While cleaning, turn each chair or sofa bottom-side upward and beat the backs and under part of the seats, to dislodge any that may have found shelter inside. When the furniture has received all needed attention, and is removed from the room, give the carpet a thorough cleansing by going over it with a “carpet-sweeper.” Nothing so effectually gathers up the worms or eggs, and the carpet is less worn than when swept with a broom. Of course, in the corners and around the edges, where the “carpet-sweeper” cannot work, you must use a small whisk-broom and dust-pan, and this must be done before going over the main part of the carpet.
In using a “sweeper” be careful to empty it once or twice while going over a large room, pulling out all the strings and hair that may, when gathered up, have twisted around the axle of the circular brush inside the box. If not removed, it will soon obstruct the motion, and its operation be ineffectual. In using a “carpet-sweeper” have everything out of the way of the machine, that you may have a clear surface across the whole length of the room, if possible; hold the handle up nearly straight, so as to bring all the brush underneath in contact with the carpet; press down, and with a firm hand run over the breadth from one end of the room to the other, going by the seam or thread, lengthwise. When at the farther end lift up the box so that it will not touch the carpet, and, turning round, proceed till the whole length of the carpet has been swept; then begin widthwise and proceed in the same manner, only be careful to run straight. If the “sweeper” is turned round while resting on the floor, the dirt is apt to drop out in rolls by the process of turning. It requires a little experience and good judgment to use a “carpet-sweeper” judiciously; but once understand it and you will not willingly be without one. When this work is done, empty all the dirt from the “sweeper” and comb the rolling-brush with a coarse or “fringe-comb.”
But to return to the moths. If they get inside your furniture, they may be destroyed by taking off the muslin under the seats, the outside ends, and the backs, where they most naturally seek privacy. If this must be done, take each piece out to the yard or on a back veranda, after you have removed the lining; spread down an old sheet and set the furniture on it, and beat with a stick to dislodge the moths. Watch for the flies and worms that you have routed, and kill them as fast as they are seen. If you do not succeed in killing all of them, by a repetition of this operation a few times they will be disturbed and leave the furniture, as they seek to be left in quiet. If they attack the carpet they generally begin under the sofas and chairs or on the edges of the carpet in the corners of the room. In this case, as soon as you find the first intimation of their ill-omened presence, spread a wet sheet on the carpet, and pass a hot flat-iron over quickly; keep a number of irons heating and change often. The heat and steam will destroy both worm and egg.
But do not let this success beguile you into any remissness. They can “creep slyly through a tiny space,” and in a few weeks, if they find you sleeping on your post, will effect an entrance, and will have increased and multiplied until the last state of that furniture will be worse than the first.
XL.
WINTER BUTTER.
MUCH has been said and written on making winter butter. Our papers bring daily complaints of the article as sold in our markets, and furnish us with many elaborate directions how to overcome an evil which can no longer be meekly endured.
In large butter factories, with every facility for preserving uniform temperature, it is not easy to accept any excuse for poor butter, summer or winter; but when butter is only made in small quantities, simply for family consumption, and at a time when the cows are giving much less milk than in the summer and fall, there is a necessity for more care and labor in securing good butter than when we can furnish green pastures and fresh food for the cows. Still we all expect, and should be willing to accept, more discomforts in our winter’s labors than we find in warm weather. Aside from these considerations we fail to see any insurmountable difficulty in securing good sweet butter in the winter. Of course we do not look for yellow butter at this season of the year, and when we see it we distrust its purity; but the golden color, though desirable, as a pleasure to the eye, is not an essential. For years we made a large portion of our own butter from only one cow, with but a few conveniences, and with very limited accommodations to aid us in the work; but we never had bitter butter, and have never found a good reason why any one should be compelled to suffer from that infliction.
In the first place, a great deal depends on having pure, clear milk to start with, and to secure that we think a warm, clean shelter and good food should be provided for the animals. Aside from good hay, free from mustiness, they should have as large a supply of roots—beets, pumpkins, carrots, or potatoes, whichever is the most convenient, or some of all—as you can furnish; but whatever is given should be entirely free from decay, if you would have a healthy cow and pure milk.
The milk will receive no unnatural flavor from any or all of these roots; but no skill can conceal the use of cabbages or turnips, however small the quantity. We know many affirm that they invariably give them to their milch cows and perceive no disagreeable taste in the milk from their use. Judging from much of the butter found in our markets, we can easily believe that cabbages and turnips were lavishly fed to the cows from whose milk the butter was made; and how any one can fail to notice the unpleasant flavor given by such food we cannot understand. Still, we will not quarrel with those who choose to use these esculents so long as our cows are not fed with them and we are not obliged to eat the butter.
Warm food, at least once a day, is not only good for the animal, but insures a better quality and larger quantity of milk and butter. It is very little trouble to put a large kettle over the stove or range early in the morning, and boil such small potatoes as are not nice for table use, or a few carrots, together with all the parings of potatoes or the rind of pumpkins left from cooking. When they have become soft, mash with a long-handled masher, such as any boy of ten has sufficient skill to make; then thicken the water in which they were boiled with a few handfuls of “shorts” or coarse barley or oatmeal; corn meal will decrease the quantity of milk and fatten the cow. Give your cows a generous feed of this mush once a day at least, and they will amply repay your care by increasing and enriching the supply of milk.