The new Kentucky home cook book

To wash brushes and combs: Dissolve a piece of soda in hot water, allowing a piece the size of a walnut to one quart of water. Put the water into a basin, and after combing the hair out of the brush dip it bristles downward into the water and out again, keeping the back and handle as free from water as possible. Repeat this until the bristles look clean, then rinse the brush in cold water. Shake them well and wipe the backs and handles, not the bristles, with a towel, and set in the sun or near the fire to dry, taking care not to put them too close to the fire. Wiping the bristles makes them soft, as does also the use of soap. Combs: If you can avoid it, never wash combs, as the water often makes the teeth split, and the tortoise-shell or horn of which they are made rough. Small brushes manufactured expressly for cleaning combs can be purchased for a trifling cost. With this the comb should be well brushed, and afterward wiped with a towel or cloth. HOUSEHOLD. To sweeten rancid butter: Work the butter thoroughly in sweet milk. If done as it should be, every particle of rancidity will be washed out. To make a brine for butter : Take a pail of water, add to this two quarts of fine salt, one-fourth of a pound of sugar, two ounces of saltpeter. Boil and skim this well. With The, New Kentucky Home Cook Book. the brine thus prepared, cover the butter entirely, and so covered it will keep the year round. To preserve eggs for winter use: Take a stone jar, have ready some wheaten bran thoroughly dry, pack in alternate layers eggs and bran, putting the small ends of the eggs down. Keep in a dry place, where they will not freeze. Salt may be substituted for bran, but it is not so good. To preserve grapes: Bunches of grapes may be preserved for some time in jars, by taking each bunch and wrapping them in soft paper. Cover each layer with well-dried bran, and the mouth of the jar should be covered with a bladder or the top cemented on. Other and more delicate fruits may be preserved by wiping them dry and placing them in a jar, covering them with dry sand about one inch thick. Each jar should be well filled, then sealed and set in a cool place where frost will not affect them. To prevent jars from breaking: Set the jars on a folded cloth wet in cold water, then put in the hot fruit. I have never known the jars to break when thus treated. Green coloring for cakes: Pound some spinach, adding very little water. Squeeze the juice through a cloth and place on the fire. As soon as it becomes curdy, take it off and strain the liquor through a sieve or mosquito-net. That which remains on the net is the coloring matter. To kill the grass that springs up in the seams of the flagging or gravel walks: Meat brine or strong salt and water poured into the seams of the nagging or sprinkled over the walks for a few times will kill the grass or weeds. To color human hair black: Take one part bay-rum, three parts olive-oil, and one part of good brandy. The hair must be washed every morning. The articles must be of the best quality, mixed in a bottle, and always well shaken before applied. To prevent the formation of a crust in the tea-kettle: The New Kentucky Home Cook Book. Keep an oyster-shell in the kettle — it will attract the strong particles to itself.