1876.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
425 
such as hay and corn, produces very hard fat, 
while with grass, turnips and linseed meal, the fat 
is softer, and will not crack when made into 
candles. For this reason summer-made tallow 
needs no addition to soften it, but winter tallow 
should have one-eighth 
part of lard added to it 
to make it more suita¬ 
ble for candles. The 
easiest manner of mak¬ 
ing candles is to melt 
some tallow in a shal¬ 
low, broad pan, such as 
a 10-quart milk pan, and 
having some wicks pre¬ 
pared to string them 
upon a wire or a round 
stick (see fig. 1), and 
Fig. 1.— candle wicks, holding them over the 
pan of tallow, which is 
kept warm, but not hot, upon the stove, to dip up the 
fat with a spoon, and pour it down the wicks a few 
times, until some of the tallow has hardened upon 
them. Several of these sticks full of wicks are 
prepared, and are taken one by one, and treated to 
a coating of tallow. As each one is greased, it is 
placed upon a frame, made as shown at figure 2. 
The wicks are cut to the proper length, which is 
about 18 inches, and doubled. They may be meas¬ 
ured to the proper length on a very simple frame, 
made by setting a rod upright at the end of a piece 
of board, a foot long, and fixing a bent wire at a 
proper distance from the rod, (see fig. 3.) The 
wick is doubled around the upright rod, and as it 
is held on to the wire, it is cut with scissors by 
some one who helps. The wicks are left upon the 
rod, until a quantity are ready, when they are put 
upon the sticks, as at figure 1. Another and better 
plan is to make a nar¬ 
row wooden box with a 
lid, and a sheet-iron or 
a tin bottom, turned up 
an inch or two, and 
tacked close (fig. 4). 
This is set upon the 
Fig. 3.— wick measure, stove, and the tallow 
melted in it. It is deep 
enough to permit the wicks to be put into them 
the whole length. The wicks strung upon the 
.sticks are dipped into the tallow three or four times 
slowly, until no more fat will harden upon them, 
when the bottoms of the wicks are touched upon 
Fig. 4.— BOX EOS MELTING TALLOW. 
the sloping lid, to take off the drip, and the stick 
full is hung upon the frame to cool, (fig. 2). An¬ 
other is immediately taken, and treated in the same 
manner, and so on, until the first one comes around 
again. When there is enough tallow upon the 
wicks, the candles are finished, and appear as at 
figure 5. These are the common dip candles. The 
molded candles are made by pouring the tallow in- 
Fig. 5.— A DIPPED CANDLE. 
to a frame of molds, made of tin, as at figure 6. 
The wicks are cut the proper length, strung 
upon thin sticks, and are inserted into the molds, 
the ends being drawn tight, and a knot is made to 
hold them in their place. 
They are set exactly in 
the center of the molds. 
Then the tallow is 
poured into the molds, 
until they are full, and 
they are hung up in a 
cool place for the cau¬ 
dles to harden. The 
tallow shrinks as it 
cools, and the molds are 
made slightly tapering, 
so that it is easy to draw 
the candles out by the 
stick, on which they are 
strung. The candles may he tied together by the 
loops at the ends in bunches of six or eight, and 
hung up in a cool, dry place. Candles thus made 
need to he snuffed when burning, which is a trouble¬ 
some thing to do. If the wicks are platted and 
flattened out before being used, they will bend 
over to one side when burned, and as the charred 
portion becomes exposed to the air outside of the 
flame, it wastes away, falls, or is carried off by 
the upward draft. The guttering of candles is 
caused by the tallow being too soft, or the wicks 
being twisted too hard ; in either case the melted 
tallow is not absorbed by the wicks as fast as it be¬ 
comes fluid, and so flows over the edge. 
-—»- »«■ tm -- 
Mending Rubber Boots and Shoes. —Several 
have asked us how they could repair worn-out rub¬ 
bers. At the depots of 
rubber goods in cities, 
cement, made of dissolved 
rubber, is sold for this 
purpose in small tin box¬ 
es. Unless one can pro¬ 
cure this, it is not worth 
while to undertake to do 
the mending, nor is it like¬ 
ly to he economical with 
this, unless one has con¬ 
siderable such work to do, 
as the cement, soon after 
the box is opened, be¬ 
comes hard and useless. 
Rubber can be dissolved 
by those who will be at 
the trouble and expense, 
but this is one of the things that will not pay in a 
small way, as those living at a distance from cities 
will find it very difficult to procure the articles, 
and when they are at hand, unless one is used to 
working with such materials, they are dangerous to 
handle, on account of their inflammability. The 
ordinary shoes contain but a very small proportion 
of rubber, and are useless for 
dissolving to make a cement, 
pure gum, as it is imported, 
must he used. The best 
solvent is the bisulphide of 
carbon, a liquid that is very 
volatile and dangerously in¬ 
flammable, and has a most 
offensive odor; this dissolves 
the rubber in the cold ; the 
gum should he cut into thin 
strips, and placed in the 
bisulphide in a very securely 
stopped bottle; it swells up 
greatly, and makes a thick 
sticky mass, from which, 
when exposed to the air, the liquid soon 
evaporates, leaving the rubber in its original 
state. No rule is given for making the cement, 
but it should, if too thick, be thinned with more 
bisulphide, to work with a brush. In applying 
patches, both those and the shoes should he clean, 
and the patch kept under pressure until the cement 
dries. All work with this should be done at a dis¬ 
tance from a fire, a lamp, or other source of danger. 
Chloroform also dissolves rubber, hut is expensive; 
benzole, naptha, and similar liquids, which require 
the use of lieat, are too dangerous, and they leave 
the rubber sticky. While we believe in small 
economics, there are some which cost more than 
they save, and are not to be commended. We 
think the cheaper way will be to purchase only the 
best rubber boots and shoes, use them carefully, 
and when they are worn out get new ones. 
3S©YS <k §M3LS P CTMJlMo 
Pigcoms and Pigeon-Houses. 
Boys and girls generally like to have some living pets ; 
boys often take to pigeons, but we see no reason why 
girls should not keep pigeons too. As there are objec¬ 
tions to nearly all pets, there will be some to pigeons, es¬ 
pecially on farms and in country places generally. Of 
course no right thinking boy or girl will wish to keep 
pigeons, or other pets, that are likely to he an annoyance 
and do more harm than good, and in all such cases the 
parents should be consulted, and the matter properly con¬ 
sidered. Pigeons will do some damage, and if the father 
is willing to put up with this, for the sake of gratifying 
his children, then it is all right. Then all live pets must 
be fed, and there comes the question of food, an important 
one with pigeons, as they are hearty eaters. Pigeons are 
so fond of peas that they will pull up the sprouting crop, 
or even get at the peas before they come up, and leave 
very few to grow. In England they soak the peas and 
roll them in red-lead, and it is said that the pigeons will 
not eat them. The birds will go for the peas in the pods, 
will eat beans, will visit the ripening grain, and you may 
be sure they will not come away with empty crops. Much 
of the mischief that they might otherwise do can be pre¬ 
vented by regular feeding near their house, and this will 
keep them from straying and learning bad ways. These 
are the objections; on the other hand is the great beauty 
of the birds, especially of some of the fancy breeds; they 
are very domestic, and it is pleasant to see them about 
the grounds. Then the common pigeons are profitable 
as food to use in the family or to sell. An old pigeon is 
rather dry eating, but the young birds, or squabs, are 
most excellent, and bring a good price in the market. As 
they breed about every six weeks, always laying two eggs, 
the birds increase rapidly, and may be made profitable by 
boys who live near a market for squabs. We have had 
several inquiries oflate from boys for directions to make 
a pigeon-house. As pigeons maybe kept in any number, 
from a single pair up to a large flock, the houses may be 
of various sorts and sizes. We have seen a common soap 
Fig. 6.— candle molds. 
Fig. 2.— INSIDE OF PIGEON HOUSE. 
