Page:Australian enquiry book of household and general information.djvu/125

To clean zinc and brass use kerosene after washing with hot suds.

To cleanse drains, sinks, &c., use copperas, about 1 lb. to pail of water.

To purify water in iron tanks, use alum, ½ an ounce to every 100 gallons. The best way to do it is to dissolve the alum in hot water, and keep in a bottle well corked, and to every gallon of water to be filtered add one teaspoonful.

Stain your floors with diamond dye and varnish them.

A floor can be stained a very pretty shade by washing it daily in cold tea. When the desired colour is obtained, polish with beeswax in the usual way.

Tomato juice will remove ink stains from linen. Dip the stained part into the pure tomato juice and let it dry. If the first application does not remove it, repeat.

Cane bottom chairs should be washed with a sponge, and hot water and soap, in which a handful of salt has been dissolved.

Tea and coffee should not be kept near each other, as they impregnate each other, and the flavour of both is injured.

Spirits of camphor will remove fruit stains if applied before the clothes are wet. Put it on them, and then send to the wash.

Wash combs and brushes once a week in tepid water containing a few drops of ammonia. Place the bristles down to dry.

If the pantry shelves are washed regularly with strong carbolic acid and water, the ants will keep away from them. Sulphur is also a remedy if sprinkled about their haunts.

A little borax put into the water in which red bordered cloths and towels are washed will prevent the colour fading.

A teaspoonful of salt put into the kerosene lamp will improve the light and make bad oil burn brightly.

A teaspoonful of ammonia in a quart of water will cleanse brushes and combs.

A chalked line round the sugar

basin or jam dish will keep the little golden and black ants away.

When re-gluing any piece of furniture or anything that has been glued before, be sure and scrape every particle of old glue off.

To economize starch, pour it mixed into boiling water, instead of pouring the water on the starch. You can save all that is not required by letting it settle and dry, then return to the starch tin.

To destroy the smell of cabbage while cooking, add a lump of charcoal to the water.

Old silk can be renovated and cleaned if sponged with water, in which raw potatoes have been grated. Two large potatoes to one quart of water. Then iron the silk on the wrong side.

To clear the room of mosquitoes take a piece of camphor half the size of an egg, and set fire to it in a tin vessel. Let the smoke fill the room. Do not let the camphor flame, only smoke.

Equal parts of boiled linseed oil and vinegar is good for polishing furniture.

Starch, glycerine, and plaster of paris makes a cement for pottery that does not need washing.

An old silk handkerchief makes the best duster for polished furniture.

Never oil walnut wood furniture, or rub with an oily rag—it will make it dull looking. Put in a bottle a pint of linseed oil, ounce of butter of antimony, and half a gill of vinegar. Shake together before using on your walnut furniture.

Another good furniture polish is three parts sweet oil, two parts turpentine. Wash the furniture over with vinegar, dry lightly, and then apply, following the grain of the wood.

To bring out dents in furniture, wet the place with warm water, double a piece of brown paper several times, soak in water, and having laid it on the dent place a warm iron on it, or against it till the paper is quite dry. If not successful at first try again.

A good size for amateur work is made as follows:—Put half an ounce