512 
American Agriculturist, June-16,1923 
Dimes Make Dollars—So You Should Save the Dimes 
Emma Gary Wallace Gives Six Ways of Saving — A Block for the Nursery Rhyme Quilt 
P repare an efficient and inexpen¬ 
sive washing fluid by blending the 
following ingredients: 
Soap, Vz pound; sodium carbonate, 
1 pound; strong water of ammonia, 8 
ounces; turpentine, 4 ounces; gasoline, 
8 ounces; water enough to make 2 
gallons. 
Home-made soft soap is excellent. If 
not available, take any good grade of 
laundry soap, shave it, and melt in suf- 
flcient water to make a jelly. Take 
away from light or fire and stir in the 
gasoline. Dissolve the sodium carbon¬ 
ate in three pints of water. Add the 
ammonia and the turpentine. Mix the 
two solutions and finish with enough 
water to make the two gallons. Store in 
tightly corked jugs or bottles. Label 
plainly, “Easy Washing Fluid.” 
Use a tablespoonful of this to each 
pail of water in soaking clothes, and 
two tablespoonfuls to a pail_ in boiling 
them. This Easy Washing Fluid 
loosens dirt, and bleaches clothes so 
that they are much easier to wash and 
whiter when finished. Many mild 
stains are removed by this compound. 
Save on Ammonia Bills 
Every housewife knows how useful 
the ammonia bottle is. It keeps win¬ 
dows sparkling and clean; is valuable 
in cleaning of clothes; in the weekly 
care of the bathroom, and in keeping 
cut glass sparkling and bright. 
Frequently ammonia is not used as 
freely as it might be because of its ex¬ 
pense. Save by pre- 
paring it yourself. 
The following is a 
very desirable mix- i 
ture: . J 
Powdered Castile 
soap, 8 ounces; bo¬ 
rax, 2 ounces; strong 
water of ammonia, 1 
pint; water enough to 
make 1 gallon. 
Heat part of the 
water and dissolve 
the soap and borax in 
it. Cool. Add the rest 
of the water and the 
strong ammonia. Bot¬ 
tle, cork tightly and 
latel. 
Save on Silver Clean¬ 
ing Cream 
Use either 1 a rge- 
sized bottles with 
screw tops, or fruit 
jars. Have plenty^ of 
the s i 1 Vi e r-cleaning 
rfiixture on hand, and 
whenever a piece 
shows tarnish, clean 
it at once. This is 
easy if there is plenty 
of Cleaning Cream on 
hand, and a box in a 
convenient corner 
containing soft cloths 
and a polishing 
chamois. 
Powdered whiting 
(sift if necessary), 
2 ounces; precipitated 
chalk, 2 ounces; pow¬ 
dered Castile soap, 1 
ounce; strong am- 
monia water, 2 
ounces; spirits of cam¬ 
phor, 4 drams; water 
enough to make 1 
pint. 
Sift whiting and 
chalk together. Dis¬ 
solve soap in some of 
the water. Stir in 
ammonia, and little 
by little, add whiting 
and chalk. Beat until 
perfectly smooth and 
well blended, adding 
the rest of the water 
as necessary. Lastly, 
stir in spirits of cam¬ 
phor. Keep covered 
to avoid evaporation. 
A very little of this 
applied with a soft 
cloth will keep the sil¬ 
ver bright. Remove 
the cream by washing 
with hot water, to 
which a few drops of 
household ammonia have been added. 
Dry with a soft cloth and polish with a 
chamois. 
Save on Library Paste 
Then there are children who delight 
to paste, or a housewife who likes to 
make scrap books, a wide-mouthed jar 
holding a pound or more may be ob¬ 
tained at the drug store. This should 
have a screw top. 
The following Library Paste will keep 
sweet and smooth: 
Cornstarch, 6 ounces; flour, 4 ounces; 
glycerine, 2 drams; salicylic acid, 2 
drams; water, 1 quart; oil of cloves, 
1 dram. 
Blend the starch, the flour, and the 
salicylic acid together. Take enough 
of the water to stir into a smooth paste. 
Rub out all the lumps. Add the glycer¬ 
ine. Heat the rest of the water boiling 
hot and pour gradually upon the flour 
mass, stirring as it is added. Put over 
the fire and cook until smooth and thick. 
Be careful that it does not burn. Cook 
at least fifteen minutes or longer if 
a double boiler is used. Cool and add 
the oil of cloves. Stir in thoroughly. 
This will make about a quart of fine, 
smooth paste. Put part of it aside in a 
tightly covered receptacle in a cool place. 
Save on Insect Depredations 
If ants become troublesome, take one- 
half pound of borax, one-half ounce of 
powdered camphor, and one ounce of 
cloves. Mix by sifting together and 
scatter round their haunts. The drug¬ 
gist can powder the camphor by break¬ 
ing it into small pieces and rubbing 
with a few drops of alcohol. This proc¬ 
ess cuts the gum. 
Watch where the insects enter, for 
there is sure to be an opening or crack 
in floor or wall, and scatter the mix¬ 
ture about the entrance. Spirits of tur¬ 
pentine poured into such a crevice will 
help to drive them away. 
If the ant colony can be located, it 
can be destroyed by pouring a kettle of 
boiling water over it, to which a hand¬ 
ful of alum has been added, or the ant 
hill may be liberally sprinkled with 
powdered quicklime. 
Save on Your Nutmeat Supplies 
Where the family is fond of nut 
bread, nut salads, and such dishes, it 
is much cheaper to buy the nuts several 
pounds at a time. These should be kept 
in an air-tight container. Even so, para¬ 
sites will sometimes infest the nut- 
meats, wasting quantities. Of course, 
if there are any eggs, they will hatch. 
To keep the nutmeats free and fresh, 
take absorbent cotton about the size of 
a small walnut. Moisten with chloro¬ 
form and lay this on a small piece of 
clean paper on top of the nutmeats. 
Close the cover and they will remain in 
the best of condition until used up. 
Save on Rug Cleaning Bills 
,Mix one pint of ammonia water, or 
household ammonia, four ounces of de¬ 
natured alcohol, stwo ounces of turpen¬ 
tine, and a pint of water. This will 
make 22 ounces of the carpet-cleaning 
fluid. Into each five-quart pail of hot 
water, put four ounces, or half a meas¬ 
uring cup of the fluid. Clean a square 
of the carpet, using a brush or clean 
cloth. Wipe dry with a second clean 
cloth. Change the water as often as 
it is soiled. Do not walk on the carpet 
or rug until dry. Before cleaning, the 
fabric should be swept, vacuumed, or 
beaten to remove the loose dust. 
NURSERY RHYME QUILT, BLOCK NUMBER 1 
THE NURSERY QUILT 
Here is one square from the nursery 
rhyme quilt which may be made, square 
by square, by the A. A. Baby’s mother 
(or sister or aunt) for the A. A. Baby’s 
bed. Make it of muslin or soft mulle, 
and it will be just the thing to throw 
over the youngest one during warm 
weather. 
Transfer patterns come for twenty 
pictures. You stamp each picture on 
its own square with a hot iron, then, 
when all are embroidered, sew them to¬ 
gether, or mount them on a background 
of cambric, lawn or any washable, wear¬ 
able material. 
The whole set of twenty transfers 
costs only 66c. The transfer patterns, 
to save expense, are in three large 
sheets, but can easily be cut apart. 
Rhymes go with the patterns, so that 
the children can learn them as you 
work the simple out¬ 
lines. 
The_ blocks repre¬ 
sent, in their proper 
order, Mary and her 
Lamb; Hey diddle, 
diddle; See-saw; the 
Old Woman in a 
Basket; the Crooked 
Man; Barber, Bar- 
ber; Queen of 
Hearts; Song of Six¬ 
pence; Primrose Hill; 
Tommy Tucker; 
The Piper’s Son; Pol¬ 
ly, Put the Kettle 
On; Ding-Dong Dell; 
Simple Simon; Three 
Blind Mice; Taffy; 
Goosey Gander; Cur¬ 
ly Locks; A Dillar, A 
Dollar, and Blow, 
Wind, Blow. 
Send 65c for the 
set to Embroidery 
Department, Ameri¬ 
can Agriculturist, 461 
Fourth Ave., New 
York City. 
u 
7 ' 
Mary had a little lamb 
Its fleece was white as snow; 
And every place that Mary went. 
The lamb was sure to go. 
Here’s Mary, going to school, books under her arm. The lamb is so close behind that when Mary 
gets to be a quilt block, Mr. Lamb will be on too.- You know, “every place that Mary went,”—so here 
they both go onto a muslin block to start that new quilt. 
Mary and her lamb, together with the nineteen other blocks representing favorite nursery rhymes, are 
easily transferred from the patterns onto muslin blocks, and thus make a light, pretty quilt. The entire 
set, together with the rllymes for each, sells for only 65c. 
WASH BEFORE 
YOU SEW 
To tell how much a 
piece of material will 
shrink in laundering,, 
use a piece about 3 or 
4 inches square. Lay 
it on a paper and 
mark around it close 
to the edge. Then 
wash the square in 
warm, soapy water 
and hang it up to dry. 
Smooth it out as it 
dries. When it is dry 
place it on the picture 
you marked of it be¬ 
fore and again draw 
around it. You can 
now see how much it 
has lost in the wash¬ 
ing. You can tell, 
too, whether or not 
there was much siz¬ 
ing or starch in your 
piece. If it is much 
thinner and looser 
than before washing 
it would not be good 
material to use for a 
dress or other gar¬ 
ment. 
One small pane of 
window glass will 
keep pages of the 
cook book clean. 
