Part 8

=Keeping Cut Flowers Fresh=: Flowers sent long distances need special care. Stick the stalks of roses in sections of potato, else seal by dipping in melted paraffine, then roll each separately in wax paper so it forms a tube. Lay the tubes together in a stanch box, cut holes in either end after it is wrapped and tied. The roses should be between bud and half blow. Chrysanthemums can be sent the same way by either mail or express. So can camellias and gardenias, but they change color so quickly after opening they are hardly worth the trouble.

X

DISINFECTANTS, INSECTS, INSECTICIDES

=Quicklime=: Put big lumps in broad earthen platters, set on floors of cellars, outhouses, or barns, and slack with copperas water.

=Charcoal=: Lay lumps in vegetable bins or on cellar shelves. Hang other lumps in bags of coarse net on cellar and pantry walls. Heat every month or so to maintain absorbent power.

=Borax=: Sprinkle powdered borax freely over smelly places—under sinks, around plumbing, over pantry shelves, and on floors where cans are set. It is so safe, so wholesome, even spilling it is worth while.

=Washing-soda=: Dissolve a pound in a pint of boiling water and flush sink pipes, refrigerator drains, and set tubs with it.

=Copperas= (green vitriol, otherwise sulphate of iron): Dissolve a pound in a gallon of water; it will take several hours. Dilute one-half with boiling water and flush water closets, bath pipes, set bowls, and so forth. Sprinkle thus diluted over smelly earth, as in chicken runs, kennel floors, stall floors, and where garbage stands. Use liberally on garbage, in earth closets, or privies, also on standing water infested with green scum. A gallon added to a pot of whitewash gives a yellow tinge and makes the wash more sanitary.

=Bluestone=: Bluestone, sulphate of copper, must be dissolved in the same proportions. It is a germicide more than disinfectant, especially valuable where there have been sick animals. Dilute with four times its bulk of boiling water or mix through hot whitewash. It is staple against seed infection, as smuts and molds. The most part of garden seed sprout and grow better for wetting with the dilute solution and drying before planting.

=White Vitriol=: Sulphate of zinc, a powerful astringent germicide, needs care in handling. Dissolve it, four ounces to the half gallon of water, strain, and put into clean bottles. Keep dark, corked tightly. Use to clean and disinfect sores from frost bite or indolent ulcers. Dilute with five times as much tepid rain water. Use on the combs of poultry when raw from frost, also for scaly leg and the ail known as “bumble-foot.”

=Bichloride of Mercury=: The king among disinfectants, also one of the deadliest among poisons. Dissolve in boiling rain water, four ounces to the gallon. Let stand; it dissolves slowly. Keep in glass, tightly corked, plainly labeled “poison.” Dilute one-half for use in the sick room. But put on full strength when fighting bed bugs.

=Bordeaux Mixture=: Staple for spraying against molds, etc. One pound blue vitriol dissolved in five gallons rain water and added to one pound powdered unslaked lime mixed to a cream with rain water. Stir well, and strain before spraying. Dilute one-half to three-fourths; if too strong it scorches vegetation.

=Kerosene Emulsion=: Stir hard together in an earthen vessel a quart of buttermilk and half a gallon kerosene. Stir with wood until thick and buttery. Use full strength to paint tree trunks and hard branches in winter, but dilute at least ten times for use on green things. Mix with warm water, twenty parts to one for spraying against plant lice. For fighting red spider stir a little sulphur into the emulsion before diluting. Spray late—as near night as possible.

=Bisulphide of Lime=: Sure death to either animal or plant lice. Mix in equal quantity flowers of sulphur and powdered quicklime, cover two inches with boiling water, boil five hours, filling up and adding more water till there is three times the original quantity. Dilute the result, a brown smelly liquid, one hundred times for use either as wash or spray.

=Against Garden Pests=: Mix any arsenical powder—London purple, Scheele’s green, or Paris green—with its own bulk of flour and twice its bulk of slaked lime, and dust upon plants while damp. Good for potato beetles, squash bugs, flea bugs, grasshoppers, cut worms, and cabbage worms. Use in a powder gun or tie in a thin bag, fasten it to a long pole and shake so as to coat plants evenly.

=Larkspur=: Larkspur destroys lice and mites. Sow rather thick, cut when beginning to flower, dry in shade. Strip leaves and buds when full dry, powder, and keep in glass. Save stems and coarse stalks to make tea. Infuse for twelve hours, then boil for two, strain, and reduce by boiling another hour. Use in suds a cup to the quart, or in whitewash a pint to the gallon. Make an ointment by either stewing tender tips in lard or fresh butter in a water bath until the grease is well colored or by putting with it the infusion at full strength and stewing out the water. Stir in a little flowers of sulphur, a teaspoonful to the pint, for use on cattle or horses. Grease back of the ears, under the throat, and along the backbone. Grease poultry under the wings, around the neck, and on top of the head. Blow larkspur powder into the hair of dogs and cats after bathing them.

=For Flies and Mosquitoes=: Stop the beginnings. Burn or bury garbage. Spray all possible fly beds well with copperas water daily. Be prodigal of whitewash wherever it will stick. Flush drains well with boiling soda water and use copperas water or carbolic suds to spray earth on which waste water discharges. Keep manure piles covered with fresh earth, also wet daily with copperas water. Set fly traps outdoors wherever the pests congregate. Fill a tumbler two-thirds with suds and lay a cardboard over with a hole in the middle. Smear syrup on the underside for bait. Empty twice a day, burning the drowned flies. Boil together two ounces ground black pepper, four ounces sugar, and a cup of sweet milk, set the syrup shallowly in plates—the flies will do the rest. The mixture kills them, but is harmless to anything else. Oil of lavender sprayed will drive out flies temporarily. So will rose geranium bruised to smell strongly. Screen every opening with wire gauze or cheesecloth, make cheesecloth covers, rounds with wire in the hems, to protect hot food, be diligent with fly paddles, and avoid slopping, also throwing out slops on the ground.

Mosquitoes, say the wise men, are a local issue, bred in standing water. Wherefore leave no water standing, not even a rusty canful. Cover rain barrels with screen wire, pour crude kerosene upon ponds and pools. Begin early, before buds swell. Keep it up until frost. Examine cellars, especially barn cellars. Mosquitoes winter in them. Kill all such lingerers with thick smoke—tobacco smoke or from pyrethrum powder or by touching off a little gunpowder on a plate. Concussion makes the mosquitoes drop; sweep up and burn. Concerted action is imperative. If no man liveth or dieth unto himself, how much less so any man’s crop of mosquitoes! Screens and smoke from punk sticks, pyrethrum, and dry pennyroyal are the best weapons against attack. Oil of pennyroyal likewise helps. Smear lightly on forehead, hands, and arms before going to sleep. Wilting leaves of the stately castor bean, also tender branches, hung about will drive out mosquitoes.

Fleas harbor in light litter—hay, straw, leaves, most of all shed hair. Flea-bearing animals have each their own species, which fight to the death. There are also sand fleas. Fight with fire, smoke, water, oil of pennyroyal, and fresh black-walnut leaves. Sprinkle kerosene on the litter suspected; sweep up and burn. Oil sand beds likewise, else drench with copperas water. Wet manure heaps with bichloride solution or bisulphide of mercury. Gather walnut leaves in armfuls and crowd them into places unsafe for oil or fire, as under piazzas, bungalow floors, or low sheds. Put them also about rooms where fleas abound, tied in thick bunches, and laid under beds or in closets. Gasolene where safe is a mighty help. Paint floors and baseboard with it, in default of bichloride solution. Painting with turpentine is also fairly effective. Success is impossible, however, unless the flea-fighting extends to animals as well.

=Bed Bugs=: Bed bugs demand eternal vigilance, especially in apartments. Make bedrooms and closets as nearly as possible bug proof by washing, after cleaning thoroughly, with bichloride solution, then filling every crack, cranny, and crevice with soft putty. Lay a thin rope of putty along the baseboard on the floor and crowd down upon it quarter-round molding cut to fit. Nail fast, and paint to match the baseboard. This is an effectual seal for dividing wall on a common floor. Set collars of the stiffest putty around steam pipes where they go in and out. Renew them as often as they crack and crumble, but do not trust to them entirely. Examine everything monthly—bed, furnishings, chairs, boxes, the backs of pictures, books, and stacked papers. Paper in mass is a favorite lurking place. Have white slips for mattresses; remove, turn, examine seams, and wet corners with bichloride. Paint the mattress over lightly with bichloride; it neither stains nor smells. Wipe the bedstead and springs with a cloth wet in it, and drench crannies unwipable. Wipe the backs of pictures and of dressers, in fact, any sheltered and static space. Wipe the floor with bichloride, if bare, and wax or oil afterward. Sprinkle a carpet or rugs well with bichloride, then sweep with a broom dipped in very hot water. Empty closets, wipe over, examine all accumulations of paper, boxes, etc. A bug overlooked will in a month’s space infest a whole house. Couches of rattan, wicker, or upholstered are strongholds of the blood-suckers. Set in air and drench with benzine or gasolene, leave standing a day, and drench again, shaking, brushing, and beating between drenchings.

Wicker clothes hampers and baskets, also baby carriages, are other strongholds. Scald hampers and baskets with boiling-hot soda water, then paint over with turpentine and a little sweet oil. Use gasolene on the carriages, applying with a thick brush rather than drenching. Repeat twice in succession, wash everything washable, and sun for a week.

=Moths=: Moths in upholstered things must be got rid of the same as bed bugs (see preceding paragraph). Clean rugs thoroughly, spray on both sides with gasolene or strong black-pepper tea, sun well, then roll up between newspapers, tie fast, wrap spirally with stiff paper, fold ends neatly, slip over them paper bags fitting accurately, paste down edges, paste a strip of paper over the edge of the wrapping. Clean heavy coats with gasolene or benzine, crowd newspaper into the sleeves, crumple more newspaper thickly over the hanger, fasten the coat, slip over it a bag of pasted newspapers, pass the hanger hook up through it, crumple the paper tight around the shank and tie, then fold over the bottom of the paper several times, and fasten with stout wire clips. Moth balls may be slipped in coat pockets, but will hardly be needed if they are hung in a light place.

Store and protect tailor suits much the same. After cleaning fold the skirt belt in six and fasten with a big safety pin to lower bend of the hanger shank, then slip on its newspaper bag and fasten. Put on the coat, then over all a bigger newspaper bag. Put inside wisps of cotton tied up in net, and wet with oil of cedar. One-piece cloth frocks should be hung the same as long coats, but have the skirts folded upward over a roll of newspapers about midway and pinned or basted to the waist. Store fur coats the same way after cleaning and sunning for several days. Put mothaline bags outside over those of newspaper and sachets of sandalwood in the sleeves. If moths have touched them before storing, lay them for several days on a slat tray in a trunk with a big sponge saturated in gasolene below. Keep the trunk outside and shut tight; gasolene vapor ought to kill the moth eggs. Clean small furs as muffs, tippets, cuffs, sun, sew up tight in old linen, sprinkle well with black-pepper tea, then wrap in newspaper, wipe out their boxes with a cloth dipped in gasolene, put in the wrapped furs, wrap boxes, and slip in paper bags, then fold and paste together the bag ends. If no moth nor egg was inside none will come out.

Fine things, such as camel’s-hair shawls, moth-infested should be brushed and sunned, then wrapped in clean linen, over that thick wet towels, over that paper, and laid in a hot oven until the paper scorches. This is equal to superheated steam for moth and egg destruction, but does no harm to the finest fabric. Sew up in linen and store same as small furs. Steam is also sovereign for moths in carpets where it is unsafe to use gasolene or benzine. Cover the infected spots with thick wet towels, letting them lie a good bit over and iron first around the edges, then all over with blazing-hot irons, changing them as they cease to hiss. Repeat at weekly intervals for a month. After ironing go along the edges, wetting the carpet well with bichloride solution. A carpet to be stored should be sprayed with gasolene after cleaning, then folded over double newspapers, and sprayed at each doubling over with black-pepper tea. A long, narrow bag of moth balls in the deepest fold adds something to insect insurance. Store in light and off the floor. A discarded bed spring is fine to lay such things on. Stand rolled rugs on end if not too long, and a little apart.

=A Blanket Box=: Make blankets clean and whole, fold in three, lengthwise, roll up over a core of moth balls, sew in old linen, and pack. Fill all crevices in a big packing-case with putty or plaster wet with egg, paper with plain manila paper, let dry, then paint the paper with oil of cedar. Give two coats. Put over the bottom a sachet of cedar twigs or shavings laid on wadding and tacked between cheesecloth. Pack blankets and woolens on this, tucking smaller cedar sachets into crevices, also moth balls tied in cheesecloth. Put in white things first, lay paper over them, then pack colored ones. Cover with another cedar sachet, tuck paper snugly over it, then shut—the top must be hinged on—and paste paper over the edges. As long as it is unbroken the contents are safe.

Where storage space is lacking use a box couch, making sure with bichloride and gasolene that neither moth nor bed bug lurks inside. Use oil of lavender and pine twigs rather than cedar, omit the sealing with paper, but examine now and then; if you discover the enemy do not halt until he is forever and completely yours.

=Roaches and Water Bugs=: Powdered borax mixed with sugar kills them. Set it about in saucers, sprinkle under pipes and on sills, also on the bottom of closets and drawers. Lay clean paper over it. Once a month remove paper, wipe wood, sprinkle again after drying, and put on fresh paper. Burn every dead insect. In cellars or greenhouses mix a little Paris green with the powder, dip into it cut potatoes, and lay them cut side down, in the way of roaches. Gather up each morning, drop in water as gathered, and replace at evening with freshly loaded potatoes. Pour turpentine around water pipes and those for steam heat. Paint the pipes with turpentine, doing it when they are cool. Paint kitchen floors and baseboards after scouring with bichloride of mercury; beware, though, using it higher. Keep borax and sugar on pantry shelves under paper. Paint with turpentine at housecleaning. Fill cracks, crevices, and knotholes with putty. Do the same with tops and rims of set tubs, renewing it as it breaks.

=Ants=: Ants, black or red, hate the smell of camphor. Make rings of it around dishes of food and pour it into crevices suspected as ant roads. If they climb by a post or pillar put a tarred bandage around it. Find the nest if possible and destroy it with boiling water or gasolene or kerosene with a little camphor added. Beware of gasolene if the nest is close to any building. Boiling soda water is safe anywhere except about plants. There use strong carbolic soapsuds, blood-warm, with an after-sprinkle of camphor. Gum camphor tied in net and hung in closets or pantries helps to drive ants away.

XI

CARE OF PETS

=Dogs=: Choose your dog, unless he chooses himself by adopting you, with regard for environment. Big dogs require space—big rooms and grounds outside. Small ones are “in drawing” with apartments or modest houses. Breed is a matter of chance or choice. Toy terriers, toy Pomeranians, spaniels, and pugs fit into restricted menages. St. Bernards, collies, greyhounds, wolf hounds, and hunting-dogs in general are miserable in confinement, also miserably out of place.

Teach him obedience first of all, keep him clean and comfortable, never forget him, feed regularly, give constant access to clean water, and always sufficient exercise. Otherwise don’t keep him; neglect is a refinement of cruelty.

Vary the feeding. Dog biscuit day in and out destroys appetite and thrift. Shift every other day to table scraps, oatmeal porridge, cornmeal mush cooked with broth, or raw meat and bones. Give milk almost every day—not too much. Be sparing of the raw meat; a zest suffices. Tiny house dogs ought to have light breakfasts, with a hearty dinner around two o’clock, and nothing more. Dogs running out need much more food, otherwise they get into mischief. A hearty breakfast and dinner with milk and mush at sundown is not too much. Feed all that will be eaten clean; if food is left, diminish the quantity. Leave nothing but bones where a dog may come back to it. Gnawing solid bones helps strength and spirit. Small bones of game or fowl must be given with discretion; they are crunched and swallowed so greedily the sharp ends may do harm if the stomach is too full of them.

A flea-bearing dog is intolerable. Wash in larkspur water (see section Insecticides) or carbolic soapsuds, and comb while in the bath with a fine-tooth comb. Drain off water and fleas, rinse tub, rinse dog well, dry with coarse soft towels, keep muzzled until fully dry, and away from draughts. When fully dry, part hair and blow in behind the ears and along the spine flowers of sulphur mixed with larkspur powder or pyrethrum powder.

For skin troubles, mange especially, bathe well in hot sulphur soapsuds, rinse dry, and rub well into the affected spots unsalted butter washed clean of milk and made yellow with flowers of sulphur. If the trouble persists and the dog is valuable, consult a vet; the dog, perhaps, needs constitutional treatment.

Kennels and doghouses must be clean and dry, baskets and bedding kept clean and free of vermin. Whitewash kennels and doghouses often, putting larkspur infusion or carbolic acid in the whitewash, else mixing in flowers of sulphur. Scald baskets, dry, and paint with turpentine and sweet oil. Lay bedding outside and drench with gasolene. Burn it if mange appears, else it will reinfect the animal. Do not let dogs sleep haphazard anywhere they can. Give them comfortable beds, indoors or out.

A dog running free at exercise needs no clothes. On leash, with his keeper merely walking or sauntering, a warm blanket, or, better, a sweater, is essential in cold weather. Keep dogs outdoors as much as possible in hot weather, but do not let them run too much. Provide shade, especially for guard dogs. Teach all dogs, and especially guard dogs, to refuse food from strangers. This is impossible with a hungry dog. Full feeding guards against foraging at large, the thing which gives poisoners the best opportunity.

Dogs perspire only through the tongue, hence the panting after exertion. Let them drink all they will, but have the water clean. Milk is food, not drink. Do not imagine it takes the place of water. Water, free and clean, is held the best preventive of rabies. In case rabies is suspected isolate safely, and observe for at least a week. Pseudo-rabies, induced by fear, kills many more people than the real thing. An ailing dog, or one tired, thirsty, or lost, will snap at almost anything in his way. Do not on that account condemn him untried to death. Rest, food, and drink, in confinement, will discover his true condition. If madness is proved, kill, quickly and mercifully, burn or bury, disinfect every space he has touched with bichloride of mercury, burn movable boards, litter, ropes, etc. Grass or earth upon which saliva has dropped had better be drenched with kerosene and set on fire.

=Cats=: Cats likewise suffer rabies; in case of it use the same measures. Cats of fancy breeds are more decorative than plain tabbys, but also more delicate and much less intelligent, withal lacking in affection, and of no use save to look fine.

White cats, especially those with blue eyes, are more savage, less affectionate, and much harder house-broken than black, gray, or tortoise-shell ones. Often the white fellows are deaf. Each and several, cats run wild for reasonable opportunity, yet they bear housing and confinement admirably. They need raw meat, but not too much; a bit of liver or a fish head every other day suffices. Alternately give bones, with the milk and crumbled bread, which is the mainstay of their diet. Give also at night a saucer of pure milk. Water and catnip, green or dry, should be always accessible. Do not overfeed; cats are dainty gluttons if permitted. Keep them thriving, but not fat—fat and indigestion are the roots of disease.

Rid of fleas as directed for dogs. After drying, confine for some time, first giving a saucer of milk with a teaspoonful of whisky or brandy in it. For skin troubles grease all over with the sulphur and butter, confine so as to keep from getting dirty, and wash well after twenty-four hours in hot suds, rinsing well and drying with soft towels. Repeat at intervals as long as needed. Feed on bread and milk, be lavish of catnip, burn infected bedding, wash and fumigate baskets, or treat with bichloride of mercury (see section Disinfectants).

=Belgian Hares and Cavies=: Both are vegetable feeders. They will live in small quarters, but do better in bigger ones. Keep the quarters clean and sanitary with whitewash and disinfectants. If very small, have floors of loose boards which can be taken up and scalded. Feed three times a day with grain, roots, and green stuff. Be liberal of the green stuff. With a grass run the beasts will supply most of it themselves. Scatter the food, and give only as much as will be eaten clean. Suckling mothers need extra feeds, five a day instead of three.

Dust weekly with sifted ashes, corn starch in powder, and flowers of sulphur. Use in dry weather, putting on at night. Have hutches big enough to prevent crowding. Beware letting your pets overrun the space at command.