1875.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
387 
Tator,” fortunately placed in the center of the bed 
is now some eight feet high, and increases daily. 
The bed stands in full view from my place at the 
table, and while enjoying the good gifts there set 
forth, I can marvel at the prophetic vision of 
Shakespeare, who propounded the conundrum : 
“ Can such things be, 
Anti overcome us like 1 a summer’s cloud, 
Without our special wonder?” 
I reply decidedly not, for these “ Such things ” are 
-not “ without our special wonder ” which is daily 
excited by their great beauty. 
Amaranthus Melanceolicus itr bek is a mel- 
ancholily long name for a bright-leaved variety of 
the old “ Love-lies-bleeding,” (which, though Eng¬ 
lish, is agouizing.) When left to itself it is one of 
the most brilliant of plants, but it must not be cut, 
as I have found to my cost, in trying to make it 
grow low. A check given to any of the Amaranths 
by being too long in pots, too dry, or by cutting 
back, throws them into seed-bearing at once, and 
they soon exhaust themselves_Can we popular¬ 
ize good things that are not generally known by 
frequent mention ? Now, there is 
Koelreuteria panicle, at a, a tree which has 
every element of popularity except its name. If 
one wishes a medium-sized tree, 15 to 25 feet, for a 
small place, one which shall be satisfactory in 
every respect, and unlike the trees which every¬ 
body else plants, what can be better than Koelreu¬ 
teria? —It has every good quality of the Ailanthus 
without its faults ; it is a shapely tree, eminently 
clean and free from insects ; it has very dark green 
shining foliage, cut in a pleasing manner; it pro¬ 
duces in July a profusion of spikes of bright yel¬ 
low flowers ; these are followed by a copious crop 
of large bladdery pods, which as autumn ap¬ 
proaches, becomes handsomely tinged with red, 
and almost as showy at a distance as flowers. But 
the name ! 1 have not much sympathy with this 
dislike to botanical names, but it exists, and if the 
name is an obstacle to making a meritorious tree 
better known, it must be bettered. Koelreuteria is 
closely related to our own beautiful Bladder-Nut, 
Staphylea. Then let us call this 
Tee Chinese Bladder-Nut, and ask the nurs¬ 
erymen to adopt the name in their catalogues. It 
grows readily from the seed, which in most seasons 
is produced abundantly, but my tree failed this 
year for the first time, which I attribute to the 
constant rains which prevailed during flowering 
time, and prevented fertilization; it also grows 
readily from root-cuttings_Another tree or shrub 
I would like to make better known is the 
Sorrel Tree, Oxydendrum arborum. —I had a 
fine one, 15 feet high, which was killed to the ground 
in the winter of 1872 -73; it threw up several stems 
from the root, and I like it better in this form, a 
dense bush six feet high and the same across, than 
I did as a tree. Its long pendulous racemes of lily- 
of-the-vallev-like flowers make it a charming plant 
in June and July, and its foliage, which is so clean 
and shining in summer, turns in autumn to such a 
fine crimson that if it did not flower, it would be 
worth growing as a (horrible name!) “foliage 
plant.” There are so many good things not gen¬ 
erally knowm that the catalogue of them would be 
quite as large as of those which are known. But I 
cannot close without a word for the 
Perennial Phloxes. —I know of no more satis¬ 
factory plants than these, and though I have writ¬ 
ten about them before, I think the facts should be 
repeated that they are perfectly hardy, keep in 
bloom a long while ; they flower most abundantly, 
and give a wide range of colors from pure white to 
crimson, with various sorts of marked, shaded, and 
otherwise variegated flowers. A dozen sorts cost 
but little, and make a grand show of themselves, 
and when the clumps get too large, you can divide 
them, benefiting your own plants, and blessing your 
neighbors with the surplus, and like the shepherd, 
you may get rich (in thanks), by the increase of 
your Phlox. These may also be raised from seed. 
I had some come from self-sown seed that were, 
some of them, quite as good as the named sorts. 
Seeds sown this month will give plants large 
enough to bloom next year. 
(For other Household Items, see “Basket ” pages). 
Home Topics. 
BY FAITn ROCHESTER. 
Farmers’ Families. 
One would suppose from much that is written, 
that farmer’s families were to be pitied above all 
others. Is this so ? Is the lot of the farmer’s wife 
necessarily lonesome and dreary ? Are farmer’s 
children more abused than other children ?—I can 
not see that such is the case. With a good husband 
and children, I would rather take the risks of farm 
life in any comfortable part of the country, than to 
undertake any other kind of life I have had a 
chance to try or observe. No position is exempt 
from troubles and temptations, but for a family of 
little children, a farm seems to me the safest place. 
And yet every thing “ depends upon circumstan¬ 
ces,” and if the children take no interest in the 
farm or country objects, and if parents take less 
interest in the children’s daily happiness and 
growth than money-making, the ease is a hard one 
for all concerned. Since these papers were begun, 
I have lived in city, village, and country, and noth¬ 
ing suits me so well as the farm. In this the whole 
family are agreed. At present, agricultural papers 
and catalogues are voted among the most interest¬ 
ing of literature, and there is a never-failing inter¬ 
est in the growth of everything upon the place. I 
shall not tell what small business our present 
farming is ; it is all that we can manage just now, 
and looks likely to increase with the passing years. 
Farmers’ wives are not necessarily over-worked 
more severely than other house-keepers. This de¬ 
pends upon the kind of work done on the farm, 
and the facilities for doing it. In fact, it depends 
mainly upon the husband. By proper consideration, 
he can generally save his wife from undue labor—at 
least he can do so as well as other men, for I think 
that it is almost impossible for husbands in av¬ 
erage circumstances, at the present stage of civili¬ 
zation, to give the mothers of their children as 
easy and pleasant circumstances as all mothers 
ought to have, for the sake of the human race; 
this, however, is a matter of public concern quite 
as much as of private duty, and it is a business in 
which society and the individual must co-operate. 
If the farmer has children, he must remember 
that their proper care is the most important busi¬ 
ness of their parents, and it is a great folly or gross 
wickedness, for him to carry on work which is in¬ 
jurious to them, work that keeps himself and his 
wife constantly anxious and hurried. If he slaves 
himself and wife, and the children too, as they 
grow old enough to be yoked to his business, for 
the sake of having plenty of money for his children 
to spend in coming years, he is a very foolish man ; 
but if he is simply bound to get rich, and does not 
care how much it hurts his wife and children, he is 
a very wicked man. If the children are not well 
brought up, they will only squander the money so 
hardly earned. 
Child life on the farm may have a wider range 
of wholesome experiences than child life in almost 
any other situation. Stock kindly cared for and 
petted, trees thoughtfully planted and tended, fruit 
well selected and cultivated, vegetables raised with 
a purpose and with thought about their habits and 
uses, flowers lovingly sown and gathered—all these 
are wholesome in their influence upon the youthful 
mind, and furnish a kindergarten of the best kind. 
Farmers’ children who are not over-worked, and 
whose book education may seem to be neglected, 
often make excellent scholars when they go to 
school and college, and go with robust health 
gained from their early training on the farm. 
If farmers’ families have the good sense to dress 
with simplicity, and choose plain articles of furni¬ 
ture that are not too good for daily use and com¬ 
fort—if they know enough to live on plain sub¬ 
stantial food, with home-raised fruit served plainly 
but plentifully, instead of cake and pie, if among 
the necessaries of life they reckon good books and 
papers, they need not be so badly over-worked as 
they often seem, nor lead such lean poor lives in¬ 
tellectually. As for the social isolation, this is 
sometimes to be deplored, but it makes all the dif¬ 
ference in the world whether it is a loving, happy, 
improving kind of family set by itself upon the 
farm, or a selfish, growling, ignorant set of people. 
The quiet of the farm is one of its chief attractions 
for me. There are few farms so isolated that our 
friends cannot find us there, and they who show 
themselves friendly will have friends. 
I5al>y Clotlies. 
A few years ago I described the long flannel 
wrapper which was the best thing for babies that I 
knew of then. But now I think I like better than 
that the waist and skirt I used for my youngest 
child. I had no patterns, but the same style is in 
use, more or less, in different parts of the country. 
The waist is made plain, or straight, rather high in 
the neck, and with long sleeves. My little one was 
a May-flower, and needed an outfit for summer. So 
he had waists of thin silk-warp flannel, though his 
skirts were all wool. A waist 21 or 22 inches around 
the bottom when made, 5i inches long under the 
arms, with sleeves 7 inches long, and 7 inches 
around at the arm-hole—will do for the child of 
average growth, until it is six or seven months old, 
(or older), and needs short clothes. It buttons be¬ 
hind with four flat pearl shirt-buttons, and the 
woolen skirt buttons to this waist by eight similar 
flat buttons. The child is prettily dressed when it 
has on this white flannel suit, and nothing over this. 
On many a hot afternoon last summer, my baby 
was allowed to go so, but mothers who can have 
every thing they like for baby’s comfort, would 
doubtless prefer a handsome silk flannel wrapper 
on purpose for hot days. It is not often that we 
dare to take all flannel off from tender young babes 
who are accustomed to its use, but it is a shame to 
burden them with more clothing than seems neces¬ 
sary. The waist and skirt may be made as neatly 
as one likes. The skirt should be gored, so as to 
have very few gathers at the top, and those should 
be at the back. All seams should be laid open flat, 
and cross-stitched down. The skirt binding should 
be as flat as possible—wide “flannel binding” is 
best. I used the linen binding, an inch wide, 
stitching (with the machine) two lengths of the 
6kirt band together—so that the band was made of 
white linen binding, lined with the same. In this 
the button holes were made, upright, or running 
across the binding, and not parallel with its length. 
Experienced mothers will see the convenience of hav- 
ingayoungbabe dressed in skirts which can be chang¬ 
ed without undressing it, and this is the chief advan¬ 
tage of the waist over the flannel under wrapper. 
A good way to dress winter babies is with a suit 
like the one described, only made of thicker flannel; 
over this a flannel Gabrielle suit as long as the skirt 
and dress, and over this the dress. In this case, 
the child is supposed to be dressed all in white, and 
its handsome cambric frocks need something warm 
underneath. But those of us who have several 
children, and a good deal to soil the baby’s gar¬ 
ments, will very likely put warm pretty colored 
flannel wrappers over its dresses. In winter it 
should always wear warm stockings even under its 
long dresses. 
Of course the baby’s night-dresses should be of 
flannel so that it may not suffer from the change at 
night. Half cotton Shaker flannel is good for these, 
and is preferred by some to all wool material for 
all of the baby’s under flannels. It is very soft, 
and shrinks little if any. Make the night-gowns 
long enough to wrap up the little feet. A Shaker- 
flannel night-gown, made plain on the shoulders, 
and gored under the arms, like the little day-slips 
or frocks, is suitable for the whole year. In winter 
I add a plaid flannel wrapper, loose and long. 
A baby needs a large supply of “ napkins.” 
Some physicians tell us that they should never be 
used twice without washing, but few of us can live 
up to such doctrine. The nearer we can come to it 
the better for the health of all concerned. I like 
them made in squares rather than in long towels ; 
then one can be folded thick and placed inside the 
other, doubled diagonally in such a way as to do 
the most service. These should never be too thick 
