CALICO. 109 



Take the molasses up, and stir in the milk and eggs, and 

 flour enough to make a thin batter, of the consistency of 

 pound cake. Bake in tin pans immediately. 



CALICO. Fast colors in calicoes are thickened with 

 gum or calcined starch, while fugitive colors are thickened 

 with gum tragacanth. which leaves the cloth in a softer state 

 than gum Senegal, the goods being sometimes sent to market 

 without being washed. (Bigelow.) 



Calicoes, if possible, should only be washed on a dry day, 

 and always by themselves, in suds prepared with ox-gall soap, 

 or of hard soap, with a table-spoonful of ox-gall added. Soap 

 should only be applied through the agency of the suds. 

 Wash quickly from these prepared suds into another pre- 

 pared in the same way, having both waters only milk-warm. 

 Rinse out the soap in pure water, then quickly pass them 

 into a second rinsing water, into which has been put a hand- 

 ful of salt, or, what is better, a few drops of oil of vitriol, to 

 set and brighten the colors, and some weak starch-water; 

 and if there is no blueing in the starch, pass the indigo-bag 

 once or twice rapidly through the water. Do not allow them 

 to remain in any of the waters. Wring them out, and hang 

 them on the wrong side in a shady place. Calicoes should 

 never be frozen; it injures their colors. Dry them in the 

 house, if necessary, to avoid such an accident. 



Water in which potatoes have been sliced and boiled is 

 often strained and saved for the purpose of making suds for 

 calicoes. 



Rice-water, and wheat-bran water, strained from these 

 substances, is often successfully used. 



Dark and mourning calicoes are washed in the same man- 

 ner, that is, with warm soap-suds and ox-gall ; but the starch 

 is prepared with colored water, sometimes with coffee, to avoid 

 the whitened look that starch sometimes gives dark calicoes. 

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