Burroughs' Encyclopaedia of Astounding Facts and Useful Information, 1889 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 542 pages of information about Burroughs' Encyclopaedia of Astounding Facts and Useful Information, 1889.

Burroughs' Encyclopaedia of Astounding Facts and Useful Information, 1889 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 542 pages of information about Burroughs' Encyclopaedia of Astounding Facts and Useful Information, 1889.

HOW TO PRESERVE CLOTHING FROM MOTHS.—­1.  Procure shavings of cedar wood and enclose in muslin bags, which should be distributed freely among clothes. 2.  Procure shavings of camphor wood, and enclose in bags. 3.  Sprinkle pimento (allspice) berries among the clothes. 4.  Sprinkle the clothes with the seeds of the musk plant. 5.  An ounce of gum camphor and one of the powdered shell of red pepper are macerated in eight ounces of strong alcohol for several days, then strained.  With this tincture the furs or cloths are sprinkled over, and rolled up in sheets. 6.  Carefully shake and brush woolens early in the spring, so as to be certain that no eggs are in them; then sew them up in cotton or linen wrappers, putting a piece of camphor gum, tied up in a bit of muslin, into each bundle, or into the chests and closets where the articles are to lie.  No moth will approach while the smell of the camphor continues.  When the gum is evaporated, it must be renewed.  Enclose them in a moth-proof box with camphor, no matter whether made of white paper or white pine, before any eggs are laid on them by early spring moths.  The notion of having a trunk made of some particular kind of wood for this purpose, is nonsense.  Furs or woolens, put away in spring time, before moth eggs are laid, into boxes, trunks, drawers, or closets even, where moths cannot enter, will be safe from the ravages of moth-worms, provided none were in them that were laid late in the autumn, for they are not of spontaneous production.

HOW TO KILL MOTHS IN CARPETS.—­Wring a coarse crash towel out of clear water, spread it smoothly on the carpet, iron it dry with a good hot iron, repeating the operation on all parts of the carpet suspected of being infected with moths.  No need to press hard, and neither the pile nor color of the carpet will he injured, and the moths will be destroyed by the heat and steam.

HOW TO DESTROY RATS.—­1.  When a house is invested with rats which refuse to be caught by cheese and other baits, a few drops of the highly-scented oil of rhodium poured on the bottom of the cage will be an attraction which they cannot refuse. 2.  Place on the floor near where their holes are supposed to be a thin layer of moist caustic potash.  When the rats travel on this, it will cause their feet to become sore, which they lick, and their tongues become likewise sore.  The consequence is, that they shun this locality, and seem to inform all the neighboring rats about it, and the result is that they soon abandon a house that has such mean floors. 3.  Cut some corks as thin as wafers, and fry, roast, or stew them in grease, and place the same in their track; or a dried sponge fried or dipped in molasses or honey, with a small quantity of bird lime or oil of rhodium, will fasten to their fur and cause them to depart. 4.  If a live rat can be caught and smeared over with tar or train oil, and afterwards allowed to escape in the holes of other rats, he will cause all soon

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Burroughs' Encyclopaedia of Astounding Facts and Useful Information, 1889 from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.