Democratic Sentinel, Volume 5, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 September 1881 — [?]HINTS. [ARTICLE]

[?]HINTS.

A mixture of oil and ink is a good thing to clean kid boots with; the first softens and the latter blackens them. “ Rustic ” gives the following directions for keeping the hands smooth during cold weather and curing them when chapped : Wash them in buttermilk in which some wheat bran has been stirred twenty hours before using, and dry them over the fire without a toweL The remedy is most effective if used at night just before retiring. Ax lowa farmer gives this method of destroying cabbage worms: Take of saltpetre and common salt each a tablespoonful, dissolve in a little hot water, and add twelve quarts of cold water. Apply to the cabbages in the heat of the day when the sun shines. If you apply with a good sprinkler, and do your work thoroughly, one application will be sufficient. To restore scorched linen: Peel and slice two onions, extract the juice by pounding and squeezing ; cut up half an ounce of fine white soap, and add to the juice two ounces of fullers’ earth and half a pint of vinegar; boil all together; when cool, spread over the scorched linen and let it dry on it; then wash and' boil out the linen, and the spots will disappear, unless burned so badly as to break the threads. How to Use Oil-Stones. —Instead of oil, which thickens and makes the stone dirty, a mixture of glycerine and alcohol is used by many. The proportions of the mixture vary according to the instrument operated upon. An article of large surface—a razor, for instance—sharpens best with a limpid liquid, as three parts of glycerine to one of alcohol. For a graving tool, the surface of which is small, as is also the pressure exercised upon the stone in sharpening, it is necessary to employ glycerine nearly pure, with but few drops of alcohol. The Chicago Tribune gives the following formula by which any housekeeper can detect the presence of glucose in sugar : “ Take a handful of the mixture and drop it into a glass of cold w ater. Stir it a few minutes, and you will notice that the caue sugar is entirely dissolved, leaving the grape sngar undissolved at the bottom of the glass, in the form of a white, sticky substance, not at all unlike starch in looks, and quite bitter to the taste. It won’t do to use hot water in your test, however, for if you do the whole thing will dissolve. The test is so simple that any housekeeper can make it, and there is no reason for anybody being deceived after discovering the fraud unless he or she chooses to be.” With this at hand the adulterated stuff can readily be known. If anybody is imposed upon it is because they choose to be. To preserve leaves for preservation try the following plan: Dissolve four ounces of common washing soda in a quart of boiling water, thgn add two ounces of slaked quicklime, and boil for about fifteen minutes. Allow the solution to cool and afterward pour off all the clear liquor iuto a clean saucepan. When this liquor is at a boiling point place the leaves carefully in the pan anil boil the whole together for an hour, adding from time time enough of water to make up for the loss by evaporation. The epidermis and the parenchyma of some leaves will more easily separate than others. A good test is to try the leaves after they have been boiling for an hour, and if the cellular matter does not rub off between the the thumb and forefinger beneath cold boil them again for a short time. When the fleshy part has been sufficiently softened, rub them separately but very gently beneath cold water till a perfect skeleton is exposed. The skeletons are at first a dirty white color. To make them quite white and, therefore, more beautiful, it is necessary to bleach in a weak solution of chloride of lime—a large spoonful to a quart of water—if a few drops of vinegar is added to the solution it is all the better, for then the free chloride is liberated. Do not allow them to remain long in the bleaching liquor or they become too brittle and canuot be handled without injury. About fifteen minutes will be required to make them white and clean looking. Dry the specimens in white blotting paper with gentle pressure.