which will never wash
out. This is very useful for the linings of bed-quilts, comforters,
&c. Old faded gowns, colored in this way, may be made into good
petticoats. Cheap cotton cloth may be colored to advantage for
petticoats, and pelisses for little girls.

A very beautiful nankin color may likewise be obtained from
birch-bark, set with alum. The bark should be covered with water,
and boiled thoroughly in brass or tin. A bit of alum half as big as
a hen's egg is sufficient. If copperas be used instead of alum, slate
color will be produced.

Tea-grounds boiled in iron, and set with copperas, make a very good
slate color.

Log-wood and cider, in iron, set with copperas, makes a good black.
Rusty nails, or any rusty iron, boiled in vinegar, with a small bit of
copperas, makes a good black,--black ink-powder done in the same way
answers the same purpose.

* * * * *

MEAT CORNED, OR SALTED, HAMS, &C.

When you merely want to corn meat, you have nothing to do but to rub
in salt plentifully, and let it set in the cellar a day or two. If you
have provided more meat than you can use while it is good, it is well
to corn it in season to save it. In summer, it will not keep well more
than a day and a half; if you are compelled to keep it longer, be sure
and rub in more salt, and keep it carefully covered from cellar-flies.
In winter, there is no difficulty in keeping a piece of corned beef
a fortnight or more. Some people corn meat by throwing it into their
beef barrel for a few days; but this method does not make it so sweet.
A little salt-petre rubbed in before you apply the common salt, makes
the meat tender; but in summer it is not well to use it, because it
prevents the other salt from impregnating; and the meat does not keep
as well.

If you wish to salt fat pork, scald coarse salt in water and skim it,
till the salt will no longer melt in the water. Pack your pork down
in tight layers; salt every layer; when the brine is cool, cover the
pork with it, and keep a heavy stone on the top to keep the pork under
brine. Look to it once in a while, for the first few weeks, and if the
salt has all melted, throw in more. This brine, scalded and skimmed
every time it is used, will continue good twenty years. The rind of
the pork should be packed towards the edge of the barrel.

It is good economy to salt your own beef as well as pork. Six pounds
of coarse salt, eight ounces of brown