1872.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
14,5 
E 
THE MMJSEIWm 
(Fw other Household Items , see “ Basket" pages.) 
Hints on House-Cleaning. 
BY “NOMAD."’ 
A house-cleaning of the most thorough charac¬ 
ter at least once a year, is very essential, in a sanitary 
point of view, for the accumulated dust beneath 
the carpets and with which everything becomes in 
time interpenetrated, is not the innocent thing 
some consider it. Dust is a curious compouud of 
minute fragments of almost everything in creation, 
mixed with spores and germs of vegetable and 
animal life, which need only favoring circum¬ 
stances to bring them into activity, and they may 
produce effects injurious or destructive to human 
life. Therefore the first necessity in house-cleaning 
is not to raise a dust, but to gather it together in 
such a manner that it can be quietly removed and 
got rid of. Before the carpets are taken up, they 
should be sprinkled with a good coating of damp¬ 
ened material. The old-fashioned tea-leaves are 
good in their way, but can seldom be had in suffi¬ 
cient quantities. Clean sawdust, chaff, finely-cut 
hay or straw, or coarse bran washed free from flour 
and dust, are all good substitutes for the tea-leaves. 
A liberal coating of such matter, well dampened, 
but not wet, spread upon a carpet and brushed 
smartly over it, will keep dust from rising, and at 
any time will improve its appearance. The water 
used to dampen this material would be made a dis¬ 
infectant by dissolving in it a small quantity of 
carbolic acid ; one part in two or three hundred is 
sufficient. The damp material may, when used for 
the carpets, be swept into one corner and after¬ 
wards spread over the bare floor, more water being 
sprinkled over it, and used to gather the thick dust 
generally found beneath the carpets. 
House-cleaning should commence at the top of 
the house and work downwards. • In this case it 
may be undertaken by spells, with intervening rests. 
After the floors are cleared, the walls and ceilings 
claim attention. If no special cleaning is needed, 
a brush of soft hair is the best to use on them to re¬ 
move dust. Here I will describe an improvement 
on^the common step-ladder. This is usually made 
with legs of equal length, and therefore a person, 
when using a long one, can not get quite so close 
to the wall as may be desired, and is obliged to 
reach over and run the risk of falling. A step- 
ladder 6liould be made with the back legs shorter 
than the front ones, so that the back will stand 
almost perpendicularly, as shown in the engraving. 
It may then be placed as close to a wall as may 
be desired. Any step-ladder may be altered by 
sawing off an inch or two of the back legs. A 
ladder should never be mounted unless the iron 
hook or cord to keep it from spreading is used. 
A very beautiful whitening for walls and ceilings 
may be made by slaking the best lime in hot water, 
covering up to keep in the steam, and straining the 
milk of lime through a fine sieve; add to a pailful 
half a poiwid of common alum, two pounds of 
sugar, three pints of rice-flour made into a thiu, 
well-boiled paste, and one pound of white glue 
dissolved slowly over the fire. It should be applied 
with a paint-brush when warm. 
Paint should be cleaned by using only a little 
water at a time and changing often ; a soft flannel 
cloth or sponge is better than cotton or a brush ; a 
piece of pine wood with a sharp point should be 
used for the corners. Where the paint is stained 
with smoke, some ashes or potash-lye may be used. 
A soft linen towel should be used for wiping dry. 
Glass should not be cleaned with soap; a little paste 
of whiting and water should be rubbed over, and 
with another cloth it should be rinsed off, and the 
glass polished with a soft linen or old silk hand¬ 
kerchief. Alcohol or benzine is a good thing to 
clean glass, and clean paper is probably better than 
any cloth, sponge, or towel; dry paper leaves an ex¬ 
cellent polish. Marble may be cleaned with a mix¬ 
ture of two parts of common soda, one part of 
pumice-stone, and one of chalk, finely powdered, 
and tied up in a fine muslin rag ; the marble is 
wetted with water, the powder shaken over it, and 
it is rubbed with a soft cloth until clean, then 
washed in clean water and dried with a soft linen 
or silk handkerchief. No soap or potash should be 
allowed on marble. A good furniture polish is 
made by melting two ounces of beeswax, one ounce 
of turpentine, and one dram of powdered rosin 
together, with a gentle heat, and rubbing on when 
cold, with a soft flannel cloth, and polishing with 
a soft linen or silk cloth. If for mahogany, a little 
Indian-red may be mixed in. Cracks in furniture 
may be filled with putty, mixed with Indian-red or 
burnt umber, to get the desired shade. When dry 
it will, take an equal polish with the wood. 
How to Paper a Room. 
Old paper maybe removed by wetting thoroughly 
with water, and when soaked, it will easily strip off. 
If lime-wash has been used on a wall on which it is 
desired to paper, the papermay be made to stick by 
washing the wall with vinegar, or water which has 
thin, creamy liquid is made; it should then be 
boiled, when it will thicken; if too thick, it may be 
thinned by adding boiling water. A little carbolic 
acid in the paste will keep it sweet and prevent 
mold. The paper should be cut to proper lengths, 
sufficient in quantity to finish the room, before past¬ 
ing is commenced. Enough spare paper should be 
Fig. 1. — PASTE-FAIL AND BRUSH. 
left at top or bot¬ 
tom, to match 
the pattern even¬ 
ly. These lengths 
should be laid 
evenly one over 
another, and the 
bench should be 
a little longer 
than the lengths 
of paper. The 
paste should be 
applied with a 
broad brush sim¬ 
ilar to the white- - 
wash brushes, and should be laid on quickly, or the 
paper will soon become tender. If a piece of tin be 
fastened to the brush it can be hooked to the side 
of the pail and prevent much “mussing” with 
the paste (see figs. 1 and 2.) The cheap sorts of wall 
paper should be avoided, if possible. They con¬ 
tain generally twenty- 
five to forty per cent of 
clay, and a very com¬ 
mon [material for the 
pulp is cow-dung; only 
a very small propor¬ 
tion consists of fiber 
of rope, matting, or 
other coarse material 
of any strength, and in 
putting it on a wall it pig. g.— paste-brush, 
will often fall to pieces 
in the hands. Two persons are required to lay 
on paper with rapidity, one to paste and one 
to apply the paper. When the paper is pasted 
it should be handed to the person on the lad¬ 
der, who holds it about a foot from the top end, 
Fig. 3.—PASTING AND PUTTING ON WALL-PAPER. 
been made sour by the admixture of sulphuric acid 
(oil of vitriol). Papering is very easily done by mak¬ 
ing a bench on which to paste, of boards placed on 
- two empty flour-barrels. Common flour-paste is 
made by mixing smoothly in cold water wheat or 
rye flour (rye makes the strongest paste) until a 
and lays it evenly against the wall at the top, allow¬ 
ing the upper end to hang over on the backs of the 
hands (fig. 3). By looking down the wall it may be 
seen when it matches the previously-laid length, and 
should then be brought gently to the wall, the 
backs of the hands then pressed against the wall 
