All the articles must be entirely free from grease or oil, and also, in most cases, from soapsuds. Make light dyes in brass, and dark ones in iron, vessels. Always wet the articles, in fair water, before dyeing. Always carefully strain the dye. If the color be too light, dry and then dip the article again. Stir the article well in the dye, lifting it up often. Remove any previous color, by boiling in suds, or, what is better, in the soda mixture used for washing. _Pink Dye._ Buy a saucer of carmine, at an apothecary's. With it, you will find directions for its use. This is cheap, easy to use, and beautiful. _Balm blossoms_ and _Bergamot blossoms_, with a little cream of tartar in the water, make a pretty pink. _Red Dye._ Take half a pound of wheat bran, three ounces of powdered alum, and two gallons of soft water. Boil these in a brass vessel, and add an ounce of cream of tartar, and an ounce of cochineal, tied up together in a bag. Boil the mixture for fifteen minutes, then strain it, and dip the articles. Brazil wood, set with alum, makes another red dye. _Yellow Dye._ Fustic, turmeric powder, saffron, barberry-bush, peach-leaves, or marigold flowers, make a yellow dye. Set the dye with alum, putting a piece the size of a large hazelnut to each quart of water. _Light Blue Dye_, for silks and woollens, is made with the 'blue composition,' to be procured of the hat-makers; fifteen drops to a quart of water. Articles dipped in this, must be thoroughly rinsed. For a _dark blue_, boil four ounces of copperas in two gallons of water. Dip the articles in this, and then in a strong decoction of logwood, boiled and strained. Then wash them thoroughly in soapsuds. _Green Dye._ First color the article yellow; and then, if it be silk or woollen, dip it in 'blue composition.' Instead of ironing, rub it with flannel, while drying. _Salmon Color_ is made by boiling arnotto or anotta in soapsuds. _Buff Color_ is made by putting one teacupful of potash, tied in a bag, in two gallons of hot (not boiling) water, and adding an ounce of arnotto, also in a bag, keeping it in for half an hour. First, wet the article in strong potash-water. Dry and then rinse in soapsuds. Birch bark and alum also make a buff. Black alder, set with ley, makes an orange color. _Dove and Slate Colors_, of all shades, are made by boiling, in an iron vessel, a teacupful of black tea, with a teaspoonful of copperas. Dilute this, till you get the shade wanted. Purple sugar-paper, boiled, and set with alum, makes a similar color. _Brown Dye._ Boil half a pound of camwood (in a bag) in two gallons of water, for fifteen minutes. Wet the articles, and boil them for a few minutes in the dye. White-walnut bark, the bark of sour sumach, or of white maple, set with alum, make a brown color.