It cleanses and brightens silver wonderfully. Dip your forks, spoons, etc., in a pint of suds, mixed with a teaspoonful spirits ammonia. Then rub with a brush and polish with chamois skin.
It will take grease spots from every fabric. Put on the ammonia nearly clear. Lay blotting-paper on the place, and press a hot flat-iron on it a few moments. A few drops of it will clean and whiten laces, also muslins.
It is highly useful and refreshing at the toilet-table. A few drops in the bath will remove all offensive perspiration and glossiness (if the skin is oily). Nothing is better for cleansing the hair from dust and dandruff. A teaspoonful in a pint of water will cleanse the dirtiest brushes. Shake the brushes through the water, and when they look white, rinse them in water and put them in the sunshine or a warm place to dry.
For medicinal purposes ammonia is almost unrivalled. Inhaling it will often cure headache and catarrhal cold. Ten drops aromatic spirits of ammonia in a wine-glass of water is excellent for heartburn or dyspepsia. The ordinary spirits of ammonia may be used also for the purpose, but it is not so palatable.
Ammonia is also good for vegetation. If you desire roses, fuschias, geraniums, etc., to become more flourishing, add five or six drops ammonia to every pint of lukewarm water you give them. Do not repeat this more than once in five or six days, lest you should stimulate them too highly.
Be sure to keep a large bottle of ammonia in the house, and use a glass stopper for it, as it is very evanescent and is injurious to corks.
[The above remarks on the usefulness of ammonia were furnished and endorsed by Mrs. A. D., of Virginia.]
Borax.
It is very desirable to keep borax in the house. Its effect is to soften the hardest water, and it is excellent for cleansing the hair. Some washerwomen use borax for a washing powder, instead of soda, in the proportion of a handful of borax powder to ten gallons boiling water, and they save in soap nearly half, whilst the borax, being a neutral salt, does not injure the texture of the linen.—Mrs. S. T.
Red Ink.