PASTE FOR SCRAP BOOKS, ETC.

Paste that Will Keep.—­Dissolve a teaspoonful of alum in a quart of water.  When cold, stir in flour, to give it the consistency of thick cream, being particular to beat up all the lumps.  Stir in as much powdered resin as will lie on a dime, and throw in half a dozen cloves to give it a pleasant odor.  Have on the fire a teacupful of boiling water; pour the flour mixture into it, stirring well all the time.  In a few minutes it will be of the consistency of molasses.  Pour it into an earthen or china vessel, let it cool, and stir in a small teaspoonful each of oil of cloves and of sassafras; lay a cover on, and put in a cool place.  When needed for use, take out a portion and soften it with warm water.  This is a fine paste to use to stiffen embroidery.

TO REMOVE INDELIBLE INK.

Most indelible inks contain nitrate of silver, the stain of which may be removed by first soaking in a solution of common salt, and afterward washing with ammonia.  Or use solution of ten grains of cyanide of potassium and five grains of iodine to one ounce of water, or a solution of eight parts each bichloride of mercury and chloride of ammonium in one hundred and twenty-five parts of water.

A CEMENT FOR ACIDS.

A cement which is proof against boiling acids may be made by a composition of India rubber, tallow, lime and red lead.  The India rubber must first be melted by a gentle heat, and then six to eight per cent by weight of tallow is added to the mixture while it is kept well stirred; next day slaked lime is applied, until the fluid mass assumes a consistency similar to that of soft paste; lastly, twenty per cent of red lead is added in order to make it harden and dry.

TO KEEP CIDER.

Allow three-fourths of a pound of sugar to the gallon, the whites of six eggs, well beaten, a handful of common salt.  Leave it open until fermentation ceases, then bung up.  This process a dealer of cider has used for years, and always successfully.

Another Recipe.—­To keep cider sweet allow it to work until it has reached the state most desirable to the taste, and then add one and a half tumblers of grated horse-radish to each barrel, and shake up well.  This arrests further fermentation.  After remaining a few weeks, rack off and bung up closely in clean casks.

A gentleman of Denver writes he has a sure preservative:  Put eight gallons of cider at a time into a clean barrel; take one ounce of powdered charcoal and one ounce of powdered sulphur; mix and put it into some iron vessel that will go down through the bung-hole of the barrel.  Now put a piece of red-hot iron into the charcoal and sulphur, and while it is burning, lower it through the bung-hole to within one foot of the cider, and suspend it there by a piece of wire.  Bring it up and in twelve hours you can cure another batch.  Put the cider in a tight barrel and keep in a cool cellar and it will keep for years.