SOUTHEBN CULTIVATOR. 
196 
M. 
Vjnegar. — A writer in the Boston Cultivator proposes 
the following method by which he thinks the best vinegar 
can be procured at a trifling expense: 
The juice of one bushel of sugar beets, worth 25 cents, 
and which any farmer can raise with little cost, will 
make from 5 to G gallons vinegar, equal to the best made 
up of elder wine. First, wash and grate the beets, and 
express the juice in a cheese press, or in any other way 
which a little ingenuity can suggest, and put the liquor 
into a barrel ; cover the bung with gauze and set it in the 
sun, and in 15 to 20 days it will be fit for use. By this 
method the very best of vinegar can be obtained without 
any great trouble ; and I hope all who like good vinegar 
will try it.'’ 
Bedbugs. — In answer to an inquiry. Dr. Holmes, of the 
Maine Farmer^ gives the following : — There are various 
jireparations which are ‘ death to bedbugs.” One of 
them is one-half ounce corrosive sublimate, dissolved in a 
pint of rum. This is poison enough to kill any bug or 
any body. 
Another preparation is this: — Spirits of Turpentine, 
one-haif pint ; soft soap, half pint; all shook up together. 
The best method w'e ever found to clear a room or house 
of bedbugs, where they get into the chinks and crevices 
of the wall, is to take out the furniture and burn sulphur 
there. The fumes will kill them wherever they penetrate. 
We have known bedbugs to live in a house that had not 
been occupied by anybody for more than a year. 
How TO DO UP Shirt Bossoms. — Vfe have' often been j 
requested by lady correspondents to state by what process 
the gloss on new linens, shirt bosoms, &c., is produced, 
and in order to gratify them we subjoin the following ! 
recipe : — “Take twm ounces of fine white gum arabic pow- 
der-put in a pitcher, and pour on a pint or more of boil- 
ing water, according to the degree of strength you desire 
— and then having covered it let it stand all night — in the 
morning pour it carefully from the dregs into a clean bot- 
tle, cork it and keep it for use. A tablespoonful ot gum 
water stirred in a pint of starch, made in the usual man- 
ner, will give to lawn, either white or printed, a look of 
newness, when nothing else can restore them after they 
have been washed.” — Chicaso Western Enter-prize. 
Dist£MP.=:r I-V Dogs . — Editors So-vAhern Cultivator — 
I see in a back number of the Cultivator that some gentle- 
man wanted a recipe to cure dogs of the distemper. It I 
am not out of season by being too late, I will give him 
the following one, wdiich I have never know'n to fail but 
one time, and then it was not administered till the dog 
was in the last stage of the disease ; 
Take a teaspoonful of black pepper ground fine, and j 
give it soon in the morning for three mornings, in the 
early stage of the disease, in a lump of fat meat, or in any 
way that you can get him to eat it. This is a preventa- 
tive to give to young dogs to keep it off. J. H. 
To Preserve L.^rd Sweet. — Instead of putting it in- 
to large vessels, put into stone crocks, or jars, offrom one 
to four gallons each ; when cooling or thickening, put in 
your salt, wdiich will mix through the lard, instead of set- 
tling on the bottom of the crock. The next day take clean 
bits of cotton cloth, rather larger than the top of the ves- 
sel, and after putting it smoothly down, and pressing the 
edges snugly around so as to exclude all air, pack in a 
close layer of salt, then lay over another piece of cotton 
cloth, and turn over it a plate or a cover which will fit 
tightly ; then tie over the cover two thicknesses of paper, 
and set it in a cool, dry place. In this way I have kept 
lard perfectly sweet eighteen months. Crocks of butter 
should be keptin the same wmy. — Correspondent of Michi- 
can Farmer. 
"Whitewash for Out Houses and Fences. — Take a 
clean barrel that will hold water. Put into it halfa bushel 
of quicklime, and slack it by pouring over it boiling water 
sufficient to cover it four or five inches deep, stirring it 
until slacked. When quite slacked, add two pounds of 
sulphate of zinc, which maybe had of any of the drug- 
gists, and one of common salt, which, in a few days, will 
cause the wdiitewash to harden on the woodwork Add 
sufficient water to bring it to the consistency of thick 
whitewash. 
To make the above wash of a pleasant cream color, add 
3 lbs. of yellow ochre. 
For fawn color, add 4 lbs. umber, 1 lb. of Indian red, 
and 1 lb. lampblack. 
j For grey or stone color, add 4 lbs. raw umber, and 2 
j lbs. lampblack. 
I The color may be put on with a common whitew’asb 
I brush, and will be found much more durable than common 
I whitewash. — Scientifie American. 
j The Chinch Bug. — Three of our subscribers in Red 
Oak Grove, Charlotte county, 'V^irginia, unite in the fol- 
lowing : 
“ Mr. Editor of the Sat. Eve. Post : — Believing from 
observation that the last and only hope of destroying the 
corn or chinch bug is, by common consent, to burn all 
broom straw fields, and adjacent lands that were infested 
by those insects the preceding year, where they may be 
found by thousands in any bunch of straw near the 
ground, alive and full of motion, having drawn their sus- 
teance during the winter, from the straw near the ground 
which is known to continue partially green through the 
winter — we recommend that it be universally done. For 
the benefit of your numerous readers and public at large 
you can publish this.” 
To Drive away Bats. — Editors Southern CuUivoior — 
I will here give you a remedy to get rid of Bats. I have 
been troubled very much with these insects; they got all 
over my house, in the roof, and nearly spoiled my cistern 
water. I tried an experiment by throwing hot water 
among them ; they couldn’t stand it, and left. I tried it 
two days and I have not seen a bat about the house since. 
Let the water be very hot (not boiling) and throw it on 
in small quantities ; don’t kill them, but let them escape 
with their lives, and I assure you they never will return. 
Yours, &c., Subscriber. 
Lecompt, La., 1856. 
INTERIOR DEPARTMENT. -AGRICULTURAL DIVISION 
OF THE PATENT OFFICE. 
Be.vns, AC — Mr. R. Buist, a seed-grower, who resides In 
Philadeldhia, received some seed from the Patent Office, 
which he says grew well. Of some Japan seed, he says : 
“In Beans there are two new varieties — one a brownish 
}mllow cluster Bean, which is very prolific, and which 
promises to be an acquisition ; the other is a large variety 
of running bean, which, though new, does not bear well, 
and is not of a good quality for eating. The most, decided 
acquisition is a blood red cabbage lettuce, of an excellent 
quality, which stands the heat of summer well, and gives 
us heads when no other variety will head. This will be 
a leading variety amongst that class of vegetables for a 
warm climate.’” 
Horned Cattle. — We have seen at the Bureau of Ag- 
riculture in the Patent Office, the painted portraits of three 
excellent North Devon animals belonging to the Earl of 
Leicester. These portraits have been painted by Mr. W, 
Hy. Davis, a celebrated painter of animals in London, and 
with a description of them, forwarded to Mr. Browne, of 
