12 FAMILY RECEIPTS. 



the aromatic seeds of all kinds are not subject to 

 mould, and that their vicinity prevents it in others with 

 which they are packed ; they also produce the same ef- 

 fect daily, even in animal matters, without its being sus- 

 pected. I need only remark, that it is common to put 

 pepper into collections of insects or birds, without its 

 having been remarked that it had the same power of 

 keeping off mould, as of discouraging or killing the 

 insects that commit ravages in these cases, 



"In concluding these hints, I might add, in illustration 

 of them, that ginger-bread and bread containing cara- 

 way seeds is far less liable to mouldiness, than plain 

 bread. It will be a matter worthy of consideration 

 how far flour might be preserved by some project of 

 this kind. 



TO DESTROY RATS. 



A correspondent, who had noticed in a recent num- 

 ber of our journal, a paragraph recommending ground 

 cork, fried in grease, as an efficacious plan for destroy- 

 ing rats, states, that he lately put the plan to the test 

 of experience, and completely succeeded. "The case 

 was that of two old women in the village of Denny, 

 who had lived in two detached garret rooms of the 

 same building. The rats had long been troublesome, 

 but at length had became so numerous and daring, that 

 they fairly threatened to challenge the tenants with no 

 longer possession. The fried cork had only been laid 

 for them three nights, before the whole disappeared. 

 A fact of this kind cannot be made too public, since it 

 may be the means of preventing many of those serious 

 accidents which so frequently occur from the use of 

 poison." 



TO PREVENT SMUT IN WHEAT. 



Take of best soft green soap, made from fish oil, I 

 pound, and of scalding water, 4 gallons. Put the soap 

 into a glazed vessel with a small portion of the water; 

 continue stirring it, and add the water as it dissolves, 

 till tibe whole is a perfect ley. It should be used about 



