AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
119 
it, to hold the sand ; and farther, the open space 
below should be larger, say four or five inches 
deep to leave abundant room for any amount 
of sediment. Thus constructed, the filter will not 
require changing or cleaning for a long time. 
-_— --- 
Kitchen Drains. 
One of the greatest nuisances at the back¬ 
door of many country-houses, is the kitchen 
drain. Every farmer and gardener knows that 
slops from the sink and soap-suds from the 
wash-tub, if saved, would make an excellent fer¬ 
tilizer ; and that if thrown upon the ground at 
the back-door, they become offensive to the eye 
and nostrils, as well as a source of disease. For 
every man who has a garden or farm, we still 
recommend that all the refuse from kitchen and 
chamber be saved and applied where needed. 
It may be collected in barrels, or conducted by 
troughs to the manure heap, and there mixed 
with muck or other absorbents. 
But to those (pitiable people !) who have no 
desire to save slops, and who wish only to be 
decently rid of them, we recommend a plan, 
which we have seen tried, and know to be a 
good one. It was as follows : A plank spout was 
made, three feet long, two feet wide at one end, 
and one foot at the other; the smallest end 
was sunk in the ground near the kitchen door. 
The upper end contained a moveable sieve, with 
holes an inch in diameter, and six inches below 
this was another with holes half an inch in dia¬ 
meter. Between the two sieves, little refuse 
matter in the slops passsd through to clog up 
the drain below. These sieves are easily re¬ 
moved and cleaned. A lid over the top of the 
spout to keep down offensive odors, completed it. 
The lower end of this spout terminated in a 
plaTSk-drain six inches in diameter and twelve 
feet long, laid below frost. This drain conducted 
to a cess-pool six feet deep and five feet broad, 
which was filled up with cobble stones laid loose¬ 
ly, and with a considerable open space in the 
center. From one side of this cess-pool, a drain 
of tubular tile two and a half inches diameter, ran 
off into an adjoining pasture. To aid in keeping 
his cess-pool sweet, and in carrying off the liquid 
clean through the tile-drain,'the water from the 
cow-troughs of an adjoining shed or stable was 
conducted into the cess-pool. At every consider¬ 
able shower, this washed all out thoroughly. This 
arrangement has worked well for several years. 
-— 4 ■ maag -^ g 1 m i p ^ 
Soda in Bread—Again. 
We continue to receive numerous communica¬ 
tions on both sides of this question, and must beg 
a little truce. The theory of the action of alka-» 
line carbonates in raising bread and biscuits, and 
the action of alkalies and the residuum salts upon 
the system, have been pretty fully set forth. We 
believe the right view of this subject to be about 
this : So far as practicable, it is best to use the 
old-fashioned “ salt-raising ” bread. When ne¬ 
cessary, substitute ‘‘brewer’s yeast.” For occa¬ 
sional convenience, biscuits, etc. may be raised 
with cream of tartar and soda, taking care to have 
these substances in the proportion in which they 
will most nearly counteract each other, and pro¬ 
duce a neutral salt. The injurious effect of such 
occasional diet will be no greater than that of 
many articles of indigestible food daily consumed, 
such as heavy pie-crust, or that crisp with short¬ 
ening, hard-cooked meat or eggs, preserves, and 
such drinks as soda-tvater, strong tea and coffee. 
One correspondent, “ Agricola,” referring to the 
fact that the sale of soda and saleratus has greatly 
increased latterly, draws the conclusion that here 
is to be found one cause of the great decline in 
health. That the general health of our people is 
on the wane is not so certain; and if this were 
the case, there is abundant cause for it, in our 
more luxurious habits of diet and dress, in the 
closer confined air of our modern dwellings, and 
in the later hours of retiring to rest, and the di¬ 
minished amount of sleep now taken. 
M0P8 d§ ©©OTMMo 
Not having heard anything from Grandmother for some 
time, we were afraid she might be sick, and we therefore 
requested Cousin Mary to find out all about it, if possible, 
and let us know, so that we could inform all the grand¬ 
children. After some delay Mary sendsus the following : 
Dear Mr. Editor I’ve had such a time! I didn’t 
know as I should ever find Grandmother. I went to her 
house in the country, and found it all shut up, nobody 
(here, not even the cat. I was really frightened, and 
couldn’t think what had happened. As I was looking 
about, Miss Spriggs, who lives right opposite, threw up 
the window, and in her screechy voice, piped out: “ No 
use o’ knockin there, she’s gone to the city, to see her son 
John.” I thanked her for the information, and hastened 
away, for I knew if I staid a minute, she would have 
asked me a string of questions about everybody and every¬ 
thing. Well, I came to the city again, and sure enough, 
I found Grandmother at Uncle John’s. All the girls were 
around her, and she was as pleasant as ever. I thought 
you would be pleased to see how she looked in her new 
dress, so I made a sketch of the room, as it looked w hen 
I was there, which I send you, and hope you’ll have it en¬ 
graved for all the grand-children to look at. Grandmother 
says that little Kitty in the cradle pleases her much bet¬ 
ter, than the “ kitty ” that used to play with her ball of 
yarn at home. I haven’t time to write more now, but will 
soon report something, for Grandmother keeps on talking 
to the girls just in her old way. Your faithful Reporter 
Mary. 
iLetter from TIssclc Framli. 
When I had my last chat with you, I was nearly a thou¬ 
sand miles farther from the equator, at my own dear 
home. But my physician, whom I have learned to obey 
as if he were an iron-hearted schoolmaster and I was a 
little urchin under his government, said it was necessary 
for my health that I should spend the remainder of the 
Winter in the sunny South ; and here I am at St. Augus¬ 
tine, the oldest and one of the quaintest and queerest 
towns ever settled by white men in this country. 
Now I am going to tell you something about this vener¬ 
able place—its low stone houses, with their gables staring 
the outside world fall in the face ; its narrow streets ,- its 
ancient fort; its sweet flowers and fruits ; its mild and 
genial climate ; and all about the people, citizens, and 
strangers. But I am inclined to think, that before I do 
this, you would prefer to have me give you a birds-eye 
sketch of what I saw, and heard, and felt, on my way here 
It was very cold and very unpleasant when I started for 
Savannah in the steamer “ Alabama.” We flattered our¬ 
selves we should have fine weather, however, in less than 
twenty-four hours ; whereas we had any thing but fine 
weather. There came on a “ Northwester,” which gave 
us a very respectable specimen of a gale, occupying the 
greater part of a whole day in its exhibition. Then we 
had a northeaster, then a southeaster ; and we began to 
think that we were in the midst of the Easter holidays. 
The ladies were nearly all sick. Every thing moveable 
tossed about the ship at a merry rate. But the storm 
cleared off—what a blessing it is that all storms do—the 
sun shone out blandly and lovingly ; the ladies, who, like 
scared mice, had fled to their retreats at the approach of 
the tempest, re-appeared, first stealthily as the mice do 
when they are pretty sure (not quite) that Pussy has actu 
ally departed, then with more boldness, and finally with 
their wonted assurance. We were three days in reach¬ 
ing Savannah. “ What kind of a place is Savannah?” 
Well, it is a place where the sand is abundant, the 
cockroaches huge and fleshy, the green peas and fresh 
shad nice (when you can get them), and the hotel bills 
large and respectable. The geography will tell you the 
rest. This is what the geography don't tell you. 
I wish you could have been with me on my trip from 
Savannah to St. Augustine ; we took what is called the 
“inside passage,” most of the way. You will wonder 
what the inside passage means. If you w ill take your 
map of the Southern States, though, you can easily solve 
the enigma. You w ill discover, what I presume you have 
never noticed before, that the coast is all cut up into little 
inlets, with small and almost innumerable islands. Now, 
when we talk about the inside, we mean nothing more or 
less than threading our w-ay through this chain of inlets. 
Our boat was admirably adapted to the route. Every 
thing about her was neat, tasteful, elegant, and comfort¬ 
able. There was one peculiarity in the arrangements of 
the boat, which struck me as especially desirable. The 
state-rooms all had two doors—one opening into the sa¬ 
loon, and the other outside, affording ns a perfect view of 
the water, as we lay in our berths. I kept my outer door 
open all night, and the moon entertained me until the 
small hours, by dancing upon the waves. We had to go 
outside to enter the St. Johns river, and our little fairy 
steamer—the Everglade —got a thorough tossing in the 
meantime ; to say nothing about sundry ladies and a few 
gentlemen who were most thoroughly and pitiably sick. 
Sometimes alligators—great, overgrown, lazy creatures, 
looking more like a black log than anything with breath 
in its body, are seeing lying on the banks of the St. Johns. 
We saw none this trip, however. The season is not quite 
far enough advanced for them yet, I believe. I have seen 
them here in the latter part of April, of a size that would 
astonish you. I heard a good many interesting anecdotes 
about these monsters, from people residing in this part of 
the country.,.It seems that they sometimes exhibit a good 
deal of cunning and shrewdness, especially in the capture 
of their prey. An old, shy alligator, with the scales of’ 
many summers on his back, and who, it may be, is fond' 
of good dinners, will station himself among the tall grass' 
and sedge on the margin of a creek, opposite a rich plan-' 
tation. There he lies perfectly still. He can afford to 
wait. He has plenty of spare time on his hands. There 
comes down to his covert a dog, perhaps. He dis-' 
covers the reptile, but satisfies himself with barking at 
the intruder long and furiously. 
By and by, it may be, a pig, in one of its grunting and 
rooting crusades, comes that way . He is of an inquiring 
disposition. He wants to know just what that black thing 
is, and whether he can turn it to any profitable account. 
He is a pig of great courage, in fact, a very hero of a nig. 
He advances boldly up to the alligator, and examines him 
carefully. He is satisfied that if the ungainly thing is 
alive, he is most certainly asleep. So he waxes bolder, 
and makes himself quite familiar on short acquaintance. 
As soon as the dunce of a pig comes within the reach of 
the alligator’s tail, the remorseless reptile hits the grunter 
a terrible blow, and sends him sprawling and squealing, 
into the water, where, of course, the alligator has it all its 
own way, and devours the pig without further ceremony. 
Alligators have their nests in these bushes, and it is here 
that they raise their young. 
When we arrived at Piccolata, the landing where we 
take coaches for St. Augustine, it was about 4 o’clock in 
the evening ot the second day after leaving Savannah. 
But it was an hour before wc set out. It required three 
carriages to take all the passengers, ours was the hist. 
Oh '. what a road ! It was shocking. However, we drag¬ 
ged along, comforting ourselves with the assurance that 
we should reach St. Augustine some time or othe*, prob¬ 
ably. But our hope was a little dampened, when our for¬ 
ward horses broke loose from the vehicle, snatched the 
rains from the drivers hands, and started off at full gallop 
on their own hook for parts unknown. This accident of 
course delayed us a long time. We couldn’t find the run¬ 
away horses, and were obliged to rely on the remaining 
pair until a relay could be sent us. However, few disap¬ 
pointments are unattended with bright aspects. We had 
still the beautiful moon which shone so brightly while we 
