MOOIlE’i E'UBASi NIW-YGSffl. 
omrstic (bronomn. 
CONDUCTED BY MARY A. E. WAGEIl. 
THAT “SIX THOUSAND DOLLAR 
FARM HOUSE:” 
Its Arriinjfnuout ami Fitrnisliinsr. 
In the Rural New-Yorker of March 
19th, current year, is a plan for a farm-house 
which C. M. B. says lie built of our “ wood¬ 
pile,” and so constructed as to comprehend 
all “ the grace and refinement, and tender 
home influences Domestic Economy pleaded 
so eloquently for,” etc. hen “ Domestic 
Economy” has anything savoring of genu¬ 
ine thought and work, she invariably hands 
it over to me, with “ this is in your line;” so 
if there is anything particularly valuable in 
this department of the Rural New-Y okkeu, 
you may know how it came about, and 
where it came from. Next to modesty, there 
is nothing quite equal to sounding your own 
praises. It is cheap, effective and impressive. 
There have been a few rainy days and 
nights this spring, as usual, and every one 
of them t have improved in talks with 
Anaximander about furnishing this house. 
There is a man side as well as a woman’s 
side in making a house as it should lie. 
When a man has it all bis own unadvised 
way, it is usually inconvenient and too 
prosaic for beauty. And if a woman has it 
all fur way, the outside is sacrificed to the 
internal arrangements. At least, that Is the 
trouble with me. By the time I get the 
pantry in the right place and of the right 
size, and the kitchen, and parlor, and bed¬ 
rooms, and closets arranged, I knock the 
outside out of joint somehow. 1 sat for a 
portrait one day and the artiste began by 
sketching the eyes first, and then brought 
out the rest of the face as accessories. So 
in planning a farm house the kitchen and 
living-room should be the eyes, to begin 
with, and if any sacrificing is to be done,let 
it fall without their limits. Beginning with 
the ground or first floor, we find ten looms, 
store-room and wash shed. 
The kitchen and its accessories seem well 
planned. The closet and store-room arc ad¬ 
mirable. Between the closet, G, and the 
bath-room, T, should be a high transom win¬ 
dow to let light in and help ventilate the 
closet. Between the library uud bedroom, 
E, should be a door, for various reasons. 
The living room, 1), is more open to criti¬ 
cism than access. There should be some 
other way of reaching it from the kitchen 
than through the pantry. When I plan my 
house, and Anaximander quite agrees with 
me, I shall have a general toilette room open¬ 
ing from the living-room, with an out-door 
entrance. It shall lie supplied with water- 
faucets, bath-tub, wash-basins with drains 
from the bottom of each, towels, soap, look¬ 
ing glass, combs, brushes, etc,, with a place 
for each and all things, so that all, man, wo¬ 
man, and hired help kind can find every ta 
cility for ablution at all times. The same 
room might be large enough to be used for a 
wash-room on Mondays. At all events, such 
a room is an Improvement upon a stool with 
a tin wash basin on it, and water slopped al 
about. I don’t remember ever to iiave seen 
such a room introduced in farm-houses, but 
you all see the exceeding beauty and utility 
of it, as well as (lie labor-saving ness. The 
luici-ior Finishing 
is in native wood, with plain mouldings 
no filagree work, nor grooves, nor ugly 
places for dust and dirt io settle in. Tim 
wood work is to he simply oiled. The 
living or dining room (one as in this house) 
will be ceiled up, high as the chair hacks, 
with alternate perpendicular strips of two 
kinds of wood, dark aud light, finished with 
a plain moulding. 
The llnlt Floor 
will be laid in alternate narrow stripes of 
light and dark wood, oiled, and the balus¬ 
trades aud stair steps to correspond, the flat, 
horizontal piece of the step to he of the dark 
wood, and the upright piece of the light. 
The hat, cloak and umbrella rack, contain¬ 
ing mirror and a drawer for brushes, with 
two straight - backed, wooden chairs each 
side, to lie of wood to match. The hall thus 
finished will be in the latest and most ap¬ 
proved style, and is spoiled with any 
such furnishing as oilcloth, carpet or mat¬ 
ting on the floor or stairs. A hat-rack, with 
two chairs of black walnut, in plain but ex¬ 
cellent finish, costa from §35 to $40. When 
we came to the 
Wall Fnrnishinar, 
we had a serious division. Anaximander 
had an affection for the bri .ht, pretty fresh¬ 
ness of spring-patterned wall paper, with 
gay borders, while I declared I wouldn’t, 
have a bit in the house “ Well, how then V” 
he asked despairingly, which sort o’ touched 
me, and I said he might have it in fa's room 
if lie wauled it, and then gave him my idea. 
The walls are all to be quite smoothly fin¬ 
ished and painted some shade or tinge of 
color, always delicate, hut warm and tender, 
the parlor and dining-room some gray neu¬ 
tral shade, with enough red in it for warmth. 
The sleeping-rooms to vary in tints, one 
with delicate green walls, with furniture to 
match, of which a handsome set, consisting 
of bedstead, dressing bureau, washstand, 
clmirs and table, may be had for $40. 
Another painted straw-color, another sal¬ 
mon, another lavender, etc., each matched, 
by the furniture. Anaximander suggested 
wood hangings for the hall and library. I 
agreed to the former, but. thought the latter 
objectionable, because we might want to 
bang “ family portraits ” in the library, and 
then a Avail hung Avith wood hangings should 
not be broken upon with picture frames, 
book-cases or book-shelves. 
We wanted the library to be bright, rose- 
colored and vivifying, didn’t we? A green 
carpel, with blossom-colored stars or rose 
buds strewed over it, and the chintz-covered 
furniture as bright, too? And, would there 
ho room for the piano, with a bracket over 
it for the pot of ivy or myrtle leaf that twines 
all about, and enwreathes with its graceful 
perennial verdure the sweet picture of our 
ost darling? Anaximander said be.should 
use it for his office, and he didn’t quite ap¬ 
prove of my Idea. Instead of the piano, he 
VENTILATION 
BEDROOMS. 
BY JULIA COLMAN. 
wanted a lounge or a sofa of his stretched- 
out dimensions, as he had the bad habit of ly¬ 
ing down to read. That would cost $15 prob- 
tbly. Then his chair should he one of these 
turn-about ones, turning and rocking, and 
tipping all so^ts of ways but t he wrong one, 
md that would cost, nearly as much as the 
sola. A walnut secretary would Cost $(50. 
“ And you, my dear,” lie said, stroking my 
lair the wrong way in a patronizing man¬ 
ner, “shall have one of those cosy little 
Spanish rocking chairs, covered with chintz 
or crimson rep, as you like. That will cost 
$12 or $14, but il will be just the thing for 
you to rest in Avhen you read to me or have 
a lecture to deliver!”—[To be continued. 
-- 
SELECTED RECIPES. 
Bcttintr Dyes in Calicoes. 
A correspondent of the Southern Culti¬ 
vator says:—“ I have used ox-galls from the 
butchers with success. Pour boiling hot 
water on the gulls when in a dry state, and 
soak the calico or muslin in the water for a 
few hours. 1 have also let them lie in the 
water through the night, and then took 
them out and dried them, afterward wash¬ 
ing thoroughly as usual. L had a friend who 
disliked the smell of the galls, and used in¬ 
stead the Buckeye, 'fake the root, wash 
clean, and boil to a tea, and alter straining, 
boil the calico in the lea. Either <>t the 
above xvill prevent black or purple calicoes 
from running. Add a small piece of cop¬ 
peras to the Buckeye tea; it. is not necessary 
to add t he copperas to thogall. ’ 
Cement for Knife Handles. 
The Druggists’ Circular says :—“ The best 
cement for tills purpose consists of one 
pound of colophony (purchasable at the 
druggists) and eight ounces of sulphur, 
which are to be melted together, and either 
kept in bars or reduced to powder. One 
part of the powder is to be mixed with half 
a part of iron filings, fine sand or brick dust, 
and the cavity of the handle is then to be 
filled with this mixture. The stem of the 
knife or fork is then to be heated and in¬ 
serted in the cavity, and when cold it will 
be found fixed to its place w'ith great te¬ 
nacity.” _ 
Pie Plant Dumplings. 
We do not know the origin of the follow¬ 
ing;—“ Strip the plant and cut it, into pieces 
of three or four inches long; make a plain 
crust, and roll enough of the pieces in the 
crust to make, a dumpling about us large ns 
an apple would make it. When you have 
as many dumplings as you think will suffice 
lor vour family, drop them In a pot of hot 
water, and boil i hem about a half hour, when 
they are ready for t he table. For a sauce to 
serve with them. I use one cup of butter, one 
cup of molasses, and a Clip and a hull ol 
sugar, boiled together. If boiled long enough 
it will he thick and rich enough without 
anything else added, but if l am in a hurry 
and cannot wait for much boiling, I thicken 
it with a teaspoon fill of Hour mixed with 
sweet cream stirred into it.” 
pan 
Vet 
Beefsteak with Mushrooms. 
Take four pounds of the best sirloin 
steaks, cut thin; season them with black 
pepper and a very little salt; put a large 
lablcspoonful of good lard into a frying pan, 
and set it over the fire ; when it is quite hot 
put in the steaks and let them brown. Have 
ready a quart of mushrooms, stemmed and 
skinned, and moistened with a pint of water, 
seasoned with a little pepper and salt, and 
thickened slightly with a good dredging of 
flour. Pour it over the steaks in the frying 
an, and let them cook till thoroughly done. 
nison steaks will be found excellent 
dressed in this manner, but the venison must 
be fresh. 
-- 
Domestic Inquiries.—E llen asks some one to 
tell her how to color cotton black, atul says: 
“ I can get a nice color on woolen, bur, never on 
cotton. I know it can be done: but is the secret 
locked ui> with the thread makers?" She also 
ask-, “ What mukes the eider die? AVe made 
cider last, year, and thought to have wood vine¬ 
gar. I drew out some and put. in ml open half 
barrel, and kept only a cloth over It. It became 
insipid and worthless. Toll the emi-e or rem¬ 
edy." AVe suspect one cause may be the want 
of saccharine matter i n the eider, and I he remedy 
would 1 ) 0 . in that ease, to add molasses to it. 
Mrs. s. M. Enos writes: “The season of fruits 
is ut hand. Let every Rural housewife toll the 
Rural New-Yorker how she use* and preserves 
fruits. A groat deal of good may be done each 
other so.” 
The “Breath of Life” is an important 
item of every day fare, or rather of every 
minute fare. We breathe about twenty 
times each minute. One writer naively re¬ 
marks, that ur air is a dish of which we par¬ 
take so often, it. is very important that it be 
pure. Important as it may be, however, it 
seldom receives our attention. True, nature 
attends to it for ns in most cases, where avo 
permit nature to have her own way. The 
ever changing temperature of the air cautw-s 
it to rise and fall aud “ rush about, generally,” 
in the grand system of winds, cleansing out 
every place to which the most subtle prying 
will give it access. Much of the foulness 
thus carried off is washed down to the earth 
by the ram. Vegetables absorb the carbonic 
acid gas thrown out by animals, and produc¬ 
ed by combustion, and give out, in return, 
oxygen for the support of animal life. But 
if the air is confined it becomes surcharged 
with noxious gases and the exhalations of 
surrounding substances. Agitation is as 
essential to its purity, as to the waters of the. 
ocean. 
Though people are supposed to know that, 
they need this breath of life in its purity, 
what pains do they commonly take to secure 
it? IIow many houses do we find that con¬ 
tain any provision whatever for the necessary 
free circulation. IIow many look to it when 
they retire at night, to secure a sufficient 
supply of pure air to last them through the 
hours of unconsciousness until morning ? All 
l|<.»U»f-9 should be built, with ventilators, and 
that practice is becoming common. But 
until we have such houses avo must exercise 
our Avatclifulness in those we have. 
Suppose we walked into this room occu¬ 
pied last night by two persons of ordinary 
intelligence. It is a fair sized bedroom, 
neither the largest nor the smallest, say 
eight by ten, by eight feet in height. This 
gives six hundred and forty feet as the cubic 
space of the room, making no deduction for 
t he bed or other articles. Now every per¬ 
son, with the carbonic acid expired by the 
lungs and respired by tlic body, spoils at, least, 
seven cubic feet of air per minute. Thus 
there would be air enough in the room to 
supply one person ninety-one minutes, or one, 
hour and a half, aud for two persons three- 
fourths of an hour. Is there any ventilator? 
No. Perhaps the dn.jv stood, open ? No. 
These two intelligent (?) persons come in last 
night and closed the door, (the window had 
not been opened,) and deliberately went to 
sleep in this box when there was not air 
enough for their healthful consumption a 
single hour 
This is not an exaggerated picture. I 
have known the same thing to be done in a 
much smaller room than that. I have 
known parents, with three or four little 
children, to sleep in a room but little larger 
than that with no special provision what¬ 
ever for breathing. They were respectable 
people too, and in their own house, where 
they had an abundance of room. But what 
became of them when the air was exhaust¬ 
ed? They continued to breathe over again 
the vitiated air, getting what little oxygen 
they could from it, and this, with the little 
additional air that came in through the key 
holes and the cracks around the doors and 
windows, kept them alive till morning. 
Then they rose languidly, with pale laces, 
and headaches, and furred tongues, and lack 
of appetite, and general ill feeling, until they 
had stirred around enough in the open air 
to supply their systems with some degree of 
the lacking oxygen. But they had not the 
most remote idea of the cause for these ill- 
feelings. They “always feci better after 
they have been up a while.” No cause for 
it, I suppose? 
But the room after they leave it! Sup¬ 
pose we close our nostrils, for the time be¬ 
ing, and walk into it. Throw open the 
doors and windows, and, il possible, estab¬ 
lish a circulation with the other side of the 
house. Carry out any thing offensive that 
ought to be carried out, and if it. has no 
cover keep it out till it gets one. There are 
foul exhalations enough without any from 
that source, which are positively poisonous. 
Throw open and shake up the beds, and 
hang the bedding out of the window. If the 
sheets have been used a Aveek, send them to 
the laundry Sweep and dust, if need be, 
under the bed and everywhere else. Now 
leave things in that condition an hour at the 
very least, and longer if the room is not 
wanted for other purposes. Making up the 
beds when the family is at breakfast is a 
barbarous practice, and shows more care for 
arbitrary “ order” than for health. It ought 
to be a sign of good housekeeping for the 
beds of otherwise unoccupied rooms to lie 
the house. When taken in, after such ex¬ 
posure, it. Avill smell as fresh as if just from 
the laundry; or, if it does not, send it, as be¬ 
fore suggested, to that, wholesome place. 
When the beds are made, the rooms may 
be mord or less closed, according to the 
Aveather; better always to leave some venti¬ 
lation. At night you can hardly have, too 
much fresh air, provided it does not blow 
directly upon you. Have your windows 
open above and below. This is much bet¬ 
ter than having the opening all in one place, 
because it establishes a current; the warm, 
foul air passing out at the top and the cool, 
fVesli air coming in at the bottom. One 
window may ventilate a room very passably 
in that way. It is still better to have an op¬ 
posite window or door open, provided the 
current thus obtained does not blow directly 
up**) the bed. 
If yon Lave not. been accustomed to full 
ventilation at night, commence carefully. 
Let the openings in the window be narrow 
at first, and gradually increasing. If the air 
cannot he had without its driving upon the 
bed, put up u screen, and if you still feel it, 
cover up warm and turn the face to it. Have 
the air ill the room at all hazards, and as 
much of it as you can hear. It is this ex* 
ceeding abundance of fresh air that, more 
than anything else, makes hunters and lum¬ 
bermen and all campers out. so hale and 
hearty; and if we can have il, in our dwell 
lugs, why not? and save a trip to the Adi- 
rondacks. If we can have the trip too, take 
it by all means, for the recreation and the 
exercise, but you cannot breathe enough 
then to last you the rest of the year. The 
best is none too good for daily aud nightly 
use. No one who has felt the elasticity con¬ 
sequent upon sleeping with a full supply of 
fresh air will be willing to do without it,. 
Country people need not fancy that as they 
have plenty of fresh air around them Limy 
can afford to dispense Avith it in their bed¬ 
rooms. Borne of the most unwholesome 
bedrooms 1 have ever seen were in the 
country, dark, dump anti close. The sun¬ 
shine should come into the bedroom every 
day, to purify the air. Other things being 
equal, upper rooms are preferable for sleep 
ing, on account of purer air and safety with 
the open windows. 
Having duly attended to all these items, 
and put your mind and conscience as much 
at ease as possible, undress in a comfortably 
warm room, go to bed quietly and alone, 
science says, or in a bed so wide that the 
exhalations from other bodies do not reach 
you, and then do not reflect, nor plan, nor 
talk ; but, simply, go to sleep. 
(Lite cihituraUst. 
CURCULIO EXTERMINATION. 
open until noon or after. If the bedding 
cannot hang out, put it as near the Avindow 
as possible. But an hour in the free out¬ 
door winds is better than twenty hours in 
[From H. W. GcrSTIN, St. Joseph, Mich., we 
have received a Hi. Joseph Herald, extra, con¬ 
taining an article with the above heading*, writ¬ 
ten by its editor, J. E. Cuamuhklain, who is 
also Secretary of the St. Joseph Fruit. Growers’ 
Association. We print the article entire, as fol¬ 
lows:] 
The importance of this subject; the de¬ 
mand for prompt and persistent action ; the 
absolute necessity of arousing every peach, 
plum and stone lruit grower to destroy the 
euretdio, has led the editor of the Herald, 
as Secretary of the Bt. Joseph Fruit Grow¬ 
ers’ Association, to issue this extra. Not a 
a single day should be lost, for, with united 
action. 500,000 curculio may he killed in a 
single day. 
There ! s no doubt on this point. This 
morning Hon. John Whittlesey called at 
the Herald office and stated that on the 14t.h 
inst. he killed 2,715 curculios about the roots 
of 200 trees, and on the 15th, in four hours, 
on the same trees, he lulled 1,566 by actual 
count. 
Mr. Whittlesey also stated that Mr. 
Ransom, Mr. Boneltjs and himself had in 
five hours killed upward of 5,000 curculios 
in a proportion of three small orchards. 
That he had himself, alone, in two days of 
eight hours each, killed one-half more cur¬ 
culio than were ever taken by three men, 
with the old-fashioned sheet in a week. Mr. 
Whittlesey is one of the most successful 
and scientific fruit groAvers of Bt. Joseph, 
whose word is a bond; but he said, “Do 
not believe me; go to Mr. Ransom’s or¬ 
chard and see for yourself.” 
Entering Mr. Ransom’s orchard the edi¬ 
tor met Dr. Lyman Collins coming out. 
Dr. Collins is Avidcly known for his suc- 
ecssftd peach culture. 
“Well, Doctor, is it a success?” 
“ Most assuredly. I tried the experiment 
on eight of my trees in the evening and the 
next morning look one hundred and four 
curculio. I am going home to hug my Avhole 
orchard in this maimer.” 
Wm. B. Ransom, the discoverer of the 
new method of exterminating the curculio, 
Avas found on his knees in the back of his 
orchard examining his curculio traps. This 
was at 10 o’clock A . M., and he had already 
killed 1,357 on three hundred trees. The 
editor stooped down aud lifted a corn cob 
not six inches long and found and killed 
seven curculio. There is no doubt what¬ 
ever, that the long-desired means of exter¬ 
minating the curculio is discovered. 
Here It is. 
Put the orchard in the best order; level 
down the soil about the root of every peach 
tree, and smooth a circle for a diameter of 
two and a-balf feet from the tree as a cen¬ 
ter. Have the ground very clean around 
the base of the tree. Do not leave a single 
hole next the tree. Leave no place where 
the curculio can hide except tinder the shel¬ 
ter you provide. Now lay close to the tree 
and close to the ground, about four pieces to 
a tree, either chip, or bark, or board,or lath, 
or rag, or corn-cob, or old leather, or any¬ 
thing for a covert. 
The curculio av i 11 conceal itself under this 
shelter and may he destroyed by the thou¬ 
sands. Go around every day and turn over 
oael» chip, kill every curculio. They will 
generally adhere to the chip, nut may niton 
be found on the ground under the chip. 
Probably no person in the United States 
has studied the curculio and its habits more 
carefully than William B. Ransom. For 
fifteen years he has been trying newspaper 
experiments unsuccessfully. Last year, 
when bugging, be discovered that all the 
curculios dropped within two or three feel 
of the roots of the peach tree, and on ex¬ 
amination found the little Turk sheltered on 
the trunk and In holes near the base and the 
underside of the principal limbs. 
For the lust fortnight Mr. Ransom 1ms 
spent most fill the hours of the day laying on 
the ground In his orchard patiently waiting 
for the first euretdio to show himself. On 
the fourth of May a few single curculios 
were discovered, but not a single pair; on 
the fifth a few pairs were found coupling. 
Constant, careful observation has led Mr. 
Ransom to these conclusions. 
In the fail the curculio seek a warm and 
safe shelter to hibernate. This is either the 
ground, or leaves, stumps, logs, old fences, 
woods and other congenial places of con¬ 
cealment. The first warm day in spring 
that starts vegetable life, calls the curculio 
forth, and it proceeds to its feeding and 
breeding ground. They walk very fast, and 
they fly and feed generally at night, eating 
the young and tender leaves. The first 
warm days this year they fed, then the weath¬ 
er fell cold and for a week Mr. Ra nsom found 
no Indication of their feeding. Bine© Friday 
night, the 13th, the weather warm, the cur¬ 
culio have been feeding. They scatter all 
over the tree to feed, and come down towards 
morning, and as late as 7 A. M., to hide. 
They crawl on cold days and nights, and 
hide under the shelter of the trunk of the 
tree, Avaiting to feed when the nights become 
sufficiently warm. Tim curculio uses the 
green peach only to hold its egg. It some¬ 
times eats the ripe peach, also blackberries, 
quinces and other fruits. 
Some idea of the quantity to be taken from 
a single tree, may he found from the follow¬ 
ing:—Mr. Ransom states that on the 14ih he 
took 25; on the 16th, in the morning, 50; in 
the evening, about sundown, 15; and on the 
10th 60 were killed from the same tree, and 
of these 41 were taken in a cluster under a 
chip two by three inches. 
The editor of the Herald visited Mr. Ran¬ 
som at o’clock P. M., and found he had 
in about four hours killed 2,109, by actual 
count, and AVent himself into the orchard 
and found curculio lying asleep under the 
traps in the intense heat of a boiling sun. 
-- 
GLEANINGS AND EXTRACTS. 
I.ime ami the Currant Worm. 
L. A. Spalding, Lockport, N. Y., writes 
the Rural New-Yorker :—“ The currant 
worm Iris commenced his attack, and should 
be met at once, if gooseberry and currant 
bushes are to be saved. My plan has saved 
my hushes in perfection for the last six years. 
It is, when the dew is on the bushes, to throw 
air slacked quick lime freely on them—the 
worm being Avot the lime kills it. Repeat 
this every other day for a week, and the 
present crop of worms will he effectually 
destroyed. A new crop usually appears in 
tea or fifteen days, though not so numerous, 
when the lime must be again thrown over 
and through the hushes, and, if necessary, 
repeat the operation ttulil the fruit ripens. 
Should the bushes he dry, sprinkle them 
with Avatcr before applying the lime. Lime 
is both a cheap and valuable fertilizer, and is 
preferable in every resjmt to hellebore, which 
is both expensive and poisonous.” 
Alaska Fisli Catch nml Consumption. 
In Dale’s “ Alaska and its Resources,” 
avo find some interesting fish items concern¬ 
ing Alaska. The “catch” of coil for the 
autumn of 1869 is reported as 1,082,000 fish. 
In 1866, 10,000 gallons of cod liver oil were 
reported by the Blmmagin fishermen. Dali. 
estimates that the natives consume 12,000,000 
salmon annually. At a single Russian fish¬ 
ing station 84,159 Avero obtained in otic sea¬ 
son, while at the fisheries at Kadiak and 
Cooke's Inlet 465,000 salmon are caught an¬ 
nually. At the mouth of the Yukon River 
2,000j)00 salmon are reported as dried every 
season; the true number is probably double. 
» O'Tl'il II VliVtlW 
