THE HOUSEHOLD

It is surprising to find how many things there are to learn about housekeeping, and about certain minor details, too, with which we had supposed ourselves thoroughly acquainted. Almost every day we find, from experience, some improved method of doing some simple thing.

The following bits of information, gained from experience, observation and reading, may add something to the general fund of household knowledge:

In washing tumblers and goblets, they should be placed in hot soapy water, the sides touching the water first, to prevent them from cracking. After they are wiped they will look clearer if they are not turned upside down until they are put away. They should be thoroughly scalded after being washed. Yeast jars or jugs should be washed in cold water. If hot water is used the yeast adheres to them.

A strong solution of hyposulphite of soda is said to be excel- lent for cleaning silver.

Unslaked lime is excellent for cleaning small steel articles, such as jewelry, buckles, and the like.

Dish-water and soap-suds poured about the roots of young fruit trees, currant and raspberry bushes, etc., facilitate their growth.

Milk which is turned or changed may be sweetened and rendered fit for use again by stirring in a little soda.

Straw matting should be washed with a cloth dampened in salt water. Indian meal sprinkled over it and thoroughly swept out will also cleanse it finely.

Boiling cod-fish in hard water makes the fish firmer.

The Household.

Soap should be cut in pieces that it may get hard. A little wet whiting will get oil out of boards. Wet salt will get ink out.

A little white wax will clear starch nicely. Milk takes ink out of prints.

If silver is dipped in clear hot water — no soap — and imme- diately wiped with a soft linen cloth, it will look much nicer than if soap is used.

A solution of chloride of iron will remove nitrate of silver stains from the hands.

Gold bronze for furniture is a mixture of copal varnish mixed with gold colored bronze powder. The last is bisul- phate of tin.

Don't use a good table knife to scrape a kettle, or pare pota- toes, or for any other than table service. Keep old ones with faulty handles, or odd ones that belong to no set for such com- mon purposes. Never let nice ones be picked up and used indiscriminately.

A solution of oxalic acid will remove ink spots from books without injuring the print.

In washing windows a narrow-bladed wooden knife, sharply pointed, will take out the dust that hardens in the corners of the sash. Dry whiting will polish the glass, which should first be washed with weak black tea mixed with a little alcohol. Save the tea leaves for that purpose.

Castile soap and water can be used on oil paintings without danger, care being taken, of course, not to wet the back, or let water through cracks.

For the ordinary dusting of pictures a silk handkerchief should be used.

An ounce of carbolic acid to a gallon of whitewash will keep from cellars the disagreeable odor which taints milk and meat, Added to paste and mucilage it prevents mould.

Remove all vegetables from the cellar as soon as they begin to decay, and ventilate well so that the walls may not become foul. Use chloride of lime as a disinfectant freely, after taking care to make it as neat and clean as possible.

The Household.

Vegetables keep best at as low a temperature as possible without freezing. Apples bear a very low temperature. Sweet potatoes (which keep well packed in dry forest leaves) and squashes require a warm, dry atmosphere.

Friction matches should never be left where mice will get them, as they carry them to their nests and sometimes ignite them. They are poison to children, and are dangerous to women, who ignite them by stepping on them, and endanger- ing their clothing from fire.

When a chimney takes fire throw salt into the fire and shut off the draught as much as possible, and it will burn out slowly,

Carpets may be cleaned without taking up by sprinkling them over with moist tea leaves and sweeping well. Then sprinkle fuller's earth very thickly over the grease spots, cover with a sheet of brown paper, and iron with a warm smoothing iron until the spots disappear.

Kerosene and powdered lime, whiting, or wood ashes will scour tins with the least labor,

Spots can be taken out of marble with finely powdered pum- ice stone and verjuice. Cover the spots and allow the stuff to remain for twelve hours, then rub clean, dry and rinse.

Soapstone hearths are first washed in pure water and then rubbed with powdered marble or soapstone, put on with a piece of the same stone.

To make hens lay in winter keep them warm; keep corn constantly by them, but do not feed it to them. Feed them with meat scraps when lard or tallow has been tried, or fresh meat. Some chop green peppers finely, or mix cavyenne pepper with corn meal to feed them. Let them have a frequent taste of green food, and a little gravel and lime, or clam shells.

Never paper a wall over old paper and paste. Always scrape down thoroughly. Old paper can be got off by dampening with saleratus and water. Then go over all the cracks of the wall with plaster of Paris, and finally put on a wash of a weak solution of carbolic acid. The best paste is made out of rye flour, with two ounces of glue dissolved in each quart of paste;

The Household.

half an ounce of powdered borax will improve the mixture.

Papering and painting are best clone in cold weather, espe- cially the latter, for the wood absorbs the oil of paint much more in warm weather; while in cold weather the oil hardens on the outside, making a coat which will protect the wood instead of soaking into it.

Fruit stains may be removed from the fingers in the following manner: Mix together half an ounce of cream tartar and half an ounce of salt of sorrel; apply a solution of this to the fingers and the stains will disappear. Dilute sulphuric acid may be used, but care should be taken that none of it touches any fabric, as the acid will destroy it.