News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1915-10-20
our native DYES.
Woods and HedgeroWs Abound
With CoIoring Matter.
TO DYE IS NOT DIFFICULT.

/ TO DYE is MOI DIFFICULT
: Patience, a knowledge of Chemicals
a Big Kettle and Native Barks May
/ Achieve Rare and Beautiful Shades
| at Home.
With all this hue and cry about the
scarcity of dyestuffs it is well to re.
member that the woods literally
abound with them. So do the hedge
rows and, to lesser degree, the or
chards. Alum and copperas- sulphate
of iron-are the mordants required, in
very moderate quantity. Both are
cheap and plentiful.
The inner bark of oak trees, set with
copperas, dyes almost any and every
shade betwixt the deepest, most vivid
tan and pale fawn. Use bark of one
species only in any pot of dye if you
want pure color, except in case of red
oak and turkey oak, which give the
same result White oak and post oak
banks supply the fawn shades; Span
ISL Stlu DluCh odh, loilC NSCpCAllllS lhIO
tan, red oak, the clear tan-this in
full strength. All can be made fainter
by weakening the dye. 1t is best al
ways to test it with scrap of stuff,
washing the sample and ironing dry
before putting in the main fabric.
clean, shaken out and dropped in the
dye pot wet, but not dripping. Push
them under as quickly as possible to
save spotting. Use q stout stick and
after a minute lift up the fabric and
hold it half minute in the air. Re-
peat the airing twice or even three
times. Then boil from ten minutes to
an hour, according to thickness and
quantity. Do not boil hard, but SIM
mer briskly. Take up, hang to drain
and do not wash until almost dry.
Wash in strong suds twice, then rinse
till the water runs clear. If the sam
pie shows too pale, either add more
bark and boil afresh or boil down a
third or even half
A pack of inside bark to two pals of
water is a good initial proportion. Boil
an hour or more, skim out the bark,
add copperas-a level tablespoonful
dissolved in boiling water, let boil five
minutes, then put in the wet goods,
which may be either cotton or wooden.
Hickory bark with alum in place of
the copperas dyes wool only, but makes
it beautiful greeny golden yellow.
NT,,11 cd, be I-o
tlefHl, simmered four hours and set
with alum after skimming out the
leaves, dye still another yellow, one in
clining to buff. They will color cotton
no less than wool, but not fast. Wash
ing fades it, whereas wool, grows
also the sappy twigs, dye bright yell
low, which is not very permanent and
is set by washing in hot soapsuds.
Yellow puccoon dyes scarlet, but the
process is intricate and. the root so
scarce and costly it may be left out of
the count. Swamp maple bark dyes
cotton a deep blackish purple. 1t is
set with cOpperas or alum and SHUTS
badly unless very well washed. Su-
mac berries and black walnut bulls,
packed in layers, barely covered with
water and simmered all day, furnish a
lasting soft black dye for either silk or
wool, one that does not injure the
fabric and requires no other setting
than washing in warm soapsuds after !
partial drying.
The roots and green fruit of the |
white walnut dye peculiarly vivid |
bright brown, taking well upon cotton
and wool mixed, pure wool or silk.
Wash roots and cut small, crack nuts,
but do not pull apart, boil together six
hours IN a little more than water to
cover, then strain and put in the fab
ric. Wool had better be basted double,
face in, and left so until the final
Black walnut bark and hulls dye the
well known butternlt brown. Depth
Of color varies with The strength Of the
1ye. No mordant is needed beyond
steady boiling for half an hour, lifting
to air several times. 1t is not salts
factory for cotton stuffs, but very good
FOR all that show a wooden surface.