This section is from the book "Three Meals A Day", by Maud C. Cooke. Also available from Amazon: Three Meals a Day.
Take a looking-glass at least a foot square and at morning or evening turn the slanting rays of the sun down into the well. Whatever impurities it contains may be readily seen and easily removed from an ordinary open well. This should be done often, as any impurity may be a source of serious illness in the family. A small fish put in the well will elear it worms.
Dissolve ½ ounce of camphor in 1 pint of alcohol and spray the robes with this before putting up.
Fill a jug or jar with water, cover it with several layers of carpet or other coarse cloth; saturate this with water. Keep in a cool, windy, shady place. The evaporation of a wet wrapper will absorb enough heat to keep water pleasantly cool.
Put on a plate, cover with a crock and proceed as above.
Fit a fine wire gauze lid to a tin pail, wrap as above and set in a raised shady window. This will be found purer and sweeter than milk kept in the majority of refrigerators.
Wash out the closets once a week with sal-soda and cold water.
Let it lie twelve hours in milk, and then rinse in cold water.
Heat a poker or a rod of iron (if flat at the end, so much better) until red-hot, apply two or three minutes to the head of the rusted screw, and its withdrawal with a screw-driver will be as easy as possible.
Boil 4 ounces of quassia chips in 1 pint of water. When cold, strain and add enough cold water to make out the pint, also 2 ounces of alcohol. Bottle and cork. To use, pour a little in saucers, sweeten slightly with molasses and set where, most needed. This is poison to flies, hut harmless to people.
Mix together equal parts, by measure, of melted resin and castor oil. Stir until thoroughly mixed, which will take only a minute. While yet a little warm spread thin and evenly on any strong paper that is not porous, foolscap, writing papers, catalogue covers, show bills, etc. Spread with a case knife slight-ly warmed. Leave a narrow border to handle with. Lay the papers on tables, shelves, or any spare place where flies are numerous. They will soon cover the papers. When the papers are covered, put in the stove and replace with another one. Be sure to use no water.
A mulching of coal ashes around currant bushes is recommended as a preventive of the ravages of the currant worm. They have a power of absorption almost equal to charcoal. Thrown where they can absorb the waste liquids of the house, they will be found invaluable for digging around trees or used to enrich the ground for early garden vegetables or raked thinly and carefully over the lawn.
Insert a section of small lead pipe the length of the frozen part and pour in hot water by the means of a funnel. The pipe will sink at the rate of one foot per minute. This is quicker than salt or heated iron rods.
To Purify Cisterns where the water has an unpleasant odor, suspend in the water a muslin cloth containing one or more pounds of charcoal.
1 *
Sprinkle with powdered sassafras as packed, this will keep out worms. If they have already made their appearance, put in a moderate oven for fifteen minutes. This is certain.
Dip the tip of a feather in oil and rub around the stopper close to the mouth of the bottle. Put the bottle near the fire. The heat will cause the oil to run down between the stopper and the bottle. When warm, strike the bottle gently on both sides with a bit of wood. The stopper will loosen. If not, repeat the process.
1 cupful of green tea, 4 tablespoonfuls of iron filings. Steep, strain, return to the stove in a rusty tin or iron dish. Have the switch washed clean, put in the dye, of which there should be just enough to cover well, let heat slowly until the desired shade.
Second. Use 1 cupful of ground coffee and pursue the same course as before. Bits of rusty iron or nails can be substituted for iron filings.
Do it immediately after milking and there will be no unpleasant flavor given to the milk.
Cider made from early apples has not good keeping qualities.
Boil the strained honey gently; skim clear.
Fill a small bottle two-thirds full of muriatic acid. Put in all the bits of zinc (an old wash board will answer) it will dissolve. Add a crumb of sal-ammonia and fill up with soft water. Wet the spot with the acid, apply a piece" of sheet zinc and hold a lighted candle underneath; or buy solders apply the acid as above and drop melted solder on the spot.
 
Continue to: