456 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[October, 
Wood Rack and Wood Apron. 
The accompanying engraving shows two conve¬ 
nient methods of carrying fire wood. A wood rack 
for the shoulder is made of a piece of round hard¬ 
wood, with four long pins set in the upper side. 
These pins are placed in V-shaped pairs, between 
which the fire wood is piled. A handle, three feet 
long, is set in a hole bored in the centre of the 
under side of the body of the rack. This device, 
when complete, resembles a “skeleton” hod, and is 
carried in the same manner as a hod for brick or 
mortar. A second method of carrying wood con¬ 
sists of a stout canvas “ apron,” in the lower part 
of which the fuel is placed, as shown in the en¬ 
graving. A boy, or other person, with much wood 
to move short distances, will find either of these 
methods labor-saving, and they are quickly made. 
Setter and Much Cheaper Matches. 
Sending to the country-store for a “package” 
of matches, the writer received thirty-six boxes, 
each holding one hundred and one to one hundred 
and six excellent matches, costing only a trifle over 
one cent per hundred. These were enclosed in a 
heavy, well-made, strong paste-board case, with 
convenient, close-fitting lid, the whole so neatly 
covered and painted as to be an ornament on a 
shelf. This parcel, and its low price, reminded us 
that for a score of years every match-box has had 
the tax-stamp, on which the people have been 
made to pay fully double what the Government re¬ 
ceived by the devices of the manufacturers. The 
discount on large purchases of stamps enabled a 
few heavy concerns to monopolize the business, 
while a very common custom has been to put only 
fifty to seventy matches under a stamp allowing a 
full hundred, thus requiring more frequent pur¬ 
chases and the paying of a tax thirty to fifty per 
cent higher than was necessary. The stamp fur¬ 
nished a plea for a high price; the discount re¬ 
ceived from the Government by the makers was 
itself a fair profit. All this is now done away 
with. Anybody can make and sell matches, and 
competition in quality and cheapness will now 
govern the trade. 
It may seem a small matter, but “ many a mickle 
make a muckle;” the little savings are what tell in 
any family. On the average, this reduction in cost, 
and the better quality of matches, will fully equal 
one dollar a year in an average family, of which 
the Government will lose scarcely one-third, 
and that not needed by an overflowing treasury. 
The Best Matches. —In buying matches, it is 
just as well to buy only good ones, and thus com¬ 
pel dealers to keep these only. Some prefer the 
so-called “parlor matches,” on account of their 
odor, easy ignition, and quick, large flame. But 
they are not to be recommended for ordinary 
family use. They are dangerous, liable to burn 
the fingers, to fly off upon clothing, etc.; if trod on, 
they will leave a dark, permanent stain, if they do 
not burn a spot in the carpet or floor, and perchance 
start a disastrous fire. The brilliant flame is nearly 
a total waste of expensive chlorate of potash, as it 
is only the quiet flame of the paraffine on the stick, 
or of the stick itself, after the igniting sulphur is 
burned off, that is utilized. The larger amount of 
phosphorous fumes is quite as unhealthful as the 
sulphureous odors from ordinary matches. 
The Safest Matches are those which will only 
ignite on the prepared surface of the boxes in 
which they come; but these are too stationary 
for general use. The sulphurous fumes from 
matches are not a serious objection. To the ordi¬ 
nary atmosphere of a room they are disinfectant, 
and healthful so far as the small quantity from a 
match has any influence, and, unless purposely or 
carelessly held near one’s face, they are not inju¬ 
rious. The Best Matches have the following quali¬ 
ties : The stick is of good wood, not easily broken, 
sufficiently resinous to take fire readily, produce a 
good-sized flame and hold it against ordinary fair 
drafts. Test these points in selecting matches by 
trying two or three of them. For ordinary use 
they should be two or three inches long, or a little 
over, but longer for some lamps, cliaudeliers, and 
other special uses ; round, smooth, one-tenth inch 
diameter—ten laid together covering an inch. 
The sulphur coating should extend on the stick 
evenly and for only half an inch, so thin as to be 
scarcely visible, not in lumps and masses, and no 
two should stick together. The ignition point is 
small, round, smooth, extending back uniformly, 
and less than the diameter of the stick. Color 
is non-essential, a matter of taste or preference. 
Improve the Kitchens. 
In these days of beauty and artistic effect in 
houses, we are constantly told how to decorate our 
drawing-rooms and bedrooms, but seldom do we 
hear anything said about improving our kitchens. 
Some kitchens we have seen, especially those which 
were presided over by the lady of the house, were 
neatness itself, which always has a charm, but 
which, with a little contrivance and very little out¬ 
lay, might gain in attractiveness. In a kitchen, 
where there is not much money to spend for adorn¬ 
ment, let a little forethought and as much taste as 
possible have their way, and the owners thereof 
will be astonished to see how much comfort tired 
mother and father would take in the transformed 
apartment, as they drop down there for a few 
moments to rest. 
The question is, what shall be done to the 
kitchen to make it bright and attractive, and the 
suggestions given are intended particularly for 
country kitchens, which seem to be very often the 
thoroughfare, if not the resting-place for the family. 
Vines, of course, would be in the way in the sum¬ 
mer, and at that time they are not needed so much, 
as the kitchen doors are frequently draped with 
honey-suckles or morning-glories on the outside, 
as well as the kitchen windows. But in the winter, 
when it is cold and cheerless outside, and the grace¬ 
ful vines have turned into brown, dead-looking 
stalks, try to have something green and fresh in 
the kitchen. Train a vine, if only a sweet-potato 
vine, on one of the windows, and besides, having 
saved all the empty cans from canned fruit or 
vegetables ; paint a couple of them red ; have two 
holes bored in each near the top, through which to 
run the strings, by which they are to be suspended 
over the window. In one plant, “ Wandering Jew,” 
or a Tradescantia, so easy to grow from slips, and 
which will soon run on the sides, making it a thing 
of beauty ; and in the other, which must be nearly 
full of water, lay an old sponge or piece of white 
cotton, over which sprinkle flax seeds thickly, 
keeping the cotton moist where they are sown. In 
two or three weeks these will sprout, and the cot¬ 
ton will be covered with a beautiful green mossy 
looking growth. 
Save the old kitchen chairs; cut off the broken 
backs close to the seats, also the lower part of the 
legs, to make them a convenient or comfortable 
height. Then make a bag the size of the seat, of 
some old ticking or other material, and stuff it with 
fine shavings or slivered husks, and after nailing it 
securely on the seats, cover with bright cretonne 
or chintz. The former can be bought for twenty 
or twenty-five cents a yard, and would be forwarded 
from a city store on sending the order, and giving 
an idea of the ground color wanted. Two or three 
palm leaf fans painted a bright red would decorate 
the wall very prettily. If the edges are worn, they 
can be bound with some material of the same 
color. The lower part of the dresser would look 
well, if, instead of being covered with the usual 
pieces of scalloped newspapers, it were covered with 
a strip of crash towelling, the ends fringed out, and 
hanging down about a quarter of a yard or so, and 
the centre ornamented with a large letter in red 
cotton or worsted embroidery. 
These hints are simple, but they are only given 
for the benefit of those tired-out people, who have 
little time to think of improvements themselves, 
but who, when they once begin to act on the sug¬ 
gestions of others, will often find it comparatively 
easy to give even their kitchens an air of beauty. 
A Cheap Refrigerator. 
Our experiments during the past summer have 
fully demonstrated the worth of the simple refrig- 
rator here illustrated: A box large enough 
to hold a common sized bucket and have 
room around it for various dishes, pans and 
jars, is made water and air tight by covering 
the cracks with strips of tin and stopping them 
with putty inside. Insert a stop-cock at one side at 
the bottom, and set the box on four blocks to raise 
it four or five inches from the cellar floor. Cover 
the box with a tight-fitting lid. Make a few gimlet 
holes in the bottom of the bucket for the water to 
run out, and set it on two bricks. Wrap the ice 
closely in carpet or blanket or other woollen, and 
put it in the bucket. As it melts the water runs 
in the box and is drawn off when necessary. Pans 
of milk, butter, and any other articles of food can 
CHEAP REFRIGERATOR. 
be set on the ice or around the bucket. Bricks 
under pans keep them out of the water, but jars 
and crocks may set on the bottom of the box. 
Hooks in the side of the box serve for hanging up 
fowls, etc. Ice in this way can be kept a long 
time, especially if the box stands in the cellar. 
Waffles. 
Any one familiar with the suburbs of Philadel¬ 
phia, may have seen at various small hotels near 
the Wissahiekon, the notice posted in a conspicu¬ 
ous place, “Catfish and Waffles.” Why such a 
forlorn little fish with such a repulsive name, ex¬ 
cept to Philadelphians, is associated with waffles, 
we are unable to discover. With flap-jack it would 
do very well, for what visions do flap-jacks suggest 
of elegant supper tables and shining silver. But 
the delicious waffles which are so seldom seen on 
private tables nowadays, bring to mind our child- 
