Page:Australian enquiry book of household and general information.djvu/286



To Polish Horns.—Scrape the horns smooth and level with a piece of glass (part of a broken bottle is the best for the purpose), then rub well with sandpaper. When as smooth as you can get them with this, take a piece of an old felt hat, and with some powdered charcoal and water rub as before, and lastly use putty powder or powdered rotten stone to rub with. Polish with a piece of soft felt and a little oil. This is an old bushman's way of polishing horns, and about the best I have heard of.

To Kill Insects for Keeping in a Museum.—Fill a wide-mouthed bottle one-third full of cyanide of potassium, broken up small and packed in to form a tolerably compact mass; then cut three or four discs of blotting paper just large enough to fit tightly, when pushed down on to the cyanide. Cork the bottle well, and when you want to kill an insect, open the bottle and drop him in on to the blotting paper; leave him in until he ceases to move and then remove him (dead) with your forceps. Do not smell the contents of the bottle, if you do you may become suddenly ill. The cyanide is a powerful poison, and must be carefully kept out of children's reach.

The Microscope in Farming.—In another part of this volume I have advocated every boy and girl having a magnifying glass or microscope; and here I wish to repeat the advice to all farmers, and every man who has anything to do with nature. A man who has no microscope sees but half of nature's work and wonders, and if they were more often carried, many of the diseases such as rust, mildew, etc., would be found out long before they become noticeable to the naked eye. Besides a man finds a never-ending source of pleasure in his tiny glass, which not only unveils to his view the mysteries of nature's laws and the beauties that are to be found in every thing, be it a leaf, flower, stick or stone, but it also reminds him that he too, with all his boasted knowledge and strength is but a tiny atom in the vast universe controlled by the Almighty's will and by His all-wise all-loving hand.

To Make Soft Soap.—Put into an iron pot with three gallons of boiling water, 8 lbs. of potash, broken into lumps. In another pot melt 3 lbs. of clarified fat. Put three gallons of hot water into a clean barrel, and add to it a pint alternately of the lye and fat, stirring thoroughly. Keep on adding the lye and fat, a single ladle full or pint at a time, until the barrel is full. Stir till it becomes a creamy mass. Store away for three months in a cool place when it will be ready for use.

To Tan a Rick Cover.—Make a solution of wattle bark and water, about 2 lbs. of bark to the gallon of water. Boil for a few minutes, let it stand an hour or so till cool, and strain off. Soak the cover in this for twenty four hours; rinse in clear water and hang up to dry. Mangrove bark makes an excellent tan. On the coast it is often used by the fishermen to tan their nets. Ironbark is also used for the purpose of tanning.