350 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
fNOVBMBER, 
by stringing several on elastic cords. When new 
nuts are made use of, the work is apt to crack in a 
dry atmosphere, hence old ones are preferable. 
It will be pleasant work for winter evenings to or¬ 
nament tlie parlor with specimens M this work. 
--- 
Wooden Shoes, Clogs, etc. 
Wooden shoes have never been an American 
“institution;” and to the mind of an American 
they suggest o^ily the elumsy economy*and barbar¬ 
ism of the uncultured peasantry who live and labor, 
without the wish or abiiity to rise, in the full glare 
of European civilization. In fact it would seem to 
many quite as reasonable to suggest to an Indian 
to change his moccasins for “ clogs,” such as we 
give a picture of, as to commend their use or m.auu- 
faeture to the readers of the Agriculturist. We have 
long been awake to certain advantages which they 
possess over shoes of any other material, and have 
recently ascertained that a large business is done in 
them in this city. W^e have seen with no little 
satisfaction that a good many young girls and 
women, who have to live and go about in the damp 
alleys and cellars of this city, and whose feet other¬ 
wise would surelj' be wet and cold in winter, wear 
these shoes, and so have warm, dry feet at all times. 
This then is one of the advantages of wooden shoes; 
another is, they are very cheap, and another, they 
wear a great while. Offset against these merits, 
that they are not handsome, and make a noise when 
the wearer goes upon a hard walk, or floor. These 
demerits weigh very little against their use, by both 
men and women about the house, grounds and out- 
buiidings. For men they are most excellent to 
wear while working in the stables, or for going 
about in wet and thawing w'eather. For women, 
nothing that they can wear wilt so effectually pro¬ 
tect their feet against the cold and dampness of 
wet floors or cellars, or cold or wet feet under any 
circumstances. The German felt shoes, or those 
which the Germans make out of carpeting, or of 
rag-carpet materials, are very good to keep the feet 
warm in dry places, but wet through very easily, 
and are then useless until dried. 
We do not thus commend wooden shoes, in 
order to favor any manufacturer, for we know 
of no place where they can be bought at wholesale 
on this side of the Atlantic. We think, however, 
that the manuflicture of the article might be 
conducted with great profit, for among the Ger¬ 
mans and French at least, of our naturalized citizens, 
there would be a ready market from the regard they 
had for them at home, and their comfortable recol¬ 
lections of warm feet there, and eold ones here, very 
likely. No shoe of leather, unless it be fur-lined, 
can be made so warm. And it seems to us that 
sensible Americans would soon adopt them for the 
reasons above enumerated. The shoes may be made 
of white pine, white-wood, bass-wood, or probably 
any liglit strong wood. Even the largest sizes of 
the pattern we sketch, weigh only a pound each. 
About Keeping Warm. 
Warm Clothing .—Wearing fabrics are warm in 
proportion as they are loose in texture, yet close 
enongli, and of fine, elastic m.aterials. Silk, firm, 
close, non-elastic, as usually woven, is almost im¬ 
pervious to air, as may be tested by trying to blow 
through it, and silk garments have little warmth. 
Flannels are elastic and loose, and thej' are warm; 
if made of fine wool, they are very warm; they 
offer little resistance to the breath. The hands 
will freeze in kid gloves in winter, yet one, by 
blowing into them, can hardly force any air through, 
while woolen mittens, or buckskin gloves however 
tightly sewed, may be blown through very easily. 
This is very simple, yet it seems surprising to most 
people that clothing which will let the cold air 
through so easily, will afford the best protection 
against the cold. The reason of this is, that the 
fine loose fabrics enclose .air within them, and this 
air being more or less entangled by the fine shreds 
and particles of the fabric, becomes as it were, part 
of the clothing, and thus the body is wrapped in a 
covering of air, which is one of the best non-con¬ 
ductors of heat (or, popularly, of cold) known. 
Underclothing may be of such loosely woven stuff 
as to be quite unfit for external wear, both by rea¬ 
son of its fr.ailty, and becausethe wind would blow 
through it too easily, and the rain would dash 
through ; but being protected by closer and firmer 
outside garments, it is all the better on account of 
its light, loose character, to confine the natural 
heat and keep the body warm. 
Warm Houses .—The same principles which apply 
to clothing are equally applicable to building ma¬ 
terials. Who would ever think of being comforta¬ 
ble in an iron house, if it could not be furred and 
filled-in so as to make a warm house inside of the 
cold one. Tet, iron will much more effectually 
exclude the outer air than wood or brick, or any 
thing made with mortar. All these are quite po¬ 
rous substances, .and it is this veiy porosity, more 
perhaps than any thing else, that makes the walls 
poor conductors of heat. In the article on Ice 
Houses, we describe the warmest cheap walls that 
we can build, for, to keep ice from melting, we must 
shut the heat out, and this takes just as warm a 
wall, so to speak, as to keep the heat in. Warm 
houses have'a close external wall for defense against 
the weather, to turn both rain and wind, but with¬ 
in some arrangement for virtually keeping a coat¬ 
ing of air close to the wall on the inside. This, as 
we all know, is done by furriug-out, and filling in 
with bricks loosely laid in mortar, or with a grout¬ 
ing of a mud mortar and stones, which answers 
equally well, and latliing and pl.asteiing for a finish. 
It requires much besides good w.alls to make a 
warm house, and the discussion of this and of 
some of the other arts of keeping warm must be 
deferred to another month. 
How to Make First Yeast. 
In answer to an inquiry in a previous number of 
the Agriculturist, “How to make 3 ’east without 
h.aving any to commence with,” “ Young Badger,” 
Appleton, Wis., sends the following directions: 
“In an earthen vessel, as a bowl or pitcher, holding 
1 quart, put 1 pint of milkwarm water, 1 even tea¬ 
spoonful of salt, and stir in flour enough to make 
it as thick as ordinary pancake b.atter. Place the 
dish in a kettle of milkwarm water, and keep it .at 
as even temperature .as possible from 4 to 6 hours. 
After it rises, take 4 quarts of milkwarm water, 
mix with it as much flour, with the prepared yeast, 
as can be stirred h.andily with a spoon, let it stand 
an hour at the same heat as the yeast, then add flour 
and knead into loaves. Let it stand in a warm 
place until it rises, from to 1 hour, then bake.” 
Aiiotltcr Kecipe.—Contributed by J. S. 
Smith, Port Hope, Canada: On Monday morning 
boil 2 ounces of fresh hops, in 4 quarts of w.ater, 
for 3 ^ an hour. Strain it—throw aw.ay the hops, 
and let the liquor cool down to the warmth or tem¬ 
perature of new milk. Put in a tabblespoonful of 
salt .aud % a pound of brown sugar. Take 1 pound 
of best flour, and be.at it up in a bowl, with enough 
of the liquor to make a soft p.aste or batter, then 
pour the batter and the rest of the liquor together 
into a large earthen vessel, and stir them well to¬ 
gether. Let it stand in a moderately warm place, 
.and stir it every 2 hours until Wednesday morning. 
Then add 3 pounds of boiled potatoes mashed fine 
Stand it in the same place, and stir it as before, un¬ 
til Thursday morning, or until it ceases to ferment. 
Then pass it through a sieve, aud bottle it. It is 
now ready for use, and in a cool place will keep 
for several weeks. Shake the bottle before using. 
1 tablespoonful is enough for an ordinary sized loaf. 
Have lee Next Summer. 
Housewives, shall you need ice next summer ? 
Will you not be very glad to have the means at 
hand to keep fresh meat several days, to keep 
cre.am sweet, and to preserve m.any perishable arti¬ 
cles of food ? Do you not wish to see harfi butter 
on the table, and to have cool w.ater in the pitcher, 
and to be able, now .and then, to offer ice cream .and 
other icy luxuiles to your friends ? Then insist 
upon having .an ice house built and filled this win¬ 
ter, and you may enjoy all we suggest; should the 
head of the family plead ignorance, that he does 
not 'know how to build the ice house, you must 
know, and show him. 
First, the ground selected must be dry, .and out 
of the -way of floods, if near a stream, for if water 
stands in contact with the ice, it will melt away, 
almost “like the morning cloud.” It is well to 
have the ice house on the north side of a hill, or of 
a house or big tree. If close to the house and a 
cool-room can be made between ^ and the house, 
that will be found very convenient, and the ice 
house wall next the cool-room need not be made 
so thick as on the other sides, in fact, a double 
boarding, with an inch of space between, is 
enough. It is well to dig out the ground so as to 
set the house a little lower than the general level, 
and it may be several feet lower if convenient. 
The bottom ought to slope to the middle or to one 
side, and to be grouted, that is, laid with broken 
stones -which are covered with hydraulic cement 
mortar, poured over and in among them, and 
smoothed off even on the surface. The inclination 
of the bottom should le.ad to a sealed drain, so pro- 
teeted that it c.an not be stopped up by accident, or 
by sawdust. It is important that the drainage of .an 
ice house, whether the bottom be cemented as we 
have described or not, should be perfect, and that 
a circulation of air should not take place through 
the'dr.ain. This is easily affected by having the 
end of the drain, (a round tile,) rise 2 or 3 inches 
in a cemented depression, or b.asin, and turning 
over it a common flower pot with the hole stopped. 
A house 10 X 10, or 12 x 12 feet, .and 8 feet from 
the bottom to the eaves, with a half-piteh roof, is 
about what is wanted on .an ordinary farm, and 
will hold and keep more ice than is usuallj'needed. 
The sides should be 10 inches thick, the frame being 
of 8 -inch uprights, of 2-inch plank, set 4 on a side, 
(the end ones being a foot from the outside cor¬ 
ners,) upon sills of the same width. The inside 
boarding should be of cheap inch stuff. The out¬ 
side m.aj' be ciapboarded, or boarded up and down 
.and battened. Dry sawdust, planing-mill shavings, 
or dry spent t.an-bark, may be used to fill in between 
the outer aud inner boarding, and the filling should 
be settled down solid. The plates may be of 2 inch 
plank; the r.afters 4 on each side, of 2-iuch plank, 
6 inches wide. They should be boarded outside 
and inside, and the space filled with shavings. The 
roof should be thatched or shingled, and the gable 
ends double boarded and filled like the sides. The 
door should be in one of the ends, 4 to 6 feet from 
the ground, and 4 feet high ; and close to the peak 
there should be a sliding shutter for a ventilator. 
There should be a flooring not nailed down but 
laid firmly, to support the ice. 
The sides may rest on the grouting, or on a stone 
under pinning. When they are laid, thej' should 
have a coat of coal tar .all over, and when the house 
is done, sawdust stirred up with coal tar should be 
filled into all the crevices and holes near the ground 
outside and inside, and earth heaped up around 
the sides and trodden down. Paint the sides with 
tar as high .as the earth comes. How to fill an ice 
house will be a subject for our December number. 
Straw Icb Houses.— Where there is a great 
abundance of straw, ice may be preserved through¬ 
out the year, if p.acked in a compact mass and well 
covered with straw, perfect drainage being secured. 
