Page:Husbandman and Housewife 1820.djvu/79



TAKE one pint of drying oil, two ounces of bees wax, two ounces of spirits of turpentine, one ounce of Burgundy pitch, melt and mix them carefully over a slow fire. Those to whom the smell of turpentine may be disagreeable may add a few drams of some cheap essential oil, as of lavender, thyme and the like. With this composition new boots and shoes are rubbed either in the sun or at some distance from the fire, with a sponge or soft brush. The operation to be repeated as often as they become dry, until they become fully saturated. The shoes and boots, thus prepared, ought not to be worn until they have become perfectly dry and elastic, as in the contrary case the leather will be too soft, and wear out sooner than the common kind, without this preparation.

TAKE two pounds of the bark of elder, and the same quantity of the filings of iron rust ; steep them in two gallons of river water and put them in a cask or earthen vessel closely stopped. After it has stood two months, put to the liquid, when well pressed out, one pound of powdered nut galls, and' a quarter of a pound ofcopperas; then, after stirring it over a good fire, press out the liquid, with which the leather must be three or four times brushed over, when it becomes of an excellent and most durable black.

THE lice which infest Apple and other trees issue from their abodes, and appear on the body of the tree as hard vegetable barnacles, and ascend to the limbs early in June, when they may be easily destroyed by a swab with hot water. This will destroy them more