The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1878-01-24
FARM, GARDEN AND HOUSEHOLD.
Household Hints.

Household Hints.
Eat Graham pudding and milk for
breakfast.
Mend coal scuttles with -four paste
and Canton flannel.
A cement of ashes and salt will stop
cracks in stove.
Wicks must be changed frequently to
insure good light.
| To RENovATE CLoTH.-Two ounces of
common tobacco boiled in gallon of
water is used by dealers for renovating
old clothes. The stuff is rubbed on with
stiff brush. The goods are nicely
cleaned, and, strange to add, no tobacco
smell remains.
V1NEeAR.-A cheap vinegar consists
of twenty five gallons of warm rain
water, with four gallons of treacle and
one gallon of yeast. The mixture can
be used after it has been allowed to
ferment.
To SOFTEN WATER.-Hard waters are
rendered very soft and pure, rivalling
distilled water, by merely boiling two
ounce phial, say in kettleful of water.
The carbonate of lime and any impuri-
ties will be found adhering to the phial.
The water boils very much quicker at
the same time.
SODA IN WASHING. Soda must not be
used in cleansing colored clothes, as it
changes many colors. If white clothes,
after being washed with soda, are not
perfectly freed from it by rinsing in
pure water, they will turn yellow when
heated or ironed, or even in drying be-
fore fire. Once produced, this yellow
| color ia difficult TO oct rid of
Sunnower Seed for Fowls.
We have for years been aware of the
value of sunfower seeds in the fall of the
year, and in the winter, too, as food for
fowls. This plant should be grown by
every poultry grower in the country who
has the opportunity to grow only few
stocks even. For its properties for
CLOSING the plumage of exhibition birds
properly fed, will operate similarly !;
but the latter is by far too heating in
its nature, in comparison with the
other.
This plant is very gross grower, but
it yields wondrously, and may be set in
any soil where other fruit or vegetables
cannot be conveniently raised-for ex-
ample, along the sides of fenc 8, OF any
where where the soil is not so easily cul-
tivated as in the open fields. If given
good chance-as other grains have
it will grow luxuriantly, and will we'll
repay its care, for it's yield is many hun
dred fold under any ordinary cultiva-
ton.
The great Russian sunhower is now a
new thing with lis, in this country, and
a marvellous improvement upon the old
style seed. The flowers are double the
average dimensions of the common
South American variety, so well known
among us, and as bearer it far excels
the latter in the number of large seeds
it ripens upon its more expanding and
heavier stalks.
The Russian sunfioweris to the Amer.
ican what the stalk and ear of the field
maze are to the popcorn variety, in or.
dinary culture.
Medical Hints.
CHICKEN BRoTH.-A broth or tea pre-.
pared from young chicken is, of all
decoctions of animal matter, the most
readily digested, and is especially suit.
able for delicate invalids, where great
irritability of the stomach exists.
CANKER IN THE Mourn. A writer in
the Household says a>remedy for this is
to take the inside bark of peach tree
twigs of las. years growth and make q
pint of strong tea, then add lump OF
burnt alum, the size of q hickory nut,
finely pulverized, sweeten with honey,
and wash frequently.
COOKING FOR THE SICK.-Nothing sc
much conduces to the successful treat.
ment of invalids as good nursing and
proper cooking, yet how few cooks can
serve up basin OF soup, or cruel, OF
broth, in a proper manner to fit the
whimsical appetite of convalescent.
Some one should write concise manual
of cooking for invalids.
GROUP REMEDY.-Croup can be cured
in one minute, and the remedy is simply
alum and sugar. The way to accom-
plish the deed is to take knife or crater
and shave off in small particles about 9
teaspoonful of alum; then mix it with
about twice its quantity of sugar, te
make it palatable, and administer it as
quickly as possible. Almost instantane.
GUS relief will follow.-BOSton Tran.
script.
House Plants.
Dust, insects, dry air and over water.
ing are the principal difficulties they
have to contend with. By arranging
some light covering to put over them
while the room is being swept, and an
occasional Swinging in the bath tub,
kitchen sink, or elsewhere, supplement,
ed by sponging the leaves of all smooth
leaved plants, this great enemy to plant
health may be kept under.
Insects may be mainly kept off by
hand picking and brush if needed,
apply tobacco water, or arrange box OF
barrel in which they may be thoroughly
fumigated with tobacco smoke.
Overwhelming kills more plants than
dryness. Pots in the house, especially
the handsome glazed ones, should be
provided with abundant drainage
broken pots, cinders, oyster shells,
anything to make open layer at the bot
tom ; then a layer of moss. to keep the
earth from washing down, and then 0
soil made so open by sand that it will
always allow the water to pass through.
With these precautions there is nc
danger but where the surface of the