270 
AMERICAN AGRICULT CJRIST. 
[July, 
number of women, wlio sit at a table properly arranged, 
as in fig. 5, so that they can push the largest grains into 
one bin, the smaller into another, and the poorer stuff 
into a third—each grain is thus handled by these women, 
who sit all day long at the work. After all this it is put 
into bags, and goes to various parts of the world. I sup¬ 
pose you know what happens to the coffee after it gets 
to us. And then what quantities of coffee come to 
these United States ! Here is something that our fore¬ 
fathers who first settled the country had probably never 
seen, if they had even heard of it, and now we import 
about three hundred millions of pounds of it; to be more 
exact, in 1872 there came into the country 298,805,946 
pounds of coffee! 
-- I — 101 W -' 
AiiMt Sait-’s C'Biitts. 
Allie wants to know if I will tell her “ how to clean 
hair switches nicely.” It is a little out of my line, but I 
like to oblige. Put a small tea-spoonful of bi-carbonate 
of soda, (cooking soda), into your wash-basin ; pour over 
it four or five pints of water, and wash the switch thor¬ 
oughly. Then rinse it more thoroughly in clear water. 
Wipe it as dry as possible, and hang it in the air. When 
nearly dry, smooth it a good while with the hand....I 
don't like the use of hair-grease, for I think if the scalp 
is kept well washed, and the hair thoroughly brushed, it 
will be glossy enough ; but if hair-grease must be used, I 
do “ know ” a very nice preparation, which I will give 
for the benefit of whom it may concern. 
Becipe far Pomatum .—White wax, 1 oz. ; spermaceti, 
1 oz.; sweet oil, 6 oz. (IX cupful); rose-water, 2 oz. (1 
wine-glassful). Melt the wax, spermaceti, and sweet oil 
together. To do this, place the jar, or whatever you use, 
in a sauce-pan of water, putting a chip or something else 
under it, to keep it from touching the bottom of the 
sauce-pan. Set the whole over the fire, and when the 
materials are completely melted, take it off and beat and 
stir the mixture while cooling, adding the rose-water a 
little at a time, until it becomes white and creamy. If 
you wish any other perfume than that of the rose-water, 
you can stir in a very little of whatever you may fancy. 
This is the least greasy grease , the girls tell me, that they 
ever used, as it does not soil the ribbons on their hair. 
George E. Mills.—“Aunt Sue’s Puzzle Box” is 
simply the name given to the puzzle department. 
Mary J. W. says she doesn’t know how to make paper- 
windmills, and wishes I would describe them to her. 
Well, perhaps there are two more people in the world 
who do not know how to make them, and as they ought 
Fig. 1.—THE PAPER MARKED. 
to be taught, I do hereby give them the benefit of in¬ 
struction. Cut a piece of writing-paper exactly square. 
Crease it across the middle, diagonally, both ways. Cut 
it in the creases to within an inch or so of the center. 
Now get a pin and stick it through the dots ; first 1, then 
2, 3, 4, and finally through dot 5 into a small stick, (or 
Fig. 2.—THE WINDMILL MADE. 
even into a match, if you are safe there is no phosphorus 
left). Hold it in front of you and walk quickly across the 
room ; or if you are in the open air, hold it towards the 
wind, and then see the delight of the baby, for whom 
you made it, as the windmill whisks around “ like a 
thing of life.” 
Mrs. Emily 13.—Your favor, concerning crosses, is re¬ 
ceived. I do not know the kind to which you refer, un¬ 
less you mean those made with stars composed of four 
doubled strips of paper. A very pretty and simple cross 
may be made of two pieces of bark, fastened across the 
center, with wire or nails, and tastefully decorated with 
pressed vines, leaves, berries, moss, etc. A square piece 
of wood for the base, covered with moss, etc. Or it may 
be made without a base, and fastened against the wall. 
Little vines made of wax leaves and berries look very 
pretty twisted around the cross. If bark is difficult to 
obtain, a substitute may be made with card-board, taste¬ 
fully covered with moss and lichens, sewed or glued on. 
Answers to Correspondents. 
BY THE DOCTOR. 
I wish you would understand and try to remember that 
Aunt Sue and I are very different persons, and though 
we are very good friends, we neither of us care to get 
letters which should bo sent to the other. Please do not 
ask Aunt Sue to tell The Doctor, or tell The Doctor to 
ask Aunt Sue this or that ; we do not meet oftener than 
once a year, and such messages have to be sent by mail, 
and yon can do that yourselves. 
What is a Fice ?—“ A School Boy,” writes from Salt 
Lake City—how these boys are scattered 1—that one boy 
at school began his composition with “ My little dog is 
&fice." The teacher and all hands were puzzled to know 
what a flee was. and the boy finding it in no dictionary 
applies to me. All I know about the word is, that I have 
heard it used a few times by people from the southern 
states, as I thonght, to express contempt.. I once went 
to school with a boy from Georgia, and I recollect hearing 
him tell another that he “ acted like a fice,” and he was 
surprised when I did not know that it meant some kind 
of a dog. Our Utah friend is right, it is not in the dic¬ 
tionaries, and I hope that some of my boys who live 
where the word is in use, will let us know what partic¬ 
ular kind of a dog is called a fice. 
Anchor Ice.— In my answer to “L. B.,” in May last, 
I should have stated that the reason given for finding ice 
at the bottom of a stream was only one explanation, and 
that others accounted for it in a different manner. Now 
I have letters from some old folks who think that the 
explanation then given does not meet the whole case. 
The subject is too difficult for the Boys and Girls’ Col¬ 
umns, and I shall have to attend to them as soon as I 
can, in another part of flic paper. 
Honey Dew.—“A Farmer’s Boy” writing from Ster¬ 
ling, Ill., says he finds that during summer nights a very 
sweet liquid collects on the leaves of trees, called lioney- 
dew, and he wants to know what it is and what causes 
it.—It is merely sugar and water, but there is as much 
difference of opinion as to the cause as there is about 
the cause of anchor ice. It is well known that plant lice, 
(Aphides), which are found upon most plants and trees, 
have tlic power of giving off a sweet liquid; these insects 
have two little tubes at their tail-ends, from which they 
force out minute drops of this liquid, of which ants and 
other insects are very fond. As the ants go among the 
plant-lice and tickle them to make them “give down” 
this liquid, the lice have been called the ants’ cows ; bees 
too are very fond of it, and collect all they can find. It is 
claimed by some that honey dew always comes from 
these little insects, and that wherever this isfouu^ plant 
lice may also be found. On the other hand, some very 
learned men say that honey dew comes from the tree 
itself. The sap of trees contains sugar, and they say 
that under some circumstances this syrup is exuded 
through the pores of the leaves. It is not yet settled 
which is right, or if both are not right. Here is a case in 
which this “ Farmer’s Boy ” and other farmers’ boys and 
other boys can help. All the most learned scientific men 
do is to use their eyes and see wiiat is before them ; only 
they are very careful to be sure that they see correctly. 
Now let us have some observations. When you next find 
honey dew,note if it is on the leaves only on one side or on 
both sides; if on the upper side, examine the leaves 
above those upon which it is found, and see if there is 
any plant lice which could have dropped it. Look sharp, 
as they are small, and often green like the leaf. If on 
the underside, look for the lice there. Also look upon 
the plants, stones, or whatever may be under the tree, 
and see if there is any there. Also, what kind of trees 
have honey dew on them.—Have not space to answer 
your other question this time. 
-- ■ii lO i -- 
Tlee -Alla. 
Yes, of course we believe in celebrating, especially 
this very 4th, which, if not the centennial, is within one 
of it. We wonder how many who work hard every year, 
and get so tired at celebrating, that at night they are 
glad that the 4tli comes but once a year, ever think what 
it is all about. The next 4th of July after this, (1876), we 
all expect will be a rouser, because you know that it is 
the centennial. They are going to celebrate tremendously 
at Philadelphia, and everywhere more than ever before— 
because it is the centennial. You all know that the cen¬ 
tennial has some reference to 100 years, and this being 
the year before, is 99 years 6ir.ee something. Why do we 
celebrate the 4th of July at all ? Why celebrate the 4th any 
more than the 12th, which was the birth-day of Julius 
Caesar? Let’s have all the fun we can, for we do not 
have so many holidays as they do in some countries, but 
before we try so hard to be happy, that we get very 
tired, why not stop to think what it is all about. We 
know that the bells ring, the cannon boom, and that 
crackers crack by day, and rockets go skyward by night. 
No one works, and every one gets very hot in doing 
something out of the usual way. Now what is it all 
about? Did yon ever think what it was that you are 
celebrating ? If not, let us hint what we think would b« 
a good thing to do. Instead of buying crackers and 
powder, and other noisy things, and making it very dis¬ 
agreeable, look up the “ Declaration of Independence,” 
and read it. Get the boys together, and let the best rea¬ 
der of the lot read it aloud to the rest. Then talk it over 
and see how much any of you can tell what it all means. 
Why w r as that Declaration made, aid what did it lead to ? 
What was the government of the country before that, 
and what has it been since. This is a kind of celebration 
that the girls can join in too, and it would not be strange 
if some of them could tell all about it quite as well as 
the boys. This will be a capita/ preparation for the cen¬ 
tennial which comes next year. Just think, a hundred 
years since that Declaration was written, and you may 
see what no boy or girl ever saw before, the 100th birth¬ 
day of the nation. The older ones among you should, 
before another 4th, read carefully, so that yon can under¬ 
stand it, the Constitution of the United States, and know 
what people mean when they say such a thing is not con¬ 
stitutional.—But wouldn’t we advise you to have any fun 
on the 4th ? Certainly. Have all the games and frolic 
you can, but as we want all hands to be present at the 
great celebration next year, we would advise you to let 
pistols, guns, and powder along. Do yon know that in 
cities the 5th of July is a sad day ? One takes up the 
paper and sees such a long list of accidents from powder, 
and sadly looks over it to see if airjs friend has lost life or 
limb by careless use of firearms, in his own or another’s 
hands.—Let us try just this 99th celebration without 
powder, and see if we don’t feel quite as happy and sat¬ 
isfied when bed time comes. 
-. m .e. —- 
Aunt Sue (hies to si Spelling Match. 
Ellie M. S., wants to know “all about spelling 
matches.”—Well, Ellie dear, “all about” is somewhat 
comprehensive; but I can tell you about one I attended 
at the Academy of Music, in Brooklyn ; and I suppose 
they are “ all ” conducted on “about” the same princi¬ 
ples. First thirty or forty girls, aged from 12 to 20, I 
should think, filed in, and were arranged on the long set¬ 
tees. which were placed in a semi-circle on the stage ; 
then the lads entered and sat on the benches behind the 
girls; after them came the grown-up Reporters. The 
latter sat at the right of the stage, the school-children on 
the left. The Mayor of Brooklyn tvas present, and three 
or four other gentlemen. One of them announced that 
only English words would be given out; that if a word 
was spelled wrong by one person, others should spell it 
until it was spelled correctly. This rule gave great 
advantage to those who succeeded the first incorrect spel¬ 
ler. Then Mr. II. S. took his position where audience and 
