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Recipes Trade Secrets Etc


Toothache Cure.--Compound tinct. benzoin is said to be one of the most

certain and speedy cures for toothache; pour a few drops on cotton, and

press at once into the diseased cavity, when the pain will almost

instantly cease.



Toothache Tincture.--Mix tannin, 1 scruple; mastic, 3 grains; ether, 2

drams. Apply on cotton wool, to the tooth, previously dried.



Charcoal Tooth Paste.--Chlorate of p
tash, 1/2 dram; mint water, 1

ounce. Dissolve and add powdered charcoal, 2 ounces; honey, 1 ounce.



Excellent Mouth Wash.--Powdered white Castile soap, 2 drams; alcohol, 3

ounces; honey, 1 ounce; essence or extract jasmine, 2 drams. Dissolve

the soap in alcohol and add honey and extract.



Removing Tartar from the Teeth.--This preparation is used by dentists.

Pure muriatic acid, one ounce; water, one ounce; honey, two ounces; mix

thoroughly. Take a toothbrush, and wet it freely with this preparation,

and briskly rub the black teeth, and in a moment's time they will be

perfectly white; then immediately wash out the mouth well with water,

that the acid may not act on the enamel of the teeth. This should be

done only occasionally.



Test for Glue.--The following simple and easy test for glue is given: A

weighed piece of glue (say one-third of an ounce) is suspended in water

for twenty-four hours, the temperature of which is not above fifty

degrees Fahrenheit. The coloring material sinks, and the glue swells

from the absorption of the water. The glue is then taken out and

weighed; the greater the increase in weight the better the glue. If it

then be dried perfectly and weighed again, the weight of the coloring

matter can be learned from the difference between this and the original

weight.



Bad Breath.--Bad breath from catarrh, foul stomach or bad teeth may be

temporarily relieved by diluting a little bromo chloralum with eight or

ten parts of water, and using it as a gargle, and swallowing a few drops

before going out. A pint of bromo chloralum costs fifty cents, but a

small vial will last a long time.



Good Tooth Powder.--Procure, at a druggist's, half an ounce of powdered

orris root, half an ounce of prepared chalk finely pulverized, and two

or three small lumps of Dutch pink. Let them all be mixed in a mortar,

and pounded together. The Dutch pink is to impart a pale reddish color.

Keep it in a close box.



Another Tooth Powder.--Mix together, in a mortar, half an ounce of red

Peruvian bark, finely powdered, a quarter of an ounce of powdered myrrh,

and a quarter of an ounce of prepared chalk.



A Safe Depilatory.--Take a strong solution of sulphuret of barium, and

add enough finely powdered starch to make a paste. Apply to the roots of

the hair and allow it to remain on a few minutes, then scrape off with

the back edge of a knife blade, and rub with sweet oil.



Quick Depilatory for Removing Hair.--Best slaked lime, 6 ounces;

orpiment, fine powder, 1 ounce. Mix with a covered sieve and preserve in

a dry place in closely stoppered bottles. In using mix the powder with

enough water to form a paste, and apply to the hair to be removed. In

about five minutes, or as soon as its caustic action is felt on the

skin, remove, as in shaving, with an ivory or bone paper knife, wash

with cold water freely, and apply cold cream.



Tricopherus for the Hair.--Castor oil, alcohol, each 1 pint; tinct.

cantharides, 1 ounce; oil bergamot, 1/2 ounce; alkanet coloring, to

color as wished. Mix and let it stand forty-eight hours, with occasional

shaking, and then filter.



Liquid Shampoo.--Take bay rum. 2-1/2 pints; water, 1/2 pint; glycerine,

1 ounce; tinct. cantharides, 2 drams; carbonate of ammonia, 2 drams;

borax, 1/2 ounce; or take of New England rum, 1-1/2 pints; bay rum, 1

pint; water, 1/2 pint; glycerine, 1 ounce; tinct. cantharides, 2 drams,

ammon. carbonate, 2 drams; borax, 1/2 ounce; the salts to be dissolved

in water and the other ingredients to be added gradually.



Cleaning Hair Brushes.--Put a teaspoonful or dessertspoonful of aqua

ammonia into a basin half full of water, comb the loose hairs out of the

brush, then agitate the water briskly with the brush, and rinse it well

with clear water.



Hair Invigorator.--Bay rum, two pints; alcohol, one pint; castor oil,

one ounce; carb. ammonia, half an ounce; tincture of cantharides, one

ounce. Mix them well. This compound will promote the growth of the hair

and prevent it from falling out.



For Dandruff.--Take glycerine, four ounces; tincture of cantharides,

five ounces; bay rum, four ounces; water, two ounces. Mix and apply once

a day, and rub well into the scalp.



Mustache Grower.--Simple cerate, 1 ounce; oil bergamot, 10 minims;

saturated tinct. of cantharides, 15 minims. Rub them together

thoroughly, or melt the cerate and stir in the tincture while hot, and

the oil as soon as it is nearly cold, then run into molds or rolls. To

be applied as a pomade, rubbing in at the roots of the hair. Care must

be used not to inflame the skin by too frequent application.



Razor-strop Paste.--Wet the strop with a little sweet oil, and apply a

little flour of emery evenly over the surface.



Shaving Compound.--Half a pound of plain white soap, dissolved in a

small quantity of alcohol, as little as can be used; add a tablespoonful

of pulverized borax. Shave the soap and put it in a small tin basin or

cup; place it on the fire in a dish of boiling water; when melted, add

the alcohol, and remove from the fire; stir in oil of bergamot

sufficient to perfume it.



Cure for Prickly Heat.--Mix a large portion of wheat bran with either

cold or lukewarm water, and use it as a bath twice or thrice a day.

Children who are covered with prickly heat in warm weather will be thus

effectually relieved from that tormenting eruption. As soon as it begins

to appear on the neck, face or arms, commence using the bran water on

these parts repeatedly through the day, and it may probably spread no

farther. If it does, the bran water bath will certainly cure it, if

persisted in.



To Remove Corns from Between the Toes.--These corns are generally more

painful than any others, and are frequently situated as to be almost

inaccessible to the usual remedies. Wetting them several times a day

with hartshorn will in most cases cure them. Try it.



Superior Cologne Water.--Oil of lavender, two drams; oil of rosemary,

one dram and a half; orange, lemon and bergamot, one dram each of the

oil; also two drams of the essence of musk, attar of rose, ten drops,

and a pint of proof spirit. Shake all together thoroughly three times a

day for a week.



Inexhaustible Smelling Salts.--Sal tartar, three drams; muriate ammonia,

granulated, 6 drams; oil neroli. 5 minims; oil lavender flowers, 5

minims; oil rose, 3 minims; spirits ammonia, 15 minims. Put into the

pungent a small piece of sponge filling about one-fourth the space, and

pour on it a due proportion of the oils, then put in the mixed salts

until the bottle is three-fourths full, and pour on the spirits of

ammonia in proper proportion and close the bottle.



Volatile Salts for Pungents.--Liquor ammon., 1 pint; oil lavender

flowers, 1 dram; oil rosemary, fine, 1 dram; oil bergamot, 1/2 dram; oil

peppermint, 10 minims. Mix thoroughly and fill pungents or keep in well

stoppered bottle. Another formula is, sesqui-carbonate of ammonia,

small pieces, 10 ounces; concentrated liq. ammonia, 5 ounces. Put the

sesqui-carb. in a wide-mouthed jar with air-tight stopper, perfume the

liquor ammonia to suit and pour over the carbonate; close tightly the

lid and place in a cool place; stir with a stiff spatula every other day

for a week, and then keep it closed for two weeks, or until it becomes

hard, when it is ready for use.



Paste for Papering Boxes.--Boil water and stir in batter of wheat or rye

flour. Let it boil one minute, take off and strain through a colander.

Add, while boiling, a little glue or powdered alum. Do plenty of

stirring while the paste is cooking, and make of consistency that will

spread nicely.



Aromatic Spirit of Vinegar.--Acetic acid, No. 8. pure, 8 ounces;

camphor, 1/2 ounce. Dissolve and add oil lemon, oil lavender flowers,

each two drams; oil cassia, oil cloves, 1/2 dram each. Thoroughly mix

and keep in well stoppered bottle.



Rose-Water.--Preferable to the distilled for a perfume, or for ordinary

purposes. Attar of rose, twelve drops; rub it up with half an ounce of

white sugar and two drams carbonate magnesia, then add gradually one

quart of water and two ounces of proof spirit, and filter through paper.





Bay Rum.--French proof spirit, one gallon; extract bay, six ounces. Mix

and color with caramel; needs no filtering.



Fine Lavender Water.--Mix together, in a clean bottle, a pint of

inodorous spirit of wine, an ounce of oil of lavender, a teaspoonful of

oil of bergamot, and a tablespoonful of oil of ambergris.



The Virtues of Turpentine.--After a housekeeper fully realizes the worth

of turpentine in the household, she is never willing to be without a

supply of it. It gives quick relief to burns, it is an excellent

application for corns, it is good for rheumatism and sore throat, and it

is the quickest remedy for convulsions or fits. Then it is a sure

preventive against moths: by just dropping a trifle in the bottom of

drawers, chests and cupboards, it will render the garments secure from

injury during the summer. It will keep ants and bugs from closets and

store-rooms by putting a few drops in the corners and upon the shelves;

it is sure destruction to bedbugs, and will effectually drive them away

from their haunts if thoroughly applied to all the joints of the

bedstead in the spring cleaning time, and injures neither furniture nor

clothing. A spoonful of it added to a pail of warm water is excellent

for cleaning paint. A little in suds washing days lightens laundry

labor.



A Perpetual Paste is a paste that may be made by dissolving an ounce of

alum in a quart of warm water. When cold, add as much flour as will make

it the consistency of cream, then stir into it half a teaspoonful of

powdered resin, and two or three cloves. Boil it to a consistency of

mush, stirring all the time. It will keep for twelve months, and when

dry may be softened with warm water.



Paste for Scrap Books.--Take half a teaspoonful of starch, same of

flour, pour on a little boiling water, let it stand a minute, add more

water, stir and cook it until it is thick enough to starch a shirt

bosom. It spreads smooth, sticks well and will not mold or discolor

paper. Starch alone will make a very good paste.



A Strong Paste.--A paste that will neither decay nor become moldy. Mix

good clean flour with cold water into a thick paste well blended

together; then add boiling water, stirring well up until it is of a

consistency that can be easily and smoothly spread with a brush; add to

this a spoonful or two of brown sugar, a little corrosive sublimate and

about half a dozen drops of oil of lavender, and you will have a paste

that will hold with wonderful tenacity.



A Brilliant Paste.--A brilliant and adhesive paste, adapted to fancy

articles, may be made by dissolving caseine precipitated from milk by

acetic acid and washed with pure water in a saturated solution of borax.



A Sugar Paste.--In order to prevent the gum from cracking, to ten parts

by weight of gum arabic and three parts of sugar add water until the

desired consistency is obtained. If a very strong paste is required, add

a quantity of flour equal in weight to the gum, without boiling the

mixture. The paste improves in strength when it begins to ferment.



Tin Box Cement.--To fix labels to tin boxes either of the following will

answer: 1. Soften good glue in water, then boil it in strong vinegar,

and thicken the liquid while boiling with fine wheat flour, so that a

paste results. 2. Starch paste, with which a little Venice turpentine

has been incorporated while warm.



Paper and Leather Paste.--Cover four parts, by weight, of glue, with

fifteen parts of cold water, and allow it to soak for several hours,

then warm moderately till the solution is perfectly clear, and dilute

with sixty parts of boiling water, intimately stirred in. Next prepare a

solution of thirty parts of starch in two hundred parts of cold water,

so as to form a thin homogeneous liquid, free from lumps, and pour the

boiling glue solution into it with thorough stirring, and at the same

time keep the mass boiling.



Commercial Mucilage.--The best quality of mucilage in the market is made

by dissolving clear glue in equal volumes of water and strong vinegar,

and adding one-fourth of an equal volume of alcohol, and a small

quantity of a solution of alum in water. Some of the cheaper

preparations offered for sale are merely boiled starch or flour, mixed

with nitric acid to prevent their gelatinizing.



Acid-Proof Paste.--A paste formed by mixing powdered glass with a

concentrated solution of silicate of soda makes an excellent acid-proof

cement.



Paste to Fasten Cloth to Wood.--Take a plump pound of wheat flour, one

tablespoonful of powdered resin, one tablespoonful of finely powdered

alum, and rub the mixture in a suitable vessel, with water, to a

uniform, smooth paste; transfer this to a small kettle over a fire, and

stir until the paste is perfectly homogeneous without lumps. As soon as

the mass has become so stiff that the stirrer remains upright in it,

transfer it to another vessel and cover it up so that no skin may form

on its surface. This paste is applied in a very thin layer to the

surface of the table; the cloth, or leather, is then laid and pressed

upon it, and smoothed with a roller. The ends are cut off after drying.

If leather is to be fastened on, this must first be moistened with

water. The paste is then applied, and the leather rubbed smooth with a

cloth.



Paste for Printing Office.--Take two gallons of cold water and one quart

wheat flour, rub out all the lumps, then add one-fourth pound of finely

pulverized alum and boil the mixture for ten minutes, or until a thick

consistency is reached. Now add one quart of hot water and, boil again,

until the paste becomes a pale brown color, and thick. The paste should

be well stirred during both processes of cooking. Paste thus made will

keep sweet for two weeks and prove very adhesive.



To Take Smoke Stains from Walls.--An easy and sure way to remove smoke

stains from common plain ceilings is to mix wood ashes with the

whitewash just before applying. A pint of ashes to a small pail of

whitewash is sufficient, but a little more or less will do no harm.



To Remove Stains from Broadcloth.--Take an ounce of pipe clay, which has

been ground fine, mix it with twelve drops of alcohol and the same

quantity of spirits of turpentine. Whenever you wish to remove any

stains from cloth, moisten a little of this mixture with alcohol and rub

it on the spots. Let it remain till dry, then rub it off with a woolen

cloth, and the spots will disappear.



To Remove Red Stains of Fruit from Linen.--Moisten the cloth and hold it

over a piece of burning sulphur; then wash thoroughly, or else the spots

may reappear.



To Remove Oil Stains.--Take three ounces of spirits of turpentine and

one ounce of essence of lemon, mix well, and apply it as you would any

other scouring drops. It will take out all the grease.



Iron Stains may be removed by the salt of lemons. Many stains may be

removed by dipping the linen in some buttermilk, and then drying it in a

hot sun; wash it in cold water; repeat this three or four times.



To Remove Oil Stains from Wood.--Mix together fuller's earth and soap

lees, and rub it into the boards. Let it dry and then scour it off with

some strong soft soap and sand, or use lees to scour it with. It should

be put on hot, which may easily be done by heating the lees.



To Remove Tea Stains.--Mix thoroughly soft soap and salt--say a

tablespoonful of salt to a teacupful of soap, rub on the spots, and

spread the cloth on the grass where the sun will shine on it. Let it lie

two or three days, then wash. If the spots are wet occasionally while

lying on the grass, it will hasten the bleaching.



To Remove Stains from Muslin.--If you have stained your muslin or

gingham dress, or similar articles, with berries, before wetting with

anything else, pour boiling water through the stains and they will

disappear. Before fruit juice dries it can often be removed by cold

water, using a sponge and towel if necessary.



To Remove Acid Stains.--Stains caused by acids may be removed by tying

some pearlash up in the stained part; scrape some soap in cold, soft

water, and boil the linen until the stain is gone.



To Disinfect Sinks and Drains.--Copperas dissolved in water, one-fourth

of a pound to a gallon, and poured into a sink and water drain

occasionally, will keep such places sweet and wholesome. A little

chloride of lime, say half a pound to a gallon of water, will have the

same effect, and either of these costs but a trifle.



A preparation may be made at home which will answer about as well as the

chloride of lime. Dissolve a bushel of salt in a barrel of water, and

with the salt water slake a barrel of lime, which should be made wet

enough to form a thin paste or wash.



To Disinfect a Cellar.--A damp, musty cellar may be sweetened by

sprinkling upon the floor pulverized copperas, chloride of lime, or even

common lime. The most effective means I have ever used to disinfect

decaying vegetable matter is chloride of lime in solution. One pound may

be dissolved in two gallons of water. Plaster of Paris has also been

found an excellent absorbent of noxious odors. If used one part with

three parts of charcoal, it will be found still better.



How to Thaw Out a Water Pipe.--Water pipes usually freeze up when

exposed, for inside the walls, where they cannot be reached, they are or

should be packed to prevent freezing. To thaw out a frozen pipe, bundle

a newspaper into a torch, light it, and pass it along the pipe slowly.

The ice will yield to this much quicker than to hot water or wrappings

or hot cloths, as is the common practice.



To Prevent Mold.--A small quantity of carbolic acid added to paste,

mucilage and ink, will prevent mold. An ounce of the acid to a gallon of

whitewash will keep cellars and dairies from the disagreeable odor which

often taints milk and meat kept in such places.



Thawing Frozen Gas Pipe.--Mr. F. H. Shelton says: I took off from over

the pipe, some four or five inches, just a crust of earth, and then put

a couple of bushels of lime in the space, poured water over it, and

slaked it, and then put canvas over that, and rocks on the canvas, so as

to keep the wind from getting underneath. Next morning, on returning

there, I found that the frost had been drawn out from the ground for

nearly three feet. You can appreciate what an advantage that was, for

picking through frozen ground, with the thermometer below zero, is no

joke. Since then we have tried it several times. It is an excellent plan

if you have time enough to let the time work. In the daytime you cannot

afford to waste the time, but if you have a spare night in which to

work, it is worth while to try it.



How to Test a Thermometer.--The common thermometer in a japanned iron

case is usually inaccurate. To test the thermometer, bring water into

the condition of active boiling, warm the thermometer gradually in the

steam and then plunge it into the water. If it indicates a fixed

temperature of two hundred and twelve degrees, the instrument is a good

one.



Indelible Ink.--An indelible ink that cannot be erased, even with acids,

can be obtained from the following recipe: To good gall ink add a strong

solution of Prussian blue dissolved in distilled water. This will form a

writing fluid which cannot be erased without destruction of the paper.

The ink will write greenish blue, but afterward will turn black.



To Get a Broken Cork Out of a Bottle.--If, in drawing a cork, it breaks,

and the lower part falls down into the liquid, tie a long loop in a bit

of twine, or small cord, and put it in, holding the bottle so as to

bring the piece of cork near to the lower part of the neck. Catch it in

the loop, so as to hold it stationary. You can then easily extract it

with a corkscrew.



A Wash for Cleaning Silver.--Mix together half an ounce of fine salt,

half an ounce of powdered alum, and half an ounce of cream of tartar.

Put them into a large white-ware pitcher, and pour on two ounces of

water, and stir them frequently, till entirely dissolved. Then transfer

the mixture to clean bottles and cork them closely. Before using it,

shake the bottles well. Pour some of the liquid into a bowl, and wash

the silver all over with it, using an old, soft, fine linen cloth. Let

it stand about ten minutes, and then rub it dry with a buckskin. It will

make the silver look like new.



To Remove the Odor from a Vial.--The odor of its last contents may be

removed from a vial by filling it with cold water, and letting it stand

in any airy place uncorked for three days, changing the water every day.



To Loosen a Glass Stopper.--The manner in which apothecaries loosen

glass stoppers when there is difficulty in getting them out is to press

the thumb of the right hand very hard against the lower part of the

stopper, and then give the stopper a twist the other way, with the thumb

and forefinger of the left hand, keeping the bottle stiff in a steady

position.



To Soften Boots and Shoes.--Kerosene will soften boots and shoes which

have been hardened by water, and render them as pliable as new.



To Remove Stains, Spots, and Mildew from Furniture.--Take half a pint of

ninety-eight per cent alcohol, a quarter of an ounce each of pulverized

resin and gum shellac, add half a pint of linseed oil, shake well and

apply with a brush or sponge. Sweet oil will remove finger marks from

varnished furniture, and kerosene from oiled furniture.



To Freshen Gilt Frames.--Gilt frames may be revived by carefully dusting

them, and then washing with one ounce of soda beaten up with the whites

of three eggs. Scraped patches should be touched up with gold paint.

Castile soap and water, with proper care, may be used to clean oil

paintings. Other methods should not be employed without some skill.



To Fill Cracks in Plaster.--Use vinegar instead of water to mix your

plaster of Paris. The resultant mass will be like putty, and will not

set for twenty or thirty minutes, whereas if you use water the plaster

will become hard almost immediately, before you have time to use it.

Push it into the cracks and smooth it off nicely with a table knife.



To Toughen Lamp Chimneys and Glassware.--Immerse the article in a pot

filled with cold water, to which some common salt has been added. Boil

the water well, then cool slowly. Glass treated in this way will resist

any sudden change of temperature.



To Remove Paint from Window-Glass.--Rub it well with hot, sharp vinegar.



To Clean Stovepipe.--A piece of zinc put on the live coals in the stove

will clean out the stovepipe.



To Brighten Carpets.--Carpets after the dust has been beaten out may be

brightened by scattering upon them cornmeal mixed with salt and then

sweeping it off. Mix salt and meal in equal proportions. Carpets should

be thoroughly beaten on the wrong side first and then on the right side,

after which spots may be removed by the use of ox-gall or ammonia and

water.



To Keep Flowers Fresh exclude them from the air. To do this wet them

thoroughly, put in a damp box, and cover with wet raw cotton or wet

newspaper, then place in a cool spot. To preserve bouquets, put a little

saltpetre in the water you use for your bouquets, and the flowers will

live for a fortnight.



To Preserve Brooms.--Dip them for a minute or two in a kettle of boiling

suds once a week and they will last much longer, making them tough and

pliable. A carpet wears much longer swept with a broom cared for in this

manner.



To Clean Brassware.--Mix one ounce of oxalic acid, six ounces of rotten

stone, all in powder, one ounce of sweet oil, and sufficient water to

make a paste. Apply a small proportion, and rub dry with a flannel or

leather. The liquid dip most generally used consists of nitric and

sulphuric acids, but this is more corrosive.



To Keep Out Mosquitoes.--If a bottle of the oil of pennyroyal is left

uncorked in a room at night, not a mosquito, nor any other blood-sucker,

will be found there in the morning.



To Kill Cockroaches.--A teacupful of well bruised plaster of Paris,

mixed with double the quantity of oatmeal, to which a little sugar may

be added, although this last named ingredient is not essential. Strew it

on the floor, or into the chinks where they frequent.



To Destroy Ants.--Drop some quicklime on the mouth of their nest, and

wash it with boiling water, or dissolve some camphor in spirits of wine,

then mix with water, and pour into their haunts; or tobacco water, which

has been found effectual. They are averse to strong scents. Camphor, or

a sponge saturated with creosote, will prevent their infesting a

cupboard. To prevent their climbing up trees, place a ring of tar about

the trunk, or a circle of rag moistened occasionally with creosote.



To Prevent Moths.--In the month of April or May, beat your fur garments

well with a small cane or elastic stick, then wrap them up in linen,

without pressing them too hard, and put betwixt the folds some camphor

in small lumps; then put your furs in this state in boxes well closed.

When the furs are wanted for use, beat them well as before, and expose

them for twenty-four hours to the air, which will take away the smell of

the camphor. If the fur has long hair, as bear or fox, add to the

camphor an equal quantity of black pepper in powder.



To Get Rid of Moths--

1. Procure shavings of cedar wood, and inclose in muslin bags, which can

be distributed freely among the clothes.



2. Procure shavings of camphor wood, and inclose in bags.



3. Sprinkle pimento (allspice) berries among the clothes.



4. Sprinkle the clothes with the seeds of the musk plant.



5. To destroy the eggs, when deposited in woolen cloths, etc., use a

solution of acetate of potash in spirits of rosemary, fifteen grains to

the pint.





Bed Bugs.--Spirits of naphtha rubbed with a small painter's brush into

every part of the bedstead is a certain way of getting rid of bugs. The

mattress and binding of the bed should be examined, and the same process

attended to, as they generally harbor more in these parts than in the

bedstead. Ten cents' worth of naphtha is sufficient for one bed.



Bug Poison.--Proof spirit, one pint; camphor, two ounces; oil of

turpentine, four ounces; corrosive sublimate, one ounce. Mix. A

correspondent says: I have been for a long time troubled with bugs, and

never could get rid of them by any clean and expeditious method, until a

friend told me to suspend a small bag of camphor to the bed, just in the

center, overhead. I did so, and the enemy was most effectually repulsed,

and has not made his appearance since--not even for a reconnoissance!

This is a simple method of getting rid of these pests, and is worth a

trial to see if it be effectual in other cases.



Mixture for Destroying Flies--Infusion of quassia, one pint; brown

sugar, four ounces; ground pepper, two ounces. To be well mixed

together, and put in small, shallow dishes when required.



To Destroy Flies in a room, take half a teaspoonful of black pepper in

powder, one teaspoonful of brown sugar, and one tablespoonful of cream,

mix them well together, and place them in the room on a plate, where the

flies are troublesome, and they will soon disappear.



To Drive Flies from the House.--A good way to rid the house of flies is

to saturate small cloths with oil of sassafras and lay them in windows

and doors. The flies will soon leave.



Aging Oak.--Strong ammonia fumes may be used for aging oak. Place the

piece to be fumed, with an evaporating dish containing concentrated

ammonia, in a box, and close it airtight. Leave for 12 hours and finish

with a wax polish, applying first a thin coat of paraffine oil and then

rubbing with a pomade of prepared wax made as follows: Two ounces each

of yellow and white beeswax heated over a slow fire in a clean vessel

(agate ware is good) until melted. Add 4 oz. turpentine and stir till

entirely cool. Keep the turpentine away from the fire. This will give

the oak a lustrous brown color, and nicking will not expose a different

surface, as the ammonia fumes penetrate to a considerable depth.



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