Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1879-08-22
Practical Hints for Farmers.


Practical Hints for Farmers.
Mosquitoes can be driven away from
rooms by the smoke of insect-powder
burnt on hot shovel. When it is not
easy to get fire, put bit of gum-cam-
phor on a shovel, light, and the gum
will catch as quickly as alcohol; then
sprinkle a tablespoonful of insect-pow-
der (pyrethrum) on the flame, let it
take fire, and blow out the blaze, close
the windows, and let the smoke rise for
five minutes. 1t will not injure walls
or furniture, and does not harm human
beings, though obnoxious to insects.
Hanging q cloth on which table,
spoonful of carbolic acid is poured, at
the head of the bed, will keep mosqui-
toes away, and the writer has repeat
edly gained good night s sleep by this
means when others failed. Take care
to place the cloth or sponge so that
there is no danger of touching it with
the face or hands in the night, as the
acid burns like caustic.
1t is not generally known, as it ought
to be, that the remedy for burns by
carbolic acid is Canada fir balsam,
spread on the parJ aJCackeu.
A wash of fifteen or twenty drops of
common carbolic acid in a half-pint of
water will Immediately relieve the
smart of mosquito bites, hives, prickly
heat, and all irritations of the skin COM
mon in summer. AS the strength of
carbolic acid commonly sold varies, the
dilution should be tested before using
by wetting small spot of skin. If it
causes any burning in a moment or so,
it is too strong, and more water must
be added. The lotion was recommend
ed by city physician as in use in Belle
vue Hospital, and years of experience
prove its benefit. Many restless nights
and much suffering of children might
be avoided by this simple cure, which
has been safely used on very young in
fants.
The tortures which babies have to
undergo are so many and so pitiful,
and visited impartially on all about
them in travel and at home; so many
ailing, miserable little creatures are to
be seen on the cars and ferryboats,
taken out by their distracted mothers
for change of air, that l feel it will be
giving general relief to tell the advice of
a hospital physician, which proved an
entire success in my own family. The
pain of teething may be almost done
away With, and the health of the child
benefited, by giving it ine splinters of
ice, picked off with pin, to melt in its
mouth. The fragment is so small that
it is but drop of warm water before it
can be swallowed, and the child has all
the GOODNESS for its fevered gums, with
out the slightest injury. The avidity
with which the little things taste the
cooling morsel, the instant quiet which
succeeds hours of fretfulness, and the
sleep which follows the relief, are the
best witnesses to this magic remedy.
Ice may be fed to q three-months' child
this way, each splinter being no larger
than a common pin, for five or ten min
utes, the result being that it has swal-
lowed in that time a teaspoonful of
warm water, which, so far from being
a harm, is good for it, and the process
may be repeated hourly, or as often as
the fretting fits from teething begin.
1t is now the season when boys and
girls in the country give their mothers
sad nights by coming home in the
miseries of poisoning by ivy. The irri-
tation by this poison is acute, as | have
reason to know, but the speedy cure for
it is a wash of oxalic acid, teaspoon
full of the salt to a pint of water, with
which the poisoned spots are bathed as
often as they grow troublesome. The
lotion smarts severely for a few min
utes, but is followed by cessation of the
poison pain, which itches as if one
could tear the part to pieces. The
"LoIo may need reducing tor young
children. Make it weak at first, and
add grains of the salt till it is strong
enough to give relief. A dessert spoon
full of sweet oil taken daily is said to
drive the poison out of the blood, but
three severe cases were cured without
it, to my knowledge, by the acid
alone. 1t should not be put in tin or
anything metallic, as 1t corrodes, and
may form poisonous compounds.
1t will be useful for poor people, and
those in the country, away from the
drug stores and doctors, to know, on
the authority of DR.. Beach, the noted
botanic doctor, that strong infusion of
yarrow (white tansy) and boneset is a
good substitute for quinine in fever and
ague, or other malarious complaints.
The plants should be gathered when in
flower, and a double handful of each
stepped in one quart of boiling water
and drank freely three or four times a
day. The prescription was given by
Dominic Van Saxon, a well-known mis-
sionary to China for thirty years, who
studied medicine and the properties of
herbs before going out, as most valua-
Bile for usefulness among the poor.-N.
Y Sun.