Motherly talks with young housekeepers: embracing eighty-seven brief articles on topics of home interest, and about five hundred choice receipts for cooking, etc.Beecher, H. W., Mrs.
General
Motherly talks with young housekeepers: embracing eighty-seven brief articles on topics of home interest, and about five hundred choice receipts for cooking, etc.
Beecher, H. W., Mrs.
Cooking; Home economics
These are only a few of the reasons for the necessity of more than
usual vigilance in this stormy month of March; they are but _hints_
to call attention to the subject. Your own good sense, kept awake by
the wild wind that is shaking the windows as we write, and bending the
tall masts beyond, will enable you to carry them out more minutely and
practically than we shall attempt at present to do.
III.
SPRING LABOR.
MOTHS.--The first few days of April are too near kin to March to
warrant any decided steps toward the regular spring house-cleaning;
but it is quite time now that special attention be paid to _moths_ and
their characteristic destructiveness.
In furnace-heated houses, moths are occasionally found in mid-winter;
but they are only the advance guard of the main army, and do little
harm, save by the annoying reminder of what one has cause to fear in
spring.
In April they will begin to show themselves very much in earnest, and
are seen too often for your comfort, particularly after the gas or
lamp is lighted. If an expert, you may destroy many, as, attracted by
the bright light which lures them to destruction, they fly around you;
yet enough remain to keep you constantly on the lookout. We know of no
remedy, when moths have once gained entrance to a house, but ceaseless
watchfulness. They often deposit their eggs in the fret-work and open
spaces in cornices, as well as in woollens and furs, and therefore all
such hiding-places should be carefully searched. In high-studded rooms
it is difficult to reach these sheltered nooks, and therefore in them
moths too often find a secure retreat. But although difficult, it is
not impossible to dislodge them, even from these high places. A tall
step-ladder, with a little care and some one to steady it at the base,
can easily be mounted, and from this height you readily gain access to
your enemies. If the carving is deep and intricate, take a quill, and
with the feather-end brush out these holes into a dust-pan; follow this
brushing with a wet cloth wrapped round a pointed stick. It takes time,
care, and patience, but is very necessary. In houses that are not often
painted, you will probably find large quantities of dust and lint that
have accumulated and settled, from sweeping, in the cornices. In this
the moths deposit their eggs; and, when hatched, the worm which eats
your garments may be found here, snugly rolled in its thin covering, or
perhaps just ready to fly through your house, depositing its eggs for
the next generation of moths.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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