No articles in kitchen use are so likely to be neglected and abused as the dish-cloth and dish-towels; and in washing these, ammonia, if properly used, is a greater comfort than anywhere else.  Put a teaspoonful into the water in which these cloths are, or should be, washed everyday; rub soap on the towels.  Put them in the water; let them stand half an hour or so; then rub them out thoroughly, rinse faithfully, and dry outdoors in clear air and sun, and dish-cloths and towels need never look gray and dingy—­a perpetual discomfort to all housekeepers.

A dark carpet often looks dusty soon after it has been swept, and you know it does not need sweeping again; so wet a cloth or a sponge, wring it almost dry, and wipe off the dust.  A few drops of ammonia in the water will brighten the colors.

For cleaning hair-brushes it is excellent; put a tablespoonful into the water, having it only tepid, and dip up and down until clean; then dry with the brushes down and they will be like new ones.

When employed in washing anything that is not especially soiled, use the waste water afterward for the house plants that are taken down from their usual position and immersed in the tub of water.  Ammonia is a fertilizer, and helps to keep healthy the plants it nourishes.  In every way, in fact, ammonia is the housekeeper’s friend.

Ammonia is not only useful for cleaning, but as a household medicine.  Half a teaspoonful taken in half a tumbler of water is far better for faintness than alcoholic stimulants.  In the Temperance Hospital in London, it is used with the best results.  It was used freely by Lieutenant Greely’s Arctic party for keeping up circulation.  It is a relief in nervousness, headache and heart disturbances.

TO DESTROY INSECTS AND VERMIN.

Dissolve two pounds of alum in three or four quarts of water.  Let it remain over night till all the alum is dissolved.  Then with a brush, apply boiling hot to every joint or crevice in the closet or shelves where croton bugs, ants, cockroaches, etc., intrude; also to the joints and crevices of bedsteads, as bed bugs dislike it as much as croton bugs, roaches, or ants.  Brush all the cracks in the floor and mop-boards.  Keep it boiling hot while using.

To keep woolens and furs from moths, be sure that none are in the articles when they are put away; then take a piece of strong brown paper, with not a hole through which even a pin can enter.  Put the article in it with several lumps of gum camphor between the folds; place this in a close box or trunk.  Cover every joint with paper.  A piece of cotton cloth, if thick and firm, will answer.  Wherever a knitting-needle can pass, the parent moth can enter.

Place pieces of camphor, cedar-wood, Russia leather, tobacco-leaves, whole cloves, or anything strongly aromatic, in the drawers or boxes where furs and other things to be preserved from moths are kept and they will never be harmed.  Mice never get into drawers or trunks where gum camphor is placed.