become worn and smooth. 
A change involves a great loss, and rarely is there 
a corresponding gain. Time is lost, labor expended, 
money paid out, the wear and tear of removal is no 
6mall item; and above all, the breaking up of old 
associations is often disastrous in the extreme. Pa¬ 
rents and children become unsettled iu their habits, 
if not in their morals.Let the man who 
has a homestead keep it; let him that has none, 
get one and labor to render it a treasured remem¬ 
brance to the absent, and a constant joy to those 
who abide in it.” To all which every intelligent, 
thoughtful person must give a hearty approval. 
Improvement on tiie Lung Protector. — 
A correspondent in Charlton, N. Y., highly com¬ 
mends the use of the lung-protector described in 
tfie American, Agriculturist , Vol. XXII, page 80S?, 
ATTACHMENT FOR FILLING A LAMP. 
trated in the larger figure of the above engraving. 
Nearly or quite all kerosene lamps in market 
have the screw threads of uniform size, so that 
the above attachment, which is made accordingly, 
can be placed on lamps now in use. The filling, 
as will be readily seen in the engraving, is done by 
simply opening the attachment and pouring in the 
oil, without removing the chimney. It is a neat 
(October, ’63.) He prefers the article to be of oiled 
silk on the outside, the inside of dress silk, with a 
thin padding of cotton between. A serious ob¬ 
jection to this is, that it prevents the escape of the 
exhalations from the skin, while the chamois leather 
or sheep skin allows the prespiration to pass freely 
through and yet acts as a non-conductor of heat. 
One correspondent however suggests what may be 
an improvement: viz., that instead of four strings, 
only two be used—each one fastened to atop corner 
and to the opposite bottom corner, crossing at 
the back like suspenders. Arranged in this manner 
knots are avoided, and the protector can be slipped 
on and off over the head, without tying or untying. 
Improved Cap for Coal-Oil Lamps. 
Every one who has used a coal-oil or kerosene 
lamp (and few fiimilies in this country have not,) 
knows the inconvenience of removing the chimney 
and burner, in order to replenish the oil. Without 
much care there is danger of spilling the oil while 
holding the burner with one hand, of soiling the 
hands and the table if the wick be lifted from the 
lamp, and also of pouring in too much and causing 
an overflow of the not very sweet-scented com¬ 
pound. The device represented below is intended 
to remedy these difficulties. The attachment, a, 
consists of two brass collars joined by a hinge. 
The upper collar has a convex surface fitting snug, 
ly to a concavity in the lower one, and the joiut 
is made still more close by a rim which closes over 
the bottom collar. A small spring projection holds 
the two together when closed. The apparatus is 
easily attached to any lamp by the screws, the up¬ 
per one to receive the burner, the lower one to 
enter the collar on the lamp, as plainly illus- 
21 
and cheap contrivance, aud well adapted for the 
purpose intended. Dealers or others interested will 
find further information concerning this invention 
in the appropriate place in our advertising columns, 
— -——»<&*» 
We have no time to study the vagaries of fashion, 
and scarcely know when a new style of coat, hat, 
dress, or bonnet “ comes out,” unless it be some¬ 
thing so outre , so unseemly, as to command atten¬ 
tion by its oddity or incongruity. We pity those 
who have no higher aims or ambition than to be 
up with the latest style of wearing a watch fob or 
a bonnet string. Being somewhat of a railroad 
traveller, daily, w r e have been compelled to note the 
inconvenient crinoline expansion, which has more 
than kept pace with the “ currency,” and we see 
with pleasure that the steel clad armor is contract¬ 
ing to something like convenient and tasteful pro¬ 
portions. This improvement is in danger of being 
counterbalanced by the lengthening of dress skirts. 
This we are also obliged to take notice of, when 
hurrying along the street, and compelled by the 
trailing folds to keep at proper distance from a 
bevy of fashionable ladies half a dozen yards ahead. 
We therefore take the more pleasure in speaking 
of a new and convenient little apparatus brought 
out by Madame Demorcst, which she calls an Im¬ 
proved Dress Elevator.” In brief, it is a belt worn 
under the dress, with cords and hooks so arranged 
that by drawing two cords, a lady can elevate or 
lower the folds of the dress as she walks along. 
The neat'and tasteful appearance of the dress, 
when so raised, is shown in the above engraving. 
Each breadth of the dress is raised at the same 
time. It is easily applied, the same one answering 
for any number of dresses, and being retailed at 
the low price of 50 cents, it is worthy of introduc¬ 
tion.—-If generally adopted, it will require an in¬ 
crease in City Inspector Boole’s street sweeping 
force, as he will not have the ladies’ aid thereafter. 
Notes on Dress, for Winter of 1863-4. 
Prepared specially for the American Agriculturist, 
BY MME. DEMOREST. 
The styles for this season are more striking and 
picturesque, than for several years past, and in 
many respects commendably sensible In place of 
wearing paper-soled shoes and thin cotton stock 
ings, the most fashionable ladies now walk Broad¬ 
way with boots heeled and toed like those of a sol¬ 
dier, and their limbs protected by Balmoral hose. 
The Balmoral skirts are yet in vogue, and these, 
with the use of the new “ elevator” for the dress, 
provide a promenade costume for all weathers, 
which has already done away much of the perni¬ 
cious repugnance to out-door exercise. To shorten 
the skirt for in-door wear would be a violation ot 
artistic taste. We notice with pleasure that trim- 
