How Girls Can Help Their Country Part 26

2. Keep food covered.

3. Trap flies out of doors.

4. Screen all windows of houses, barns or out-buildings.

Mosquito--

1. Carries germs of malaria and yellow fever.

2. Turn over every pail or tub that may hold water.

3. Pick up old tin cans and bottles and put them where rain cannot fill them.

4. Screen rain barrels and cisterns so mosquitoes cannot get to the water and lay eggs.

5. Screen the wash water if it is left standing over night.

6. Change water every day in drinking pans for birds and animals.

Rats--

Prevention--

Get rid of them by trapping and killing.

HINTS TO HOUSEKEEPERS

HOW TO CLEAN WIRE WINDOW SCREENS.

_Rub down with Kerosene oil outside and inside._

THREE PRIMARY COLORS _are, Red, Blue and Yellow._

POLIs.h.i.+NG FLOORS

_One quart of turpentine to one quarter (1/4) pound of beeswax. Warm, taking care not to let any fire reach the turpentine. Rub in the floor with flannel and polish with hard brush. A little powdered burnt umber mixed in gives a nice brown stain._

TO PUT AWAY FLANNELS

_First thoroughly air and beat them, then wrap up with cedar chips, refuse tobacco, or camphor, and wrap in newspapers, being careful to close every outlet to keep out moths._

Babc.o.c.k Test

_The Babc.o.c.k test is a test for determining the b.u.t.ter fat in milk._

_Bottles are devised which are known as Babc.o.c.k milk bottles, and are registered to show the per cent. of fat in milk. A certain amount of milk is mixed with a certain amount of Commercial Sulphuric acid of a specific gravity 1.83 which is added by degrees and thoroughly shaken up with the milk. Enough distilled water is added to fill the bottle. The mixture is then centrifuged in a Babc.o.c.k Centrifuge, and the centrifuged fat read in per cent. on the neck of the bottle._

_The Official Travelers' Babc.o.c.k Test can be purchased from the Creamery Package Manufactory Co., Chicago Ill., and costs between $5.00 and $6.00._

_All utensils used in dairy work should be sterilized by steaming or boiling for five minutes._

How to Cure Hams

Rub one tablespoonful of Saltpetre into the face of each ham; let it remain one day. Literally cover the ham with salt and pack it in a closed box. Leave it in box as many days as there are pounds to the ham.

Take it out, wash in warm water; cover the face of the ham with black pepper, and smoke it ten days with green hickory or red-oak chips.

Care of Children

_Mrs. Benson writes: "There is no way in which a girl can help her country better than by fitting herself to undertake the care of children. She should learn all she can about them, and take every opportunity of helping to look after these small Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts of the future."_

An infant cannot tell you its wants, but a Scout with a knowledge of the needs of children, what to feed them on, and the rules for good health, may save many a baby, for she never knows how soon the precious gift of some child's life may be placed in her hands.

Baby does not know that fire will burn, or that water will drown one, so you need to guard him. Baby requires the proper food to build up a healthy body. He prefers milk for the first months of his life, and even up till three years old he takes mostly milk; and as a baby cannot digest flour, bread, corn-flour, and such things are so much poison to him. They may injure a little baby's health for life. As has been said to older children, let him keep quiet after eating. Even up to three years old, Baby's food must be chiefly milk--biscuits, puddings, and fruit being gradually added. He is very particular about his milk being fresh and good. Baby is extremely punctual. He feels it keenly if you do not feed him at the fixed hour, and will very likely let you know it, and woe betide you if he finds out that you have not properly scalded out his bottle before and after each meal.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

When his digestion is not right, his appet.i.te will not be so good.

Digestion means that the food you eat is turned into muscle and brain and bone.

We eat onions to make bone, and oats to make brain, but Baby must not be allowed such food till he is older. What is _indigestion?_ It means not only uncomfortable pains in the middle of the night, but also that you have not used up the food you ate, and that food is going bad inside you, and making bad blood. Eat only the foods that you know you can digest comfortably. Do not give Baby too much at a time, or he will not be able to digest it, and keep him to plain food.

Air

Sun and air are life-giving. Put a pale withering plant or human being into the sun, and each will recover health. Give a baby plenty of fresh air, out of doors if you can, but avoid draughty places. Air the rooms well. You know, too, that the air inside the bed-clothes is impure, so do not let Baby sleep with his head under the sheet; tuck it in under his chin. You remember what air did in curing illness in the case of the expressman's children. He had two boys and three little girls all beginning to have consumption, and constantly requiring a doctor at great expense. He got the happy idea of putting them all into his cart when he started out very early on his work, and he drove them about every morning till school time. Every one of them soon got well, and became strong and healthy.

Bath

No one can be healthy unless she is extremely clean. Baby will want his bath daily, with soap and warmish water. He likes to kick the water and splash, as long as you support his head. Before starting on this swimming expedition, you should have all his clothes, warm, by you, and all that you will want must be within reach, and he expects a warm flannel on your knees to lie on. You must carefully dry all the creases in his fat body for him, with a soft towel.

Illnesses

What will you do when you suddenly find that baby is ill. Call in the doctor? Yes--that is, if there is one. But when there is no doctor! You will at once think of all the First Aid you have learnt, and what you know of nursing.

Drugs are bad things. You may ruin a child by giving it soothing drugs and advertised medicines. They sometimes produce constipation. Never neglect the bowels if they become stopped, or you may bring on inflammation. Children's illnesses often are brought on by damp floors; you can trace them to the evening that the boards were washed. A flood of water could not dry without damping the room and the children.