The quality of feathers depends on their strength, elasticity and
cleanness; and these, again, depend upon the condition of the bird,
its health, food, and the time of plucking its feathers. _Down_ is the
term applied to under-feathers—most abundant in water fowl, and in
those especially which live in cold latitudes, being designed to
protect them from wet and cold. The eider-down, from the eider-duck,
is of the most repute. It is brought from extreme northern latitudes,
and is used for coverings to beds, rather than for beds themselves,
as, by being slept upon, it loses its elasticity.
_Poultry feathers_, as those of turkeys, ducks, and chickens, if
assorted and the coarse ones rejected, afford very good beds; but they
are not so elastic as geese-feathers.
Everybody knows that live geese-feathers are _the_ best. Every one
does not think of the reason; which, as it is the key to the art of
having good feathers, we shall propound.
So long as a bird is alive, the feathers are as much an object of
nutrition as the flesh, the bones, or any other part of the body.
When dead, put them into hot water to make the feathers come easy. In
pulling, take out large handfuls at a time, so as to have scraps of
meat and shreds of skin adhere to the quill; let them lie for several
days in wet heaps to ferment a little. Then dry them suddenly by
violent heat, cram them into the bed-tick, and jump on, and if you
have not an odorous bed, and, in a month or two, a bedful of visitors
seeking food, then there is no truth in the laws of nature.
_The care of beds_ is not understood, often, by even good housewives.
When a bed is freshly made it often smells strong. Constant airing,
will, if the feathers are good, and only new, remove the scent.
A bed in constant use should be invariably beaten and shaken up daily,
to enable the feathers to retain their elasticity.
It should lie after it is shaken up, for two or three hours a day, in
a well ventilated room. The human body is constantly giving off a
perspiration; and at night more than usual, from the relaxed condition
of the skin. The bed will become foul from this cause if not well
aired. If the bed is in a room which cannot be spared for such a
length of time, it should be put out to air two full days in the week.
In airing beds, _the sun should never shine directly upon them_. It is
_air_, not _heat_, that they need. We have seen beds lying on a roof
where the direct and reflected rays of the sun had full power, and the
feathers, without doubt, were _stewing_, and the oil in the quill
becoming rancid; so that the bed smells worse after its roasting than
before. _Always air beds in the shade, and, if possible, in cool and
windy days._ And now, if any of our attentive housewife-readers, and
we have not a few, are disposed to reward us for all this advice, let
them give us a bed to sleep on, when we next visit them, made of
growing feathers, from live and healthy geese, carefully picked, well
cured, daily shaken up and thoroughly aired; and if we do not dream
that the owner is an angel, it will be because we are too much
occupied in sound sleeping.