Ammonia.

No housekeeper should be without a bottle of spirits of ammonia, for, besides its medical value, it is highly useful for household purposes. It is nearly as useful as soap, and its cheapness brings it in the reach of all. Put a teaspoonful ammonia in a quart of warm soapsuds, dip in a flannel cloth, wipe off the dust and fly-specks, and see how much scrubbing it will save you.

For washing windows and mirrors, it is very desirable. A few drops on a piece of paper will take off every spot or fingermark on the glass.

It cleanses and brightens silver wonderfully. Dip your forks, spoons, etc., in a pint of suds, mixed with a teaspoonful spirits ammonia. Then rub with a brush and polish with chamois skin.

It will take grease spots from every fabric. Put on the ammonia nearly clear. Lay blotting-paper on the place, and press a hot flat-iron on it a few moments. A few drops of it will clean and whiten laces, also muslins.

It is highly useful and refreshing at the toilet-table. A few drops in the bath will remove all offensive perspiration and glossiness (if the skin is oily). Nothing is better for cleansing the hair from dust and dandruff. A teaspoonful in a pint of water will cleanse the dirtiest brushes. Shake the brushes through the water, and when they look white, rinse them in water and put them in the sunshine or a warm place to dry.

For medicinal purposes ammonia is almost unrivalled. Inhaling it will often cure headache and catarrhal cold. Ten drops aromatic spirits of ammonia in a wine-glass of water is excellent for heartburn or dyspepsia. The ordinary spirits of ammonia may be used also for the purpose, but it is not so palatable.

Ammonia is also good for vegetation. If you desire roses, fuschias, geraniums, etc., to become more flourishing, add five or six drops ammonia to every pint of lukewarm water you give them. Do not repeat this more than once in five or six days, lest you should stimulate them too highly.

Be sure to keep a large bottle of ammonia in the house, and use a glass stopper for it, as it is very evanescent and is injurious to corks.

[The above remarks on the usefulness of ammonia were furnished and endorsed by Mrs.A.D., of Virginia.]

Borax.

It is very desirable to keep borax in the house. Its effect is to soften the hardest water, and it is excellent for cleansing the hair. Some washerwomen use borax for a washing powder, instead of soda, in the proportion of a handful of borax powder to ten gallons boiling water, and they save in soap nearly half, whilst the borax, being a neutral salt, does not injure the texture of the linen.—Mrs.S.T.

Red Ink.

Bicarb. potash, half an ounce; cochineal, half an ounce; bitart. potash, half an ounce; powdered alum, half an ounce; pure rain-water, four ounces. Mix, and add ten drops creosote.—Dr.E.A.C.

Black Ink.

Extract logwood (pulv.), two ounces; hot rain-water, one gallon. Simmer over water-bath one hour, till logwood is dissolved. Put into a bottle the following: bichromate potass., one hundred grains; prus. of potass., forty grains; warm rain-water, four ounces. Shake till dissolved, put into the logwood solution, stir well together, strain through flannel, and, when cold, add corrosive sublimate, ten grains; warm rain-water, one ounce. Dissolve thoroughly, put with the above, and add pure carbolic acid crys., one drachm. This makes the best black ink in the world, at a cost of about ten cents a gallon.—Dr.E.A.C.

Common Bottle Wax.

Rosin, eighteen ounces; shellac, one ounce; beeswax, two ounces. Melt together and color to suit the fancy.—Dr.E.A.C.

Grafting Wax.

Rosin, two pounds; beeswax, one pound; tallow, one pound. Melt together, pour into a tub of cold water, and work with the hands till pliable.—Dr.E.A.C.

Liquid Glue.

Acetic acid, one ounce; water, half an ounce; glue, two ounces; gum tragacanth, one ounce. Mix and dissolve.—Dr.E.A.C.

Shoe Blacking (equal to Mason's).

Ivory black, twelve ounces; molasses, four ounces; sperm-oil, one ounce; oil of vitriol, by weight, two drachms; vinegar, one pint. Mix the black, molasses, and oil, and add the vinegar gradually, stirring all the time. Then add the oil of vitriol very carefully, stirring constantly, till effervescence ceases.—Dr.E.A.C.

Liquid Blacking.

Ivory black, in fine powder, one pound; molasses, twelve ounces; sweet-oil, two ounces; beer and vinegar, two pints of each. Mix thoroughly together.—Dr.E.A.C.

What Most of the Baking Powders are Composed of.

(One of the Best.)

Cream tartar, twelve and one-quarter ounces; bicarb. soda (Eng.), six and one-half ounces; tartaric acid, one and one-third ounces; carbonate of ammonia, four-fifths of an ounce; good wheat flour, four ounces. Mix thoroughly, and pass through a fine sieve.—Dr.E.A.C.

To Dry Herbs.

Gather on a dry day, just before they flower. Put them in an oven, and when dry take them out, pick off the leaves, put in bottles, cover tightly, and keep in a dry place.—Mrs.R.

To Keep Weevil out of Wheat.

Put the wheat in barrels, smooth it, and sprinkle a layer of salt over the top. Keep the barrels well covered by tying cloths over them. A sure preventive.—Mrs. Dr.P.C.

Fertilizer for Strawberries.

Nitrate of potash, one pound; glauber salts, one pound; sal soda, one pound; nitrate of ammonia, one-quarter pound. Dissolve the above in forty gallons of water, one-third to be applied when the leaves begin to appear, one-third ten days later, and the rest when the vines begin to bloom. This quantity is for forty feet square.—Mrs.R.

Red Lip Salve.

Oil of sweet almonds, two ounces; pure olive-oil, six ounces; spermaceti, one and one-half ounce; white wax, one ounce. Color with carmine, and perfume with oil of roses.—Dr.E.A.C.

Lotion for Chaps.

Borax, two drachms; strong rose-water, twelve ounces; glycerine, three ounces; mucilage of quince seed, ten drachms. Mix.—Dr.E.A.C.

Cold Cream.

Rose-water, half an ounce; oil of sweet almonds, half an ounce; pure olive-oil, two ounces; spermaceti, half an ounce; white wax, one drachm. Melt sperm and wax with the oil by means of water-bath. Then add the rose-water, and stir till cool. When nearly cool, add oil of roses or any other perfume desired.—Dr.E.A.C.

Camphor Ice.

White wax, two ounces; spermaceti, two ounces and two drachms; camphor, six drachms. Melt, and add olive-oil, five ounces and five drachms; glycerine, three drachms. Make into eighteen cakes.—Dr.E.A.C.

Camphor Salve for Chapped Lips, Hands, etc.

Spermaceti, two drachms; white wax, two drachms; pulverized camphor, two drachms; washed lard, half an ounce; pure olive-oil, half an ounce. Melt in water-bath, and stir with it, while cooling, two drachms glycerine.

Note.—This is excellent, will relieve almost instantly, and will cure in a few applications.—Dr.E.A.C.

Tooth Powder.

Prepared chalk, two pounds; powdered orris-root, two pounds; powdered white castile soap, quarter of a pound; powdered white sugar, quarter of a pound; powdered pumice-stone, half an ounce; powdered carmine, half an ounce; oil of lemon, half an ounce; oil of lavender, half an ounce. Powder the carmine as fine as possible; then add to it the pumice-stone, then the sugar, then the soap, orris, and chalk in succession. Then add the flavoring drop by drop, mixing it thoroughly with all the ingredients. Sift through the finest apothecaries' sieve.—Dr.E.A.C.

For the Teeth.

Van Buskirk's Sozodont, manufactured by Hall & Ruckel, N.Y., is all that it claims to be. I have known it tried ten years consecutively with the happiest results.—Mrs.S.T.

Charcoal Tooth Powder.

Powdered charcoal, six ounces; gum myrrh, one ounce; pale Peruvian bark, one ounce. Mix thoroughly.—Dr.E.A.C.

Hair-Oil.

Pure olive-oil, six ounces; perfumed with oil of jessamine.—Dr.E.A.C.

Hair-Oil.

Castor-oil, ten ounces; pure alcohol, six ounces. Perfume with oil of bergamot or any other perfume preferred.—Dr.E.A.C.

Hair Tonic.

Glycerine, one and a half ounces; tincture cantharides (95 per cent.), half an ounce; sulph. quinine, twenty grains; alcohol, four ounces. Mix together; perfume with oil of roses.—Dr.E.A.C.

Another Hair Tonic.

Claimed to restore falling out hair, when baldness is not hereditary. Tincture of cantharides (officinal), one ounce; glycerine, one and a half ounce; rose-water, three and a half ounces.—Dr.E.A.C.

Hair Dye, No. 1.

Pyrogallic acid, one drachm; distilled water, three ounces. Dissolve.—Dr.E.A.C.

No. 2.

Nitrate of silver (crystals), one drachm; aqua ammonia, strong, two drachms; distilled water, six drachms. Mix.—Dr.E.A.C.

Hair Restorative.

Sugar of lead (chemically pure), one drachm; milk of sulphur, two drachms; rose-water, four ounces; glycerine, one ounce. Mix.—Dr.E.A.C.

Shampoo Liquor.

Bay rum, three quarts; tincture cantharides (officinal), one and a half ounces; carb. ammonia, half an ounce; salts of tartar, one ounce. Mix. Thoroughly cleanse the hair with clean water after using.—Dr.E.A.C.

Rose Bandoline.

Gum tragacanth, six ounces; rose-water, one gallon; otto of roses, half an ounce. Steep the gum in the water a day or two. Agitate frequently while forming into a gelatinous mass. After standing forty-eight hours, strain through a clean, coarse linen cloth. Again let it stand a few days, and then strain a second time. When the consistency is uniform, add the otto of roses, and color with carmine.—Dr.E.A.C.

Almond Bandoline.

Is made as the above, except that no coloring is used, and it is scented with quarter of an ounce of oil of bitter almonds instead of rose.—Dr.E.A.C.

To Clean the Hair and Hair-Brushes and Combs.

Dissolve one ounce borax and half an ounce camphor in a quart boiling water. For cleaning combs and brushes use two teaspoonfuls supercarbonate soda dissolved in half a pint boiling water, or else use one teaspoonful hartshorn dissolved in a little water.—Mrs.R.

To Remove Dandruff.

Wash the hair thoroughly in rain-water with a good deal of borax dissolved in it.—Mrs.C.C.

To Remove Blood Stains.

Make a thin paste of starch and water. Spread over the stain. When dry, brush the starch off and the stain is gone. Two or three applications will remove the worst stains.—Mrs.D.