226 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[June, 
freely, mercenary motives are so easily cultivated. 
Indeed, promises of all kinds should be avoided as 
much as possible, especially evil promises or 
threats. Perhaps I can explain myself best by an 
illustration. 
A mother thought it was time to teach her little 
boy of six to wipe dishes. She told him he might 
help her by wiping the dishes if he would like to, 
and the honor delighted him very much. His 
hands were carefully washed, and an apron was tied 
around his neck. Then the dishes, "washed and 
rinsed in hot water, were turned to drain in a pan, 
and the boy set to work with his cloth. He was 
so proud he had to carry each dish where some 
one could see him wipe it. For a day or two he 
was very slow about the work, but very thorough 
in his wiping. Hurrying him seemed to avail little, 
and was likely to discourage him; so the mother 
proposed to see which would get through with 
their part first, she with washing all of the dishes, 
pans, kettles, etc., aud scouring the knives, and he 
with just wiping the crockery and spoons and 
forks; and after a few times trying the mother 
could hardly get a chance to “beat.” This was 
lively and happy work. Soon a younger child 
wanted the honor of wiping the spoons and forks, 
and all the wiping part was left until the washing 
was done. Then each child, after performing its 
ablutions, had its pan, one with the crockery and 
knives and brighter part of the tin-ware, the oilier 
with forks and spoons. But (lie chatter-boxes 
learned to dawdle over their work. They liked the 
business, but carried a good deal of play along 
with it. There was no particular hurry about the 
work, but the habit was a bad one. So the mother 
said that if they finished their tasks in ten minutes 
she would give eat»h of them a card with a picture 
of an animal on it after the dinner dishes were 
wiped—this as a reward for promptness with both 
breakfast and dinner dishes. They did the work 
easily in from five to seven minutes, and then the 
limit was fixed at eight minutes. When the cards 
were all gone, a still better reward for quick work 
was devised. The globe was brought out as soon 
as the dinner dishes were promptly wiped, and a 
chapter in “ Lucy’s Wonderful Globe ” was read to 
the little ones. After the book was read through, 
the globe alone was sufficient reward. Sometime 
I must tell of the rapid progress made in geography 
during those half-hours witli the globe. 
The children were not paid for doing the work. 
They loved to do that just “to help mamma.” 
But the temptation to chatter and play and neglect 
the work was so strong that some inducement 
seemed necessary to make them work fast. 
Whatever I might have said about punishments 
must now go unsaid. I was happily interrupted in 
my writing by the arrival of a new book. Its very 
first chapter is about “Corporal Punishment,” and 
from it I will quote: 
“If it were possible in any way to get a statis¬ 
tical summing-up and a tangible presentation of 
the amount of physical pain inflicted by parents on 
children under the age of twelve years, the most 
callous-hearted would be surprised and shocked. 
If it were possible to add to this estimate an accu¬ 
rate and scientific demonstration of the extent to 
which such pain, by weakening the nervous system 
and exhausting its capacity to resist disease, dim¬ 
inishes children’s chances for life, the world would 
stand aghast. . . . How many a loving mother 
will, without any thought of cruelty, inflict half-a- 
dozen quick blows upon the little hand of her 
child,when she could no more take a pin and make 
the same number of thrusts into the tender flesh 
than she could bind her baby on the rack. Yet the 
pin-thrusts would hurt far less, and would probably 
make a deeper impression on the child’s mind.” 
The author of this best of home books does not 
simply condemn the old and barbarous methods of 
“discipline.” She points out clearly a decidedly 
better way in many an excellent chapter; and she 
is able to say, “I know, for I have seen,” and “I 
am sure, for I have tested it.” There is not room ! 
here to quote further; but let every parent who j 
sincerely desires to walk humbly, and deal justly, ' 
and love mercy as a parent, get this little book and 
ponder it well. It is called 
“ Bits of Talk about Home Matters, by 
II. H.”—This is indeed, according to my belief, the 
best of all home books yet written. It is the book 
which a mother should keep in constant sight so 
long as she has the care of young children. Let 
the recipe books go, and all the books about deco¬ 
rating our houses and persons if they must. We 
can eat simple baked potatoes and gems and apples 
if necessary, and live on bare floors, clad in calico, 
if need be, but henceforth we must give time, and 
thought, and compauiouship, and love unbounded 
to the little children whose plastic souls have been 
intrusted to our guardianship. 
Many tears will fall upon the pages of “ Bits of 
Talk,” for it lias come too late for many an honest- 
hearted but sadly-mistaken parent. If we could 
only have been brought up on such doctrine ! I, 
for one, am glad that this book “ about Home 
Matters ” is not at all about mere housekeeping. 
Spring Vegetables. —Parsnips and salsify will, 
with most persons, be gone when this paper is 
printed. Asparagus, too, will almost have had its 
day. I have seen it very poorly cooked on very 
elegant tables—boiled in long stalks, half of which 
were white and tough. It is much the best way, it 
seems to me, to cut it in small pieces, cooking 
only the tender part, and pour boiling water over 
it, and boil it half an hour, adding a little cream 
and salt when it is done, and letting all boil up to¬ 
gether once. Pour it over nice toast if you like. 
Green Peas will soon be here. Cook them as 
soon after picking as possible. Marion Harland 
says “shell and lay them in cold water until they 
are ready for cooking.” I say never wet them un¬ 
til you cook them if you can avoid it. To secure 
this, shell them as clean as possible. Pour boiling 
water over them, and boil half an hour, or a little 
less if they are very tender. Do not salt them un¬ 
til they are soft, and then but lightly, their own 
flavor is so delicious. Add a little cream or milk 
if you have it, but never add any butter except the 
very best, and not that if you have cream. 
Pie-plant Pies. —These are very delicious if 
well made. But I can tell you that if a memory of 
your mother’s (or my mother’s) excellent pie-plant 
pies drives you to purchase one in a city bakery, 
you will probably be sadly disappointed. They 
stew their pie-plant before making the pies, aud 
that spoils them. Our mother never did so. She 
peeled her stems of rhubarb, and then sliced them 
in half-inch lengths, holding several stems iu her 
hand at one time. With these she filled her pie, 
sweetened it generousl}'—about the same as for a 
lemon-pie, a small teacupful of sugarfor a medium¬ 
sized pie—moistened it with a great spoonful of 
water, dusted over this a little dry flour (to thicken 
the juice a little), covered it with the upper crust, 
and baked it slowly and thoroughly. Such a pie 
is too rich for some stomachs, and there is a way 
of dispensing with a part of the sugar without 
having the pie too sour. Not by the use of soda ! 
No, indeed! But you can pour boiling water over 
your sliced rhubarb, letting it stand ten or fifteen 
minutes. Pour this off, and make your pies of the 
rhubarb with less sugar. 
If you stew pie-plant for sauce, you can pour off 
a part of the juice before it is done (using it to 
make jelly if you like), and supply its place with 
more water, so economizing with sugar. 
-*■»—»-'—■a ■&> - i> 
What to Do with Bleeding 1 Wounds. 
BY 3)11. J. T. ItOTHROCK. 
As this portion of Dr. Rothrock’s article refers 
to wounds of the arm, we, for convenience of re¬ 
ference, reproduce the engraving used last mouth. 
Suppose a friend or neighbor is bleeding freely 
from a cut in the arm-pit. The blood flows in free 
jets, and there is no time to be lost. Run your 
finger along the collar-bone, which you know ex¬ 
tends from the breast-bone out almost to the pro¬ 
minent part of the shoulder. Having found this 
bone, take your fingers or a door-key, and with the 
ring end of the latter press down hard just back 
of and above the middle of the collar-bone 
and you will force the artery against the 
upper part of the first rib, and so close its cavity 
“until the doctor comes.” If you wrap the end 
of the key with two or three thicknesses of muslin, 
or with your pocket-handkerchief, it will be just as 
efficient, and bruise the flesh somewhat less. 
Suppose the injury to be below the middle of the 
arm and above the elbow, and that blood is spout¬ 
ing freely from the cut; now here it happens that 
any one can stop its flow. If you bend the arm so 
that the hand rests upon the shoulder you bring 
out in bold relief the muscle, to the development 
of which our college gymnasts and prize-fighters 
bestow so much attention. It is a monstrous knot 
of flesh which serves many important purposes in 
life, besides being a guide to the position of the 
main artery of the arm. Straighten out the arm 
again, for you have found in its flexed condition 
where the inner margin of this muscle is. Tie a 
knot (or two of them if need be, to get a solid lump 
of good size) in a handkerchief, put that knot above 
the injury and on the inner edge of the muscle, 
and tie the handkerchief loosely around the arm. 
Then pass a stick of three fourths of an inch in 
diameter and a foot long under the handkerchief, 
and twist it until the knot presses hard upon the 
artery. The band on the extended right arm of the 
figure shows more plainly than words how readily 
it may all be done. 
If the cut is below the elbow, and the blood 
HOW TO COMPRESS ARTERIES. 
coming in jets from the wound, the same appliance 
would still answer, or it might be put on with the 
knot in the hollow of the elbow in front. 
The large artery of the arm divides (or, in the 
language of anatomy, bifurcates ) below the elbow, 
one branch going to the outer and the other to the 
inner side of the forearm. Both of these branches, 
however, are rather deeply seated, and may, espe¬ 
cially in fleshy persons, be difficult to compress by 
an encircling band below the elbow. Hence, if we 
fail to arrest arterial bleeding in the forearm by the 
pressure immediately above it, we may with cer¬ 
tainty depend on stopping it when we put the 
handkerchief on as directed for bleeding of the 
arm— i. e., above the elbow. 
Those who do not yet know how to find and feel 
the pulse should at once learn. Suppose you have 
a cut at the junction of the wrist and hand, or even 
as low down as in the palm of the hand, with, what 
what often happens there, brisk bleeding; the 
strong gripe of a vigorous man around the wrist 
above the bleeding will usually stop it. Try your 
own pulses, and see how readily you can so con¬ 
trol the beating by moderately firm pressure with 
the finger. It is no more difficult to do this if 
there is a cut below. 
The arteries which resulted from division of the 
main artery of the arm, and ran down, one on the 
outer and the other on the inner side of the fore¬ 
arm, again unite in the palm of the hand, forming 
what are called the “ palmar arches.” Hence, to 
stop bleeding at a point near their reunion it. is 
not sufficient to compress one only of the parent 
trunks. Both must be constricted by the bandage, 
else the flow will continue from the on# which is 
cut, or if that be compressed it will appear through 
one of the “inosculating” branches of the other, 
at the further end of the cut vessel. 
(TO BE CONTINUED.) 
