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with saffron. Let it stand in a warm place until the gums are dissolved, when strain it for use.
VARNISHING.
Before new furniture is varnished, it should have a coat of boiled oil, (if wished to be darkened,) or linseed oil, and bo left a day or two to harden; or a thin size, made from ising-glass or gum-tragacanth, dissolved in water, or very thin glue, is used; so that the pores of the wood be filled up, and both varnish and time be thus saved. A good varnish may be made by dissolving eight ounces of white wax and half an ounce of yellow rosin in a pint of spirits of turpentine.
BOTTLES.
Cut & raw potato into small pieces, and put them in the bottle along with a table-spoonful of salt, and two table- spoonfuls of water. Shake all well together in the bottle till every mark is removed, and rinse with clean water. This will remove stains of wine, green marks of vegetation, and other discolourations. Hard crust in bottles may be cleaned off by rinsing with water and small shot. Take care to wash out all the shot before putting the bottles aside.
PLATE.
Articles of plate, after being used, should be washed in hot water, or, if stained, they should be boiled, and rinsed and dried before you attempt to clean them. They should be carefully handled, else they may receive deep scratches, which are very difficult to remove. Besides, the object is not merely to clean the plate, but to polish it, so that it may appear almost as brilliant as when it was received new from the silversmith. For this purpose quicksilver was for-merly much used in plate-powder, and it gave the silver great lustre, which soon, however, disappeared, and the article became tarnished and blackened. The best plate-powder consists of dried and finely-sifted whiting or chalk. The greater part of the whiting sold in the shops is coarse trash, unfit for rubbing upon plate, and great care must be taken to procure the finest London whit-ing, which will not scratch. Brushes, hard and soft, sponge, and wash leather, are requisites for cleaning plate; if the powder be mixed with spirits of wine laid on with a sponge, and rubbed off with wash-leather, all tarnish will be removed. Salt stains (black-ish spots) and sulphur marks from eggs are more difficult to remove. It is a good plan to boil a soft fine old cloth in water with some prepared chalk dissolved in it, and to dry
