ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND FACTS FOR THE PEOPLE. 41 r 



to polish the varnish, always wetting it 

 with the tripoli water. It will be known 

 when the process is finished by wiping a 

 part of the work with a sponge, and ob- 

 serving whether there is a fair, even gloss. 

 When this is the case, take a bit of mut- 

 ton suet and fine flour, and clean the 

 work. 



HIDES (Green) to Cure.— A great 

 many butchers do not use proper care in 

 this branch, and the consequence is that 

 the hides will not pass city inspection, 

 owing entirely to the ignorance and care- 

 lessness of persons preparing them for 

 market. The proper way to salt hides is 

 to lay them flat, flesh side up, and form a 

 nearly square bed, say 12 by 15 feet, fold- 

 ing in the edges so as to make them as 

 nearly solid as possible. Split the ear m the 

 cords that run up the ear in each one, so 

 as to make them lie out flat. Sprinkle 

 the hide with two or three shovelfuls of 

 coarse salt, as the size may require — say 

 for a sixty or eighty pound hide, from ten 

 to fifteen pounds of salt. At any rate 

 cover the hide well, as it need not be 

 wasted; then let them lie in this from 12 

 to 20 days, after which take them up, 

 shake the salt out and use it again. 



CISTERNS, How to Build.— The cis- 

 tern that is designed to supply the family 

 with water for drinking and cooking 

 should be sixteen to twenty feet deep and 

 eight to ten feet in diameter. It should 

 be walled up with brick or stone ; brick is 

 the best — takes up less room and allows a 

 good arch to be made at the top. If the 

 earth is clay, sufficiently retentive to hold 

 water, the cistern wall need not be plas- 

 tered, but should be laid up in cement 

 mortar. It is quite common to wall up 

 cisterns in retentive clay without- any 

 mortar, but this makes them liable to the 

 same objection we have stated against 

 common wells — they will drain the sur- 

 face to the distance of twenty or thirty 

 feet, as we know from trial. 



The cistern for family use should be 

 provided with a filter. This may be made 

 by building a four-inch brick wall across 

 the cistern from bottom to top, laid in 

 cement, curving to the side which is to 

 receive the water, and which should be 

 about two-thirds the entire capacity of 

 the cistern. The water will filter through 

 the bricks of the partition, and may be 

 drawn pure from the small compartment. 



Another good method, and probably the 

 best, all things considered, is to dig a 

 small cistern adjoining the main one, 

 about five feet wide by six feet deep, con- 

 nected about a foot above the bottom 

 with the large one by a pipe. Fill this 

 two-thirds full with sand and gravel, and 

 let the water from the roof be discharged 

 into it and filter through into the main 

 cistern. The advantage of this method 

 is that when the filtering materials become 

 old or too impure, they may be taken out 

 and renewed without disturbing or losing 

 the water in the main reservoir. Very 

 good cisterns of small capacity are fre- 

 quently made in clay soil by cementing 

 on the earth. A large, deep and sub- 

 stantial cistern with a good filter, for 

 family use, is invaluable for its supply of 

 pure water. 



HOUSES, Choice of Color for.— The 

 choice of color for country houses requires 

 the exercise of taste, judgment, and an 

 eye for harmonious combinations. It is 

 laid down as a rule by Calvert Vaux, that 

 every building requires four tints to make 

 it a pleasant object in the way of color. 

 " The main walls," he remarks, " should 

 be of some agreeable shade of color, the 

 roof-trimmings, veranMas, and other wood 

 work, being either of a different color, or 

 of a different shade of the same color, so» 

 that a contrast, but not a sharp one, may 

 be established — a third and fourth color,, 

 not widely different from the other wood 

 work, should be applied to the windows,, 

 blinds, etc." 



The greatest defect in the generality of 

 country buildings is the too frequent use 

 of white. Another most decidedly ob- 

 jectionable color is unmodified red, or 

 those brown-stone tints, approaching to 

 chocolate color, which are so frequently 

 used in the construction of town dwell- 

 ings. 



The simplest practical rule in the paint- 

 ing of houses, is to choose paint of some 

 neutral tint that is quiet and satisfactory,, 

 and let the facings of the windows, cor-, 

 nices, etc., be painted several shades, 

 darker of the same color. 



ICE-HOUSE, Extemporaneous. — An t 

 ice-house can be extemporized, without, 

 making a tenon or sawing a board. Con-, 

 struct a pen near the pond or stream 

 where the ice is to be gathered, choosing 

 if possible, a gravel bank where there 



