Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-04-03
Useful Information.

N--%0' 49, ~OA~-<-@-i
Useful Information.
THE STAR.-In knitting directions the
star indicates that the knitter is to go back
and knit a second time the stitches imme-
diately following the star.
ALUM IN BREAD.-To discover whether
bread is adulterated with alum, soak the
bread in water, and to the water IN
| which it has been soaked add little OF
the solution of muriate of lime, upon
which, if any alum be present, the liquid
| will be pervaded with milkiness but if
the bread be pure, the liquid will remain
limpid. Rationale: Sulphuric acid has
stronger affinity for lime than alumina
and potassium, with which it forms alum /;
it, therefore, quits those bodies to form
sulphate of lime with the lime of the test,
which produces the milkiness.
HINT TO HOUSEWIVES. Every housewife
should economic her strength as much as
possible while young and healthy and still
more If she is aged and feeble. One way to
do this is to rest one set of muscles while
others are in action. Begin early in the
morning by sitting down to your work be-
fore getting tired, and you will hold out
better through the day. Place light box
in chair to make it high enough to sit at
the table to work. You can iron, wash
dishes, mix bread, roll out pie crust, and
do many other things with far less fatigue
than if standing. No woman can keep on
her feet very long at time without injury
TO her health. IL Land and Home.
WHITEwAsH. AS the time for white
washing has arrived, the following recipe
for making the wash, recommended by the
Scientific american, is published, and it an
swers for brick, wood or stone Slack
about one-half bushel of unslacked lime
with boiling water, keeping it covered dur
ing the process. Strain it and add peck
of salt dissolved in warm water, three
pounds of ground rice put in boiling water
and boiled to thin paste, one-half pound
powdered Spanish whiting, and one pound
clear glue dissolved in warm water Mix
these well together and let the mixture
stand for several days. Keep the wash
thus prepared in a kettle or portable fur
mace, and when it is used put it ON as hot
as possible, with either painters or white
wash brushes.
To DYE STRAw.-The first operation for
dyeing straw is to steep the latter in
bath calculated with sulphuric acid for
twelve hours. For magenta, take an acid
bath of A. to s. Be. The straw after wash
ing is immersed for twelve hours in bath
kept at 80 to 40 c., containing the neces-
sary amount of dye. Now wash well and
dry. Other aniline colors do not dye straw
with the same facility. For maroon dye,
with logwood, clean the straw by boiling
with solution of carbonate of soda, then
steep in bath of logwood for two hours.
To give blush tint, add some bluestone
to the bath if too much of the latter is
used the straw will have greenish hue.
This is loose color, only employed on ac-
count of It's cheapness.
SKELETON LEAVES. = The following
method has been communicated to the
BotanicalESociety of Edinburgh by DR.. G.
Dickson A solution of caustic soda is
made by dissolving three ounces of wash
ing soda in two pints of boiling water and
adding one and half ounces of quick
lime previously Stacked boil for ten min
utes, decant the pure solution and bring it
to the boil. During ebullition, add the
leaves, boil briskly for some time, say an
hour, occasionally adding hot water to
supply the place of that lost by evapora-
ton. Take cut a leaf, put it into vessel
of water, and rub between the fingers
under the water. If the epidermis aid
parenchyma separate easily, the rest OF the
leaves may be removed from the solution
and treated in the same way but if not,
then the boiling must be continued for
some time longer. To bleach the skele-
tons, mix about a drachm of chloride of
lime with a pint of water, adding sufi-
Gent acetic acid to liberate the chlorine.
Steep the leaves in this until they are
whitened (about ten mlnutes), taking care
not to let them stay in too long otherwise
they are apt to become brittle. Put them
into clean water and float them out on
pieces of paper. Lastly, remove them from
the paper before they are quite dry, and
place them in book or botanical press.