566 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[December, 
tion, and buff is undesirable, while dark specks 
upon the beak indicate that the birds have been 
reared where the water was impure, or where the 
bottoms of the pools or brooks were more or less 
muddy and soft. But even if all “ fancy points ” 
can not be bred, these ducks are useful, beautiful 
iu their snowy plumage, large, quick growers, and 
early and prolific layers ; and where the surround¬ 
ings favor the development of pure white plumage 
and pink, spotless bills, these points may be bred 
as a specialty with great profit to the owner. 
A Thousand Clusters of Grapes 
for One Dollar. 
And grown in a city at that! Yes, and something 
more also. Year after year nearly, and for a third 
of a century, the American Agriculturist has urged 
every one having a single square yard of soil, in 
Village or city, as well as in the country, to plant a 
grape-vine, and train it up against the house, on a 
post, on a trellis, along a fence—or anywhere in 
the free, untaxed air and sunlight. It will yield 
shade, fruit, and foliage grateful to the eye. If 
you call this preaching, then for a little practice 
come with us over to Brooklyn, N. Y., the third 
largest city in this country, and on this second day 
of October, take a seat with us on the rear piazza 
of a small, comfortable residence, on a lot twenty- 
two by one hundred feet. The piazza, six by 
twenty-two feet, squarely faces the sun at 10 A. M. 
Its floor is on a level with the main room opening in¬ 
to it through windows of full length. Underneath is 
a paved area, forming a sort of summer working- 
place or wash-room for the basement kitchen. Its 
ceiling and roof are supported by two plain 
columns. The yard has on sides and rear a plant 
and flower border two feet wide, inside of which is 
a three-feet-wide flagged walk, and inside of this 
is a grass-plot, say twelve by thirty-six feet, with 
a clothes line post at each corner. It is surrounded 
by a board fence, six and a half feet high, capped 
with sharp pickets, alternating twenty and twenty- 
four inches high, which the cats cannot well oc¬ 
cupy for night serenades. A four-bar trellis stands 
along the centre of each of the two side borders. 
Across the yard, thirteen feet back from the 
piazza is a trellis, twelve feet high, with nine cross 
bars upon four plain scantling posts, one at each 
side and two at the corners of the grass plat, with 
arched openings cut through to each side walk. Iu 
the border, a variety of plants and flowers are 
grown, and parsley enough to ornament the table 
■dishes all through the year, the winter supply being 
transferred to earthen pots in the cellar. So much for 
the situation of the trellises, and the surroundings. 
Now for the Grapes :—Six grape vines, part Con¬ 
cords and part Isabellas, were planted several years 
ago, two under the high trellis, and two in each 
side border, one near each end of the cross trellis, 
but back of it, and another ten feet further back. 
The vines are trained rearward, along the top of 
the side trellises and fence, to near the back of the 
lot; also all over the upper part of the cross trellis. 
The two front side vines send arms along the fence 
to the side of the piazza, and up and across its 
front. On one of these vines we have just counted 
two hundred and forty-six bunches of grapes, 
nearly all fine ones, and the dwellers tell us, “a 
great many have already been picked and eaten.” 
A whole row of hanging clusters still fringes the 
upper front of the piazza; the cross trellis is black 
with them, and they abound by the bushel along 
the border trellises and fence. There are not less 
than two thousand fine bunches in all.—The annual 
cost of having these vines trimmed and trained, 
and putting on a dressing of bone dust, does not 
exceed two dollars, which is ten-fold repaid by the 
shade, and the green foliage to look out upon dur¬ 
ing all the parching days. We might have headed 
this : “ Athousand clusters cf grapes for nothing!” 
This is a good year for grapes, but there is every 
year more than the large family can use. 
The “ Application.”—A grape-vine will grow any¬ 
where that it can get a small foot-hold in a bit 
of soil; it will run up on anything that its tendrils 
can cling to; it will help itself to sunlight and food 
from the air and earth. If you have a yard of 
ground, plant a grape-vine on it, in city, village, 
or country. Do it now, or certainly next spring. 
An Underground Ice-House. 
In answer to a number of inquiries concerning 
underground ice-houses, we present the following 
plan. Where the soil is gravelly and porous, an ice¬ 
house may frequently be built more cheaply partly 
underground than wholly above the surface. There 
must be perfect freedom from all surface water, 
a condition not difficult to obtain. The bottom of 
the house may be made of a two-foot layer of large 
stones upon which smaller stones and gravel are 
placed, to form a level surface. The walls up to 
within one foot of the surface are built of stones 
Fig. 1.— SECTION OF UNDERGROUND ICE-HOUSE. 
laid in mortar, like a cellar wall, and the sills of the 
frame-work are placed upon this and secured with 
stones and cement. The studs, ten inches wide and 
two inches thick, are framed into the sills as seen 
in figure 2 —a showing the sill in section, b the stud, 
and c the tenon at the bottom of the stud. The 
method of framing the corner is seen in figure 3— 
a , a, being the sills, and 6, b, b, the studs. It is seen 
that one stud is placed at the corner, and another, 
one inch from it, at the shoulder of the adjoining 
Fig. 2.— METHOD OF Fig. 3.— FRAMING THE 
•• FRAMING. CORNERS. 
sill. In this way the outside boards may be nailed 
firmly at the corners,and a stout joint inside be made 
by inserting boards between the two corner studs 
above mentioned. The cost of heavy corner posts 
is saved, and an equally firm building is secured. 
The space between the boards is filled with saw¬ 
dust. For convenience in removing ice, a ladder is 
built on the inside siding. The cover to the ice-pit 
may be very sitpple. The form shown in figure l is 
cheap and in every way satisfactory. Some means 
of ventilation should be provided.—The size and 
cost will depend upon circumstances, and estimates 
are not here essential. A pit ten by ten feet will 
abundantly supply a small family, and the whole 
cost of this house need not be over fifty dollars. 
Christmas Gifts—Suggestions. 
Christmas is coming! with its demand for pretty 
fancy articles suitable for Christmas gifts ; and a 
few suggestions as to new styles of art needlework 
may be acceptable to those having a number cf 
friends to provide for. A nice present for a house¬ 
keeper is a set of half a dozen doylies or small 
fruit napkins. The latest fashion is to turn down 
one corner of the linen squares and work upon it 
an orange, banana, or other fruit, varying the de¬ 
sign on each. Embroidered aprons are now very 
fashionable for home wear, and may be made of 
satin, linen, pongee, or muslin, and decorated with 
silk, wools, or crewels, as the material suggests. 
A very tasteful apron for a young lady is one of 
pure white pongee worked with dainty knots of 
violets, the waistband and strings being of delicate 
lavender ribbon. We have seen them of ecru, tied 
with scarlet, the front decorated with comical 
looking honey-bees, and the motto, in outline 
stitch, “ How doth the little busy bee improve each 
shining hour!” These are for evening aprons. 
A new feature of art needlework is using small 
worsted or plush balls, which are sold by the dozen. 
These are flattened on one side, and sewed on in 
groups of three, a shadow being worked beneath 
each, and when mixed with artistically shaded 
leaves, are very effective. One thing always to be 
remembered in embroidery, as well as in painting, 
is to decide at first on which side of your bunch or 
spray the light shall fall, and work accordingly, the 
shades gradually melting into each other, from 
the deepest to those which are almost white. 
It is said the old-fashioned cross-stitch on canvas 
is to be revived; and people are bringing out the 
old screens and pictures worked by their grand- 
m< itliers, and having them remounted and reframed. 
Patchwork, too, is quite in vogue, but in a more 
artistic form than the past generation ever dreamed 
of. Beautiful sofa pillows are made of curious 
shaped patches of silk, satin, or velvet, each bear¬ 
ing some dainty bit of embroidery—flowers and 
fans of different shapes and styles. An exquisite 
tidy- may be made of a piece of cloth, ten inches 
square, on which is sewed patchwork of plush in 
the form of a wide-spread fan. The corners of the 
block are of black velvet, and from the top, trailing 
over the fan, is a spray of moss-rosebuds, in 
Louis XVI.style, or ribbon embroidery. The edge 
is neatly finished with suitable lace. 
An effective, though simple table scarf, is of 
dark-green felt, half a yard wide, pinked on the 
edge, and ornamented with a strip of silk patch- 
work, about a quarter of a yard deep on each end. 
Below falls a fringe of the felt, made by slashing it 
into narrow strips, two or three inches up. A 
willow-work basket makes a very pretty present, 
when the handle is tied with a bow of ribbon, enliv¬ 
ened on one end by a graceful spray in gold-thread 
couching, which is very easily done. 
Anew material for working on, is chamois, which 
is nice for portfolios, blotting-books, cigar and 
shaving-paper cases, and other little conveniences 
suitable for gentlemen. These are usually orna¬ 
mented with conventional designs, outlined with 
gilt tinsel and colored braid, and filled in with pink, 
yellow, and blue silk or crewels in long stitches. 
For those not caring to take the time or trouble 
to embroider, there come beautiful machine-worked 
flowers, birds, heads of animals, and aesthetic 
figures, which can be easily and quickly applied to 
any article, and they will look exceedingly well. 
Acorns and Oak “ Puff-Balls ” can be used 
for decorating fancy baskets, brackets, or small 
tables. Provide each acorn with a stem of green 
crewel silk, about two inches long. Remove the 
cup, and run the silk through it with a large 
needle, and knot it inside the cup. The acorn can 
then be firmly glued into its place again. A bunch 
of these look very pretty hanging from a ribbon 
bow, or with a handful of oats or grasses, and can 
be made useful in many ways. The “puff-balls ” 
are used similarly, by merely running a thread 
through each of the “ balls ” and knotting one end. 
