Helps and Hints.

Golden Bay Argus, Volume 2, Issue 2, 10 June 1892, Page 6

Helps and Hints.

To keep game or poultry tie them tight around the neok to exclude the air, and plaoe a piece of charcoal inside them.

To make red sealing-wax, mix too parts of shellac, well powdered with one part of vermilion, over a gentle fire. The ingredients will soon become mixed, and are then to be worked into sticks. Very coarse, red wax is made of nothing but resin and red lead.

One part of chalk and two parts of alum will speedily purify stagnant water; and four parts of animal carbon and one of alum are sufficient to purify one thousand parts of muddy river water. To make essence of ginger, bruise well four ounces of Jamaica ginger, and put it into a pint of ri-ctiliad spirits of wine. Let it remain a fortnight, then press and filter it. To add a pungency, put with it a little essence of oayenne.

Relief for wounds occasioned by stepping upon rusty nails or glass may be obtained by steeping peach tree leaves and applying tha decoction to the wound. To make a poultice mix the tea thus obtained with meal or bran, and apply to the part. This will keep moist for hours aDd allay inflammation. If leaves are out of season break up the twigs of peach tree and steep as directed above, thickening with meal or bran.

A very simple, safe and useful tonic to be used in oases of indigestion is an infusion of rhubarb, gentian, carbonate of iron and Spanish liquorice. This is prepared by pouring a pint of boiling water upon twenty grains of each of (ha ingredients, mixed. Allow it to 000 l and of this infusion take two or three tablespoonfuls three times a day.

To take stains of acids from blaok woollen garments apply to the place a sponge dipped in strong hartshorn, wetting the stain thoroughly. If the color is not then restored repeat the operation in twenty-four hours, Should that fail, dip the sponge in black ink and thoroughly saturate the stum or discoloration, twice on successive days. This never fails.

The best way to dry apples at home is to place them upon clean, sweet straw upon a wire tray, and put straw over them. Then put them into the ovsn all night, after which gently wipe them off and presa them flat with the hand,

Flowered or brocaded silk may be cleaned by having sifted upon it some crumbs of stale bread, whioh must be rubbed over tbe silk with the hands. If a very little powdered blue be mixed with the crumbs it will be advantageous to those shades of white that are not creamy in tone. But great care must be taken in using the blue.

To destroy rats and mice, take powder o? scilla maritime, half an ounce, and mix it with strong smelling cheese. Roll up into little balls and place in tbe haunts. Very efficacious.

To test the quality of flour, squeeze a handful of it in the hand. The clearer the marks of the hand, creases of the palm, etc., are shown upon it, the better is the flour. Dough made with this adhesive flour will be very gluey, ductile, and elastic, and easily kneaded.

The dairymen of Pans, to keep milk from souring in warm weather, are in the habit of employing a little sub-carbonate of soda as a preventative. This, by combining with and neutralizing the acetic acid formed, has the desired effect, and keeps the milk from turning sour as soon bb it otherwise would.

The salt that is thus formed (i. e„ the acetate of soda) is not at all injurious. And as pure milk already contains a small quantity of this salt, it would be difficult to pronounce upon the addition of any alkali, except there should be some in a free and uneombined state, which does not exist in the milk. The addition of a very small quantity of the potash will arrest the formation of - the curd and delay the milk’s turning. The blackened lights of old oil paintings may be instantly restored to their original hue by touching them with dentoxide of hydrogen diluted with six or eight times its weight of water. The part must be afterwords washed with a clean sponge and water.

To make indelible stencil ink, take varnish, such as is used for ordinary printing ink, one pound; blaok sulphuret of mercury, one pound ; nitrate of silver, one ounce ; lampblack, two tablespoonfuls ; grind all well together ; thin with spirits of turpentine as directed.

Another way: Sulphate of manganese, two parts ; lampblack, one part; sugar, four parts ; grind thoroughly to a fine paste in a little water.

To clean old marble, discolored by age. take one bullock’s gall, one gill soap leesj halt gill turpentine; make into a paste with pipeolay and apply it uthe marble. Let remain on for two days, then rub off and the marble will be as good as new. To clean stains from marble, take two parts common soda, one part pumice stone, and one part finely powdered chalk. Sift it through a fine sieve, and mix it with water. Rub it on the marble and the stains will be removed. Now wash the marble with soap andwa ter, and it will appear as if new. To destroy any fonl smell, place one pound of green copperas in one quart of water, where the odor is strongest, and it will destroy the Btenoh in a very little while. Pour it down sinks or any place needing cleansing, and the copperas will eat its way along, carrying all before it. In a sick room, plaoe beneath the bed and it will purify the atmospher