Chapter III: Part 3

_How to Make Persons at a Distance Think of You._--Let it be particularly remembered that "Faith" and concentration of thought are positively needful to accomplish aught in drawing others to you or making them think of you. If you have not the capacity or understanding how to operate an electric telegraph battery, it is no proof that an expert and competent person should fail doing so; just so in this case; if faith, meditation, or concentration of thought fail you, then will you also fail to operate upon others. First, you must have an yearning for the person you wish to make think of you; and secondly, you must learn to guess at what time of day or night he may be unemployed, passive, so that he be in a proper state to receive the thought which you dispatch to him. If he should be occupied in any way, so that his nervous forces were needed to complete his task, his "Human Battery," or thought, would not be in a recipient or passive condition, therefore your experiment would fail at that moment. Or if he were under heavy narcotics, liquors, tobacco, or gluttonous influences, he could not be reached at such moments. Or, if he were asleep, and you operated to affect a wakeful mind or thought, you would fail again at the moment. To make a person at a distance think of you, whether you are acquainted with him or not, matters not; I again repeat, find out or guess at what moment he is likely to be passive; by this I mean easy and careless: then, with the most fervent prayer, or yearning of your entire heart, mind, soul and strength, desire he may think of you; and if you wish him to think on any particular topic in relation to you, it is necessary for you to press your hands, when operating on him, on such mental faculties of your head as you wish him to exercise towards you. This demands a meagre knowledge of Phrenology. His "Feeling Nature," or "Propensities," you cannot reach through these operations, but when he once thinks of you, (if he does not know you he imagines such a being as you are,) he can easily afterwards be controlled by you, and he will feel disposed to go in the direction where you are, if circumstances permit, and he is his own master, for, remember, circumstances alter cases. I said, you cannot reach his "Feeling," but only his "Thinking Nature," truly, but after he thinks of you once, his "Feeling Nature," or propensities, may become aroused through his own organization. In conclusion on this topic, let me say, that if you wish the person simply to think of you, one operation may answer; but on the contrary, if you wish him to meet you, or go where you are, all you have to do is to persevere in a lawful and Christian manner to operate, and I assure you, in the course of all natural things, that is, if no accident or very unfavorable circumstances occur, he will make his way towards you, and when he comes within sight, or reaching distance of you, it will be easy to manage him.

_How to Make Large Noses Small._--Dr. Cid, an inventive surgeon of Paris, noticed that elderly people, who for a long time have worn eyeglasses supported on the nose by a spring, are apt to have this organ long and thin. This he attributes to the compression which the spring exerts on the arteries by which the nose is nourished. The idea occurred to him that the hint could be made useful. Not long afterward, a young lady of fifteen years consulted him, to see if he could restore to moderate dimensions her nose, which was large, fleshy, and unsightly. The trait, he found, was hereditary in her family, as her mother and sister were similarly afflicted. This was discouraging, as hereditary peculiarities are particularly obstinate. But the doctor determined to try his method; he took exact measurements, and had constructed for her a "lunette pince-nez"--a spring and pad for compressing the artery--which she wore at night and whenever she could conveniently in daytime. In three weeks a consolatory diminution was evident, and in three months the young lady was quite satisfied with the improvement in her features.

_Jockey Tricks._--_How to make a horse appear as though he was badly Foundered._--Take a fine wire and fasten it tight around the fetlock, between the foot and the heel, and smooth the hair over it. In twenty minutes the horse will show lameness.--Do not leave it on over nine hours.--_To make a horse lame._--Take a single hair from his tail, put it through the eye of a needle, then lift the front leg, and press the skin between the outer and the middle tendon or cord, and shove the needle through, cut off the hair each side and let the foot down; the horse will go lame in twenty minutes.--_How to make a horse stand by his food and not take it._--Grease the front teeth and the roof of the mouth with common beef tallow, and he will not eat until you wash it out; this in conjunction with the above will consummate a complete founder.--_How to cure a horse from the crib or sucking wind._--Saw between the upper teeth to the gums.--_How to put a young countenance on a horse._--Make a small incision in the sunken place over the eye, insert the point of a goose quill and blow it up; close the external wound with thread and it is done.--_To cover up the heaves._--Drench the horse with one-fourth pound of common bird shot, and he will not heave until they pass through him.--_To make a horse appear as if he had the glanders._--Melt four ounces of fresh butter and pour it into his ear.--_To distinguish between distemper and glanders._--The discharge from the nose in glanders will sink in water; in distemper it floats.--_How to make a true pulling horse baulk._--Take tincture of cantharides one ounce, and corrosive sublimate one drachm; mix, and bathe his shoulder at night.--_How to nerve a horse that is lame._--Make a small incision about half way from the knee to the joint on the outside of the leg, and at the back part of the shin bone you will find a small white tendon or cord, cut it off and close the external wound with a stitch, and he will walk off on the hardest pavement and not limp a particle.

_To Bore Holes in Glass._--Any hard steel tool will cut glass with great facility when kept freely wet with camphor dissolved in turpentine. A drill-bow may be used, or even the hand alone. A hole bored may be readily enlarged by a round file. The ragged edges of glass vessels may also be thus easily smoothed by a flat file. Flat window glass can readily be sawed by a watch spring saw by aid of this solution. In short, the most brittle glass can be wrought almost as easily as brass by the use of cutting tools kept constantly moist with camphorized oil of turpentine.

_To Etch upon Glass._--Procure several thick, clear pieces of crown glass, and immerse them in melted wax, so that each may receive a complete coating, or pour over them a solution of wax in benzine. When perfectly cold draw on them, with a fine steel point, flowers, trees, houses, portraits, etc. Whatever parts of the drawing are intended to be corroded with the acid, should be perfectly free from the least particle of wax. When all these drawings are finished the pieces of glass must be immersed one by one in a square leaden box or receiver, where they are to be submitted to the action of hydrofluoric acid gas, made by acting on powdered fluor-spar by concentrated sulphuric acid.

FARMERS' DEPARTMENT.

_How to get New Varieties of Potatoes._--When the vines are done growing and are turned brown; the seed is ripe: then take the balls and string with a large needle and strong thread; hang them in a dry place where they will gradually dry and mature, without danger or injury from frost. In the month of April, soak the ball for several hours from the pulp; when washed and dried, they are fit for sowing in rows, in a bed well prepared in the garden; they will sprout in a fortnight; they must be attended to like other vegetables. When about two inches high, they may be thinned and transplanted into rows. As they increase in size, they should be hilled. In the autumn many of them will be of the size of a walnut, and from that to a pea. In the following spring they should be planted in hills, placing the large ones together,--they will in the second season attain their full size, and will exhibit several varieties of form, and may then be selected to suit the judgment of the cultivator. I would prefer gathering the balls from potatoes of a good kind. The first crops from seeds thus obtained will be productive, and will continue so for many years, gradually deteriorating, until they will need a renewal by the process.

_To Destroy Rats._--Fill any deep smooth vessel of considerable capacity to within six inches of the top with water, cover the surface with bran, and set the vessel in a place most frequented by these pests. In attempting to get at the bran they will fall in and be drowned. Several dozen have been taken by this simple method at a time.

_To Kill Rats in Barn and Rick._--Melt hog's lard in a bottle plunged in water of temperature of 150 degrees Fahrenheit: introduce into it half an ounce of phosphorus for every pound of lard; then add a pint of proof spirits or whiskey; cork the bottle firmly after its contents have been to 150 degrees, taking it out of the water and agitating till the phosphorus becomes uniformly diffused, making a milky looking fluid. The spirit may be poured off on the liquor cooling; and you then have a fatty compound, which, after being warmed gently, may be incorporated with a mixture of wheat flour, or sugar, flavored with oil of rhodium, or oil of anise-seed, etc., and the dough, on being made into pellets, should be laid at the rat holes; being luminous in the dark, and agreeable both to the palates and noses, it is readily eaten, and proves certainly fatal. The rats issue from their holes and seek for water to quench their burning thirst, and they commonly die near the water.

_Rat Poison._--Flour, six pounds; sugar, one pound; sulphur, four pounds; phosphorus, four pounds.

_To Banish and Prevent Mosquitoes from Biting._--Dilute a little of the oil of thyme with sweet oil, and dip pieces of paper in it. Hang in your room, or rub a little on the hands and face when going to bed.

_To Keep Milk Sweet in the Hottest Weather._--Put a spoonful of horse-radish in a pan of milk; this will keep it sweet for several days longer than without.

RECIPES FOR HORSES.

_Blistering Liniment._--Powdered Spanish flies, one ounce; spirits turpentine, six ounces. Rub on the belly for pain in the bowels, or on the surface for internal inflammation.

_Cathartic Powder._--To cleanse out horses in the spring, making them sleek and healthy; black sulphuret of antimony, nitre, and sulphur, each equal parts. Mix well together, and give a tablespoonful every morning.

_Cough Ball for Horses._--Pulverized ipecac, three-quarters of an ounce; camphor, two ounces; squills, half an ounce. Mix with honey to form into mass, and divide into eight balls. Give one every morning.

_Diuretic Balls._--Castile soap scraped fine, powdered resin, each three teaspoonfuls; powdered nitre, four teaspoonfuls; oil of juniper, one small teaspoonful; honey, a sufficient quantity to make into a ball.

_To prevent Horses being Teased by Flies._--Boil three handfuls of walnut leaves in three quarts of water; sponge the horse (before going out of the stable) between and upon the ears, neck and flank.

_To Prevent Botts._--Mix a little wood-ashes with their drink daily. This effectually preserves horses against the botts.

_Liniment for Galled Backs of Horses._--White lead moistened with milk. When milk cannot be procured, oil may be substituted. One or two ounces will last two months or more.

_Remedy for Strains in Horses._--Take whiskey, one half pint: camphor, one ounce; sharp vinegar, one pint. Mix. Bathe the parts affected.

_Another._--Take opodeldoc, warm it, and rub the strained part two or three times a day.

_Lotion for Blows, Bruises, Sprains, etc._--One part laudanum, two parts oil origanum, four parts water ammonia, four parts oil of turpentine, four parts camphor, thirty-two parts spirits of wine. Put them into a bottle, and shake them until mixed.

_Fever Ball._--Emetic tartar and camphor, each half an ounce; nitre, two ounces. Mix with linseed meal and molasses to make eight balls. Give one twice a day.

_Liniment for Sprains, Swellings, etc._--Aqua ammonia, spirits camphor, each, two ounces; oil origanum and laudanum, each, half an ounce. Mix.

_Lotion for Mange._--Boil two ounces tobacco in one quart water: strain; add sulphur and soft soap, each, two ounces.

_Purgative Ball._--Aloes, one ounce; cream tartar and castile soap, one quarter of an ounce. Mix with molasses to make a ball.

CONFECTIONERS' DEPARTMENT.

_Ginger Candy._--Boil a pound of clarified sugar until, upon taking a drop of it on a piece of stick, it will become brittle when cold. Mix and stir up with it, for a common article, about a teaspoonful of ground ginger; if for a superior article, instead of the ground ginger add half the white of an egg, beaten up previously with fine sifted loaf sugar, and twenty drops of strong essence of ginger.

_Ginger Lozenges._--Dissolve in one-quarter of a pint of hot water half an ounce of gum arabic; when cold, stir it up with one and a half pounds of loaf sugar, and a spoonful of powdered ginger, or twelve drops of essence of ginger. Roll and beat the whole up into a paste; make it into a flat cake, and punch out the lozenges with a round stamp; dry them near the fire, or in an oven.

_Peppermint Lozenges._--Best powdered white sugar, seven pounds; pure starch, one pound; oil of peppermint to flavor. Mix with mucilage.

_Peppermint, Rose or Hoarhound Candy._--They may be made as lemon candy. Flavor with essence of rose or peppermint or finely powdered hoarhound. Pour it out in a buttered paper, placed in a square tin pan.

_To Clarify Sugar for Candies._--To every pound of sugar, put a large cup of water, and put it in a brass or copper kettle, over a slow fire, for half an hour; pour into it a small quantity of isinglass and gum Arabic, dissolved together. This will cause all impurities to rise to the surface; skim it as it rises. Flavor according to taste.

All kinds of sugar for candy, are boiled as above directed. When boiling loaf sugar, add a tablespoonful of rum or vinegar, to prevent its becoming too brittle whilst making.

Loaf sugar when boiled, by pulling and making into small rolls, and twisting a little, will make what is called little rock, or snow. By pulling loaf sugar after it is boiled, you can make it as white as snow.

_Common Twist Candy._--Boil three pounds of common sugar and one pint of water over a slow fire for half an hour, without skimming. When boiled enough take it off; rub the hands over with butter; take that which is a little cooled, and pull it as you would molasses candy, until it is white; then twist or braid it, and cut it up in strips.

_Fine Peppermint Lozenges._--Best powdered white sugar, 7 pounds; pure starch, 1 pound; oil of peppermint to flavor. Mix with mucilage.

_Everton Taffee._--To make this favorite and wholesome candy, take 1½ pounds of moist sugar, 3 ounces of butter, a teacup and a half of water and one lemon. Boil the sugar, butter, water, and half the rind of the lemon together, and when done--which will be known by dropping into cold water, when it should be quite crisp--let it stand aside till the boiling has ceased, and then stir in the juice of the lemon. Butter a dish, and pour it in about a quarter of an inch in thickness. The fire must be quick, and the taffee stirred all the time.

_Candy Fruit._--Take 1 pound of the best loaf sugar; dip each lump into a bowl of water, and put the sugar into your preserving kettle. Boil it down and skim it until perfectly clear, and in a candying state. When sufficiently boiled, have ready the fruits you wish to preserve. Large white grapes, oranges separated into small pieces, or preserved fruits, taken out of their syrup and dried, are very nice. Dip the fruits into the prepared sugar while it is hot; put them in a cold place; they will soon become hard.

_Popped Corn._--Dipped in boiling molasses and stuck together forms an excellent candy.

_Molasses Candy._--Boil molasses over a moderately hot fire, stirring constantly. When you think it is done, drop a little on a plate, and if sufficiently boiled it will be hard. Add a small quantity of vinegar to render it brittle and any flavoring ingredient you prefer. Pour in buttered tin pans. If nuts are to be added strew them in the pans before pouring out the candy.

_Liquorice Lozenges._--Extract of liquorice, 1 pound, powdered white sugar, 2 pounds. Mix with mucilage made with rosewater.

_Fig Candy._--Take 1 pound of sugar and 1 pint of water, set over a slow fire. When done, add a few drops of vinegar and a lump of butter, and pour into pans in which split figs are laid.

_Puds in Candy._--Can be made in the same manner, substituting stoned raisins for the figs. Common molasses candy is very nice with all kinds of nuts added.

_Scotch Butter Candy._--Take 1 pound of sugar, 1 pint of water: dissolve and boil. When done add 1 tablespoonful of butter, and enough lemon juice and oil of lemon to flavor.

_Icing for Cakes._--Beat the whites of two small eggs to a high froth; then add to them a quarter of a pound of white, ground, or powdered sugar; beat it well until it will lie in a heap; flavor with lemon or rose. This will frost the top of a common-sized cake. Heap what you suppose to be sufficient in the centre of the cake, then dip a broad-bladed knife in cold water, and spread the ice evenly over the whole surface.

_Saffron Lozenges._--Finely powdered hay-saffron, 1 ounce; finely powdered sugar, 1 pound; finely powdered starch, 8 ounces. Mucilage to mix.

_Chocolate Cream._--Chocolate, scraped fine, ½ ounce; thick cream, 1 pint; sugar (best), 3 ounces; heat it nearly to boiling, then remove it from the fire, and mill it well. When cold add the whites of four or five eggs; whisk rapidly and take up the froth on a sieve; serve the cream in glasses, and pile up the froth on the top of them.

_Candied Lemon or Peppermint for Colds._--Boil 1½ pounds sugar in a half pint of water, till it begins to candy around the sides; put in 8 drops of essence; pour it upon buttered paper, and cut it with a knife.

VALUABLE MISCELLANEOUS RECEIPTS, FOR THE HOUSEHOLD AND EVERY DAY REQUIREMENTS.

_Alum in Starch._--For starching muslins, ginghams, and calicoes, dissolve a piece of alum the size of a shellbark, for every pint of starch, and add to it. By so doing the colors will keep bright for a long time, which is very desirable when dresses must be often washed, and the cost is but a trifle.

_Cider Yeast._--Take cider from sour apples before it ferments, scald, skim thoroughly, and pour, while hot, upon flour enough to make a stiff batter. When cool, add yeast of any kind, and let it rise, stirring it down as often as it tries to run over for several days, then put it in a cool place (where it will not freeze), and you will have something equal to the best hop yeast. It will keep until May without any further labor.

_To Destroy Cockroaches._--The following is said to be effectual: These vermin are easily destroyed, simply by cutting up green cucumbers at night, and placing them about where roaches commit depredations. What is cut from the cucumbers in preparing them for the table answers the purpose as well, and three applications will destroy all the roaches in the house. Remove the peelings in the morning, and renew them at night.

_Fire Kindlers._--Take a quart of tar and three pounds of resin, melt them, bring to a cooling temperature, mix with as much sawdust, with a little charcoal added, as can be worked in; spread out while hot upon a board, when cold break up into lumps of the size of a large hickory nut, and you have, at a small expense, kindling material enough for a household for one year. They will easily ignite from a match and burn with a strong blaze, long enough to start any wood that is fit to burn.

_Remedy against Moths._--An ounce of gum camphor and one of the powdered shell of red pepper are macerated in eight ounces of strong alcohol for several days, then strained. With this tincture the furs or cloths are sprinkled over, and rolled up in sheets. Instead of the pepper, bitter apple may be used. This remedy is used in Russia under the name of the Chinese tincture for moths.

_Substitute for Yeast._--Boil one pound of flour, one quarter pound of brown sugar and a little salt in two gallons of water for one hour. When milk-warm, bottle and cork close, and it will be ready for use in twenty-four hours.

_To make Ley._--Have a large tub or cask and bore a hole on one side for a tap, near the bottom; place several bricks near the hole and cover them with straw. Fill the barrel with strong wood ashes. Oak ashes are strongest, and those of appletree wood make the whitest soap. Pour on boiling water until it begins to run, then put in the tap and let it soak. If the ashes settle down as they are wet, fill in until full.

_Tomato Wine._--Take ripe, fresh tomatoes, mash very fine, strain through a fine sieve, sweeten with good sugar, to suit the taste, set it away in an earthen or glass vessel, nearly full, cover tight, with exception of a small hole for the refuse to work off through during its fermentation. When it is done fermenting it will become pure and clear. Then bottle, and cork tight. A little salt improves its flavor; age improves it.

_To Color Brown on Cotton or Woolen._--For ten pounds of cloth boil three pounds of catechu in as much water as needed to cover the goods. When dissolved, add four ounces of blue vitriol; stir it well; put in the cloth and let it remain all night; in the morning drain it thoroughly; put four ounces of bi-chromate of potash in boiling water sufficient to cover your goods; let it remain 15 minutes; wash in cold water; color in iron.

_To Cleanse and Brighten Faded Brussels Carpet._--Boil some bran in water and with this wash the carpet with a flannel and brush, using fuller's earth for the worst parts. When dry, the carpet must be well beaten to get out the fuller's earth, then washed over with a weak solution of alum to brighten the colors. Some housekeepers cleanse and brighten carpets by sprinkling them first with fine salt and then sweeping them thoroughly.

_To give Stoves a Fine, Brilliant Appearance._--A teaspoonful of pulverized alum mixed with stove polish will give a stove a fine luster, which will be quite permanent.

_Method of Keeping Hams in Summer._--Make bags of unbleached muslin; place in the bottom a little good sweet hay; put in the ham, and then press around and over it firmly more hay; tie the bag and hang up in a dry place. Ham secured in this way will keep for years.

_How to Cause Vegetables and Fruits to Grow to an Enormous Size and also to Increase the Brilliancy and Fragrancy of Flowers._--A curious discovery has recently been made public in France, in regard to the culture of vegetable and fruit trees. By watering with a solution of sulphate of iron, the most wonderful fecundity has been attained. Pear-trees and beans, which have been submitted to this treatment, have nearly doubled in the size of their productions, and a noticeable improvement has been remarked in their flavor. Dr. Becourt reports that while at the head of an establishment at Enghien, or the sulphurous springs, he had the gardens and plantations connected with it watered, during several weeks of the early Spring, with sulphurous water, and that not only the plantations prospered to a remarkable extent, but flowers acquired a peculiar brilliancy of coloring and healthy aspect which attracted universal attention.

_Drying Corn._--With a sharp knife shave the corn from the ear, then scrape the cob, leaving one-half the hull clinging to the cob. Place a tin or earthen vessel two-thirds full of this "milk of corn" over a kettle of boiling water, stir frequently until dry enough to spread upon a firm cloth without sticking, when the wind and sun (away from dust and flies) will soon complete the process. To prepare for the table, put in cold water, set it where it will become hot, but not boil, for two hours; then season with salt and pepper, boil for ten minutes; add of butter and white sugar a tablespoonful of each just before ready to serve.

_To Destroy Lice on Chickens._--The following will kill lice on the first application: Put six cents worth of cracked _Coculus Indicus_ berries into a bottle that will hold a half pint of alcohol: fill the bottle with alcohol, and let it stand twenty-four hours. When the hen comes off with the young chickens, take the mixture, and with a small cotton rag, wet the head of each chicken enough to have it reach through the little feathers to the skin; also, with the same rag, wet the hen under her wings. Be careful that no child, nor any one else uses it, because it a _deadly poison_.

_Cracked Wheat._--For a pint of the cracked grain, have two quarts of water boiling in a smooth iron pot over a quick fire; stir in the wheat slowly; boil fast and stir constantly for the first half hour of cooking, or until it begins to thicken and "pop up;" then lift from the quick fire, and place the pot where the wheat will cook slowly for an hour longer. Keep it covered closely, stir now and then, and be careful not to let it burn at the bottom. Wheat cooked thus is much sweeter and richer than when left to soak and simmer for hours, as many think necessary. White wheat cooks the easiest. When ready to dish out, have your moulds moistened with cold water, cover lightly, and set in a cool place. Eat warm or cold with milk and sugar.

_How to Have Green Pea Soup in Winter._--Sow peas thickly in pots and boxes, say six weeks before the soup is wanted. Place them in a temperature of 60° or so, close to the glass in a house or pit. Cut the plants as soon as they attain a height of from three to six inches, and rub them through a sieve. The shoots alone will make a fair soup. Mixed with dry peas, also passed through a sieve, no one could scarcely distinguish color or flavor from that of real green pea soup. There is, however, considerable difference in the flavor of pea leaves, as well as of the peas themselves. The best marrows, such as Ne Plus Ultra and Veitche's Perfection, yield the most piquant cuttings. Also the more light the plants receive the higher the flavor, plants drawn up or at all blanched, being by no means comparable with those well and strongly grown.

In the spring, a few patches or rows may be sown in open quarters expressly for green cuttings. These are most perfect and full flavored when four inches high. When too long, the flavor seems to have run to wood, and the peculiar aroma of green peas is weaker.

There is yet another mode of making green pea soup at any season at very short notice. Chip the peas by steeping them in water and leaving them in a warm place for a few days. Then slightly boil or stew, chips and all, and pass them through a sieve. The flavor is full and good, though such pea soup lacks color. It is astonishing how much the mere vegetation of seeds develops their more active and predominant flavor or qualities; a fact that might often be turned to useful account in the kitchen in the flavoring of soups or dishes, with turnips, celery, parsley, etc.

_Composition for Restoring Scorched Linen._--Boil, to a good consistency, in half a pint of vinegar, two ounces of fuller's earth, an ounce of hen's dung, half an ounce of cake soap, and the juice of two onions. Spread this composition over the whole of the damaged part; and if the scorching is not quite through, and the threads actually consumed, after suffering it to dry on, and letting it receive a subsequent good washing or two, the place will appear full as white and perfect as any other part of the linen.

_To Remove Indelible Ink Stains._--Soak the stained spot in strong salt water, then wash it with ammonia. Salt changes the nitrate of silver into chloride of silver, and ammonia dissolves the chloride.

_To Cook Cauliflower._--Choose those that are close and white and of middle size, trim off the outside leaves, cut the stalk off flat at the bottom, let them lie in salt and water an hour before you boil them. Put them into boiling water with a handful of salt in it, skim it well and let it boil slowly till done. Fifteen minutes will suffice for a small one, and twenty will be long enough for a large one. If it is boiled a minute or two after it is done the flavor will be impaired.

_To Pickle String Beans._--Place them in a pan with alternate layers of salt and leave them thus for 24 hours. Drain them and place them in a jar with allspice, cloves, pepper and a little salt. Boil enough vinegar to cover them, pour over them and let them stand till the next day, boil the vinegar the second time, and pour it on again. The next day boil the vinegar for the last time, pour it over the beans, and when quite cold, cover the jar tightly and set in a cool closet.

_How to Cause a Baby to Thrive and Grow._--Try the milk first drawn from a cow that is fresh, add one-quarter water, and a little sugar. If the milk constipates, sweeten it with molasses, or mix with it a small quantity of magnesia. Abjure soothing syrups, and for colic give catnip or smellage tea. Give the baby a tepid bath at night as well as in the morning, rubbing him well with the hand. After the bath, let him feed and then sleep. We find open air the best of tonics for babies. Ours takes his naps out of doors in the shade during the warm weather, and his cheeks are two roses.

_To Can Gooseberries without Breaking them._--Fill the cans with berries, and partly cover with water, set the jars into a vessel of water, and raise the temperature to the boiling point. Boil eight minutes, remove from the kettle, cover with boiling water, and seal immediately. If sugar is used, let it be pure white, and allow eight ounces to a quart of berries. Make into a syrup, and use in the cans instead of water. The glass cans with glass tops, a rubber and a screw ring, we have found the simplest and most perfect of the many kinds offered for sale in the market.

_Ready Mode of Mending Cracks in Stoves, Pipes and Iron Ovens._--When a crack is discovered in a stove, through which the fire or smoke penetrates, the aperture may be completely closed in a moment with a composition consisting of wood ashes and common salt made up into paste with a little water, and plastered over the crack. The good effect is equally certain, whether the stove, etc., be cold or hot.

_To Keep Milk from Turning Sour._--Add a little sub-carbonate of soda, or of potash. This by combining with, and neutralizing the acetic acid formed, has the desired effect, and keeps the milk from turning sooner than it otherwise would. The addition is perfectly harmless, and does not injure the taste.

_Strawberry Vinegar._--Put four pounds of very ripe strawberries, nicely dressed, into three quarts of the best vinegar, and let them stand three or four days; then drain the vinegar through a jelly-bag, and pour it on the same quantity of fruit. Repeat the process in three days for a third time. Finally, to each pound of the liquor thus obtained, add one pound of fine sugar. Bottle, and let it stand covered, but not tightly corked, one week; then cork it tight, and set it in a cool, _dry_ place, where it will not freeze. Raspberry vinegar is made the same way.

_Cider Vinegar._--After cider has become too sour for use, set it in a warm place, put to it occasionally the rinsings of the sugar basin or molasses jug, and any remains of ale or cold tea; let it remain with the bung open, and you will soon have the best of vinegar.

_To Give Luster to Silver._--Dissolve a quantity of alum in water, so as to make a pretty strong brine, and skim it carefully; then add some soap to it, and dip a linen rag in it, and rub over the silver.

_To Make Water-Proof Porous Cloth._--Close water-proof cloth fabrics, such as glazed oil-cloth, India-rubber, and gutta-percha cloth are completely water-proof, but do not permit perspiration and the exhaled gases from the skin to pass through them, because they are air-tight as well as water-tight. Persons who wear air-tight garments soon become faint, if they are undergoing severe exercise, such as that to which soldiers are exposed when on march. A porous, water-proof cloth, therefore, is the best for outer garments during wet weather, for those whose duties or labor causes them to perspire freely. The best way for preparing such cloth is by the following process: Take 2¼ pounds of alum and dissolve this in 10 gallons of boiling water; then in a separate vessel dissolve the same quantity of sugar of lead in 10 gallons of water, and mix the two solutions. The cloth is now well handled in this liquid, until every part of it is penetrated; then it is squeezed and dried in the air, or in a warm apartment, then washed in cold water and dried again, when it is fit for use. If necessary, the cloth may be dipped in the liquid and dried twice before being washed. The liquor appears curdled, when the alum and lead solutions are mixed together. This is the result of double decomposition, the sulphate of lead, which is an insoluble salt, being formed. The sulphate of lead is taken up in the pores of the cloth, and it is unaffected by rains or moisture, and yet it does not render the cloth air-tight. Such cloth is also partially non-inflammable. A solution of alum itself will render cloth, prepared as described, partially water-proof, but it is not so good as the sulphate of lead. Such cloth--cotton or woolen--sheds rain like the feathers on the back of a duck.

_To Cleanse Carpet._--1 teaspoonful liquid ammonia in one gallon warm water, will often restore the color of carpets, even if produced by acid or alkali. If a ceiling has been whitewashed with the carpet down, and a few drops are visible, this will remove it. Or, after the carpet is well beaten and brushed, scour with ox gall, which will not only extract grease but freshen the colors--1 pint of gall in 3 gallons of warm water, will do a large carpet. Table floor-cloths may be thus washed. The suds left from a wash where ammonia is used, even if almost cold, cleanses these floor-cloths well.

_To Keep Hams._--After the meat has been well cured by pickle and smoke, take some clean ashes from bits of coal; moisten them with a little water so that they will form a paste, or else just wet the hams a little, and rub on the dry ashes. Rubbed in thoroughly they serve as a capital insect protector, and the hams can be hung up in the smoke-house or wood-chamber without any danger of molestation.

_A Cold Cement for Mending Earthenware_, says a recent English work, reckoned a great secret among workmen, is made by grating a pound of old cheese, with a bread grater, into a quart of milk, in which it must be left for a period of fourteen hours. It should be stirred quite often. A pound of unslaked lime, finely pulverized in a mortar, is then added, and the whole is thoroughly mixed by beating. This done, the whites of 25 eggs are incorporated with the rest, and the whole is ready for use. There is another cement for the same purpose which is used hot. It is made of resin, beeswax, brick-dust, and chalk boiled together. The substances to be cemented must be heated, and when the surfaces are coated with cement, they must be rubbed hard upon each other, as in making a glue-joint with wood.

_How to Make Cucumber Vines Bear Five Crops._--When a cucumber is taken from the vine let it be cut with a knife, leaving about the eighth of an inch of the cucumber on the stem, then slit the stem with a knife from the end to the vine, leaving a small portion of the cucumber on each division, and on each separate slit there will be a new cucumber as large as the first.

_White Cement._--Take white (fish) glue, 1 lb. 10 oz.; dry white lead, 6 oz.; soft water, 3 pts.; alcohol, 1 pt.

Dissolve the glue by putting it in a tin kettle or dish, containing the water, and set this dish in a kettle of water, to prevent the glue from being burned; when the glue is all dissolved, put in the lead and stir and boil until it is thoroughly mixed; remove from the fire, and when cool enough to bottle, add the alcohol, and bottle while it is yet warm, keeping it corked. This last recipe has been sold about the country for from twenty-five cents to five dollars, and one man gave a horse for it.

_Bruises on Furniture._--Wet the part in warm water; double a piece of brown paper five or six times, soak in the warm water, and lay it on the place; apply on that a warm, but not hot, flatiron till the moisture is evaporated. If the bruise be not gone repeat the process. After two or three applications the dent will be raised to the surface. If the bruise be small, merely soak it with warm water, and hold a red-hot iron near the surface, keeping the surface continually wet--the bruise will soon disappear.

_To Prevent Iron Rust._--Kerosene applied to stoves or farming implements, during summer, will prevent their rusting.

_To Color Sheep Skins._--Unslaked lime and litharge equal parts, mixed to a thin paste with water, will color buff--several coats will make it a dark brown; by adding a little ammonia and nitrate of silver a fine black is produced. Terra japonica will impart a "tan color" to wool, and the red shade is deepened by sponging with a solution of lime and water, using a strong solution of alum water to "set" the colors; 1 part crystallized nitrate silver, 8 parts carbonate ammonia, and 1½ parts of soft water dyes brown; every additional coat darkens the color until a black is obtained.

_Remedy for Bums._--Take one teacup of lard and the whites of two eggs; work together as much as it can be, then spread on cloths and apply. Change as often as necessary.

_How Summer Suits should be Washed._--Summer suits are nearly all made of white or buff linen, pique, cambric, or muslin, and the art of preserving the new appearance after washing is a matter of the greatest importance. Common washerwomen spoil everything with soda, and nothing is more frequent than to see the delicate tints of lawns and percales turned into dark blotches and muddy streaks by the ignorance and vandalism of a laundress. It is worth while for ladies to pay attention to this, and insist upon having their summer dresses washed according to the directions which they should be prepared to give their laundresses themselves. In the first place, the water should be tepid, the soap should not be allowed to touch the fabric; it should be washed and rinsed quick, turned upon the wrong side, and hung in the shade to dry, and when starched (in thin boiled but not boiling starch) should be folded in sheets or towels, and ironed upon the wrong side as soon as possible. But linen should be washed in water in which hay or a quart bag of bran has been boiled. This last will be found to answer for starch as well, and is excellent for print dresses of all kinds, but a handful of salt is very useful also to set the colors of light cambrics and dotted lawns; and a little ox gall will not only set but brighten yellow and purple tints, and has a good effect upon green.

_How to Fasten Rubber to Wood and Metal._--As rubber plates and rings are now-a-days used almost exclusively for making connections between steam and other pipes and apparatus, much annoyance is often experienced by the impossibility or imperfection of an air-tight connection. This is obviated entirely by employing a cement which fastens alike well to the rubber and to the metal or wood. Such cement is prepared by a solution of shellac in ammonia. This is best made by soaking pulverized gum shellac in ten times its weight of strong ammonia, when a slimy mass is obtained, which in three to four weeks will become liquid without the use of hot water. This softens the rubber, and becomes, after volatilization of the ammonia, hard and impermeable to gases and fluids.

_Renewing Maroon Colors on Wool._--Wash the goods in very weak lye; then rinse thoroughly in clear water; thus you have a beautiful, _even_ color, although your goods may have been much faded and stained. Though the color thus obtained may not be the exact shade as when new, it is, however, a very pretty one. The above will not answer for other than all woolen goods of a maroon color.

_To make Waterproof Cloth out of thick Ducking._--The following French recipe is given: Take two pounds four ounces of alum, and dissolve it in ten gallons of water. In like manner dissolve the same quantity of sugar of lead in a similar quantity of water, and mix the two together. They form a precipitate of the sulphate of lead. The clear liquor is now withdrawn, and the cloth immersed one hour in the solution, when it is taken out and dried in the shade, washed in clean water and dried again.

_How to Stop a Pinhole in Lead Pipe._--Take a ten-penny nail, place the square end upon the hole, and hit it two or three slight blows with a hammer, and the orifice is closed as tight as though you had employed a plumber to do it at a cost of a dollar or more.

_To Build a Chimney that Will Not Smoke._--The _Scientific American_ gives the following hints to those who would "build a chimney which will not smoke":--The chief point is to make the throat not less than four inches broad and twelve long; then the chimney should be abruptly enlarged to double the size, and so continued for one foot or more; then it may be gradually tapered off as desired. But the inside of the chimney, throughout its whole length to the top, should be plastered very smooth with good mortar, which will harden with age. The area of a chimney should be at least half a square foot, and no flues less than sixty square inches. The best shape for a chimney is circular, or many-sided, as giving less friction, (brick is the best material, as it is a non-conductor,) and the higher above the roof the better.

_To Prevent Turners' Wood Splitting._--Small pieces of valuable wood, such kinds as are used for turning, etc., are very liable to split readily--that is, outward from the centre. To prevent this, soak the pieces, when first cut, in _cold_ water for 24 hours, then boil in hot water for two or three hours, and afterward dry slowly and under cover. This will be found useful in making handsome mantel, toilet, and other articles from sumac, cherry, and other woods that never grow very large.

_To Remove Dry Paint on Windows._--The most economical way to remove dry paint from the panes is to make a small swab having a handle some eight inches long, dip it in a little diluted oxalic acid, and rub off the paint with a swab.

_Everlasting Fence Posts._--I discovered many years ago that wood could be made to last longer than iron in the ground, but thought the process so simple and inexpensive that it was not worth while making any stir about it. I would as soon have poplar, basswood, or quaking ash as any other kind of timber for fence posts. I have taken out basswood posts after having been set seven years, which were as sound when taken out as when they were first put in the ground. Time and weather seemed to have no effect on them. The posts can be prepared for less than two cents a piece. This is the recipe: Take boiled linseed oil and stir in it pulverized charcoal to the consistency of paint. Put a coat of this over the timber, and there is not a man that will live to see it rotten.

_How to Test the Richness of Milk._--Procure any long glass vessel--a cologne bottle or long phial. Take a narrow strip of paper, just the length from the neck to the bottom of the phial, and mark it off with one hundred lines at equal distances; or into fifty lines and count each as two, and paste it upon the phial, so as to divide its length into a hundred equal parts. Fill it to the highest mark with milk fresh from the cow, and allow it to stand in a perpendicular position twenty-four hours. The number of spaces occupied by the cream will give you its exact percentage in the milk without any guess work.

_To Remove Stains._--The stains of ink on cloth, paper, or wood may be removed by almost all acids: but those acids are to be preferred which are least likely to injure the texture of the stained substance. The muriatic acid, diluted with five or six times its weight of water, may be applied to the spot, and after a minute or two may be washed off, repeating the application as often as may be necessary. But the vegetable acids are attended with less risk, and are equally effectual. A solution of the oxalic, citric (acid of lemons), or tartareous acids in water may be applied to the most delicate fabrics, without any danger of injuring them; and the same solutions will discharge writing but not printing ink. Hence they may be employed in cleaning books which have been defaced by writing on the margin, without impairing the text. Lemon-juice and the juice of sorrels will also remove ink stains, but not so easily as the concrete acid of lemons or citric acid.

_To Prevent Snow-water or Rain from Penetrating the Soles of Shoes or Boots in Winter._--This simple and effectual remedy is nothing more than a little beeswax and mutton suet, warmed in a pipkin until in a liquid state. Then rub some of it lightly over the edges of the sole where the stitches are, which will repel the wet, and not in the least prevent the blacking from having the usual effect.

_An Easy Method of Preventing Moths in Furs or Woolens._--Sprinkle the furs or woolen stuffs, as well as the drawers or boxes in which they are kept, with spirits of turpentine; the unpleasant scent of which will speedily evaporate on exposure of the stuffs to the air. Some persons place sheets of paper, moistened with spirits of turpentine, over, under, or between pieces of cloth, etc., and find it a very effectual mode.

_To make Sea-water fit for Washing Linen at Sea._--Soda put into sea-water renders it turbid; the lime and magnesia fall to the bottom. To make sea-water fit for washing linen at sea, as much soda must be put in it, as not only to effect a complete precipitation of these earths, but to render the sea-water sufficiently laxivial or alkaline. Soda should always be taken to sea for this purpose.

_To Destroy Insects._--When bugs have obtained a lodgment in walls or timber, the surest mode of overcoming the nuisance is to putty up every hole that is moderately large, and oil-paint the whole wall or timber. In bed-furniture, a mixture of soft soap, with snuff or arsenic, is useful to fill up the holes where the bolts or fastenings are fixed, etc. French polish may be applied to smoother parts of the wood.

_Poultice for Burns and Frozen Flesh._--Indian-meal poultices, covered with young hyson tea, moistened with hot water, and laid over burns or frozen parts, as hot as can be borne, will relieve the pain in five minutes; and blisters, if they have not, will not arise. One poultice is usually sufficient.

_Cracked Nipples._--Glycerine and tannin, equal weights, rubbed together into an ointment, is very highly recommended, as is also mutton tallow and glycerine.

_To take the Impression of any Butterfly in all its Colors._--Having taken a butterfly, kill it without spoiling its wings, which contrive to spread out as regularly as possible in a flying position. Then, with a small brush or pencil, take a piece of white paper; wash part of it with gum-water, a little thicker than ordinary, so that it may easily dry. Afterwards, laying your butterfly on the paper, cut off the body close to the wings, and, throwing it away, lay the paper on a smooth board with the fly upwards; and, laying another paper over that, put the whole preparation into a screw-press, and screw down very hard, letting it remain under that pressure for half an hour. Afterwards take off the wings of the butterfly, and you will find a perfect impression of them, with all their various colors, marked distinctly, remaining on the paper. When this is done, draw between the wings of your impression the body of the butterfly, and color it after the insect itself.

_To take the Stains of Grease from Woolen or Silk._--Three ounces of spirits of wine, three ounces of French chalk powdered, and five ounces of pipe-clay. Mix the above ingredients, and make them up in rolls about the length of a finger, and you will find a never-failing remedy for removing grease from woolen or silken goods. N. B.--It is applied by rubbing on the spot either dry or wet, and afterwards brushing the place.

_Easy and Safe Method of Discharging Grease from Woolen Cloths._--Fuller's earth or tobacco pipe-clay, being put wet on an oil-spot, absorbs the oil as the water evaporates, and leaves the vegetable or animal fibres of the cloth clean on being beaten or brushed out. When the spot is occasioned by tallow or wax, it is necessary to heat the part cautiously by an iron or the fire while the cloth is drying. In some kinds of goods, blotting-paper, bran, or raw starch, may be used with advantage.

_To take out Spots of Ink._--As soon as the accident happens, wet the place with juice of sorrel or lemon, or with vinegar, and the best hard white soap.

_To take Iron-moulds out of Linen._--Hold the iron-mould on the cover of a tankard of boiling water, and rub on the spot a little juice of sorrel and a little salt; and when the cloth has thoroughly imbibed the juice, wash it in lye.

_To take out Spots on Silk._--Rub the spots with spirits of turpentine; this spirit exhaling, carries off with it the oil that causes the spot.

_To take Wax out of Velvet of all Colors except Crimson._--Take a crumby wheaten loaf, cut it in two, toast it before the fire, and, while very hot, apply it to the part spotted with wax. Then apply another piece of toasted bread hot as before, and continue this application until the wax is entirely taken out.

_To Bleach Straw._--Straw is bleached by the vapors of sulphur, or a solution of oxalic acid or chloride of lime. It may be dyed with any liquid color.