S. These insects are not only destructive to grapes, peaches, and
the more delicate kinds of fruit, but also to bees; the hives of which
they attack and plunder, frequently compelling those industrious inmates
to forsake their habitation. About the time when the wasps begin to
appear, several phials should be filled three parts full of a mixture
consisting of the lees of beer or wine, and the sweepings of sugar, or
the dregs of molasses, and suspended by yellow packthread on nails in
the garden wall. When the bottles are filled with insects, the liquor
must be poured into another vial, and the wasps crushed on the ground.
If they settle on wall fruit, they may be destroyed by touching them
with a feather dipped in oil; or may be taken with birdlime put on the
end of a stick or lath, and touched while sitting on the fruit. The
number of these noxious insects might be greatly reduced by searching
for their nests in the spring of the year. The places to find them are
at new posts, pales, melon frames, or any solid timber; for as they make
their combs of the shavings of sound wood, which they rasp off with
their fangs, and moisten up with a mucus from their bodies, they may
often be found near such materials.

WATER. As it is difficult in some places to obtain a sufficient quantity
of fresh spring water for constant use, especially in large towns and
cities, it is important to know that river water or such as becomes
turbid, may be rendered fit for use by the following easy experiment.
Dissolve half an ounce of alum in a pint of warm water, and stir it
about in a puncheon of water taken from the river; the impurities will
soon settle to the bottom, and in a day or two it will become as clear
as the finest spring water. To purify any kind of water that has become
foul by being stagnant, place a piece of wicker work in the middle of a
vessel; spread on this a layer of charcoal four or five inches thick,
and above the charcoal a quantity of sand. The surface of the sand is to
be covered with paper pierced full of holes, to prevent the water from
making channels in the sand. The water to be purified is to be poured
on, to filter through the sand and charcoal, and the filter is to be
removed occasionally. By this simple process, any person may procure
good limpid water at a very trifling expense, and preserve what would
otherwise become useless and offensive.

WATER FOR BREWING. The most proper water for brewing is soft rive