formaldehyde cure.
Where moths are apt to injure carpets, boil a few camphor balls in water
and sweep with a clean broom, dipping frequently in the mixture.
Or scatter powdered borax plentifully about.
An effective, quick way to rid carpets and furniture of moths, is to use
an oil atomizer and spray them with one teaspoonful carbolic acid, mixed
in one quart benzine.
SCENT BAGS TO HANG IN CLOSETS
¼ oz. ground cloves
¼ oz. caraway seed
1 oz. dry salt
½ lb. lavender flowers
½ oz. dried thyme
½ oz. dried mint
Mix well and put in small bags in closets and among clothes. This
mixture is said to be a preventive of moths.
FLOWERS, PLANTS AND GREEN THINGS
Add a little salt, saltpeter or soda to the water containing cut
flowers, or place them in cold soap suds, to aid in their preservation.
Another way is to fill a vase nearly full of fresh bits of charcoal,
adding water till the vase is nearly full of water, place flowers in it,
and change water daily.
Cut flowers with a sharp knife instead of scissors, if you wish them to
keep for a longer time.
NASTURTIUMS
After picking, put them in rather hot water and the stems soon become
stiff, so the blooms will stay up.
By tying a soft thread around buds, they may be kept from opening for
several days.
A FLOWER CENTER PIECE
Cover any size embroidery hoop with mosquito netting, placing over a low
bowl, and stick short stemmed flowers through it.
A GROWING CENTER PIECE
Plant a five cent package of old fashioned portulaca seed in your fern
dish for beautiful greenery.
A flower pot may be covered with a straw sleeve protector or made
attractive by decorating in green oil paints in leaf designs.
GROWING GREENS
Mix mustard and turnip seed and sow thickly in odd spots in garden or
yard. They grow rapidly, can be cut off and will grow again. Horse
radish is also good to have growing.
MINT
Grow fresh mint for cooking, in less than a week in a glass jar of
water. Do not change, but add to the water each day or two, and keep the
sprays short by pinching off the tops.
VINES
Vines should be trained on a strong black thread in a window garden.
A sweet potato, not kiln dried, placed in a bowl containing a few inches
of water, will grow beautiful greens.
TO HASTEN GROWTH
Thoroughly dissolve one tablespoonful epsom salts in one-half gallon
cool water, and pour over plant roots.
FLOWERS FOR WINTER
Save the most perfect buds of the desired flowers, cut with a three inch
stem and cover the end immediately with sealing wax. When they have
shrunken some, wrap each one in a piece of paper and keep in a dry box.
When ready for them in winter, take them at night, cut off the ends, and
place in water containing a little niter of salt. The following day the
flowers will bloom as though just picked.
PRESERVING FOR DECORATION
Gather red berries like pods of roses, and bright red berries and dip in
melted paraffin for decorating in winter.
HYACINTHS
Plant four or five bulbs in October in a six inch pot, and place in the
cellar till six weeks before Christmas, then bring gradually to the
light. If about to bloom too soon, put in a darker cooler place; if too
slow, put in a warmer lighter place.
TO KEEP CYCLAMEN BLOOMING
Do not cast it aside after repeated blooming, but in the spring, dig a
hole in the ground, set the pot in and water as usual. In the fall,
place it in a sunny window, keep moist with warm water and it will bloom
like new.
TO ROOT OLEANDERS
Cut off a strong slip, cut a slot in the end and fill full of cotton,
wrapping paper around it so it will not touch the bottle, and put it in
a bottle of water in a dark place for a week. It should have plenty of
roots by that time, and is ready to plant carefully in rich soil.
Other woody plants may be rooted in this way.
SLIPPING GERANIUMS
Insert an oat or a grain of rye in the bottom of the slip, put in a pot,
keep moist, and the result is wonderful.
FERNS AND PALMS
Do not place ferns on windows or in a draft.
Moisten the soil around them each week with not too strong cold tea.
When the fronds droop, the fern is usually root-bound.
Two tablespoonfuls of olive or castor oil poured on the roots of large
ferns and palms once a month, does wonders. Use less quantities for
smaller plants.
PALMS
Keep palms washed clean with luke warm water and milk and give them from
one to two tablespoonfuls olive or castor oil, according to their size,
once a month.
A fresh green pineapple top may be planted and grown into a fine palm.
RUBBER PLANTS
Give them oil as advised for ferns and palms. If the leaves become
spotted, turn yellow and drop, give the roots some sweet skim milk once
or twice each week.
FROZEN POTTED PLANTS
Turn boxes or other covers immediately over them, covering them with
blankets, papers, or anything to entirely keep out light; or set them in
a perfectly dark closet to thaw naturally, without light. Bulbs frozen
in water should be set away from a ray of light and brought out on a
milder day.
TO KILL BURDOCKS
Cut off close to the ground and drop a few drops of gasoline from an old
kerosene can on the roots.
PLANT BUGS
One teaspoonful ammonia to one quart warm water on roots of plants
destroys worms and bugs.
To rid plants of lice, spray with two tablespoonfuls oil of sassafras
well stirred in one quart of lukewarm water.
TO SHARPEN LAWN MOWERS
Spread a mixture of emery dust and black oil as thick as molasses, on
the concave cutter bar beneath the knives. Remove the cast head covering
on the outside of one wheel and place a crank on the end of the axle,
and turn backward. This turns the knife cylinder rapidly and draws the
knife edges through the emery and oil. The kitchen range shaker or
clothes wringer crank may be utilized for the crank.
BOTTLES, GLASS UTENSILS, MIRRORS, ETC.
TO CLEAN BOTTLES
Wash first in cold water, then in hot water with baking soda.
Cut up raw potato parings very finely, fill the bottle with them, cover
with warm water and let stand twenty four hours. Remove a few of the
parings, shake the bottle thoroughly, turn all out, and wash the bottle.
It should be perfectly clean.
Crush egg shells and put in a bottle with clear cold water. Shake
thoroughly, empty, and rinse well.
Put a piece of soap and a handful of small cinders in a bottle with hot
water, shake thoroughly, rinse well, and drain.
TO CUT A BOTTLE No. 1
Wind cotton twine two or three times around the bottle just below where
it is to be cut. Drop kerosene or alcohol very slowly on the cord until
it is saturated, then ignite it with a match. When the flame has nearly
died out, pour on a little cold water, and the bottle separates
smoothly.
TO CUT A BOTTLE No. 2
To file, drill, or saw glass with a hack saw, keep the tool edge wet
with camphor dissolved in turpentine.
TO CUT GLASS
Fill a deep pan with water, put the hands, glass and scissors completely
under water and hold them there while cutting any desired shape in
glass.
REMOVING STOPPERS FROM BOTTLES
Wrap the stopper round with a cloth dipped in boiling water. If the
bottle contains smelling salts, put it into vinegar and water. Leave it
a short time in a warm place, then stand it in hot water. Then hold it
in one hand and tap it on first one side and then the other with a piece
of wood, with an upward stroke.
Another way is to put a few drops of olive oil around the glass stopper,
leave for an hour or more, and if it refuses to be moved, place the
whole bottle in warm water and tap the stopper carefully on each side.
TO REMOVE A CORK FROM BOTTLE
Tie a nail on the loop of a string so it will not float, get the string
under the cork and pull it out.
To keep a cork from sticking in a glue bottle, rub it with vaseline.
TO MAKE A CORK SMALLER
Cut two wedge shaped pieces out of it at right angles across the small
end, and it will fit tightly.
TO KEEP GAS GLOBES FROM BREAKING
Keep a paper clip over the edge of the globe.
POURING HOT LIQUIDS IN GLASSES
Put a silver spoon in a glass to prevent its breaking, when hot liquid
is poured in.
WHEN GLASSES STICK TOGETHER
To separate glasses that stick together, set the lower glass in warm
water and fill the upper with cold water.
WASHING GLASS
Wash cut glass in lukewarm water and brush with a bristle brush.
A little soda in the water is good.
Use small turkish towels for drying glass and silver, or fine linen
ones.
MIRRORS
To clean mirrors, use a soft cloth dipped in alcohol, and polish with a
clean dry cloth.
Stains may be removed from mirrors by using a soft cloth dipped in
spirits of camphor, polishing afterwards.
Never allow the sun to shine on a mirror, as it softens the backing,
making the glass cloudy.
MENDING CHINA
Use common white lead for mending china and glass.
Apply the paint to the edges with a small stick, place rubber bands or
twine around it to hold the parts together, and set away to become
thoroughly hardened.
It is very much better, however, to immediately throw out a piece of
broken china, as all the mending in the world never makes it perfect,
and there can be no satisfaction in having an imperfect piece of china
that is liable at any time to fall apart and break several other pieces.
CEMENT FOR CHINA AND GLASS
Use common white lead.
CEMENT FOR ENAMEL WARE
Mix equal parts of finely sifted coal ashes, sifted table salt, and soft
putty. Fill the hole with this mixture and set the dish on the fire with
a little water in it till the cement hardens.
Cement for joining leather, wood, and paper to metal mix one teaspoonful
of glycerine with a gill of blue.
FOR MENDING RUBBER ARTICLES
Try a piece of adhesive plaster where it is practicable.
CANDLES, LAMPS, ETC.
Keep candles in the refrigerator several hours, to harden them, to
prevent drooping when used for decorations.
Fancy candles may be washed with a soft brush, with soap and water.
Put fine salt on a lighted candle to make it last.
Save all small candle ends to use in sealing fruit jars.
When carrying a candle in a draft, fasten it by its melted grease in a
tumbler, using a short candle.
FILLING OIL LAMPS, ETC.
Fill oil lamps with a funnel kept for the purpose.
Boil the burners occasionally in soda water.
Place a small lump of camphor in the oil to brighten lamplight.
If a lamp gets overturned, never pour water on it, but use earth, flour
or sand.
LAMP WICKS
Soak a new lampwick in vinegar and dry perfectly before using, to
prevent it smelling badly.
When a lampwick is too large, do not cut down the side, but draw several
threads from the middle of the wick.
Put a new wick in a lamp through the top instead of the bottom of the
burner.
Dip one inch of the end of a wick in starch and iron perfectly dry, to
insert it easily in a burner.
Sew a piece of white flannel to the bottom of large lamp wicks and they
may be used a much longer time.
TO CLEAN LAMP CHIMNEYS
Wipe chimney with a cloth moistened with vinegar, then polish.
A few drops of alcohol rubbed on the inside of a lamp chimney will
remove all the black.
PAPER AND BOOKS
TO MAKE WATERPROOF PAPER
Mix sulphuric acid of an exact strength with one-half its weight of
water. A sheet of common paper placed in this solution becomes hard and
fibrous, yet its weight is not increased, and it makes a better
parchment for writing purposes than animal parchment.
TO RESTORE FADED WRITING
Moisten the paper with water, then brush over with a solution of
hydric-ammonia.
TO PREVENT MOULD ON BOOKS
Wipe the shelves with oil of cedar.
TO CLEAN SOILED BOOKS
Use two parts of water to one part of vinegar, rub over the soiled
pages, and leave the book open to dry.
Book covers soiled by grease may be cleaned by putting pipe clay or
French chalk over the spots, then applying a warm iron.
To clean the edges (where they are not gilt edges) close the book
tightly and erase with an ink eraser.
COOK BOOK COVERS
Cook books should be covered with oil cloth or waxed paper.
TO MAKE LIBRARY PASTE
1½ pints rain water
1 oz. gum tragacanth
a few drops of essential oil
Put in jars and be sure to keep tightly covered, and it is always ready
for use.
COAL, STOVES, FURNACES, ETC.
TO PREVENT SOOT IN CHIMNEYS
Burn raw potato parings in the stove, or pieces of zinc to prevent
having soot accumulate.
TO SEE OBSTRUCTIONS IN A CHIMNEY
Remove the soot-pan, place a hand mirror in the opening, and you can see
to the top unless obstructed.
Vinegar will remove lime spots and soot from an open chimney.
TO START A FIRE
Keep ashes in an old tin can and pour over kerosene enough to soak them.
Have the grate clean and wood laid on it ready to light. Place two
spoonfuls of ashes on the wood, then lay a few sticks over the ashes,
have dampers open, and light the ashes. Keep the can of ashes outside,
away from fire and your kindling is always ready. A brick may be soaked
in kerosene a short time and laid in a grate and lighted to start either
coal or wood. When the kerosene is burned out and the brick cold, it may
be soaked again.
To start a fire in the grate, first take a newspaper and insert in
opening just above grate, then light paper; this will warm up the
chimney flue and prevent smoke from coming into room after lighting
fire. This also applies in starting hard and soft coal burners.
To free a grate from cinders, dump clam or oyster shells into the grate.
TO KEEP A FIRE
Soak two or three newspapers in clean cold water, squeeze out the water,
and make the papers into good sized balls. Pack these tightly together
on top of the red hot coal fire, and it will keep for hours.
When a quick fire is needed, tear a newspaper into quarters without
unfolding, twist each one tightly, lay closely in the stove, and light
one end.
Throw on a few pieces of coal and sprinkle table salt over them. At the
end of several hours, there will be a good fire.
TO WATERPROOF MATCHES
Dip them in very hot melted paraffin and when cool, they are ready for
use.
TO CLEAN DISCOLORED FIREPLACE BRICK
Rub into the bricks as much linseed oil as they will absorb, and repeat
till they are clear.
BLACKING A STOVE
Use a paint brush to apply the blacking. Just before using stove polish,
mix a tablespoonful of gasoline with a saucer of polish. Be sure the
stove is cold and never use gasoline around heat.
Turpentine is also good to use with polish.
Clean the steel parts with boiled linseed oil on a woolen cloth, and
clean the nickle with whiting and ammonia.
If a stove is washed, then rubbed well with a few drops of linseed oil
on a woolen cloth, it will never need polishing.
IN THE OVEN
Paint the inside of the oven with aluminum paint and it is a pleasure to
be able to see every article in it.
A little salt sprinkled on the bottom of the oven will prevent cakes
burning.
When possible during the winter months, do the baking in the furnace.
When the hinges on the oven door are worn and the doors fail to catch,
put washers of iron on the bolt.
TO CUT STOVE PIPE
Cut stove pipe easily with a can opener.
GAS STOVES
Wash them each time they are used, and wash with kerosene once each
week.
Keep two pieces of sheet iron on top of a gas stove, large enough to
cover it. Enough heat will be diffused from one or two burners to cook a
whole meal. It will also keep dishes hot.
On top of the gas stove under the burners, is a good place to spread a
paper to catch falling particles.
TO CLEAN ASBESTOS GAS LOGS
To clean the asbestos gas log when it becomes blackened, sprinkle it
with salt, light the gas, and the asbestos turns white.
TO CLEAN A GAS MANTLE
When smoke has blackened a gas mantle, sprinkle salt from a salt shaker
on it, slowly, light the gas and let the salt burn off a little at a
time.
TO WHITEN A HEARTH
Melt a little size in a jar with a quart of boiling water. When the size
is melted, mix in the same quantity of whiting with just a bit of
washing-blue. Wash the hearth, then paint with the mixture. Clean it by
wiping with a cloth wrung out of cold water. When the whiting needs
renewing, wash the hearthstone in hot water, and apply the mixture. Add
more water when the mixture requires.
PACKING THE STOVE AWAY
Rub a little oil, vaseline or kerosene over a stove before packing it
away, to prevent rusting.
ABOUT PLUMBING
Slip a piece of garden hose about an inch long over the end of the
faucets in the kitchen sink to prevent breaking dishes on the faucets.
TO PREVENT PIPES FREEZING
After water is shut off, always sprinkle a good handful of coarse salt
over the holes in the sink with just enough water to carry it to the
curve of the waste pipe. Treat all similar curves in the same manner.
TO THAW FROZEN PIPES
Use a hot water bottle.
When pipes become frozen in the yard, have an electrician connect a
transformer of suitable size into circuit; one lead of the secondary is
connected to the water valve or pipe near the curb and the other lead is
connected to the water piping in the house. The current is then turned
on, and the heat developed by the resistance of the water pipe to the
flow of the electric current soon thaws the pipe.
A pipe-thawing electrical outfit is now manufactured.
CLEANING METALS, ETC.
TO CLEAN ALUMINUM KETTLES
Boil rhubarb peelings in them for thirty minutes.
TO CLEAN BRASS
Dip half a lemon in fine salt and rub over the stains, wipe with a soft
cloth, and polish with a woolen cloth.
After cleaning brass, polish with equal parts of paraffin and naphtha
with enough rottenstone to make a good paste. Then polish with a soft
dry cloth.
Ammonia in a little water will remove verdigris from brass.
Drop rusty curtain pins into ammonia water and let them remain for ten
minutes, then dry on soft cloth.
TO CLEAN BRONZE
Use salt and vinegar (or lemon juice), then rinse in clear water and
polish with a clean woolen cloth.
TO CLEAN COPPER
Proceed as in To Clean Brass.
TO CLEAN ENAMELED WARE
Use salt and vinegar.
Or, put soda in the enameled lined vessel, and let come to a boil.
TO CLEAN GOLD
Dip in a solution of one teaspoonful of ammonia to one quart of water,
rinse in clear warm water, and dry on soft cloth.
TO PRESERVE POLISHED IRON WORK
Add olive oil to copal varnish till the mixture is rather greasy, then
mix in as much turpentine as there is varnish and apply.
TO CLEAN NICKEL
Use whiting and ammonia.
TO CLEAN PEWTER
Wash with hot water, rub with fine sand, dry and polish with leather.
TO CLEAN SILVER
Apply kerosene with a brush or soft cloth, rinse in boiling water and
dry with soft towels.
Dissolve one-fourth cupful sal-soda in one gallon of water, heat to
boiling, immerse the silver, being sure it is entirely covered in water,
let stand five minutes, rinse, and wipe dry.
Another method is, boil the silver in an aluminum kettle for thirty
minutes, and dry with a soft towel.
TO REMOVE EGG STAIN FROM SILVER
Use wet salt.
TO KEEP SILVER UNTARNISHED
Sprinkle a few pieces of camphor gum in boxes or drawers where it is
kept.
TO CLEAN STEEL
Emery powder and oil rubbed to a paste is good to clean steel. After
cleaning, polish with an oiled rag, and then with a soft dry cloth.
TO REMOVE RUST FROM STEEL
Use plenty of kerosene. If possible, lay on or wrap about the rusted
parts, cloths soaked in kerosene, leaving them for a day or two. Then
apply salt wet in hot vinegar, or scour with brick dust. Rinse in hot
water and dry with a soft woolen cloth, finishing with an oil rub and
polish with a soft cloth.
TO CLEAN TIN
Rub with a damp cloth dipped in soda.
TO CLEAN ZINC
Clean with kerosene on a soft cloth, and wash in boiling water.
TO CLEAN ENAMELED WOODWORK
Dampen a flannel cloth in warm water, dip in whiting and apply to the
wood. Rinse in clear warm water, and dry with a soft cloth.
TO CLEAN OILED WOODWORK
Use cold tea with a soft cloth, and wipe with a dry cloth.
TO CLEAN PAINTED WOODWORK
Use one dessertspoonful of soda to one bucketful of warm water. Wash,
and wipe with a dry, clean, soft cloth.
Kerosene is good to clean any painted or polished woodwork. Use one
tablespoonful to a bucketful of warm water.
Rub with a lemon, all marks left by scratching matches on painted wood.
TO CLEAN WINDOWS
Use a cloth moistened in denatured alcohol, and polish immediately with
a soft dry cloth.
Or a tablespoonful of kerosene to a gallon of warm water.
TO CLEAN OLD PAINT BRUSHES
To clean a brush that is dried and stiff from standing in paint or
varnish, dip it repeatedly in boiling vinegar till it softens. Then wash
it in warm soap suds, rinse in warm water, and dry.
TO POLISH FURNITURE
Mix equal parts of olive oil, vinegar and turpentine. Apply with a soft
cloth and rub dry with a soft clean flannel.
DUST CLOTHS
Dip a soft piece of cheese cloth about a yard square in kerosene, do not
wring very dry, but hang out of doors for twenty four hours before
using.
Old pieces of soft flannel soaked in paraffin all night, wrung out as
dry as possible and hung out of doors about twenty four hours, make nice
furniture polishers and cleaners.
CLEANING BRIC-A-BRAC, ETC.
TO CLEAN ALABASTER ORNAMENTS
Apply a paste made of quick lime and water, leave on a few days, and
wash off with warm water and soap.
TO CLEAN IVORY
Brush with a soft tooth brush in lukewarm water. Use alcohol if the
ivory is discolored and dry in the sun, if possible.
TO CLEAN MARBLE
Mix two parts of soda, one of pumice stone, and one of salt, with warm
water to form a paste.
TO CLEAN PLASTER STATUETTES
Dip the statue several times in a strong solution of soda in water,
rubbing badly soiled places with a soft cloth.
CLEANING COMPOUNDS
TO REMOVE GREASE FROM ALL FABRICS
1 pint deodorized benzine
1 oz. alcohol
1 oz. spirits of ammonia
Shake well, apply with a sponge and rub. When dry, press with a slightly
warm iron.
TO CLEAN ALL FABRICS
3 drachms sulphuric ether
3 drachms chloroform
6 drachms alcohol
1 quart gasoline
Let the articles to be cleaned remain in the fluid from one to twelve
hours. If small pieces are to be cleaned, immerse them in the mixture in
a glass fruit jar with the top screwed tightly. Laces, feathers, silks,
woolens, etc., clean beautifully in this.
TO CLEAN CARPETS
2 buckets lukewarm rain water
1½ bars naphtha soap
1 oz. borax
1 oz. cleaning soda
1 oz. Fuller’s earth
Scrub the mixture on the carpet with a scrubbing brush, and wipe dry
with clean cloths.
TO CLEAN WALL PAPER
1 quart cold water
1¼ cupfuls aqua ammonia
10c worth oil of sassafras
2 teaspoonfuls salt
1 teaspoonful soda
Mix, and add flour till stiff enough to drop from spoon. Cook in a
covered pail set in a kettle of boiling water, stirring often, till
done. If the mixture does not stick to the hands when cool, it is done,
and can be kneaded into loaves. Rub the wall with pieces of the loaf,
using the pieces over and over. Keep the loaves covered when not using.
MEMORANDA
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INDEX
around the kitchen stove, 12
cooking utensils, 14
other helps, 13
preface, 7
read this, 16
suggestions for starting the day, 9
the garbage, 12
the kitchen floor, 11
the kitchen sink, 10
the kitchen table, 11
weights and measures, 15
COOKING RECIPES