430 



THE CENTURY BOOK OF FACTS. 



probably for household purposes the most use- 

 ful of drugs. It is very powerful, and dissolves 

 grease and dirt with the greatest ease. For 

 washing paint, put a tablespoonful in a quart 

 of moderately hot water, dip in a flannel cloth, 

 and then wipe the woodwork ; no scrubbing 

 will be necessary. For taking grease spots 

 from any fabric, apply ammonia nearly pure, 

 then lay white blotting paper over them, and 

 iron lightly. In washing lace, put about 

 twelve drops in a pint of warm suds. To 

 clean silver, mix two teaspoonf uls of ammonia 

 in a quart of hot suds ; put in the silverware 

 and wash, using an old nail brush or tooth 

 brush for the purpose. For cleaning hair 

 brushes, etc., simply shake the brushes up and 

 down in a mixture of one tablespoonful of 

 ammonia to one pint of .hot water ; when they 

 are cleansed, rinse them in cold water and 

 stand them in the wind or in a hot place to 

 dry. For washing finger marks from looking 

 glasses or windows, put a few drops on a moist 

 rag and make quick work of it. House plants 

 will flourish surprisingly if a few drops of am- 

 monia are added to each pint of water used in 

 watering. A teaspoonful will add much to the 

 refreshing effect of a bath. Nothing is better 

 than ammonia water for cleaning the hair ; in 

 every case rinse off the ammonia with clear 

 water. For removing grease spots from cloth- 

 ing, a mixture of equal parts of ammonia and 

 alcohol is better than alcohol alone ; and for 

 taking out the red stain produced by acids in 

 blue and black cloth', nothing is so effective as 

 ammonia. 



OYSTERS. 



When spawning, oysters are milky, watery, 

 and poor ; and are unwholesome food. The 

 months of spawning are May, June, and July ; 

 but they require a month longer to fatten, 

 and are seldom in good condition before Sep- 

 tember. 



Wholesale dealers usually have four quali- 

 ties or sizes of oysters for sale. The best are 

 known as extras, the second best as box, and 

 then follow cullings and bushels. Retail deal- 

 ers usually open them and sell them by the 

 hundred, gallon, or quart, in any quantity de- 

 sired. Other dealers make a large business 

 of pickling them for home and foreign con- 

 sumption, and packing them for inland places. 



The largest oysters are not always the best, 

 especially for eating raw and for stewing ; 

 those of medium size are generally preferred 

 by epicures. Nor are those found in clusters 

 as good as the single oysters. Oysters are 

 not good when dead. To ascertain whether 

 they are or not, as soon as opened and when 

 one of the shells is removed, touch the edge 



of the oyster gently, and, if alive, it will con- 

 tract. 



COCOA. 



Cocoa is generally purer than chocolate, 

 which is a preparation of the same bean, and 

 is also more nutritious. The best comes from 

 Trinidad, and may be had in the original seed 

 or nibs, flaked, or ground and prepared like 

 chocolate in small, square packets. The latter 

 is a mixture of cocoa and arrowroot. The 

 surest way of getting cocoa pure is to buy the 

 beans and roast them, afterwards grinding 

 them like coffee, or simply bruising them. It 

 deteriorates by keeping, and it is best to buy 

 it in small quantities at a time. 



BEDROOMS. 



Rooms devoted to sleeping purposes should 

 above all things be light, cheerful, and thor- 

 oughly ventilated. A third of our lives is nec- 

 essarily spent in these rooms, and where the 

 current practice of reserving the parlor for 

 " company " obtains, a great deal more. An 

 ample supply of fresh air should be secured at 

 all times and everywhere, but its necessity is 

 peculiarly urgent in the case of bedrooms. We 

 are much more susceptible to injurious influ- 

 ences when asleep than when awake, and these 

 accumulate with startling rapidity in an un- 

 ventilated chamber in which two or more per- 

 sons spend the night. An excellent plan is to 

 open the window above and below ; lowering 

 the upper sash, with an opening over the door, 

 is also very effective. But if the bedroom have 

 no fireplace, it should be connected by tubes 

 with the chimney-flue. At the same time the 

 prevalent notion that a bedroom to be health- 

 ful must be cold, is altogether mistaken. No 

 room should be slept in in winter that has not 

 had a fire in it at least three times a week, and it 

 is all the more wholesome if it have one every 

 day. Warmth is in itself necessary to any 

 thorough ventilation ; and the temperature of 

 a bedroom should not be suffered to fall below 

 40. 



SUBSTITUTE FOR CARPETS. 



The carpets of a house claim a special men- 

 tion from us. The plan of carpeting floors to 

 which we are accustomed is a decidedly un- 

 healthful one. When the carpets are nailed to 

 the floor in such a way that every portion is 

 covered, the dust which settles upon them can 

 be only partially removed by sweeping, and 

 accumulates in increasing quantity upon the 

 planking below, as well as in the meshes of 

 the carpet itself. This dust, continually raised 

 by every footstep, inevitably renders the aii 

 unhealthf uf; and the evil is increased by the 



