ves, or wet Indian meal, throwing it about, and rubbing it over with
the broom. The latter, is very good for cleansing carpets made dingy by
coal-dust. In brushing carpets in ordinary use, it will be found very
convenient to use a large flat dust-pan, with a perpendicular handle a
yard high, put on so that the pan will stand alone. This can be carried
about, and used without stooping, brushing dust into it with a common
broom. The pan must be very large, or it will be upset.

When carpets are taken up, they should be hung on a line, or laid on
long grass, and whipped, first on one side, and then on the other, with
pliant whips. If laid aside, they should be sewed up tight, in linen,
having snuff or tobacco put along all the crevices where moths could
enter. Shaking pepper, from a pepper-box, round the edge of the floor,
under a carpet, prevents the access of moths.

Carpets can be best washed on the floor, thus: First shake them; and
then, after cleaning the floor, stretch and nail them upon it. Then
scrub them in cold soapsuds, having half a teacupful of ox-gall to a
bucket of water. Then wash off the suds, with a cloth, in fair water.
Set open the doors and windows, for two days or more. Imperial Brussels,
Venetian, ingrain, and three-ply, carpets, can be washed thus; but
Wilton, and other plush-carpets, cannot. Before washing them, take out
grease, with a paste, made of potter's clay, ox-gall, and water.

Straw matting is best for chambers and Summer parlors. The checked, of
two colors, is not so good to wear. The best, is the cheapest in the
end. When washed, it should be done with salt water, wiping it dry; but
frequent washing injures it. Bind matting with cotton binding. Sew
breadths together like carpeting. In joining the ends of pieces, ravel
out a part, and tie the threads together, turning under a little of each
piece, and then, laying the ends close, nail them down, with nails
having kid under their heads.

In hanging pictures, put them so that the lower part shall be opposite
the eye. Cleanse the glass of pictures with whiting, as water endangers
the pictures. Gilt frames can be much better preserved by putting on a
coat of copal varnish, which, with proper brushes, can be bought of
carriage or cabinet-makers. When dry, it can be washed with fair water.
Wash the brush in spirits of turpentine.

Curtains, ottomans, and sofas covered with worsted, can be cleansed, by
wheat-bran, rubbed on with flannel. Du