I mntsttc iScanamiK 
CONDUCTED BY MARY A. E. WAGER. 
RAG CARPETS. 
How lo Cm 8 fWi Color aiul Arrange tlio 
Hags* 
These indispensable articles of the house 
are made and highly prized, in nearly all 
families in the country, The suggestions of 
the experienced may lessen the labor of 
making them to the inexperienced, besides 
making a better-looking carpet. 
first, the rags or old garments ought 
to he washed clean ; then rip them to pieces, 
rejecting the parts too worn to be used ; if 
not ready to color them, tie in bundles till 
that are to be colored each color, and any 
that do not need coloring may he cut and 
sewed, or tied up by themselves, if not ready 
to commence the work. All woolen ones 
ought to be kept in linen sacks, to exclude 
the moths from them. 
Any light, mixed, or plaided woolens may 
he improved in color by dipping in a good 
red dye. Clean white rags can be colored 
yellow, orange, blue, or green. Dingy 
white rags will look well, colored hem¬ 
lock color and set with lime. This is a 
cheap, pretty and durable color for some of 
the rags and the warp. Bits of hark may 
be gathered around saw mills, when one 
cannot get it elsewhere; boil enough hark 
to make a strong dye, and add to it a little 
clear lime water, after removing all hits of 
hark or straining the dye. If dregs remain 
in any dye, it will spot the cloth or yarn. 
If a smooth parlor carpet is wanted, the 
rags must he cotton, and other rags that are 
made of fine yarn. Coarse-threaded woolen 
rags make a carpet look rough, and though 
it may do well enough for a kitchen, it is 
not, so nice for a parlor. 
Unless the rags are light, it will take a 
pound and a hull', and sometimes more, for 
each yard of carpet. To know when suffi¬ 
cient rags are prepared for the number of 
yards wanted, the prepared rags must be 
weighed. If the rags am light, it will not 
take quite a pound and a-half; hut if they 
are coarse-threaded or woolen rags, it will 
take some more than a pound and a-half, if 
the carpet is well beaten up. 
If a striped carpet is wanted, tear each 
color separately, and mix together the dif¬ 
ferent shades of the same color when sew¬ 
ing; this will make the carpet more uniform 
in color and prettier than if some stripes 
contained all the brightest colors, and others 
paler ones, which they will, if the shades of 
the same color are not mixed in sewing. A 
carpet always looks inuen better if all the 
breadths are uniform in color, and by mix¬ 
ing the shades of the same color in sewing 
them it will he so. 
For a hap-hazard carpet, all different 
colors may he mixed in sewing. This will 
use up all short rags, of any color or shade, 
and often makes a very pretty carpet, which 
may he woven easier and cheaper than a 
striped carpet. Short pieces, or those not 
more than three or four yards long, alter¬ 
nated with shorter ones, look the best in 
this kind of carpet. 
For warp, good strong prepared yarn is 
the best, and saves much labor. It may he 
reeled into skeins of five knots before color¬ 
ing, allowing one skein to a yard and about 
three knots over, to he woven in at the end 
of each breadth, for binding. 
Measure the Inside of the room, and let 
the weaver know how long to make each 
breadLli. Carpets will shrink a little in 
length from the weaver’s measure after they 
come out of tue loom, but will often stretch 
a little iu width. The stripes will match 
the best, if the edges on the same side of 
the loom are sewed together, as the different 
sides of the loom sometimes vary a little.— 
H. e. s. 
- 4 -*~*- 
ABOUT SALADS. 
In every country salad is composed of 
nearly the same ingredients. Many veget¬ 
ables contain potash, and when they can he 
eaten raw they are excellent antiscorbutic 
food. Boiling them would remove the 
potash; thus their principal virtue would be 
lost. The Romans ate salad freely, mixed 
with olive oil. The general ingredients of 
a salad are well known. In spriug and 
summer, cos lettuce, mustard and cress, 
water cress, and radishes form the staple • 
in the autumn, endive and cabbage lettuce 
predominate. 
Nothing spoils a salad so nmch, both in 
appearance and fluvor, as cutting it up too 
fine. Every atom should maintain its indi¬ 
viduality. Radishes cannot be cut too fine, 
but the slices should be in rings, and not 
dice shape. Onions must remain a matter 
of taste; but not so as regards mint. Every 
salad should contain from three to six leaves 
of young mint, as it greatly assists its diges¬ 
tion. No salad can he properly made with¬ 
out. one or two hard boiled eggs, because the 
yolks are necessary to blend the oil. The 
mixture should be made thus:—Boil two 
egg3 quite hard; when done take them 
out of the sauce-pan and put them into 
cold water. This causes the eggs to shrink, 
and the shells can easily he removed with 
out disfiguring Ihe white. Cut each egg into 
three parts, and remove the yolk into the 
salad howl; cut the white into fine rings, 
some of the best, of which should be pre¬ 
served to place on the top of the salad when 
served. With a wood or silver spoon break 
up the. yolk in the salad howl, and add one 
tablespoon fid of oil; rub these ingredients 
together, and they will blend; then add at 
least three tablespoonfuls more of oil, and 
again rub all together; now add a tea¬ 
spoonful of moist sugar, agftin rub, and all 
will blend. Now acid gradually, a little at a 
time, the vinegar, iu quantity about twice 
as much as the oil used; lastly, put in pep¬ 
per, salt, and ready-mixed mustard, the lat¬ 
ter hut little; hut on no account use mus¬ 
tard that has not been previously mixed with 
water. A little tarragon vinegar, used scan¬ 
tily, improves every salad. It is very es¬ 
sential to mix the ingredients hi the order 
laid down as above. When this is eurcfullj 
done an excellent, salad will he the result— 
soft, yet aromatic ; creamy, hut not greasy. 
There are true chemical reasons for mix¬ 
ing yolk of egg with oil, as there arc for mix¬ 
ing flour of mustard with water, and not 
vinegar; but Ibis is not the place for exam¬ 
ining them—the facts staled must he accept¬ 
ed. It is the general want of the knowledge 
of how to blend the oil that causes the com¬ 
mon remark, “ I am very fond of salad, hut 
I’ll not take any oil, thank you,” Of course, 
served up as it. frequently is, all floating and 
greasy, Few tilings can ho more objectiona¬ 
ble, unless it he that rancid* potion sold in 
ring bottles in shops, under the name of 
“ Salad Cream.” Avoid this. Beet root, as 
a staple to a salad, is not used sufficiently in 
England. At least half a good-sized beet 
shoiqd be cut up with every salad, tl is di¬ 
gestible, nutritious, and in general favor.— 
Septimus Piesse. 
CONTRIBUTED RECIPES. 
Polishing Iron Ten-Kettles. 
When the stove is polished rub the tea¬ 
kettle with the same polish. It is much the 
most convenient, and the most tasteful mode 
of keeping it neat, 
Cflonnslnar Woolen or Milken Goods. 
If among the innumerable benzines, and 
cleansing fluids afloat, one does not happen 
to have anything satisfactory to obviate the 
effects of any overwhelming accident, as, lor 
instance, getting wagon grease on some cost¬ 
ly fabric, try the yolk of an egg. We have 
used it for years, and like it still. Separate 
the yolk from the white as perfectly as pos¬ 
sible. Then stretch the fabric on a board, 
and with a soft clothes brush dip into the 
yolk, and rub the spot with it, until the 
grease seems loosened. The yolk will not, 
injure the most delicate colors, but the rub¬ 
bing may,, il loo severe. Then rinse with 
warm rain water, rubbing the edges with 
a damp cloth and clapping the whole be¬ 
tween dry towels. If the stain is not quite 
gone, repeat the process. It will not do so 
well for fabrics mixed with cotton or linen. 
—j. c. 
HrenUtnst Fritters. 
One teacup of sweet milk ; three eggs ; a 
pinch of salt; the same of soda, and flour to 
make a thicklsh batter; fry until a light 
brown; serve with sirup or melted coffee 
sugar. 
Nice Johnny Cake. 
One pint of sweet milk; two eggs; a 
pinch of salt; a teaspoonful of cream tartar; 
half a teaspoon of soda; two-thircls of a pint 
of Indian meal, and a large tablespoonful of 
wheat flour. Bake forty minutes, and serve 
with butter. 
Water Cake. 
One teacup of sugar; two eggs; half cup 
of butter; one teacup of water; two cups of 
flour; two teaspoon fills of cream tartar; one 
of soda; beat the butter and eggs to a cream ; 
then add the other ingredients; stir well, 
and hake quick; flavor with nutmeg or 
lemon. 
Graham Flour Muffins. 
One pint of sour milk; a small teaspoon- 
ful of soda; one tablespoomiil of sugar; 
Graham flour enough to make a thick bat¬ 
ter. Bake in rings, or drop the hatter in spoon¬ 
fuls on a square tin, A little salt should he 
added to the bat t er before baking. 
GiHirer Cookies. 
One cup of molasses; one of sugar; one 
of warm water; two teaspoonfuls of ginger; 
one tablespoonful of soda; one teaspoonful 
of pulverized alum; one cup of butter or 
fried meat fat; flour to make a dough ; roll, 
but not too thin; cut out, and bake in a 
quick oven. Dissolve the alum in water, and 
add to the other ingredients the last thing.— 
Mrs. E. A. C., Fabian, N. Y. 
--»■»» 
Domestic Inquiries.—.\frs. H. H. asks someone 
to give a recipe for making- the celebrated Bos¬ 
ton crackers. - Moor. if; says:—“ Four yards of 
nearly new blue flannel got sprinkled with pot¬ 
ash lye and turned yellow in spots. Can any 
readers of the Rukal New-Yorker tell how to 
restore the color? ” 
Mohrs invtr Manners. 
IP_ __ 
OUT OF DOORS. 
BY JULIA COI.MAN. 
“Come,” said Justitia, placing her hand 
on my shoulder, “ 1 thought you agreed not 
to write after dinner while you wereslaying 
with us.” 
I dreaded to look up ; thepapersGQmed so 
near, and the tall Justitia so far away; but 
I did so, and found her pure, fair face within 
reach. I laid down my pencil, with a little 
sigh fen* the half fledged fancy that would 
probably fly away before I could get a 
chance to cage it. “ You are right, as usual, 
said I, “and besides 1 have sat still long 
enough for one day. What is our program¬ 
me now ?” 
“ A call on the Carter’s, 3-011 know.” 
II Oh yes, and I must go and dress.” 
“ Not a hit of it. They will think just as 
well of us in plain muslins, and we shall find 
them in calicoes. They are charmingly sen¬ 
sible women.” 
What a relief that was! We just put on 
our sundowns, anti walked along so serenely ! 
l wish niy neignbors would always come lo 
see me in that way, and not stop to crimp, 
and twist and lace all their freshness out of 
them, till there is nothing left of them hut 
dry goods. 
Wo went in at a side gate, and walked up 
a beautiful avenue of young elms. Just at 
our right in front of the house was a parterre 
of flowers—one of the prettiest attempts at 
landscape gardening on a small scale that I 
ever saw. A few graceful vines festooned 
the light, portico, while some well placed 
Rieini and clusters ol'Canna were the tallest 
growth within the charmed circle of orna¬ 
mental trees that enclosed the space occupy¬ 
ing the whole trout of the house. The sun 
had a fair chance to vivify all, and oven lo 
pass within the blinds, some of which were 
half open. I turned to remark as much to 
my companion, when a parting iu the shrub¬ 
bery before us, at the end of the house, re¬ 
vealed the family group of ladies under the 
trees. They rose to greet us cordially, and 
soon we were seated among them. After a 
few common places they naturally and easily 
resumed their work, and we fell into a pleas¬ 
ant conversation, while I glanced around. 
OnO of the daughters picked up a copy of 
the blessed Rural New Yorker from the 
grass beside her, and laid il upon the table 
whence she took her sewing, so I inferred 
that she had been reading to the others while 
they worked. 
The shade around us was flecked with 
sunshine. Garden seats and easy chairs were 
scattered about among t he ornamental trees, 
and a winding path led past a croquet ground 
to a trollised arbor opposite, thickly covered 
with wistaria. The grounds extended hack 
from the road to an orchard, some of whose 
pleasant .vistas were plainly visible. The 
sitting-room door opened near us, and of 
such easy access that it seemed only another 
apartment of the sumo house. 
Mrs. Carter, seeing my glance, inquired 
it I would prefer to sit in the house, which 
offer 1 cordially declined, saying that this 
was the prettiest room I had been in for 
many a day. 
“ We like it," she replied, “ and we always 
sit here when the weather penults. You 
can see by the grass, or rat her by the lack of 
grass, that we use it freely.” 
I thought il in very good condition, and 
inquired how it was kept so, and she said 
that they watered it freely every night in 
warm weather; but on the other side of the 
house, where they set the table, they were 
talking about having cement. 
I begged to see where they set the table, 
and we passed through the netted doors into 
the kitchen, and out upon the further side t 
with a spacious porch open on two sides. 
“This is our summer work room” said 
Mrs. Carthhi. “ That door opens into the 
pantry and milk-room. Here is a pump into 
the same cistern that the kitchen pump 
draws water from. We reach the well on 
this side without leaving the roof. Here we 
do all our washing, ironing, churning and 
washing dishes and milk things—everything, 
in fact, excepting what is done over the 
stove, and I presume wo should have that 
out here if it would draw well.” 
“But does not the sun shine in here?” I 
inquired. 
“Not until afternoon, and if we are here 
then, these screens come iu play.” They 
were two large muslin screens, on rollers. 
“ I should lliinkyou would have it screened 
with vines, such as 3-011 have twined so taste¬ 
fully about these pillars.” 
“ That would keep out the air, you see, 
while we want all we can get. and some sun¬ 
shine too. We tell the men folks they can’t 
have it all. It does us us much good as it 
does them.” 
Meanwhile I had scanned the blooming 
matron closely. Her forehead was a little 
brown, and her face slightly freckled; but 
there was a freshness and vivacity, an un- 
mistakeable glow- of health that was more 
charming than nil the languishing lily white 
house plants that I had seen for a year. Her 
well developed form was clad in a gabrielle 
that one would have said fitted closely, hut 
that an occasional movement betrayed its 
amplitude. There w-as room euough in 
those lungs for a full supply of vital air, and 
I doubt if when filled to their utmost capac¬ 
ity they would press upon the graceful gar¬ 
ment. It fitted like a man's coat; it was a 
triumph of tasteful and physiological dress¬ 
making. 
“Oh, Mrs. Carter,” said I, “excuse my 
freedom, hut what a delightful tiling it 
would he if we could have all our dresses 
made in this way! What a relief to our 
cramped lungs, and how many lives it would 
save!’’ • 
“ Why can’t you?” was the direct reply. 
"So we do for morning gowns; but ga- 
briclles are not in fashion now for dress oc¬ 
casions, you know.” 
“ And yet you can wear thorn. My girls 
do. I have one daughter that is teaching in 
the city, and she will have all her dresses 
cut. so, because there is 110 other way in 
which they will lit so gracefully and yet lie 
so loose. And then she wears overskirts 
with them, such as other ladies wear, and no 
one knows the difference. She has the belt, 
loose, with hooks to keep it in place, and 
instead of this Spanish flounce, she trims 
Ihe bottom of the dress to correspond with 
the overskirt.” 
“ Well, I shall try it. We know we can’t 
have health without plenty of air to vitalize 
the blood in the lungs. And yet men’s 
clothes, the way they wear them, diminish 
the proper amount of air one-fourth. What 
our dress must do for us I cannot esti¬ 
mate.” 
“ It is killing us off by the thousand," said 
Mrs. Carter, solemnly. “I am glad my 
girls are wide-awake and independent on 
that subject.” 
Mother-love and intelligence make grand 
women. Wlmt a contrast to some ignorant 
fine ladies T know, who half kill their daugh¬ 
ters, dressing them up to catch worthless 
husbands who will quite kill I,hem after¬ 
wards. But as I did not say this aloud, 
Mrs. Carter resumed the former subject, 
and turning to a slightly elevated plateau in 
front of the porch, she said, “Here is our 
dining room.” 
The t rees came close to the house, ns they 
did on tlu: other side. The generous dining 
table stood beneath them covered with an 
ample oil - cloth, to defend it, from the 
went her. The ground was hard, but bare. 
“Husband wants to try the coal-tar ce¬ 
ment, ([ forget the right name of il,) hut I 
can’t hear the smell of it; so we arc going to 
have tlu: water cement, such as we have in 
our cellar.” 
Well grown shrubbery concealed all this 
from the street, and in the rear the view 
opened into a richly furnished kitchen gar¬ 
den, the walk of which was bordered with 
flowers after the goodly old fashion. 
“ My son Hiram says he is going to con¬ 
duct the spring from the hillside, and have a 
fountain out thereon llu: lawn, bevond the 
table; hut I presume a big aquarium is all 
the dignity il. will attain. JTe is raising gold 
and silver fish lo stock it now.” 
“ It is not, everybody who can get out¬ 
doors as easily as you can, Mrs. Carter. 
Borne houses are so built that it seems almost 
impossible to keep up a friendly intercourse 
with the trees and the flowers outside.” 
“ This house was just one of that kind un¬ 
til we altered it. There was no door on 
the other side of the house till we had one 
Cut. through from the sitting-room. And 
this door was so high that we had the 
grimed raised till we needed but one stop off 
the porch. I would not have any between 
the porch and the house. And then we 
have had to use Ailanthus and Locust trees 
largely for shade, on account of their rapid 
growth, though I don’t like them in other 
respects.” 
“ This out-door life must be charmingly 
delightful, now came you to take lip a 
fashion so uncommon in this northern lati¬ 
tude ? ” 
“ I did it for the sake of my daughters. 
They got. a. notion many years ago, when 
the oldest wasn’t more than a dozen years 
old, that it was very refined to stay in the 
house and keep it dark; and to correct that 
I read and learned so much, and finally- they 
did too, that now we are out of doors ns 
much us possible.” 
“ And like it immensely,” said Miss 
Agatha, who had come around with the 
other ladies from viewing the flowers, her 
especial charge, while wo were viewing the 
kitchen department. I scanned the girls 
with new Interest. They were brown and 
buxom like their mother, good sound bodies 
with live souls iu them, and both clad in the 
incomparable Gabrielles. 
-*-*--*■- 
Corsets. 
Medical statistics in France, it is said, 
have proved that mortality among the female 
sex has diminished since corsets have be¬ 
come less fashionable. 
§cicitttfic tilth ftscful. 
COTTON HARVESTERS. 
A recent number of the American Arti¬ 
san contains an editorial ill which the writer, 
in his introduction, speculates upon what 
might and might not, have happened had 
some one, twenty years ago, devised an effi¬ 
cient apparatus for picking cotton from the 
boll and adds:—“No other opportunity of 
like magnitude for an invention to meet a 
great need of the world was ever so long or 
persistently neglected. The irregular ma¬ 
turing of the cotton bolls, and their nmmi- 
form distribution on and among the branches 
of the plant, stayed the efforts of the gen¬ 
eration Hint conquered the difficulties of ihe 
steamship, the railway and the telegraph, 
and Ihe simple plucking of the snowy fibers 
is a problem unsolved in practice to ihe 
present hour. 
“The annual cotton crop of this country 
is worth, in round figures, three hundred 
millions of dollars. Lust, y-ear, il numbered 
three millions t wo hundred and thirty-seven 
thousand hales. The whole of this immense 
product, must, lie gathered a handful at a 
time, and whether this shall ho done by the 
direct application of human fingers or 
through the agency of some mechanically 
acting force properly applied is a query 
that will lie pondered upon until, after many 
failures and much cost, of experiment and 
toil, and many day-dreams vanishing into 
thin—albeit clouded—air. steam shall strip 
the staple from the cotton holt as easily and 
as surely as the horse power thresher now 
strips the kernels from sheaves of bearded 
grain. 
“ It is worthy of remark that the principle 
of operation apparently the best adapted to 
tit, a machine for the work was suggested 
long since, so long, Indeed, that no conven¬ 
iently accessible data enable its to give the 
date. This consists iu the use of atmospheric 
pressure to detach the fillers, and of it sev¬ 
eral different, modes of application have 
been proposed. In one of these, patented 
by a. Kentuckian just before the time when 
armies marched and countermarched across 
the border States- a tube connected with a 
suction nir pump, and formed with a flaring 
or funnel-shaped outer end, was so provided 
with internal valves that, when the flaring 
end just mentioned was placed over a boll, 
the suction would detach the cotton, carry 
it into the tube, past the valves, and thence 
to a receptacle arranged hi Communication 
with the tuho. The device was designed to 
he applied to the cotton I tolls liy hand, and 
the pump was to lie worked by a steam en¬ 
gine. 
“ It is evident that the efficiency of a ma¬ 
chine operating on this principle would de¬ 
pend in the main upon the care and skill 
with which the details of construction were 
worked out, a matter not so ensilv attended 
to as might nt. first appear, and also upon the 
deltness and aptitude with which the opera¬ 
tor could move the tube from one hod to 
another, this of course requiring to he done 
with greater rapidity in securing economical 
results limn the movement of the hand in 
ordinary Colton picking. To so apply the 
air draught ns to aci upon the bolls vwihout 
the careful adjustment of the tube thereto, 
would doubtless render the work more 
rapid, tun for mu idlest, reasons would require 
an increased expenditure of power much out 
of proportion to the increased speed ot the 
picking operation. 
“ Various purely mechanical devices have 
been also brought forward for the purpose. 
In one of these an endless belt was armed 
with teeth or hooka to grasp the cotton from 
the bolls and carry il 10 a revolving brush 
intended to direct or throw it into a suitable 
receptacle. In another, two endless hands 
running within a suitable ease were so ar¬ 
ranged that, as the forward end of the disc 
was brought, over a hull, the fibers cm the 
latter would lie caught up between the belts, 
carried hack to the rear of the ease, and 
thence discharged. Both of the apparatus 
last described were invented nearly ten yearn 
ago; but little opportunity lor their test or 
improvement has been afforded in the time 
since elapsed. They do not seem, however, 
to possess Ihe manageability or tint possi¬ 
bility of Improvement apparent in the pneu¬ 
matic system, and it is not probable that 
their essential peculiarities will ever find a 
place in a successful machine. 
“ In closing this sketch, however, we must 
not forget one of the latest, us well as one of 
the most unique applications of scientific 
principles to the purpose in hand, and 
which, whether practicable or not, merits 
mention for its novelty and simplicity. The 
invention embraced a cotton picker so con¬ 
structed as to be charged with electricity, 
thereby to attract the cotton fibers and draw 
them from the bolls. The essential working 
parts are specified as belts or hands charged 
with frictional electricity, between which 
the cotton plants are made to puss, in order 
that the fibers may he gathered, as just men¬ 
tioned, and carried to a receiving box; and, 
further, the bands are arranged at the sides 
of the traveling machines, and to act iu con¬ 
cert with devices lor shaking or agitating 
the plante to facilitate the detachment of the 
cotton from the twills when brought iu suita¬ 
ble relation with the bands. The chances 
of accident ami derangement in the opera¬ 
tion of this apparatus are so numerous Unit 
the probability of its success may ho pre¬ 
sumed to he slender; but the inventor de¬ 
serves credit for the boldness of his scheme; 
for it is only by investigating every possible 
method ot securing the end desired that 
such end can at last be obtained.” 
