Chapter IV: Part 4

=Filling Window Boxes=: Make fast, put a layer of broken pot over the bottom, upon that a very thin layer of excelsior. Cover two inches deep with fine earth, then arrange roots of your trailers along the outer edge and bank up with more earth. Next put in the plants, crowding them rather thickly, pack earth around and about them, water freely, make sure all plants stand straight, then shower plentifully, using a fine sprinkler. Water every day—twice daily in very hot weather—shower every other day, and fertilize once a week. This if the plants thrive. If they turn a sickly yellow, starve a bit, after watering plentifully with water a little too hot to bear your hand in.

=Choice of Window Plants=: Flowering geraniums deserve first place for a season’s bloom. White and pink ones smothered in green look better against a red brick wall than scarlet or crimson. But scarlet and white, or scarlet and crimson with feathery green, such as asparagus sprengeri, are beautiful against white walls, brown or buff ones, or any sort of stone. Pansies with alyssum edges are lovely while they last. Choose them for early spring, putting in geraniums or primroses later. Potted bulbs show beautifully in window boxes with edges of trailing green. Rose geraniums in window boxes help to drive away flies. Piazza boxes in midsummer have nothing more effective than the savage splendors of gladioli. Plant in double row, starting the bulbs in pots and setting out when a foot high. Nasturtiums also make a splendid show. So do all the tribe of begonia, provided the sun is not too hot. Morning and evening rays suit them.

=Palms and Ferns=: Small thrifty plants need to be shifted yearly. After they reach a good size do not shift, fertilize instead. Keep pot surfaces clean, set at least a foot above the floor, water plentifully and regularly, but do not let it stand at the roots. Sprinkle or wipe with a damp cloth weekly, and monthly give a plunge bath in your own bath water. Let stand till barely tepid, then tie a cloth over the earth, and lay your plant on its side in the tub. Splash and scrub well, set upright, drain off water, and shower well with clear, clean water. Bathing thus is the best insurance of health and a protection against the depredations of every sort of pest.

=Roses and Woody Things in General=: Only a very few roses are adapted to house culture unless there is a greenhouse for their refreshing. The catalogues name them. Get vigorous year-old plants and bake the earth for planting them at least an hour in a moderate oven. This to insure against the beetle which lives in earth and has no other cure than prevention. Make the earth very fine, sift it lightly through the roots, water well, put on more earth, wet it, fill up the pot, drench, drain, and set in light, but away from sunlight, for several days. Pinch off any flower buds, also new ones appearing before the rose is well established. After thrifty growth sets in let bloom, but not overbloom. Pinch off all but the most promising buds. Water with tepid suds weekly. In between give liquid manure. Make it strong—roses are gross feeders. Bathe often, keep warm and in light, turning every other day. The many-flowered roses sold around the holidays are good for nothing but to be set out in the border after their bloom is past.

Fuchsias, azaleas, lemon verbenas, the spireas, and genesta require much the same care. Fuchsias, as has been said, do not demand full sun. Also they like a moderate temperature. The others thrive in heat and light. So do camellias and gardenias. These, however, are apt to disappoint anybody without a genius for growing things. Rubber trees too big for the plunge bath must have their leaves well wiped with white soapsuds, then with clear water. Tall palms demand the same care. All plants need a moist atmosphere, so keep water on radiators and wet sponges over registers. This is as good for people as for plants.

=Fertilizers and Fertilizing=: Liquid manure is an ideal fertilizer so far as concerns the plants themselves. It has the drawback of a bad odor. To use it set the plants outdoors, give in sufficient quantity, let soak in, then water well with warm water and leave to air some hours. To make, put well-rotted manure in something tight, pour boiling water upon it, stir well, and let stand. Stir again before dipping out—it should be as thick as cream. After using it on window boxes close the windows until the smell is gone. Things too big to move can be fertilized and the windows left open, closing doors—so fertilize in mild weather. The odor will pass in two hours if the tepid watering has been thorough.

Many good commercial fertilizers are almost or quite odorless—ammoniated bone meal, for example. There is also a fertilizer in lozenge form which is scentless and wonderfully effective. Dissolve a lozenge in boiling water, let stand all night, then stir well and apply. Give a teacup—the same as of liquid manure—to a ten-inch pot, a tablespoonful to a four-inch one, and half that to a thumb pot. A quart will be none too much for a three-foot window box filled with soft-stemmed plants. They demand more than woody plants. Over-fertilizing is bad—it turns leaves yellow and scants bloom. Plants suffer indigestion the same as people. The remedy for it is to set them in a sink or on a grating and pour hot (not boiling) water through the pot until it runs out clear.

=Insects and Insecticides=: Insects are the pest of house plants. The worst of them are plant lice, mealy bugs, white and black flies, red spider, and the various scales. All are fought with pretty much the same weapons—namely, soap and water, smoke, and eternal vigilance. Greenhouses and hothouses are almost universally infested. Hence every new plant must be suspected. Do not set it among other plants clean and thrifty for at least a fortnight, and then only after a thorough bath. A plant badly infested had better be thrown away, and quickly. Flies white and black are hardest to fight; they fly away at a touch on the pot. Set the infested plant apart, with a stick standing higher than itself fast in earth, throw a thin cloth over, letting it reach the ground all around, then slip under it a lighted smudge, and set over cloth and plant either a box or a barrel, with paper pasted over the cracks. Let stand two hours, then plunge in a tepid bath, keeping on the cloth until well under water. This to hold in any flies left living. Splash well, drain, and while damp dust with either insect powder or finely crumbled tobacco, putting it on both sides of the leaves.

For plant lice spray thickly with strong tobacco water, leave an hour, then bathe, and dust with more tobacco. A little flowers of sulphur mixed in makes the treatment more effectual. Bathe in suds (carbolic soap, if possible) next day, and follow with a clear tepid shower.

Red spider is invisible until it appears as red blotches upon foliage. Water, and still more water, combined with smoking cures it. Shower infested plants heavily every day for a fortnight, smoke with tobacco twice a week, and keep well dusted with either tobacco or pyrethrum powder. Mealy bugs, which are white and woolly, as big as grains of wheat, should have a sulphur dusting after smoking and bathing. All the big scales, which are never very numerous unless plants are fatally neglected, should be hand-picked, then the plant well washed with whale-oil soapsuds dashed with carbolic acid. San José scale, which is almost invisible but feels like fine rough sand upon the under sides of leaves and over stalks, is so deadly and difficult any plant found infested should be burned at once, the pot broken, and the earth soaked with boiling water. Cures for it there are, but too difficult for amateurs, withal somewhat dangerous.

Buy tobacco dust, make tobacco water. Pour a gallon of boiling water upon a pound of tobacco stems, let stand a day, keeping warm, strain and use. Cut the spent stems fine and mix through potting soil. Enough tobacco water to color it mixed in makes a plunge bath more effective against insects. Make smudges thus: put a few slivers of wood or half a dozen matches crossed in a small flat tin, cover with either pyrethrum powder, tobacco dust, cut up stalks, unspent, or flowers of sulphur mixed with fine damp sawdust. Light, see that there is not too much blaze, and set beneath plants. Do not make smudges big enough to give out scalding heat; better two or three small ones if heavy smoke is required.

Red rust and brown scale, the special enemies of palms, need to be washed off with strong carbolic soapsuds and a soft brush before bathing and smoking.

=Earth Worms=: Lime water is the remedy for earth worms. Stick holes in the earth quite to the bottom, then pour on clear lime water (see section Renovators) till it stands on top. The worms will crawl up to escape it. Lime water is also good to sweeten sour earth. Give a half cup after the hot-water treatment. Dig up the earth in pots so as to keep a light, clean surface. Green scum, while not dangerous, does not make for plant health.

=For Roaches=, dip cut potatoes in arsenic mixed with sugar and lay cut side down on the pots and about them. Gather up every morning, dropping instantly into a vessel of boiling water—this to destroy such insects as remain alive. But never put out poison if there are children in the house.

=Cuttings=: Cuttings root best in clean sand, kept very wet and warm and under glass. Make the cuttings of new wood, neither soft nor fully ripe. Cut with at least two eyes—three are better—slant cuts, and set in sand slantwise, with one eye above the surface. Shift as soon as growth begins fully to thumb-pots, and keep the pots plunged in another box of sand. Make geranium cuttings, whether scented or flowering, of healthy stalks full of sap and vigor. June is the best time to make cuttings of lemon verbena, fuchsia, heliotrope, and roses. Tips of strong shoots from either fuchsia or heliotrope will root then almost for the chance. Chrysanthemums from cuttings of the flower stalk give much finer bloom than those from old roots.

Leaf cuttings are interesting. Tuberous begonias root thus readily. Roses are more difficult. Peg down the leaf on wet sand under glass, make tiny cuts in it, and keep very wet in sunshine. Roots will strike from the cuts after they have calloused.

Summing up, the needs of a house plant are the same as those of a human being—air, light, food, water, cleanliness, and love.

=Cut Flowers=: Cut flowers early in the morning, stand loosely upright in clean water away from light until they can be arranged. In hot weather sprinkle lightly if arranging must wait, and cover with a light cloth. Florist blossoms must be kept cool and damp; stand the holder in the bathtub, draw three inches of cold water, and spread something over them.

In arranging do not mix nor crowd. Tulips with only their own stalks and leaves are wonderfully decorative, but a single other bloom makes them blotchy. No green save the featheriest asparagus fern should ever go with flowers which have handsome foliage. Lay fern fronds upon the cloth rather than disfigure with them a centerpiece of roses. Tall, stiff stems, as jonquils, narcissi, and lilies, absolutely require tall, slender holders. So do long-stemmed roses, especially the cloth-yard American Beauties. It is vandalism to put anything with them. Carnations bear massing, but the vase should have space about it. Lilies lose immeasurably by crowding. A single handsome tall stalk gives distinction, where three or four imperfect ones huddled would be commonplace.

Half a dozen roses with fine foliage will make a handsome centerpiece thus: put into a low, flat bowl, rather flaring, a woven-wire cake rack nearly the same size. Cut stalks, if long, to six inches. Use the cut-off stems to mat through the woven wire. Cover well with cold water, then arrange the flowers so each will show for itself, thrusting the stems between the wires at the proper angle. A wreath of asparagus fern laid on the cloth outside adds much more to the effect than if the green were twined among the flowers. Lacking a cake rack, flatten a big potato after peeling it, make holes in the upper surface with a wire nail, and anchor the stems in them.

Hanging-holders for trailers should have something inside—wet sand or wire net—to hold their contents stable. If a tall flower pot is set in a niche or corner, arrange a light to fall directly on it, as a fairy lamp or tall candle set upon a bracket. Beware of having too many flowers, and particularly too many sorts. Even blossoms can swear at each other—decoratively.

=Keeping Cut Flowers Fresh=: Flowers sent long distances need special care. Stick the stalks of roses in sections of potato, else seal by dipping in melted paraffine, then roll each separately in wax paper so it forms a tube. Lay the tubes together in a stanch box, cut holes in either end after it is wrapped and tied. The roses should be between bud and half blow. Chrysanthemums can be sent the same way by either mail or express. So can camellias and gardenias, but they change color so quickly after opening they are hardly worth the trouble.

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X

DISINFECTANTS, INSECTS, INSECTICIDES

=Quicklime=: Put big lumps in broad earthen platters, set on floors of cellars, outhouses, or barns, and slack with copperas water.

=Charcoal=: Lay lumps in vegetable bins or on cellar shelves. Hang other lumps in bags of coarse net on cellar and pantry walls. Heat every month or so to maintain absorbent power.

=Borax=: Sprinkle powdered borax freely over smelly places—under sinks, around plumbing, over pantry shelves, and on floors where cans are set. It is so safe, so wholesome, even spilling it is worth while.

=Washing-soda=: Dissolve a pound in a pint of boiling water and flush sink pipes, refrigerator drains, and set tubs with it.

=Copperas= (green vitriol, otherwise sulphate of iron): Dissolve a pound in a gallon of water; it will take several hours. Dilute one-half with boiling water and flush water closets, bath pipes, set bowls, and so forth. Sprinkle thus diluted over smelly earth, as in chicken runs, kennel floors, stall floors, and where garbage stands. Use liberally on garbage, in earth closets, or privies, also on standing water infested with green scum. A gallon added to a pot of whitewash gives a yellow tinge and makes the wash more sanitary.

=Bluestone=: Bluestone, sulphate of copper, must be dissolved in the same proportions. It is a germicide more than disinfectant, especially valuable where there have been sick animals. Dilute with four times its bulk of boiling water or mix through hot whitewash. It is staple against seed infection, as smuts and molds. The most part of garden seed sprout and grow better for wetting with the dilute solution and drying before planting.

=White Vitriol=: Sulphate of zinc, a powerful astringent germicide, needs care in handling. Dissolve it, four ounces to the half gallon of water, strain, and put into clean bottles. Keep dark, corked tightly. Use to clean and disinfect sores from frost bite or indolent ulcers. Dilute with five times as much tepid rain water. Use on the combs of poultry when raw from frost, also for scaly leg and the ail known as “bumble-foot.”

=Bichloride of Mercury=: The king among disinfectants, also one of the deadliest among poisons. Dissolve in boiling rain water, four ounces to the gallon. Let stand; it dissolves slowly. Keep in glass, tightly corked, plainly labeled “poison.” Dilute one-half for use in the sick room. But put on full strength when fighting bed bugs.

=Bordeaux Mixture=: Staple for spraying against molds, etc. One pound blue vitriol dissolved in five gallons rain water and added to one pound powdered unslaked lime mixed to a cream with rain water. Stir well, and strain before spraying. Dilute one-half to three-fourths; if too strong it scorches vegetation.

=Kerosene Emulsion=: Stir hard together in an earthen vessel a quart of buttermilk and half a gallon kerosene. Stir with wood until thick and buttery. Use full strength to paint tree trunks and hard branches in winter, but dilute at least ten times for use on green things. Mix with warm water, twenty parts to one for spraying against plant lice. For fighting red spider stir a little sulphur into the emulsion before diluting. Spray late—as near night as possible.

=Bisulphide of Lime=: Sure death to either animal or plant lice. Mix in equal quantity flowers of sulphur and powdered quicklime, cover two inches with boiling water, boil five hours, filling up and adding more water till there is three times the original quantity. Dilute the result, a brown smelly liquid, one hundred times for use either as wash or spray.

=Against Garden Pests=: Mix any arsenical powder—London purple, Scheele’s green, or Paris green—with its own bulk of flour and twice its bulk of slaked lime, and dust upon plants while damp. Good for potato beetles, squash bugs, flea bugs, grasshoppers, cut worms, and cabbage worms. Use in a powder gun or tie in a thin bag, fasten it to a long pole and shake so as to coat plants evenly.

=Larkspur=: Larkspur destroys lice and mites. Sow rather thick, cut when beginning to flower, dry in shade. Strip leaves and buds when full dry, powder, and keep in glass. Save stems and coarse stalks to make tea. Infuse for twelve hours, then boil for two, strain, and reduce by boiling another hour. Use in suds a cup to the quart, or in whitewash a pint to the gallon. Make an ointment by either stewing tender tips in lard or fresh butter in a water bath until the grease is well colored or by putting with it the infusion at full strength and stewing out the water. Stir in a little flowers of sulphur, a teaspoonful to the pint, for use on cattle or horses. Grease back of the ears, under the throat, and along the backbone. Grease poultry under the wings, around the neck, and on top of the head. Blow larkspur powder into the hair of dogs and cats after bathing them.

=For Flies and Mosquitoes=: Stop the beginnings. Burn or bury garbage. Spray all possible fly beds well with copperas water daily. Be prodigal of whitewash wherever it will stick. Flush drains well with boiling soda water and use copperas water or carbolic suds to spray earth on which waste water discharges. Keep manure piles covered with fresh earth, also wet daily with copperas water. Set fly traps outdoors wherever the pests congregate. Fill a tumbler two-thirds with suds and lay a cardboard over with a hole in the middle. Smear syrup on the underside for bait. Empty twice a day, burning the drowned flies. Boil together two ounces ground black pepper, four ounces sugar, and a cup of sweet milk, set the syrup shallowly in plates—the flies will do the rest. The mixture kills them, but is harmless to anything else. Oil of lavender sprayed will drive out flies temporarily. So will rose geranium bruised to smell strongly. Screen every opening with wire gauze or cheesecloth, make cheesecloth covers, rounds with wire in the hems, to protect hot food, be diligent with fly paddles, and avoid slopping, also throwing out slops on the ground.

Mosquitoes, say the wise men, are a local issue, bred in standing water. Wherefore leave no water standing, not even a rusty canful. Cover rain barrels with screen wire, pour crude kerosene upon ponds and pools. Begin early, before buds swell. Keep it up until frost. Examine cellars, especially barn cellars. Mosquitoes winter in them. Kill all such lingerers with thick smoke—tobacco smoke or from pyrethrum powder or by touching off a little gunpowder on a plate. Concussion makes the mosquitoes drop; sweep up and burn. Concerted action is imperative. If no man liveth or dieth unto himself, how much less so any man’s crop of mosquitoes! Screens and smoke from punk sticks, pyrethrum, and dry pennyroyal are the best weapons against attack. Oil of pennyroyal likewise helps. Smear lightly on forehead, hands, and arms before going to sleep. Wilting leaves of the stately castor bean, also tender branches, hung about will drive out mosquitoes.

Fleas harbor in light litter—hay, straw, leaves, most of all shed hair. Flea-bearing animals have each their own species, which fight to the death. There are also sand fleas. Fight with fire, smoke, water, oil of pennyroyal, and fresh black-walnut leaves. Sprinkle kerosene on the litter suspected; sweep up and burn. Oil sand beds likewise, else drench with copperas water. Wet manure heaps with bichloride solution or bisulphide of mercury. Gather walnut leaves in armfuls and crowd them into places unsafe for oil or fire, as under piazzas, bungalow floors, or low sheds. Put them also about rooms where fleas abound, tied in thick bunches, and laid under beds or in closets. Gasolene where safe is a mighty help. Paint floors and baseboard with it, in default of bichloride solution. Painting with turpentine is also fairly effective. Success is impossible, however, unless the flea-fighting extends to animals as well.

=Bed Bugs=: Bed bugs demand eternal vigilance, especially in apartments. Make bedrooms and closets as nearly as possible bug proof by washing, after cleaning thoroughly, with bichloride solution, then filling every crack, cranny, and crevice with soft putty. Lay a thin rope of putty along the baseboard on the floor and crowd down upon it quarter-round molding cut to fit. Nail fast, and paint to match the baseboard. This is an effectual seal for dividing wall on a common floor. Set collars of the stiffest putty around steam pipes where they go in and out. Renew them as often as they crack and crumble, but do not trust to them entirely. Examine everything monthly—bed, furnishings, chairs, boxes, the backs of pictures, books, and stacked papers. Paper in mass is a favorite lurking place. Have white slips for mattresses; remove, turn, examine seams, and wet corners with bichloride. Paint the mattress over lightly with bichloride; it neither stains nor smells. Wipe the bedstead and springs with a cloth wet in it, and drench crannies unwipable. Wipe the backs of pictures and of dressers, in fact, any sheltered and static space. Wipe the floor with bichloride, if bare, and wax or oil afterward. Sprinkle a carpet or rugs well with bichloride, then sweep with a broom dipped in very hot water. Empty closets, wipe over, examine all accumulations of paper, boxes, etc. A bug overlooked will in a month’s space infest a whole house. Couches of rattan, wicker, or upholstered are strongholds of the blood-suckers. Set in air and drench with benzine or gasolene, leave standing a day, and drench again, shaking, brushing, and beating between drenchings.

Wicker clothes hampers and baskets, also baby carriages, are other strongholds. Scald hampers and baskets with boiling-hot soda water, then paint over with turpentine and a little sweet oil. Use gasolene on the carriages, applying with a thick brush rather than drenching. Repeat twice in succession, wash everything washable, and sun for a week.

=Moths=: Moths in upholstered things must be got rid of the same as bed bugs (see preceding paragraph). Clean rugs thoroughly, spray on both sides with gasolene or strong black-pepper tea, sun well, then roll up between newspapers, tie fast, wrap spirally with stiff paper, fold ends neatly, slip over them paper bags fitting accurately, paste down edges, paste a strip of paper over the edge of the wrapping. Clean heavy coats with gasolene or benzine, crowd newspaper into the sleeves, crumple more newspaper thickly over the hanger, fasten the coat, slip over it a bag of pasted newspapers, pass the hanger hook up through it, crumple the paper tight around the shank and tie, then fold over the bottom of the paper several times, and fasten with stout wire clips. Moth balls may be slipped in coat pockets, but will hardly be needed if they are hung in a light place.

Store and protect tailor suits much the same. After cleaning fold the skirt belt in six and fasten with a big safety pin to lower bend of the hanger shank, then slip on its newspaper bag and fasten. Put on the coat, then over all a bigger newspaper bag. Put inside wisps of cotton tied up in net, and wet with oil of cedar. One-piece cloth frocks should be hung the same as long coats, but have the skirts folded upward over a roll of newspapers about midway and pinned or basted to the waist. Store fur coats the same way after cleaning and sunning for several days. Put mothaline bags outside over those of newspaper and sachets of sandalwood in the sleeves. If moths have touched them before storing, lay them for several days on a slat tray in a trunk with a big sponge saturated in gasolene below. Keep the trunk outside and shut tight; gasolene vapor ought to kill the moth eggs. Clean small furs as muffs, tippets, cuffs, sun, sew up tight in old linen, sprinkle well with black-pepper tea, then wrap in newspaper, wipe out their boxes with a cloth dipped in gasolene, put in the wrapped furs, wrap boxes, and slip in paper bags, then fold and paste together the bag ends. If no moth nor egg was inside none will come out.

Fine things, such as camel’s-hair shawls, moth-infested should be brushed and sunned, then wrapped in clean linen, over that thick wet towels, over that paper, and laid in a hot oven until the paper scorches. This is equal to superheated steam for moth and egg destruction, but does no harm to the finest fabric. Sew up in linen and store same as small furs. Steam is also sovereign for moths in carpets where it is unsafe to use gasolene or benzine. Cover the infected spots with thick wet towels, letting them lie a good bit over and iron first around the edges, then all over with blazing-hot irons, changing them as they cease to hiss. Repeat at weekly intervals for a month. After ironing go along the edges, wetting the carpet well with bichloride solution. A carpet to be stored should be sprayed with gasolene after cleaning, then folded over double newspapers, and sprayed at each doubling over with black-pepper tea. A long, narrow bag of moth balls in the deepest fold adds something to insect insurance. Store in light and off the floor. A discarded bed spring is fine to lay such things on. Stand rolled rugs on end if not too long, and a little apart.

=A Blanket Box=: Make blankets clean and whole, fold in three, lengthwise, roll up over a core of moth balls, sew in old linen, and pack. Fill all crevices in a big packing-case with putty or plaster wet with egg, paper with plain manila paper, let dry, then paint the paper with oil of cedar. Give two coats. Put over the bottom a sachet of cedar twigs or shavings laid on wadding and tacked between cheesecloth. Pack blankets and woolens on this, tucking smaller cedar sachets into crevices, also moth balls tied in cheesecloth. Put in white things first, lay paper over them, then pack colored ones. Cover with another cedar sachet, tuck paper snugly over it, then shut—the top must be hinged on—and paste paper over the edges. As long as it is unbroken the contents are safe.

Where storage space is lacking use a box couch, making sure with bichloride and gasolene that neither moth nor bed bug lurks inside. Use oil of lavender and pine twigs rather than cedar, omit the sealing with paper, but examine now and then; if you discover the enemy do not halt until he is forever and completely yours.

=Roaches and Water Bugs=: Powdered borax mixed with sugar kills them. Set it about in saucers, sprinkle under pipes and on sills, also on the bottom of closets and drawers. Lay clean paper over it. Once a month remove paper, wipe wood, sprinkle again after drying, and put on fresh paper. Burn every dead insect. In cellars or greenhouses mix a little Paris green with the powder, dip into it cut potatoes, and lay them cut side down, in the way of roaches. Gather up each morning, drop in water as gathered, and replace at evening with freshly loaded potatoes. Pour turpentine around water pipes and those for steam heat. Paint the pipes with turpentine, doing it when they are cool. Paint kitchen floors and baseboards after scouring with bichloride of mercury; beware, though, using it higher. Keep borax and sugar on pantry shelves under paper. Paint with turpentine at housecleaning. Fill cracks, crevices, and knotholes with putty. Do the same with tops and rims of set tubs, renewing it as it breaks.

=Ants=: Ants, black or red, hate the smell of camphor. Make rings of it around dishes of food and pour it into crevices suspected as ant roads. If they climb by a post or pillar put a tarred bandage around it. Find the nest if possible and destroy it with boiling water or gasolene or kerosene with a little camphor added. Beware of gasolene if the nest is close to any building. Boiling soda water is safe anywhere except about plants. There use strong carbolic soapsuds, blood-warm, with an after-sprinkle of camphor. Gum camphor tied in net and hung in closets or pantries helps to drive ants away.

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XI

CARE OF PETS

=Dogs=: Choose your dog, unless he chooses himself by adopting you, with regard for environment. Big dogs require space—big rooms and grounds outside. Small ones are “in drawing” with apartments or modest houses. Breed is a matter of chance or choice. Toy terriers, toy Pomeranians, spaniels, and pugs fit into restricted menages. St. Bernards, collies, greyhounds, wolf hounds, and hunting-dogs in general are miserable in confinement, also miserably out of place.

Teach him obedience first of all, keep him clean and comfortable, never forget him, feed regularly, give constant access to clean water, and always sufficient exercise. Otherwise don’t keep him; neglect is a refinement of cruelty.

Vary the feeding. Dog biscuit day in and out destroys appetite and thrift. Shift every other day to table scraps, oatmeal porridge, cornmeal mush cooked with broth, or raw meat and bones. Give milk almost every day—not too much. Be sparing of the raw meat; a zest suffices. Tiny house dogs ought to have light breakfasts, with a hearty dinner around two o’clock, and nothing more. Dogs running out need much more food, otherwise they get into mischief. A hearty breakfast and dinner with milk and mush at sundown is not too much. Feed all that will be eaten clean; if food is left, diminish the quantity. Leave nothing but bones where a dog may come back to it. Gnawing solid bones helps strength and spirit. Small bones of game or fowl must be given with discretion; they are crunched and swallowed so greedily the sharp ends may do harm if the stomach is too full of them.

A flea-bearing dog is intolerable. Wash in larkspur water (see section Insecticides) or carbolic soapsuds, and comb while in the bath with a fine-tooth comb. Drain off water and fleas, rinse tub, rinse dog well, dry with coarse soft towels, keep muzzled until fully dry, and away from draughts. When fully dry, part hair and blow in behind the ears and along the spine flowers of sulphur mixed with larkspur powder or pyrethrum powder.

For skin troubles, mange especially, bathe well in hot sulphur soapsuds, rinse dry, and rub well into the affected spots unsalted butter washed clean of milk and made yellow with flowers of sulphur. If the trouble persists and the dog is valuable, consult a vet; the dog, perhaps, needs constitutional treatment.

Kennels and doghouses must be clean and dry, baskets and bedding kept clean and free of vermin. Whitewash kennels and doghouses often, putting larkspur infusion or carbolic acid in the whitewash, else mixing in flowers of sulphur. Scald baskets, dry, and paint with turpentine and sweet oil. Lay bedding outside and drench with gasolene. Burn it if mange appears, else it will reinfect the animal. Do not let dogs sleep haphazard anywhere they can. Give them comfortable beds, indoors or out.

A dog running free at exercise needs no clothes. On leash, with his keeper merely walking or sauntering, a warm blanket, or, better, a sweater, is essential in cold weather. Keep dogs outdoors as much as possible in hot weather, but do not let them run too much. Provide shade, especially for guard dogs. Teach all dogs, and especially guard dogs, to refuse food from strangers. This is impossible with a hungry dog. Full feeding guards against foraging at large, the thing which gives poisoners the best opportunity.

Dogs perspire only through the tongue, hence the panting after exertion. Let them drink all they will, but have the water clean. Milk is food, not drink. Do not imagine it takes the place of water. Water, free and clean, is held the best preventive of rabies. In case rabies is suspected isolate safely, and observe for at least a week. Pseudo-rabies, induced by fear, kills many more people than the real thing. An ailing dog, or one tired, thirsty, or lost, will snap at almost anything in his way. Do not on that account condemn him untried to death. Rest, food, and drink, in confinement, will discover his true condition. If madness is proved, kill, quickly and mercifully, burn or bury, disinfect every space he has touched with bichloride of mercury, burn movable boards, litter, ropes, etc. Grass or earth upon which saliva has dropped had better be drenched with kerosene and set on fire.

=Cats=: Cats likewise suffer rabies; in case of it use the same measures. Cats of fancy breeds are more decorative than plain tabbys, but also more delicate and much less intelligent, withal lacking in affection, and of no use save to look fine.

White cats, especially those with blue eyes, are more savage, less affectionate, and much harder house-broken than black, gray, or tortoise-shell ones. Often the white fellows are deaf. Each and several, cats run wild for reasonable opportunity, yet they bear housing and confinement admirably. They need raw meat, but not too much; a bit of liver or a fish head every other day suffices. Alternately give bones, with the milk and crumbled bread, which is the mainstay of their diet. Give also at night a saucer of pure milk. Water and catnip, green or dry, should be always accessible. Do not overfeed; cats are dainty gluttons if permitted. Keep them thriving, but not fat—fat and indigestion are the roots of disease.

Rid of fleas as directed for dogs. After drying, confine for some time, first giving a saucer of milk with a teaspoonful of whisky or brandy in it. For skin troubles grease all over with the sulphur and butter, confine so as to keep from getting dirty, and wash well after twenty-four hours in hot suds, rinsing well and drying with soft towels. Repeat at intervals as long as needed. Feed on bread and milk, be lavish of catnip, burn infected bedding, wash and fumigate baskets, or treat with bichloride of mercury (see section Disinfectants).

=Belgian Hares and Cavies=: Both are vegetable feeders. They will live in small quarters, but do better in bigger ones. Keep the quarters clean and sanitary with whitewash and disinfectants. If very small, have floors of loose boards which can be taken up and scalded. Feed three times a day with grain, roots, and green stuff. Be liberal of the green stuff. With a grass run the beasts will supply most of it themselves. Scatter the food, and give only as much as will be eaten clean. Suckling mothers need extra feeds, five a day instead of three.

Dust weekly with sifted ashes, corn starch in powder, and flowers of sulphur. Use in dry weather, putting on at night. Have hutches big enough to prevent crowding. Beware letting your pets overrun the space at command.

=Birds=: Mocking-birds, cardinals, bullfinches and orioles, all of which it is wicked to keep in cages, need very roomy cages, perches with the bark on, much clean sandy earth on the floors, clean grain, green stuff, ripe fruit, and insects, besides the egg-and-potato mixture which is their mainstay. Tie heads of wheat, oats, or millet to the bars, hang lettuce and peppergrass there, also chickweed in season. Put ripe berries on clean twigs and suspend; force bits of apple and peach between wires close to the perches. Have a swing, a roomy bath, with the usual feed and water cups. Change the water daily, twice in summer. Put one drop of carbolic acid in the bath for insect prevention. Boil eggs twenty minutes, crush the yolk while hot with a freshly boiled Irish potato, season with the least grain of salt and a very little red pepper, and put into the cup. Keep the cage very clean, scald it every three months. Hang it outside in pleasant weather, but never so the sun at midday will strike full on the birds.

Give flies, crickets, earth worms, grasshoppers, but not hairy caterpillars, spiders, nor wasps. Mockers sing almost the night through in spring. To silence them cover the cage with something thick, set where it is very dark, then uncover.

=Canaries=: A long body and thick smooth plumage are marks of a good canary. Males only sing. Coat color varies. German canaries show many shades of yellow besides mottled tints. Yellow-red Norwich birds owe their giddy coats to red pepper in the food. Unless it is given liberally at moulting-time their fine feathers come back dull and pale. Birds are in full song at a year old. Younger, they have rarely been well taught. The range of life is seven to twenty years; the last is possible only with exceptional birds and still more exceptional care.

Teach canaries to deserve the freedom of the room. It helps in many ways. Leave the cage door open; do not coax him out nor force him in except as a last resort. Rather let hunger take him back. He will learn quickly and enjoy flying about.

A metal cage with a movable floor is the one to choose. Wood invites vermin and harbors it distressingly. Hang where it is neither hot nor cold, away from draughts, but with air plenty. Feed regularly, but do not overfeed. Hemp seed are so fattening they must be given sparingly. The regular bird seed sold in packages is excellent if fresh. A dull appearance is against it; canary seed when not stale is shiny. Empty and fill the seed cup daily, clean the floor, and put down fresh gravel, red and white. Keep cuttlefish bone suspended in the cage, and put in daily some fresh bit of green. Lettuce will answer, but chickweed and peppergrass are better. A pod of Cayenne pepper is good in sharp weather. So is a little hard-boiled egg, lightly dusted with red pepper, or bread crumbs squeezed out of milk and similarly dusted. A droopy bird showing signs of diarrhea should have black-pepper tea to drink, else a strip of fat pork rolled in ground pepper hung where it can be pecked.

Fill the bath every morning. If a bird picks himself after bathing put a few drops of rose water or cologne in the bath. Bare spots from the picking should be rubbed very lightly with sulphur and butter, putting also a little under the wings and back of the neck. Ragged plumage may mean a hardened oil gland. It lies just at the root of the tail and furnishes oil for the coat. Look at it, blowing aside covering feathers. If swollen and inflamed, drop on warm, weak suds from a medicine dropper, dry very gently, and apply a little vaseline. Repeat daily until the gland frees itself of the cake.

Trim nails discreetly, holding to the light so as to miss the tiny vein in them. If cut, hold the bleeding foot a minute in tepid water, dry, and touch the cut with vaseline.

If breeding, separate the pair when brooding begins. Afterward let both feed the young. Provide soft food twice a day—bread crumbs soaked in milk, scraped apple, mashed hard-boiled egg yolk, in addition to seed and bird manna. As soon as it is safe move the whole family into a fresh, clean cage, and scald and fumigate the other. Mites, the bane of canaries, multiply amazingly. They would be invisible but for their blood color. Feeding by day, they quit their prey at night. Throw a sheet of Canton flannel over cages suspected, remove it quickly by lamplight, and plunge in boiling water. Mites will show on it after death. If they are plenty, shift to a clean cage at once and repeat the cloth treatment until all are destroyed. Infested cages should be, after scalding, drenched with gasolene and aired for a week. Scalding with bichloride is also effectual; it must be followed by a scalding in clear, boiling water and a fortnight of airing.

=Parrots=: If the parrot is for company get a gray African—they make the best talkers and are best tempered. For decoration get the scarlet-crested white fellows, or the yellow and green, or blue and scarlet and yellow. Treatment of either is the same; feed fruit, nuts, grain, a little meat, insects, bread, especially cornbread, and cereals cooked stiff. Parrots learn quickly to eat and drink with their owners. Coffee in moderation is good for them, but they must have water besides. Some thrive better for drinking milk; indeed, the creatures are almost uncannily human in many things. Let them bathe at discretion, provide also a dust bath. Have a roomy cage, a tall, branchy perch, and a hoop swing. Never tease nor tantalize; parrots are cross enough without; also jealous. Do not leave free in the room with a small child. Their beaks are cruelly sharp. Lacking insects, give small lumps of raw mutton fat. Keep everything about them very clean.

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XII

IN EMERGENCIES

=Chimney Blazes=: Smother blazing chimneys by throwing salt, damp if possible, on the fire, and setting something flat against the chimney breast.

=Blazing Fat=: Throw on salt, sand, or ashes; water makes the flame fiercer. Prevent draughts if possible; keep doors and windows shut tight. Turn out oil or gas flames underneath, and keep everything inflammable away from the blaze.

=Gas Leaks=: Open doors and windows, let accumulations blow out, then hunt for the broken pipe—not with a lamp or candle—and clap on it when found either a blanket of putty or flour dough wet very stiff. Tie in place with broad tape, then wrap with a cloth so as to withstand pressure. But first of all call for the repair man. With a leak undiscoverable, shut off from the rest of the house and leave windows wide open.

=Asphyxiation=: Whether from gas or drowning, lay flat, the head a little higher; permit no crowding; resort to artificial respiration—lifting the arms and pressing on the chest systematically, holding the tongue out all the while; rub with alcohol, especially feet and hands; keep in air, and work gently but quickly. In cases of drowning, empty lungs of water first thing by laying face down over a bench or barrel and working the arms.

=Fainting=: Lay flat, the head lower than the body, loosen clothes, especially about the neck, dash cold water gently in the face, hold ammonia under nostrils, rub wrists and temples with camphor or cologne water, and if the faint persists put mustard at the back of the neck and to the soles of the feet. Insensibility from shock or falling needs slightly different treatment. It may mean concussion; hence, let the head be highest and apply vigorous friction along the spine as well as to the extremities. Stimulate as soon as swallowing is possible, and move with caution.

=Burns=: Anything which excludes air without tainting the wound or irritating it further helps a bad burn. Carron oil—a creamy mixture of lime water and sweet oil—applied with a feather, then covered with cotton, either batting or absorbent, gives a measure of relief and is also healing. Soft old linen coated with fresh egg-white laid on and allowed to dry soothes pain. Even a covering with dry flour, if nothing else is handy, is better than leaving the burn bare. But if at all serious, or even is shallow and wide spread, call a doctor instantly, meantime keeping up heart action with stimulants in small doses often repeated.

=Breaks and Dislocations=: Lay a broken bone straight in a natural position upon a stout cardboard splint shaped to the limb and covered with cotton batting. Bandage limb and splint firmly together, working toward the trunk and keeping the bandage smooth but not too tight. Wet with arnica. This keeps down pain and inflammation, making the surgeon’s work when he arrives easier for himself and his patient. Reduce dislocations as quickly as possible by stretching the hurt joint steadily and letting another person manipulate the hurt. Often the bone head will snap back in place at a touch; it remains then only to keep it in place. An hour’s delay would mean swelling to render the replacing much harder. Wrist and elbow joints in particular are kittle cattle if left to swell. First aid to them means many times preserving use and saving from lifelong disfigurement. But this first aid by no means suffices to make surgical care unnecessary.

=Sprains and Strains=: Bandage tight, wet the bandages with cold water, and hold in an easy position. A sprained or strained ankle may be almost cured by plunging it into running water and keeping it there some time. Lift out occasionally, then replunge. Strains require rest and bandages. Wet the bandages with arnica. If there is muscle shrinkage later, rub morning and night with chloroform liniment after bathing with hot water and wiping dry.

=Chloroform Poisoning=: Keep in motion in open air, dose with aromatic spirits of ammonia well diluted, and hold it undiluted to nostrils. Apply electricity to spine; this if conscious. If fallen into a stupor put ice to spine and top of head, hot water to feet, give hard friction with alcohol, or camphor on legs and arms. Use artificial respiration and stimulate gently. Friction or a mustard plaster over the heart is helpful. Let nothing bind or constrict anywhere, and do not cease your efforts at the first signs of lessening stupor.

=Narcotic Poisoning=: For laudanum, morphine, or opium the treatment is the same. First a strong emetic—mustard and water as thick as pea soup is among the best. Follow it with black coffee as strong as possible. Give all the patient can be made to swallow at short intervals, keep him walking briskly, stripped to the waist, dash ice water on the spine, and tie ice to the back of the neck. Flagellate lightly on shoulders; the tingles help to rouse. Hold aromatic ammonia to his nose every half minute. If the coffee nauseates, give clear hot water after to make vomiting easy, then after ten minutes more coffee not quite so strong. Permit no stop for several hours; if excretories act properly the danger will then have been past. Electricity is useful, but not indispensable. In desperate cases use every means at hand.

=Acid Poisoning=: Emollients are the antidotes for acids; emetics wrench and tear seared stomach tissues. No matter what the acid—sulphuric, carbolic, nitric, or oxalic—give something soft and smooth—raw eggs, cream, starch wet as thick as cream, melted lard or butter, olive oil, or even flour and water, followed after a few minutes with magnesia stirred thick in tepid water. Let the patient rest easily, hold ammonia to the nostrils, and put hot-water bags to the feet. Aim to keep up vitality under the shock to vital tissues. In such cases a minute means often the difference between life and death.

=Iodine Poison=: Use emollients—the very best is thick cooked starch; it has a specific power to neutralize the drug. Olive oil is next best; it protects the coating of the stomach. But use anything above named rather than nothing. To let a case of poison go by default is against reason and humanity.

=Arsenic=: Arsenic in all its forms is best fought with raw eggs, especially the whites, and sweet milk or cream. Give a strong emetic afterward, then, when it has acted, more eggs or milk. This should suffice unless the poison has been freely absorbed.

=Ptomaine Poisoning=: Give an active emetic, followed by a cathartic; keep the patient warm, stimulate with brandy—a teaspoonful every hour; put mustard to wrists, ankles, back of neck, and pit of stomach—this particularly if there is severe pain, cramps, or continued retching. Pains in the head indicate the need of an ice cap.

=Mercury Poisoning=: Bichloride needs as antidote raw eggs and cream, or oil, with the same external treatment as for ptomaines. Strong emetics are inadvisable, but if the stomach frees itself naturally of the emollients much poison will come with them. Replace them in smaller quantities, but give nothing else until the doctor comes.

=Bites and Stings=: Stings from wasps, bees, and ants need treatment with fruit acids—bathe in vinegar or apply a slice of raw apple or peach or a crushed grape. Instant sucking removes part of the poison and relieves the pain to a degree. Always suck bites, as of spiders, unless there are abrasions of tongue and lips. After sucking bathe freely with fresh peroxide of hydrogen, boracic acid, or sugar-of-lead water. A leaf of green plantain, well bruised, bound on a bite or sting when nothing else is at hand keeps down inflammation and mitigates pain. In case of stings make sure the sting proper has not been left in the wound, since its presence might induce blood poisoning.

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INDEX

ACID POISONING, 197.

Adaptation of old garments, 108.

Antidotes, 196-198.

Antique furniture, care of, 66;
restoring, 62-65.

Ants, how to get rid of, 177.

Aprons, laundry, 11.

Arsenic, antidote for, 198.

Asphalt spots, 122.

Asphyxiation, 193.

BANDAGES, 21-22.

Basting clothes, 101.

Bed bugs, to prevent, 170.

Bed clothes, mending, 85.

Beef, how to choose, 134.

Bichloride of mercury, 165.

Birds, care of, 185.

Bisulphide of lime, 166.

Bites and stings, 199.

Blanket box, 175.

Blazing fat, how to put out, 192.

Bleaching, 2-3.

Blood, to stanch, 22-23.

Bluestone, 164.

Books, mending, 80.

Borax, 163.

Bordeaux mixture, 165.

Buckwheat flour, 131.

Burlaps, 34.

Burns, 194.

Butter, how to choose, 133.

Brass, care of, 67, 126.

Breaks and dislocations, 194.

Bric-à-brac, mending, 79.

Brick dust, 46.

Bronze, care of, 126.

Brooms, 42.

Broom bags, 42.

Brushes, 42, 46.

CAKE, how to keep, 143.

Calcimine, 39, 50.

Canaries, care of, 186.

Canning, 139.

Carpets, cleaning, 29-30;
mending, 90.

Cats, care of, 183.

Cavies, care of, 184.

Ceilings, 30, 38-39.

Cement, 53-54.

Charcoal, 163.

Cheese, how to choose and keep, 134.

Chimney blazes, how to put out, 192.

China, mending, 75;
washing, 56.

Chloride-of-lime water, 55.

Chloroform poisoning, 196.

Cleaning floors and rugs, 28-30.

Cloth, washing, 105.

Clothes drainer, 45.

Coarse mending, 84.

Coffee, how to choose and keep, 132.

Collars, how to do up, 5-7.

Contagion, 19-20.

Copper, care of, 126.

Copperas, 163.

Copperas water, 55.

Cornmeal, 130.

Cottons, testing, 97.

Cracks, filling, 27.

Cretonne, 34.

Cuffs, how to do up, 5-7.

Curtains, how to do up, 8-9.

Cutting out clothes, 99.

Cuttings, to start plant, 158.

DARNING, 81, 88.

Disinfection, 20.

Disinfectants, 55, 163-178.

Dogs, care of, 179.

Dust cloths, 43.

Dust swabs, 43.

Dyeing, 103.

EARTH WORMS, 157.

Eggs, how to test, 144.

Emergencies, what to do in, 192-199.

Enameled iron, 71.

FAINTING, 193.

Ferns, 151.

Fertilizers, 153.

Fillers for new wood, 47.

Fleas, how to prevent, 170.

Flies, how to prevent, 168.

Floors, 24-30.

Floor pad, 41.

Flour, how to test, 129.

Flowers, how to keep and arrange cut flowers, 159.

Foot pad, 41.

French polish, 49.

Frocks, how to wash, 4.

Fruit, dried, 142.

Fruit stains, 119.

Fruit storage, 139.

Furniture, mending, 74;
polish, 49.

Furs, mending, 88;
cleaning, 93.

GARDEN PESTS, 166.

Gas leak, 192.

Gasolene-cleaning, 104.

Gelatine spots, 119.

Gilt, to clean, 128;
frames, 69;
furniture, 68.

Glass, annealing, 61;
mending, 79;
preserving in, 138;
washing, 58-61.

Glazing, 37.

Gloves, care of, 92.

Glue, 50.

Grass stains, what to do for, 123.

Grease spots, what to do for, 113.

Grits, how to test, 131.

Gum arabic, 52.

HARES, how to keep, 184.

Hominy, how to test, 131.

ICE, to keep in sickroom, 18.

Ice-cream spots, 119.

Ink stains, 121.

Insects, 154, 163-178.

Insecticides, 154, 163-178.

Iodine poison, 197.

Iron, rust, 123;
care of, 125.

Irons, 13.

Ironstone, 58.

Ironing-boards, 43.

Ironing-tables, 11.

JAVELLE WATER, 54.

KEROSENE EMULSION, 165.

Knee pad, 41.

Knives and forks, how to clean, 61.

LACE AND EMBROIDERY, how to wash, 10;
how to mend, 87;
how to freshen, 105.

Lamps and candlesticks, mending, 80.

Lard, how to test, 133.

Larkspur, 167.

Laundry cabinet, 45.

Lead swab, 45.

Lime water, 54.

Linen, testing, 97.