Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 43, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 July 1875 — AGRICULTURAL AND DOMESTIC. [ARTICLE]

AGRICULTURAL AND DOMESTIC.

—Coarse cobwebs, taken from a cellar or outhouse, make an excellent stvptic, to lie applied to cuts or bleeding surfaces'. * —Sunburned lips, caused by working in tbe hot sun, are vt-fy painful. They may be avoided by keeping isinglass plaster (to be bought of any druggist) and placing a strip over the lip* when exposed to the sun. —ln Hall's Journal of Health • it is . stated that for persons about to travel or to go into the country for the summer an ounce vial of spirits of hartshorn should be considered one of the as, in case of being bitten or stung by any poisonous animal or insect, the immediate and free application of this alkali as a wash to the part bitten gives instant, perfect and permanent relief, the bite of a mad dog (we believe) not excepted; so will strong aslies-water. —To make spruce beer, put into a kettle ten gallons of water, a quarter of a pound of hops and a teacupful of ginger. Boil until the hops .-ink to the bottom. Then dip out a bucketful of the liquor and then stir into it six quarts of molasses and three ounces and a half of essence of spruce. When all are dissolved mix them with the liquor in the kettle and strain through a hair sieve into a cask and stir in half a pint of good strong yeast. Let jt ferment a day or two. then bung up the cask and the beer may be bottled next day. It will be lit for use in a week. — Rural New Yorker. : —At recent meetings of dairymen’s associations, in tlie Eastern States, experienced dairymen said they attached much importance to the color of the inside of the car of a cow as a test of her butter producing ability. A rich yellowy color on the inside of the ear, one speaker said, he had never known to fail as a sign of a good butter cow, one that would give him rich milk. Dr. Sturtevant regards the color of the ear a good guide, hut calls attention to the necessity, w hen observing, for clearing aw ay the secretions that ‘may have accumulated on the skin and which maybe darker than the skin itself. —The grasses of the fields and mellows, if gathered in their bloom, tied up in bundles and hung up in bunches in a dark closet to dry, heads downward, will retain their natural color and make a lovely addition to w inter bouquets. No summer vase or bouquet is complete without their airy, fairy grace. When the ferns, and flowers are well pressed make them into lovely transparencies by pasting them w ith starch upon coarse cape lace, covering them with another piece of lace, and then putting them between tiny frames of cardboard; hind the edges with green ribbon ; you can suspend them from your windows. Lamp shades can also be made in the same manner, and bouquets can be formed upon paper and framed under glass which will closely resemble watercolored paintings.