The Ladies Book of Useful Information, Anonymous [rocket ebook reader txt] 📗

temperature. Do not sprinkle the foliage of the camellia while the flower buds are swelling or it will cause them to droop, nor sprinkle them in the sunshine. They should have a temperature of about forty degrees and more shade. By following these rules, healthy flowering plants will be the result.

A good way

TO START SLIPS

is to partly break off the slip (but do not entirely sever it from the parent stock), leaving it hanging for ten or twelve days; then remove and plant in a box of half sand and half leaf mold and it will be well rooted in a week. Do not water too freely or the slip will rot.

If house plants are watered once a week with water in which is mixed a few drops of ammonia they will thrive much better. Sometimes small white worms are found in the earth—lime water will kill them. Stir up the soil before pouring it on, to expose as many as possible. For running vines, burn beef bones and mix with the earth.

TO KEEP PLANTS WITHOUT A FIRE AT NIGHT.

Have made, of wood or zinc, a tray about four inches deep with a handle on either end, water-tight. Paint it outside and in, put in each corner a post as high as the tallest of your plants, and it is ready for use. Arrange your flowerpots in it and fill between them with sawdust. This absorbs the moisture falling from the plants when you water them and retains the warmth acquired during the day, keeping the temperature of the roots even. When you retire at night spread over the posts a blanket or shawl, and there is no danger of freezing.

SURE SHOT FOR ROSE-SLUGS.

Make a tea of tobacco stems and a soapsuds of whale oil or carbolic soap; mix and apply to the bush with a sprinkler, turning the bush so as to wet the under as well as the upper part of the leaves. Apply, before the sun is up, three or four times.

TO PREPARE AUTUMN LEAVES AND FERNS.

Immediately after gathering take a moderately warm iron, smear it well with white wax, rub over each surface of the leaf once, applying more wax for each leaf. This process causes leaves to roll about as when hanging on the trees. If pressed more they become brittle and remain perfectly flat. Maple and oak are among the most desirable, and may be gathered any time after the severe frosts; but the sumac and ivy must be secured as soon after the first slight frost as they become tinted or the leaflets will fall from the stem. Ferns may be selected any time during the season. A large book must be used in gathering them, as they will be spoiled for pressing if carried in the hand. A weight should be placed on them until they are perfectly dry; then, excepting the most delicate ones, it will be well to press them like the leaves, as they are liable to curl when placed in a warm atmosphere. These will form beautiful combinations with the sumac and ivy.

TO PREPARE SKELETON LEAVES.

When properly prepared, skeleton leaves form a companion to the scrapbook or collection of pressed ferns, fronds, etc. This is a tedious operation and requires skill and great patience to obtain satisfactory results. Some leaves are easier to dissect and make better specimens than others, and, as a rule, a hard, thin leaf should be chosen; that is, when a special variety is not required.

Among those which are skeletonized most successfully are the English ivy, box elder, willow, grape, pear, rose, etc. They should be gathered during the month of June, or as soon as the leaf is fully developed. The leaves should be immersed in a vessel of rain water and allowed to remain till decomposed. When this takes place, press the leaf between pieces of soft flannel, and the film will adhere to the flannel, leaving a perfect network. Dry off gradually and clean the specimen with a soft hair pencil. Place between folds of soft blotting paper, and when perfectly dry place in your collection.

TO BLEACH THE LEAVES,

dissolve one half pound of chloride of lime in three pints of rain water, strain, and use one part of the solution to one of water. For ferns, use the solution full strength. When perfectly white remove to clear water, let stand for several hours, changing water two or three times, float out on paper, and press between blotting paper in books.

In mounting use mucilage made of five parts gum arabic, three parts white sugar, two parts starch, and very little water; boil and stir till thick and white.

HANGING BASKETS.

A correspondent of the Gardener's Monthly tells of a new style of hanging basket made of round maple sticks about one inch in diameter, eight inches in length at the bottom, increasing to fourteen at the top. In constructing, begin at the bottom and build up, log-cabin fashion; chink the openings with green moss and line the whole basket with the same. These are easily kept moist, and the plants droop and twine over them very gracefully. A good way to keep the earth moist in a hanging basket without the trouble of taking it down is to fill a bottle with water and put in two pieces of yarn, leaving one end outside. Suspend the bottle just above the basket and allow the water to drip. This will keep the earth moist enough for winter and save a great deal of time and labor. Plant morning glory seeds in hanging baskets in winter; they grow rapidly and are very pretty.—Buckeye.

CHAPTER XV. THE LAUNDRY.

TELLING OF A GREAT MANY USEFUL AND LABOR-SAVING PRACTICES FOR THE LAUNDRY.

TO MAKE WASHING FLUID.

Bring to a boil one pound of sal soda, half a pound of unslaked lime, a small lump of borax, and five quarts of water. Let cool, pour off, and bottle. Use one teacupful to a boiler of clothes. This is superior.

GALL SOAP.

For washing woolens, silks, or fine prints liable to fade. One pint beefs gall, two pounds common bar soap cut fine, one quart boiling soft water; boil slowly, stirring occasionally until well mixed. Pour into a flat vessel, and when cold cut into pieces to dry.

TO TAKE OUT SCORCH.

If a shirt bosom or any other article has been scorched in ironing, lay it where bright sunshine will fall directly on it. It will entirely remove it.

BLUING.

Take one ounce of Prussian blue, one-half ounce of oxalic acid; dissolve in one quart of perfectly soft rain water. Insert a quill through the cork of the bluing bottle to prevent waste or putting too much in clothes and you will be pleased with the result. One or two tablespoons of it is sufficient for a tub of water, according to the size of the tub. Chinese blue is the best and costs twelve and a half cents an ounce, and the acid will cost three cents.

COFFEE STARCH.

Make a paste of two tablespoons best starch and cold water; when smooth stir in a pint of perfectly clear coffee, boiling hot; boil five or ten minutes. Stir with a spermaceti or wax candle. Strain and use for all dark calicoes, percales, and muslins.

FLOUR STARCH.

Have a clean pan or kettle on stove with one quart boiling water, into which stir three heaping tablespoons flour, previously mixed smooth in a little cold water; stir steadily until it boils and thereafter enough to keep from burning. Boil about five minutes, and strain, while hot, through a crash towel. The above quantity is enough for one dress, and will make it nice and stiff.

TO MAKE FINE STARCH.

Wet the starch smooth in a little cold water in a large tin pan, pour on a quart of boiling water to two or three tablespoons of starch, stirring rapidly all the while; place on stove, stir until it boils and then occasionally. Boil from five to fifteen minutes, or until the starch is perfectly clear. Some add a little salt or butter or pure lard or stir with a sperm candle; others add a teaspoon of kerosene to one quart of starch. This prevents the stickiness sometimes so annoying in ironing.

Cold starch is made from starch dissolved in cold water, being careful not to have it too thick. Since it rots the clothes, it is not advisable to use it.

ENAMEL FOR SHIRT BOSOMS.

Melt together, with a gentle heat, one ounce white wax and two ounces spermaceti. Prepare in the usual way a sufficient quantity of starch for a dozen shirt bosoms, put into it a piece of this enamel the size of a hazelnut. This will give your clothes a beautiful polish.

TO CLEAN ARTICLES MADE OF WHITE ZEPHYR.

Rub in flour or magnesia, changing often. Shake off and hang in the open air a short time.

HOW TO CLEAN VELVET.

Invert a hot flatiron, place over it a single thickness of wet cotton cloth, lay on this the velvet (wrong side next the wet cloth), rub gently with a dry cloth until the pile is well raised, take off the iron, lay on a table, and brush it with a soft brush or cloth.

TO CLEAN RIBBONS.

Dissolve white soap in boiling water; when cool enough to bear the hand, pass the ribbons through it, rubbing gently, so as not to injure the texture; rinse through lukewarm water and pin on a board to dry. If the colors are bright yellow, maroon, crimson or scarlet, add a few drops of oil of vitriol to the rinse water; if the color is bright scarlet, add to the rinse water a few drops of muriate of tin.

TO TAKE OUT PAINT.

Equal parts of ammonia and spirits of turpentine will take paint out of clothing. Saturate the spot two or three times, and then wash out in soapsuds.

TO REMOVE INK STAIN.

Immediately saturate with milk, soak it up with a rag, apply more, rub well, and in a few minutes the ink will disappear.

TO TAKE GREASE OUT

of silk, woolens, paper, floors, etc., grate chalk thick over the spot, cover with brown paper, set on it a hot flatiron and let it remain until cool; repeat if necessary. The iron must not be so hot as to burn paper or cloth.

FRUIT STAINS.

Colored cottons or woolens stained with wine or fruit should be wet in alcohol and ammonia, then sponged off gently (not rubbed) with alcohol; after that, if the material will warrant it, washed in tepid soapsuds. Silk may be wet with this preparation when injured by these stains.

TO REMOVE IRON RUST.

While rinsing clothes, take such as have spots of iron, wring out, dip a wet finger in oxalic acid and rub on the spot, then dip in salt and rub on and hold on a warm flatiron, and the spot will immediately disappear; rinse again, rubbing the place a little with the hands.

TO TAKE OUT MILDEW.

Wet the cloth and rub on soap and chalk, mixed together, and lay in the sun; or, lay the cloth in buttermilk for a short time, take out and place in the hot sun; or, put lemon juice on and treat in the same way.

TO WASH WOOLEN GOODS.

Many woolen goods, such as light-colored, heavy sacques, nubias, etc., may be washed in cold suds and rinsed in cold water. The garments should be well shaken out and pulled into shape.

TO WASH FLANNELS IN TEPID WATER.

The usefulness of liquid ammonia is not as universally known among housewives as it deserves to be. If you add some of it to a soapsuds made of a mild soap it will prevent the flannel from becoming yellow or shrinking. It is the potash and soda combined in sharp soap which tend to color animal fibers yellow; the shrinking may be partially due to this agency, but above all to the exposure of the flannel while wet to the extremes of low and high