AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
311 
soon as fermentation becomes feeble (which is 
usually at the end of a week from the time the 
cask is filled) dissolve half an oz. best Isinglass in 
a portion of the liquor, put it in the cask, and 
bung tightly. Half an oz. Isinglass is sufficient 
for ten gallons. Place the cask in the cellar, with 
the spigot in, so that the wine can be drawn off 
for bottling, without disturbing the sediment. 
The proper time for bottling, is the following 
May. The wine is good when a year old, but 
continues to improve for several years. Two 
and-a-half bushels of to>natoes will make ten gal¬ 
lons of wine. 
-——*-—a®®-->-».- 
Hints About the Teeth. 
BY ANNA HOPE. 
The teeth should be kept scrupulously clean. 
There is nothing more disgusting than filthy teeth. 
The brush should be used daily—twice a day is 
better—and after every meal, better still. A bit 
of floss silk, or of soft linen should be passed be¬ 
tween the teeth after brushing, to remove every 
impurity that may remain. Tooth powder is not 
often necessary, and great care should be exer¬ 
cised in its selection. That which contains an 
acid, whitens the teeth readily, but it injures the 
enamel. Pulverized pumice stone should never 
be used except by a judicious Dentist It will 
ruin the teeth. Fine charcoal is well for those 
who have no teeth filled, hut when teeth are filled 
it will be found in time to darken them about the 
filling. Strong acids, like lemon juice, are very 
injurious to the teeth. Do not make nut-crack¬ 
ers or ic* picks of the teeth. Very hot food in¬ 
jures them. Both sides of the mouth should he 
used in mastication. It is better for the teeth to 
work than to remain idle. It is important to se¬ 
cure the services of a good dentist, especially 
when teeth are to be filled, for a tooth once lost, is 
lost forever. A few dollars, more or less, in a den¬ 
tist's hill is of very little consequence compared 
with the loss of a tooth. I would rather live on 
thread and water from the first day of January to 
the last day of December, than to have my chil¬ 
dren lose their teeth. I know a young lady who 
has deliberately chosen to let her teeth decay 
without making an effort to save them, because 
she is unwilling to submit to the pain. In a few 
years she will be a toothless young woman, with 
here and there an ugly stump, and a harvest of 
suffering she would be very willing to escape. 
She thinks she shall be very well satisfied with 
such teeth as a dentist can furnish her, but how 
much better would be those God gave her, if she 
would only use the means he has placed within 
her power to preserve them. It is not particu¬ 
larly pleasant to any one to place herself under a 
dentist’s care, and I do not wonder that children 
shrink from the suffering, hut we can not escape 
suffering in this life and we should as early as 
possible teach our children to hear it bravely. 
I remember nothing concerning my father more 
distinctly than the resolute firmness with which 
he inspired me, when it was necessary to have 
tight teeth extracted to make room for others. 
I shall never lose the influence of those moments, 
and I have often felt, as my children have had 
teeth drawn or filled, that they were made men¬ 
tally and morally stronger for it, and yet I have 
known one of them suffer so much that he has 
been confined to the bed several days in conse¬ 
quence of it. If your friend has lost the teeth 
nature gave her, and has for them substituted the 
work of the dentist, it is neither good taste nor 
good manners to speak to her about it. If she 
wishes your opinion of them, she can ask you, 
but none but a very intimate acquaintance should 
presume to allude to them, and she, only to ex¬ 
press satisfaction, unless some desirable improve¬ 
ment may be suggested, which it is in the per¬ 
son’s power to have accomplished. You should 
not even appear to notice them. It is a mark of 
ill breeding to do so, and ill-breeding is poor 
Christianity. Good teeth are a great ornament, 
and if any one is so unfortunate as to loose them, 
she has reason to be grateful that their place can 
be supplied, but true delicacy would lead her not 
to wish to talk about them to every one and on 
all occasions. I do not think there is necessa¬ 
rily any false pride in this chosen silence, or any 
disposition to impose upon others. 
A Point of Etiquette Decided. 
Miss Lottie L. Forbes, Trumbull Co., O., pro¬ 
posed the following question for answer in the 
Agriculturist: When a young gentleman meets a 
lady acquaintance, which should recognize, or 
speak to the other first 1 And as a similar inquiry 
lias been frequently asked, we have been at some 
pains to consult good authorities. “ Aunt Sue,” 
whose experience is valuable, and whose opin¬ 
ions on such matters may safely be endorsed, 
writes as follows : 
Mr. Editor. 
Tell Lottie L. Forbes, not on any account to 
forego her privilege of being the first to acknowl¬ 
edge a gentleman acquaintance in the street. 
The gentleman waits for the lady’s recognition. 
I’ll tell you why, Lottie. Suppose you are intro¬ 
duced to one of the ww-fair sex, whose acquaint¬ 
ance you desire not at all ; next day he meets 
you in the street and bows; you wouldn’t have 
the heart not to return the salutation—leastways 
I shouldn’t. “ Ah !” says Mr. Un-fair, “ I’ll call 
on the young lady this evening”—and he calls, 
and you are obliged to entertain him. On the 
other hand suppose (if possible to suppose an un- 
supposable impossibility) that the gentleman does 
not like you ; he meets you in the street, you bow 
to him, he is bound in courtesy to return the salu¬ 
tation, but there it may end, he need not call 
upon you and cultivate the acquaintance. So you 
see, Lottie dear, it is very desirable that it should 
be generally understood, that the ladies give the 
first recognition, either by bowing or speaking. 
Yours truly, Aunt Sue. 
----- - 
Fashions—Magazines. 
Some friend, we know not whom, sends us a 
marked copy of the Olean (N. Y.) Advertiser, 
which we find has a “ Ladies’ Department,” edit¬ 
ed with considerable ability by Mrs. R. L. Has- 
set. We congratulate Mr. Henry, the publishing 
editor, on having an appropriate person to take 
care of the “better half” of his journal. Not 
every journalist can afford such a luxury. But 
this by the way. In the paper before us we find 
an article which we feel disposed to print here, 
not so much for the mention of our own journal, 
as for the suggestions it contains. It is proper to 
say that we knew nothing of this article until we 
saw the paper in which it appears, and we do not 
yet know the writer. VVe copy 
“ THE FASHIONS-A DIALOGUE.” 
Mrs. Lane. —What Magazine would you advise me to 
take this year, Mrs. Emory] You know I took Godey’s 
and Peterson’s, last year, but money is so hard to obtain 
that I can take but one this year; and as I have been un¬ 
able to decide between the many good ones, I have not 
subscribed for any yet. 
Mrs. Emory.— If you ask my advice, I shall probably 
advise you to subscribe for the one which I am taking, as 
X am strongly inclined to give that Ihe preference. 
Mrs. L.—l have the utmost confidence in your judgment 
on such subjects, and I presume the one you are taking 
will be just the one for me. 
Mrs. E. — l think you would be pleased with it, and as 
you spoke of the difficulty of obtaining money, you may 
be glad to learn that you can obtain it for the low price of 
one dollar per annum. 
Mrs. L —What I a good Ladies’ Magazine for one dol¬ 
lar? Why, I have had to pay from two to three dollars 
for the magazines which I have taken. Does it contain 
the fashion plates. Mrs. Emory ! 
Mrs. E.— Yes, Mrs. Larie it contains the fashions and 
the very best of fashion plates ; just such fashions as I 
wish to see introduced among our country ladies. 
Mrs. L. —Indeed ! Then I hope some improvements 
have been made of late. I have wi-hed, for a lone Time, 
that they would bring about some fashions lhai would be 
less expensive. Emily is doting on a new silk dress, and 
insists on having it made with a double skirt, as that, is 
“ all the go ” now. If we get one for Emily, Maria must 
haveone; and if Emily aid Maria have silks, then Sarah 
and Louisa must have something nearly as good ; and if 
one has a double skirt, ail must haw the same; so you 
see we are “in ” for eight cosily dresses, or what amounts 
to about the same thing, as it takes nearly two to make 
one. 
Mrs. E —I can sympathize with you, Mrs Lane, so far 
as the difficulty of obtaining money is concerned ; t,nt 
ihe necessity of purchasing cosily dresses I know nothing 
about, by experience ; as I always manage to keep my 
wants of that nature entirely within oui means. And 1 
think, M re Lane, if you can induce your girls to copy the 
fashion | ivies contained in my Magazine, you will not be 
unde, .he necessity of incurring such expenses. 
Mrs. L —Then it is the paper for me, 1 am sure. What 
is Ihe name of it? 
Mrs. E. —It is the American Agriculturist, published by 
Orange Judd, 189 Water-street, Ne w-York—and the fash¬ 
ion plates consist of very neat engravings of natural flow¬ 
ers, plants, shrubs, trees, birds, etc., etc. 
Mrs. L.— 0. I understand you now ; but I fear if they 
should learn to copy such fashion plates, that their love of 
dress would not be diminished. 
Mrs E.—l think it would, Mrs. Lane. Just get them 
thoroughly engaged in beautifying your home wiih flow¬ 
ers and shrubs—interest them in the cultivation of a great 
variety of plants not merely ornamental, and 1 think it 
will not De long before they will begin to find that they 
have not time to expend so much labor on their wearing 
apparel ; and from the new use which they find for their 
time, I have no doubt they will soon see ttie folly of ex¬ 
pending so much money merely for the gratification of 
their vanity. Indeed, they will, in a great measure, for¬ 
get self, in their admiration of nature; and gradually 
they will learn to set a higher value on the cultivation of 
the mind and heart, than on mere personal decorations. 
Mrs L.— Could I hope for such a result, I would spare 
no pains to bring it about; for the expenses of dress are 
becoming an intolerable burden to us. My husband 
dreams of nothing else;.and the first words he uttered 
this morning were, “Those dresses! how can we get 
them ? and yet the girls will never be contented without.” 
Mrs. E —Yes, this excessive love of dress makes mere 
puppet shows of its victims, and destroys nearly all de¬ 
sire for the improvement of the higher faculties of the 
mind. If you will send your girls tome. Mrs. Lane, I 
will give them some flower seeds, and give them some in¬ 
struction in regard to their cultivation. In addition to 
the annuals which I cultivated last year, I have iust re¬ 
ceived five neat little packages of choice flower seeds 
with the Agriculturist, making, in all I have, twenty-five 
or thirty varieties. These I will divide with the girls, and 
when they are in full bloom, if you do not, find the con¬ 
versation to be more about the flowers than ihe new 
dresses, then I am neither a prophet or a prophetess. 
Mrs. L — Yes, I will send them to you. and if you can 
do anything to assist us in checking this growing love of 
dress, we shall be your grateful debtors through life. I 
know we ought lo have influence and command enough 
over them to make them willing to exercise a little self 
denial; but we very unwisely allowed them almost 
unlimited indulgence in such matters, while times 
were prosperous, and we didn’t feel it. It seems strange, 
now, that we didn’t consider that such times might not 
always last, or that if they did, we were doing injury, in¬ 
stead of good, to our family, by such excessive indul¬ 
gence ; but. you know, though “experience is a dear 
school, fools will learn in no oilier.” 
Mrs. E.—It is true, we ought at all times to have com¬ 
mand over our children ; but if we have allowed them to 
acquire an undue fondness for finery ; it may be better to 
lure them by degrees into another path, equally pleas¬ 
ant, than to begin by long lectures on the vanity and folly 
of dress. 
--, «-- 
Quaint old Fuller says; “Let him who expects ona 
class of society to prospef in the highest degree, while the 
other is in distress, try whether one siue of his face can 
smile while the other is pinched.” 
