The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1891-06-03

about the room, especially into any un-
used corners or dark places. This will
brighten the carpets, and has been
known to effectually preserve them
even in houses infested with these raw
enous depredators.
i" In the case of an old house, inhab-
tied by the same family for thirty or
more years, whose 'attic treasures
have been cozy and delightful breed
ing-pace for moths and carpet-bugs,
the most effectual remedy will be a
generous foretaste of those sulphurous
fumes which were once intimately asso-
cated with a very disagreeable place.
"This plan cannot be carried out un-
less the family can take all silver arti-
Giles and themselves out of the house
for twenty-four hours; but if this ex-
odus be possible, even at some expense
and trouble, it will amply repay all cost,
for if the fumigating be thoroughly
done, there will be no insect life re-
naming. Their eggs will also be de-
stroyed, and all bacteria or disease
germs and poisonous vapors that Turk
about the cellar will lose their virulency.
"To burn the sulphur, one may use
either powdered sulphur or sulphur
candles, The latter require only
candlestick or an iron holder of some
kind. To burn powered sulphur, take
an iron kettle, make fire in it of char
coal so that it will burn from twenty to
thirty minutes. Be sure that all other
preparations are made, such as closing
all outer doors, opening all inner ones,
so that the last act shall be to place a
two-pound package of sulphur on the
fire. Then flee for your life, and leave
the great purifier TO do its work.
Were this plan followed twice each
year, the dread diseases scarlet fever,
typhoid fever, malignant diphtheria,
would become less frequent.
"Having eXterminated the pests, pre-.
vent their return by keeping coarse salt
scattered about their lurking-places.
Keep either wire screens or mosquito
netting over the attic windows during
the summer to exclude the moth miller
and the carpet beetle, which resembles
small lady-bug.
Should you find that moths were in
your furniture coverings, place the ar
ticles in a room where there is no fire
or light, and then saturate them with
naptha. Make sure that they are free
from dust before applying the naptha,
and that each article is thoroughly satu-
rated
"The birthstone will have dispersed
the cockroaches and croton bugs, but to
prevent their return keep powdered
salt, alum, and boraX, equal quantities
of each, scattered about their haunts.
&C To make the cellar neat and unat-
tractive to rats and mice, thoroughly
whitewash it, using in the wash sutli-
cient copperas, dissolved in water, to
make very green hue,
GA strong copperas solution used hot
each week to flush drains is an excel
lent sanitary precaution. To eXter-
inmate flies in the kitchen, use fresh
Persian insect powder, blown out of a
small bellows. Do this at night, leav-
ing the room tightly closed. In the
morning the flies can be swept up and
burned, To make a fy-paper with
which to entrap them, mix equal parts
by measure of castor oil and melted
resin; stir till thoroughly mixed; then,
while warm, spread on non-porous
paper.
another way of banishing flies from
the kitchen and adjoining rooms is to
burn small piece of camphor gum on
the stove. The fumes are said to be
very disagreeable to mosquitoes. In
bedrooms, volatiize the gum over a
lamp or gas-burner. The free use of
carbolic soap is also very disagreeable
TO insect life.
" 1t is said that if tapes be stretched
diagonally across the kitchen ceiling
and fastened by long tack at the CEN
ter, the flies will congregate on these
bridges, and that the ceiling will escape
many depredations.
hope some of my suggestions will
prove helpful to those burdened house
wives whose lives are made up of the
many Titles which make mickle. D
Rebecca Wheeler, IN Exchange.