For the stings of insects, wasps, hornets, bees, etc. Apply to the place soda, hartshorn, or arnica.
Rats.
Mix a little powdered potash with meal and throw it into the rat-holes and it will not fail to drive the rats away. If a mouse enters into any part of your dwelling, saturate a rag with cayenne in solution and stuff it into his hole.—Mrs. S. D.
Concentrated Lye Soap.
All fat and grease from the kitchen should be carefully saved, and should be made into soap before accumulating and becoming offensive.
Boil for six hours ten gallons of lye made of green wood ashes. Then add eight or ten pounds of grease, and continue to boil it. If thick or ropy, add more lye till the grease is absorbed. This is ascertained by dropping a spoonful in a glass of water, and if grease remains it will show on the water.
If hard soap is desired, put one quart of salt in half-gallon of hot water. Stir till dissolved and pour into the boiling soap. Boil twenty minutes, stirring continually. Remove from the fire, and when cold cut in cakes and dry. A box of concentrated lye may be used instead of salt, as it will obviate the necessity of using more dripped lye to consume the grease.—Mrs. P. W.
A Washing Mixture.
Mix and boil twenty minutes one gallon soft soap; half a gallon of weak boiled lye; four ounces sal soda; half a gill of spirits turpentine. Soak the clothes overnight in milk-warm water. In the morning, rinse and wring them. To every gallon cold water add one pint of the above mixture. Stir it well in the water. Open the clothes and boil fifteen or twenty minutes; rinse out of those suds. If the articles are not thoroughly cleansed, rub a little of the mixture on the soiled places, and the result will be satisfactory.—Mrs. Dr. E.