106 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[March, 
of liis own twisting, and drive liim with a home¬ 
made whip, his happiness is complete. 
TVe want, then, to give ourchildren the raw.mate¬ 
rial of playthings at the earliest moment they are 
capable of handling tools to make them into toys, 
or articles of use, as suits their fancy. This will 
develop their constructive faculties and tend to 
make them ingenious and helpful as they grow up. 
They do not care for anything finished. They are 
growing themselves and like to make other things 
grow large or small, as the case may be. Give a 
boy building blocks and he will construct houses, 
barns, churches, towers, and fortifications. Give 
him a house ready made, and his first instinct is to 
pull the roof off and see what is inside. His de¬ 
structiveness is started on a precocious develop¬ 
ment. Give him a well furnished tool chest, and 
he will soon learn to make his own playthings and 
will be much better entertained and satisfied than 
by any amount of toy trumpery imported from the 
city. The country abounds in the raw material of 
entertainment, and it is for this reason that cliil- ' 
dren so greatly prefer it to the city, where every¬ 
thing in the toy line is finished. 
- -—a—-- •--— 
Bones and Ashes. 
Bones and ashes pass through the housekeeper’s 
hands every day. Wood is still the chief fuel in 
the farm-house and the value of the ashes is pretty 
well understood. They are prized for the lye they 
yield, and if there is a surplus from the soap mak¬ 
ing they help the kitchen garden at the back door. 
The bones are generally thrown to t lie dog and lost. 
Now if the careful housewife would save the bones 
ns regularly as the ashes, she would practise a wiser 
economy and help her kitchen garden twice as fast. 
Bones are worth twice as much as ashes for manure, 
if dissolved, and the ashes will reduce them. Put 
both into a barrel in the cellar, if you please, and 
after mixing them half and half, keep them con¬ 
stantly moist with soapsuds, the hotter the better. 
The suds should not be poured on in such quan¬ 
tities as to leach the ashes. In a few months the 
hones will be disintegrated and the whole mass may 
then be mixed and will make an excellent fertilizer 
for the flower border or the kitchen garden. 
-- . — -- --- 
Hints on Warming Dwellings. 
The old-fashioned fireplace, with its cheerful 
blaze upon the hearth, was a very defective way of 
heating a room. There was more poetry in the 
flickering brands and the shadows dancing on the 
wall than comfort in the atmosphere. The venti¬ 
lation was perfect and the warmth sufficient in mild 
weather, but in the cold days it was impossible to 
make the back parts of the room comfortable 
without scorching everything near the hearth. It 
was enormously expensive, or would have been if 
wood had not been at every man’s door. The fire 
frame which succeeded was a great improvement, 
both in saving fuel and in distributing the heat 
more uniformly through the apartment. It added 
nothing to the facilities for cooking and was soon 
succeeded in the farm-house by the stove, which 
served the double purpose of cooking the break¬ 
fast, and warming the people who came to eat it. 
This is the most popular article now in use for 
warming the farm kitchen and dining-room. The 
patterns are very numerous, each having its happy 
device for baking, boiling, and broiling, in the most 
perfect and economical manner. The difference is 
probably much less than the manufacturers weuld 
have us believe. They nearly all agree in having a 
good draft or capacity to ignite and burn fuel rapid¬ 
ly, in regulating the draft and turning the heat to 
various parts of the stove by means of flues and 
dampers, and in using a very considerable quantity 
of fuel to produce the required heat. Furnaces 
and heaters in the cellar are town devices for warm¬ 
ing, when nearly all parts of the house are in use 
every day and when large expenditure is inevitable. 
Whatever apparatus is used, two objects should 
be aimed at and secured so far as is possible; an 
Uniform temperature in all parts of the house in 
use during the day, and a change of the air as fast 
as it is vitiated by breathing. The health of the 
family depends very much upon these conditions, 
and they are vastly more important than the partic¬ 
ular kind of stove or furnace used, the kind of fuel, 
or mode of combustion. People take cold quite as 
frequently in the house as in the open air, and won¬ 
der at it as they are not conscious of any exposure. 
If they kept a thermometer or looked occasionally 
at the stove dampers they would learn the cause. 
The living room would often show more sudden 
and extreme changes than any that take place out 
doors, and it is against these sudden changes that 
we wish to guard. Many habitually keep their 
rooms too warm, especially persons of delicate con¬ 
stitution, and invalids. Going from a temperature 
of 80° or upwards into the freezing air is a violent 
shock to the most robust. We have frequently 
been in rooms where the stove was kept nearly to 
redness, and the whole atmosphere near it must 
have been mucli above a hundred. A temperature 
of from 67° to 72°, Fahrenheit, is warm enough for 
people in health, and with a little attention to fuel 
and dampers the rooms may be kept within this 
range. It is a common error to have too small a 
furnace or stove for the space to be heated. There 
must be a considerable body to the fuel, to have 
the combustion gradual and the heat uniform. The 
heat of a furnace is best tempered by a layer of 
ashes upon the coal after it is thoroughly ignited, 
in addition to the partial closing of the draft. By 
this method we have found it quite practicable to 
keep the heat within a degree or two of 70° during 
the day, and to drop it a little as desired for the 
night. This is not only much more healthful but 
more economical. A furnace left to the manage¬ 
ment of an ignorant or unfaithful servant will con¬ 
sume at least a third more coal than is necessary, 
and keep the whole house too cold or too hot. 
Ventilation is quite as essential to health as uni¬ 
form warmth. Houses arc made much lighter than 
they used to be, and it is not until quite recently 
that ventilation has received a fair share of at¬ 
tention. There was occasion for Downing’s essay 
on “The Favorite Poison of America” and it should 
be scattered broadcast over the land as one of the 
tracts for the times. The air in a close room is 
rapidly vitiated by breathing and rendered unfit 
for use. The problem to lie solved is to bring in a 
stream of pure air from without and to carry off 
the foul air, without lowering the temperature too 
much or creating unwholesome draughts. There 
are many devices for effecting this object. Almost 
any is better than “the poison.” 
--«►-*-—a Oc a --- 
Rats—How to Get Rid of Them. 
A housekeeper is sorely afflicted with these pests, 
and wants deliverance. She has tried caustic lime 
in their holes, sometimes with good effect, and 
sometimes with none. She has used “Bennet’s 
Sure Death for Rats and Mice,” and the sure death 
only made them more lively. She has caught forty 
in traps, and twice forty came to their funerals. 
Site suspects Bonnet is a deceiver. She would be 
quite wiiling to feed them on carrots and turnips, 
if they would let the potatoes alone ; but they seem 
to know that the Early Goodrich arc worth five 
dollars a barrel for seed, and pitch in accordingly. 
There is no such compromise as our friend sug¬ 
gests. There must be a clear riddance, or there will 
be continued annoyance. The writer has had 
a long fight witli these creatures, and found 
but one reined}'—rat-proof cellars or vessels. 
Shooting is good sport, but the smell of powder 
does not prevent their multiplying. The terrier dog 
and the eat are good as long as they stand guard, 
but eternal vigilance cannot be expected of the best 
ratter. Poison is effectual—on the slain—but the 
living will not take warning. 'Wherever vegetables 
or fruits are stored, rats will come if they can. 
Cement the bottoms and walls of the cellar, and 
it is safe. In this remedy we found rest after a 
ten years’ fight. It will cost something but it is 
effectual, and one may sleep well without fear of 
rats. Ccmcut and sand are cheap in most parts of 
the country. Take one part of cement to two of 
•sand, by measure, mix with water, and apply with 
a trowel as fast as made. It makes a nice smooth 
bottom, easily swept or washed. 
-o . ■ — ig>—--- 
A Few Hints from an Old Housekeeper. 
I want to get new carpets for our two front cham¬ 
bers, and from long experience and observa¬ 
tion, I have decided to get “ Turkey carpet,” as we 
used to say in my young days. Husband thinks 
Brussels or velvet would be as cheap, or cheaper, 
than most other kinds, being so thick and close 
that it would never wear out. 
Now, there are two sides, you know, to this 
question, and when the handsome side is worn out, 
there is an end of it. So I shall split the difference, 
and take the money left over from my favorite In¬ 
grain, and buy a handsome bureau for Jeanette. I 
know husband won’t care when lie sees how nicely 
our two rooms look carpeted alike, as Jeanette 
says they should be, with good Ingrain, (all wool). 
If you want a serviceable carpet, and one that looks 
neat and ornamental, get an Ingrain. 
[Ingrain is good,but three-ply is better,and though 
more costly, is the cheaper one in the end.—E d.] 
I profess to be somewhat acquainted with the 
carpet family, and because of their dust and untidi¬ 
ness, husband and I have concluded to exclude 
them from our dining or living room. In a family 
of a half dozen growing, rampant, romping boys 
and girls, that are frequently practicing “ heel and 
toe ” in all its variations in heavy soled boots, or 
breaking off into the more graceful waltz or schot- 
tischc, nothing is so appropriate as a good, old- 
fashioned oak floor, swept clean, and mopped 
over every morning with an ample liouseeloth. 
Carpets are w r ell enough in the room where fa¬ 
ther, mother, and the tamer members wish to pur¬ 
sue their more quiet occupations of reading, writ¬ 
ing, and sewing. 
Rag carpets, well put together with cotton chain, 
as we used to have them, were, on account of their 
durability, tolerated, but the rag carpets of to-day, 
with hemp chain, as well as all manner of hemp 
carpets, are the most expensive, because the least 
durable of any carpets in use. The “ German ” car¬ 
pets, with bright showy stripes of chain, all wool, 
and a heavy filling of coarse hemp thread, although 
appearing to be heavy and serviceable, are really a 
very unserviceable carpet, showing the dust and 
lint, requiring frequent sweepings, and wearing out 
sooner than so expensive a carpet should. So 
all entry and stair carpets, filled in with coarse 
hemp, although appearing handsome and heavy, 
really wear but poorly on account of the ridges of 
hard hemp beneath the soft wool chain. 
Light colors, either in wearing apparel or carpets, 
wear much better than dark. Neatly blended 
figures, covering the fabric evenly and connecting 
the plies closely, render a carpet more durable. In 
sweeping carpets, use a fine broom that has been 
but little worn, skim over the surface with a light, 
short, airy brush, without making a scrubbing 
noise or one like a carpenter sawing pine boards. 
Frequent sweeping wears a carpet more than the 
tramping. It is a good way to clean the room up 
with a turkey wing in one hand and dust-pan in 
the other, going over it whenever dust or lint 
appears, sweeping, or rather fanning, the dust into 
the dust-pan. This saves it from the severer wear 
of the broom. There is an art in sweeping as well 
as in most other housekeeping operations. Some 
seem to think that raising the dust is of more im¬ 
portance than raising the wind or windows, and 
that making a big stir generally is the only way to 
clean a room, and let the dust all settle again from 
whence it came. 
A few well cultivated plants in the sunuy win¬ 
dows of your sitting-room give a cheerful air, but 
remember that a window full of plants, crowded in 
so as to exclude the air and the “ sweet sunshine,” 
is rather a nuisance than an ornament. 
Do not let the fear of fading carpets lead you to 
fade the rosy tints from the human flowers about 
you that are of more value than many carpets. 
