When ivory-handled knives turn yellow, rub them with nice sand paper, or emery; it will take off the spots, and restore their whiteness.

When a carpet is faded, I have been told that it may be restored, in a great measure, (provided there be no grease in it,) by being dipped into strong salt and water.  I never tried this; but I know that silk pocket handkerchiefs, and deep blue factory cotton will not fade, if dipped in salt and water while new.

An ox’s gall will set any color,—­silk, cotton, or woollen.  I have seen the colors of calico, which faded at one washing, fixed by it.  Where one lives near a slaughterhouse, it is worth while to buy cheap, fading goods, and set them in this way.  The gall can be bought for a few cents.  Get out all the liquid, and cork it up in a large phial.  One large spoonful of this in a gallon of warm water is sufficient.  This is likewise excellent for taking out spots from bombazine, bombazet, &c.  After being washed in this, they look about as well as when new.  It must be thoroughly stirred into the water, and not put upon the cloth.  It is used without soap.  After being washed in this, cloth which you want to clean should be washed in warm suds, without using soap.

Tortoise shell and horn combs last much longer for having oil rubbed into them once in a while.

Indian meal and rye meal are in danger of fermenting in summer; particularly Indian.  They should be kept in a cool place, and stirred open to the air, once in a while.  A large stone, put in the middle of a barrel of meal, is a good thing to keep it cool.

The covering of oil-flasks, sewed together with strong thread, and lined and bound neatly, makes useful tablemats.

A warming-pan full of coals, or a shovel of coals, held over varnished furniture, will take out white spots.  Care should be taken not to hold the coals near enough to scorch; and the place should be rubbed with flannel while warm.

Spots in furniture may usually be cleansed by rubbing them quick and hard, with a flannel wet with the same thing which took out the color; if rum, wet the cloth with rum, &c.  The very best restorative for defaced varnished furniture, is rotten-stone pulverized, and rubbed on with linseed oil.

Sal-volatile, or hartshorn, will restore colors taken out by acid.  It may be dropped upon any garment without doing harm.

Spirits of turpentine is good to take grease-spots out of woollen clothes; to take spots of paint, &c., from mahogany furniture; and to cleanse white kid gloves.  Cockroaches, and all vermin, have an aversion to spirits of turpentine.

An ounce of quicksilver, beat up with the white of two eggs, and put on with a feather, is the cleanest and surest bed-bug poison.  What is left should be thrown away:  it is dangerous to have it about the house.  If the vermin are in your walls, fill up the cracks with verdigris-green paint.[1]