32O AMATEUR TACKLE MAKING, ETC. 



to unduly darken it for proper use, as we have 

 already stated. The light brown shades needed for 

 some habitually discoloured waters are yielded by 

 fustic chips, barberry bark, and the best coffee beans 

 (well roasted), these in equal quantities. 



To KEEP MOTHS FROM FEATHERS. There are 

 many receipts for this purpose, but practically they 

 are but partially successful. Powders of various 

 kinds are useful. Arsenic mixed with . pepper (black 

 or white) is good, as is also ammonia, but a more 

 efficacious mode of keeping valuable feathers is the 

 following : Place in well-made or closely-fitting 

 boxes of wood, tin, or other material, the feathers it 

 is intended to preserve, and keep an uncorked bottle 

 of spirit of mineral naptha inside. So long as it is 

 so kept, no moth can exist in such a case or box. 

 With very valuable feathers, it is an unfailing plan of 

 evading the devastating moth to place in india 

 rubber bags,* tightly tying up the entrance afterwards, 

 and charging the same with a weak solution of india 

 rubber, dissolved in naptha or methylated spirit 

 This, of course, is infallible as a preventative, as 

 is easily conceivable. Though prevention is un- 

 doubtedly the best policy, still it may be advisable 

 to say what can be done with a stock of feathers or 

 flies once infested and damaged, and not totally 

 destroyed by the larva of moths. The first thing to 

 do is to place the package so infested in an oven 

 heated by a slow fire, and when the grub-like forms 



* Old rubber cushions, etc., answer well for this purpose, or sheet 

 mackintosh may be made into bags with the dissolved rubber. 



