The Cook and Housekeeper's Complete and Universal Dictionary Part 69

WILTs.h.i.+RE BACON. The way to cure Wilts.h.i.+re bacon is to sprinkle the flitch with salt, and let the blood drain off for twenty-four hours.

Then mix a pound and a half of coa.r.s.e sugar, the same quant.i.ty of bay salt, not quite so much as half a pound of saltpetre, and a pound of common salt. Rub this mixture well on the bacon, turning it every day for a month: then hang it to dry, and afterwards smoke it ten days. The quant.i.ty of salts above mentioned is sufficient for the whole hog.

WILTs.h.i.+RE CHEESE. This is made of new milk, a little lowered with water and skim milk. The curd is first broken with the hand and dish, care being taken to let the whey run off gradually, to prevent its carrying away with it the fat of the cowl. For thin cheese the curd is not broken so fine as in Gloucesters.h.i.+re; for thick cheese it is crushed finer still. The whey is poured off as it rises, and the curd pressed down. The ma.s.s is then pared down three or four times over, in slices about an inch thick, in order to extract all the whey from it, and then it is pressed and scalded as before. After separating the whey, the curd is sometimes broken again, and salted in the cowl; and at others it is taken warm out of the liquor, and salted in the vat. Thin cheeses are placed in one layer, with a small handful of salt; and thick ones in two layers, with two handfuls of salt; the salt being spread and rubbed uniformly among the curd.

WINDSOR BEANS. These should be boiled in plenty of water, with a little salt, and be put in when the water boils. Serve them up with boiled bacon, and parsley and b.u.t.ter in a boat.

WINDSOR BEANS FRICa.s.sEED. When grown large, but not mealy, boil, blanch, and lay them in a white sauce previously heated up. Warm them through in the sauce, and serve them up. No beans but what are of a fine green should be used for this dish.

WINDSOR PUDDING. Shred half a pound of suet very fine, grate into it half a pound of French roll, a little nutmeg, and the rind of a lemon.

Add to these half a pound of chopped apple, half a pound of currants clean washed and fried, half a pound of jar raisins stoned and chopped, a gla.s.s of rich sweet wine, and five eggs well beaten, with a little salt. Mix all thoroughly together, and boil it in a basin or mould for three hours. Sift fine sugar over it when sent to table, and pour white wine sauce into the dish.

WINDSOR SOAP. Cut the best white soap into thin slices, melt it over a slow fire, and scent it with oil of carraway, or any other agreeable perfume. Shaving boxes may then be filled with the melted soap, or it may be poured into a small drawer or any other mould; and after it has stood a few days to dry, it may be cut into square pieces ready for use.

WINE. The moderate use of wine is highly conducive to health, especially in weak and languid habits, and in convalescents who are recovering from the attacks of malignant fevers. Hence it forms an extensive article of commerce, and immense quant.i.ties are consumed in this country. But nothing is more capable of being adulterated, or of producing more pernicious effects on the human const.i.tution, and therefore it requires the strictest attention. A few simple means only will be sufficient to detect such adulterations, and to prevent their fatal consequences. If new white wine, for example, be of a sweetish flavour, and leave a certain astringency on the tongue; if it has an unusually high colour, disproportionate to its nominal age and real strength; or if it has a strong pungent taste, resembling that of brandy or other ardent spirits, such liquor may be considered as adulterated. When old wine presents either a very pale or a very deep colour, or possesses a very tart and astringent taste, and deposits a thick crust on the sides or bottom of gla.s.s vessels, it has then probably been coloured with some foreign substance. This may easily be detected by pa.s.sing the liquor through filtering paper, when the colouring ingredients will remain on the surface. The fraud may also be discovered by filling a small vial with the suspected wine, and closing its mouth with the finger: the bottle is then to be inverted, and immersed in a basin of clear water. The finger being withdrawn, the tinging or adulterating matter will pa.s.s into the water, so that the former may be observed sinking to the bottom by its own weight. Wines becoming tart or sour, are frequently mixed with the juice of carrots and turnips; and if this do not recover the sweetness to a sufficient degree, alum or the sugar of lead is sometimes added; but which cannot fail to be productive of the worst effects, and will certainly operate as slow poison. To detect the alum, let the suspected liquor be mixed with a little lime water. At the end of ten or twelve hours the composition must be filtered, and if crystals be formed, it contains no alum. But if it be adulterated, the sediment will split into small segments, which will adhere to the filtering paper on which it is spread. In order to detect the litharge or sugar of lead, a few drops of the solution of yellow orpiment and quicklime should be poured into a gla.s.s of wine. If the colour of the liquor change, and become successively dark red, black or brown, it is an evident proof of its being adulterated with lead. As orpiment is poisonous, it would be better to use a few drops of vitriolic acid for this purpose, which should be introduced into a small quant.i.ty of the suspected liquor. This will cause the lead to sink to the bottom of the gla.s.s, in the form of a white powder. A solution of hepatic gas in distilled water, if added to wine sophisticated with lead, will produce a black sediment, and thus discover the smallest quant.i.ty of that poisonous metal; but in pure wine, no precipitation will take place. The following preparation has been proved to be a sufficient test for adulterated wine or cider. Let one dram of the dry liver of sulphur, and two drams of the cream of tartar, be shaken in two ounces of distilled water, till the whole become saturated with hepatic gas: the mixture is then to be filtered through blotting paper, and kept in a vial closely corked. In order to try the purity of wine, about twenty drops of this test are to be poured into a small gla.s.s: if the wine only become turbid with white clouds, and a similar sediment be deposited, it is then not impregnated with any metallic ingredients. But if it turn black or muddy, its colour approach to a deep red, and its taste be at first sweet, and then astringent, the liquor certainly contains the sugar, or other pernicious preparation of lead. The presence of iron is indicated by the wine acquiring a dark blue coat, after the test is put in, similar to that of pale ink; and if there be any particles of copper or verdigris, a blackish grey sediment will be formed. A small portion of sulphur is always mixed with white wines, in order to preserve them; but if too large a quant.i.ty be employed, the wine thus impregnated becomes injurious. Sulphur however may easily be detected, for if a piece of an egg sh.e.l.l, or of silver, be immersed in the wine, it instantly acquires a black hue. Quicklime is also mixed with wine, for imparting a beautiful red colour. Its presence may easily be ascertained by suffering a little wine to stand in a gla.s.s for two or three days; when the lime, held in solution, will appear on the surface in the form of a thin pellicle or crust. The least hurtful but most common adulteration of wine, is that of mixing it with water, which may be detected by throwing into it a small piece of quicklime. If it slack or dissolve the lime, the wine must have been diluted; but if the contrary, which will seldom be the case, the liquor may be considered as genuine.

WINE COOLED. The best way of cooling wine or other liquors in hot weather, is to dip a cloth in cold water, and wrap it round the bottle two or three times, then place it in the sun. The process should be renewed once or twice.

WINE POSSET. Boil some slices of white bread in a quart of milk. When quite soft, take it off the fire, grate in half a nutmeg, and a little sugar. Pour it out, and add by degrees a pint of sweet wine, and serve it with toasted bread.

WINE REFINED. In order to refine either wine or cider, beat up the whites and sh.e.l.ls of twenty eggs. Mix a quart of the liquor with them, and put it into the cask. Stir it well to the bottom, let it stand half an hour, and stop it up close. In a few days it may be bottled off.

WINE ROLL. Soak a penny French roll in raisin wine till it will hold no more: put it in a dish, and pour round it a custard, or cream, sugar, and lemon juice. Just before it is served, sprinkle over it some nonpareil comfits, or stick into it a few blanched almonds slit. Sponge biscuits may be used instead of the roll.

WINE SAUCE. For venison or hare, mix together a quarter of a pint of claret or port, the same quant.i.ty of plain mutton gravy, and a table-spoonful of currant jelly. Let it just boil up, and send it to table in a sauce boat.

WINE VINEGAR. After making raisin wine, when the fruit has been strained, lay it on a heap to heat; then to every hundred weight, put fifteen gallons of water. Set the cask in the sun, and put in a toast of yeast. As vinegar is so necessary an article in a family, and one on which so great a profit is made, a barrel or two might always be kept preparing, according to what suited. If the raisins of wine were ready, that kind might be made; if gooseberries be cheap and plentiful, then gooseberry vinegar may be preferred; or if neither, then the sugar vinegar; so that the cask need not be left empty, or be liable to grow musty.

WINE WHEY. Put on the fire a pint of milk and water, and the moment it begins to boil, pour in as much sweet wine as will turn it into whey, and make it look clear. Boil it up, and let it stand off the fire till the curd all sinks to the bottom. Do not stir it, but pour off the whey for use. Or put a pint of skimmed milk and half a pint of white wine into a basin, let it stand a few minutes, and pour over it a pint of boiling water. When the curd has settled to the bottom, pour off the whey, and put in a piece of lump sugar, a sprig of balm, or a slice of lemon.

WINTER VEGETABLES. To preserve several vegetables to eat in the winter, observe the following rules. French beans should be gathered young, and put into a little wooden keg, a layer of them about three inches deep.

Then sprinkle them with salt, put another layer of beans, and so on till the keg is full, but be careful not to sprinkle too much salt. Lay over them a plate, or a cover of wood that will go into the keg, and put a heavy stone upon it. A pickle will rise from the beans and salt; and if they are too salt, the soaking and boiling will not be sufficient to make them palatable. When they are to be eaten, they must be cut, soaked, and boiled as fresh beans. Carrots, parsnips, and beet root, should be kept in layers of dry sand, and neither they nor potatoes should be cleared from the earth. Store onions keep best hung up in a dry cold room. Parsley should be cut close to the stalks, and dried in a warm room, or on tins in a very cool oven. Its flavour and colour may thus be preserved, and will be found useful in winter. Artichoke bottoms, slowly dried, should be kept in paper bags. Truffles, morels, and lemon peel, should be hung in a dry place, and ticketed. Small close cabbages, laid on a stone floor before the frost sets in, will blanch and be very fine, after many weeks' keeping.

WOOD. An excellent glue, superior to the common sort, and suitable for joining broken furniture or any kind of wood, may be made of an ounce of isingla.s.s dissolved in a pint of brandy. The isingla.s.s should be pounded, dissolved by gentle heat, strained through a piece of muslin, and kept in a gla.s.s closely stopped. When required for use, it should be dissolved with moderate heat, and applied the same as common glue. Its effect is so powerful as to join the parts of wood stronger than the wood itself, but should not be exposed to damp or moisture.

WOODc.o.c.kS. These will keep good for several days. Roast them without drawing, and serve them on toast. The thigh and back are esteemed the best. b.u.t.ter only should be eaten with them, as gravy diminishes the fineness of the flavour. To roast woodc.o.c.ks and snipes in the French method, take out the trails and chop them, except the stomachs, with some minced bacon, or a piece of b.u.t.ter. Add some parsley and chives, and a little salt. Put this stuffing into the birds, sow up the opening, and roast them with bacon covered with paper. Serve them up with Spanish sauce.

WOOLLENS. To preserve articles of this sort from the moths, let them be well brushed and shaken, and laid up cool and dry. Then mix among them bitter apples from the druggists', in small muslin bags, carefully sewn up in several folds of linen, and turned in at the edges.

WORMS. A strong decoction of walnut tree leaves thrown upon the ground where there are worm casts, will cause them to rise up. They may then be given to the poultry, or thrown into the fish pond. Salt and water, or a ley of wood ashes, poured into worm-holes on a gravel walk, will effectually destroy them. Sea water, the brine of salted meat, or soot, will be found to answer the same purpose.

WORMS. Worms in children are denoted by paleness of the face, itching of the nose, grinding of the teeth during sleep, offensive breath, and nausea. The belly is hard and painful, and in the morning there is a copious flow of saliva, and an uncommon craving for dry food. Amongst a variety of other medicines for destroying worms in the human body, the following will be found effectual. Make a solution of tartarised antimony, two grains in four ounces of water, and take two or three tea-spoonfuls three times a day, for four days; and on the following day a purging powder of calomel and jalap, from three to six grains each. Or take half a pound of senna leaves well bruised, and twelve ounces of olive oil, and digest them together in a sand heat for four or five days. Strain off the liquor, take a spoonful in the morning fasting, persevere in it, and it will be found effectual in the most obstinate cases. A more simple remedy is to pour some port wine into a pewter dish, and let it stand for twenty-four hours. Half a common wine-gla.s.sful is a sufficient dose for an infant, and a whole one for an adult.

WORMWOOD ALE. The proper way to make all sorts of herb drinks, is to gather the herbs in the right season. Then dry them in the shade, and put them into closed paper bags. When they are wanted for use, take out the proper quant.i.ty, put it into a linen bag, and suspend it in the beer or ale, while it is working or fermenting, from two to six or eight hours, and then take it out. Wormwood ought not to lie so long, three or four hours will be quite sufficient. If the herbs are properly gathered and prepared, all their pure and balsamic virtues will readily infuse themselves into the liquor, whether wine or beer, as the pure sweet quality in malt does into the warm liquor in brewing, which is done effectually in about an hour. But if malt is suffered to remain more than six hours, before the liquor is drawn off, all the nauseous properties will be extracted, and overpower the good ones. It is the same in infusing any sort of well-prepared herbs, and great care therefore is requisite in all preparations, that the pure qualities are neither evaporated or overpowered. Otherwise, whatever it be, it will soon tend to putrefaction, and become injurious and loathsome. Beer, ale, or other liquor, into which herbs are infused, must be unadulterated, or the infusion will be destroyed by its pernicious qualities. Nothing is more prejudicial to the health, or the intellectual faculties of mankind, than adulterated liquors. Articles which in their purest state are of an equivocal character, and never to be trusted without caution, are thus converted into decided poisons.--Another way of making wormwood ale. Take a quant.i.ty of the herb, according to the intended strength of the liquor, and infuse it for half an hour in the boiling wort. Then strain it off, and set the wort to cool. Wormwood beer prepared either ways, is a fine wholesome liquor. It is gentle, warming, a.s.sisting digestion, and refining to the blood, without sending any gross fumes to the head. The same method should be observed in making all sorts of drinks, in which any strong bitter herbs are infused. It renders them pleasant and grateful, both to the stomach and palate, and preserves all the medicinal virtues. Most bitter herbs have a powerful tendency to open obstructions, if judiciously managed; but in the way in which they are too commonly made, they are not only rendered extremely unpleasant, but their medicinal properties are destroyed.

WOUNDS. If occasioned by a cut, it will be proper immediately to close the wounded part, so as to exclude the air and prevent its bleeding, and then any common sticking plaister may be applied. When the wound is deep and difficult to close, a bandage should be applied; and if the skin be lacerated, or the edges of the wound begin to be rough, lay on some lint dipped in sweet oil, and cover the whole with a piece of fine oil cloth.

New honey spread on folded linen affords an excellent remedy for fresh and bleeding wounds, as it will prevent inflammation and the growth of proud flesh. In wounds which cannot readily be healed, on account of external inflammation and feverish heat, emollient poultices, composed of the crumb of bread boiled in milk, must be applied, and renewed several times in a day, without disturbing or touching the wounded part with the fingers. Wounds of the joints will heal most expeditiously by the simple application of cold water, provided the orifice of such wounds be immediately closed by means of adhesive plaster.

WOW WOW. For stewed beef, chop some parsley leaves very fine, quarter two or three pickled cuc.u.mbers or walnuts, and divide them into small squares, and set them by ready. Put into a saucepan a good bit of b.u.t.ter, stir up with it a table-spoonful of fine flour, and about half a pint of the broth in which the beef was boiled. Add a table-spoonful of vinegar, as much ketchup or port wine, or both, and a tea-spoonful of made mustard. Let it simmer gently till it is sufficiently thickened, put in the parsley and pickles ready prepared, and pour it over the beef, or send it up in a sauce tureen.

WRIT OF EJECTMENT. When a tenant has either received or given a proper notice to quit at a certain time, and fails to deliver up possession, it is at the option of the landlord to give notice of double rent, or issue a writ to dispossess the tenant. In the latter case he recovers the payment of the rent, or the surrender of the premises. In all cases between landlord and tenant, when half a year's rent is due, such landlord may serve a declaration or ejectment for the recovery of the premises, without any formal demand or re-entry. If the premises be unoccupied, though not surrendered, he may affix the declaration to the door, or any other conspicuous part of the dwelling, which will be deemed legal, and stand instead of a deed of re-entry.

Y.

YEAST. This is the barm or froth which rises in beer, and other malt liquors, during a state of fermentation. When thrown up by one quant.i.ty of malt or vinous liquid, it may be preserved to be put into another, at a future period; on which it will exert a similar fermentative action.

Yeast is likewise used in the making of bread, without which it would be heavy and unwholesome. It has a vinous sour odour, a bitter taste arising from the hops in the malt liquor, and it reddens the vegetable blues. When it is filtered, a matter remains which possesses properties similar to vegetable gluten; by this separation the yeast loses the property of exciting fermentation, but recovers it again when the gluten is added. The addition of yeast to any vegetable substance, containing saccharine matter, excites fermentation by generating a quant.i.ty of carbonic acid gas. This very useful substance cannot always be procured conveniently from malt liquor for baking and brewing: the following method will be found useful for its extemporaneous preparation. Mix two quarts of soft water with wheat flour, to the consistence of thick gruel; boil it gently for half an hour, and when almost cold, stir into it half a pound of sugar and four spoonfuls of good yeast. Put the whole into a large jug, or earthen vessel, with a narrow top, and place it before the fire, that by a moderate heat it may ferment. The fermentation will throw up a thin liquor, which pour off and throw away; keep the remainder in a bottle, or jug tied over, and set it in a cool place. The same quant.i.ty of this as of common yeast will suffice to bake or brew with. Four spoonfuls of this yeast will make a fresh quant.i.ty as before, and the stock may always be kept up, by fermenting the new with the remainder of the former quant.i.ty.--Another method. Take six quarts of soft water, and two handfuls of wheaten meal or barley.

Stir the latter in the water before the mixture is placed over the fire, where it must boil till two thirds are evaporated. When this decoction becomes cool, incorporate with it, by means of a whisk, two drams of salt of tartar, and one dram of cream of tartar, previously mixed. The whole should now be kept in a warm place. Thus a very strong yeast for brewing, distilling, and baking, may be obtained. For the last-mentioned purpose, however, it ought to be diluted with pure water, and pa.s.sed through a sieve, before it is kneaded with the dough, in order to deprive it of its alkaline taste.--In countries where yeast is scarce, it is a common practice to twist hazel twigs so as to be full of c.h.i.n.ks, and then to steep them in ale yeast during fermentation. The twigs are then hung up to dry, and at the next brewing they are put into the wort instead of yeast. In Italy the chips are frequently put into turbid wine for the purpose of clearing it, which is effected in about twenty-four hours.--A good article for baking bread may be made in the following manner. Boil a pound of fine flour, a quarter of a pound of brown sugar, and a little salt, in two gallons of water, for one hour. Let it stand till it is milk warm, then bottle and cork it close, and it will be fit for use in twenty-four hours. A pint of this yeast will make eighteen pounds of bread. Or mash a pound of mealy potatoes, and pulp them through a cullender; add two ounces of brown sugar, and two spoonfuls of common yeast. Keep it moderately warm while fermenting, and it will produce a quart of good yeast.--The best method of preserving common yeast, produced from beer or ale, is to set a quant.i.ty of it to settle, closely covered, that the spirit may not evaporate. Provide in the mean time as many small hair sieves as will hold the thick barm: small sieves are mentioned, because dividing the yeast into small quant.i.ties conduces to its preservation. Lay over each sieve a piece of coa.r.s.e flannel that may reach the bottom, and leave at least eight inches over the rim. Pour off the thin liquor, and set it by to subside, as the grounds will do for immediate baking or brewing, if covered up for a few hours. Fill the sieves with the thick barm, and cover them up for two hours: then gather the flannel edges as a bag, and tie them firmly with twine. Lay each bag upon several folds of coa.r.s.e linen, changing these folds every half hour, till they imbibe no more moisture. Then cover each bag with another piece of flannel, changing it if it becomes damp, and hang them in a cool airy place. The yeast should be strained before it is set to settle, and while the flannel bags are laid upon the folds of linen, they must be covered with a thick cloth. When the yeast is wanted for use, prepare a strong infusion of malt; to a gallon of which add a piece of dried barm, about the size of a goose's egg. The proportion indeed must depend upon its quality, which experience only can ascertain. The malt infusion must be nearly milk warm when the yeast is crumbled into it: for two hours it will froth high, and bake two bushels of flour into well-fermented bread. A decoction of green peas, or of ripened dry peas, with as much sugar as will sweeten it, makes fairer bread than the malt infusion; but it will take a larger quant.i.ty of dried yeast to produce fermentation. It was usual some years ago to reduce porter yeast to dryness, and in that state it was carried to the West Indies, where it was brought by means of water to its original state, and then employed as a ferment.--Another method of preserving yeast. Take a quant.i.ty of yeast, and work it well with a whisk till it becomes thin; then have a broad wooden platter, or tub, that is very clean and dry, and, with a soft brush, lay a layer of yeast all over the bottom, and turn the mouth downwards that no dust can fall in, but so that the air may come to it, to dry it. When that coat is very dry, lay on another; do so till you have as much as you intend to keep, taking care that one coat is dry before you lay on another. When you have occasion to make use of this yeast, cut a piece off, and lay it in warm water; stir it till it is dissolved, and it is fit for use. If it is for brewing, take a whisk, or a large handful of birch tied together, and dip it into the yeast, and hang it up to dry; when it is dry wrap it up in paper, and keep it in a dry place; thus you may do as many as you please. When your beer is fit to work, throw in one of your whisks, and cover it over; it will set it a working as well as fresh yeast. When you find you have a head sufficient, take out your whisk and hang it up. If the yeast is not all off, it will do for your next brewing.

YEAST CAKES. The inhabitants of Long Island in America are in the habit of making yeast cakes once a year. These are dissolved and mixed with the dough, which it raises in such a manner as to form it into very excellent bread. The following is the method in which these cakes are made. Rub three ounces of hops so as to separate them, and then put them into a gallon of boiling water, where they are to boil for half an hour.

Now strain the liquor through a fine sieve into an earthen vessel, and while it is hot, put in three pounds and a half of rye flour, stirring the liquid well and quickly as the flour is put in. When it has become milk warm, add half a pint of good yeast. On the following day, while the mixture is fermenting, stir well into it seven pounds of Indian corn meal, and it will render the whole ma.s.s stiff like dough. This dough is to be well kneaded and rolled out into cakes about a third of an inch in thickness. These cakes are to be cut out into large disks or lozenges, or any other shape, by an inverted gla.s.s tumbler or any other instrument; and being placed on a sheet of tinned iron, or on a piece of board, are to be dried by the heat of the sun. If care be taken to turn them frequently, and to see that they take no wet or moisture, they will become as hard as s.h.i.+p biscuit, and may be kept in a bag or box, which is to be hung up or kept in an airy and perfectly dry situation. When bread is to be made, two cakes of the above-mentioned thickness, and about three inches in diameter, are to be broken and put into hot water, where they are to remain all night, the vessel standing near the fire.

In the morning they will be entirely dissolved, and then the mixture is to be employed in setting the sponge, in the same way as beer yeast is used. In making a farther supply for the next year, beer or ale yeast may be used as before; but this is not necessary where a cake of the old stock remains, for this will act on the new mixture precisely in the same way. If the dry cakes were reduced to powder in a mortar, the same results would take place, with perhaps more convenience, and in less time. Indian meal is used because it is of a less adhesive nature than wheat flour, but where Indian meal cannot easily be procured, white pea-meal, or even barley-meal, will answer the purpose equally well. The princ.i.p.al art or requisite in making yeast cakes, consists in drying them quickly and thoroughly, and in preventing them from coming in contact with the least particle of moisture till they are used.

YEAST DUMPLINS. Make a very light dough as for bread, only in a smaller quant.i.ty. When it has been worked up, and risen a sufficient time before the fire, mould it into good sized dumplins, put them into boiling water, and let them boil twenty minutes. The dough may be made up with milk and water if preferred. These dumplins are very nice when done in a potatoe steamer, and require about thirty-five minutes, if of a good size. The steamer must not be opened till they are taken up, or it will make the dumplins heavy. Dough from the baker's will answer the purpose very well, if it cannot conveniently be made at home. The dough made for rolls is the most delicate for dumplins. If not eaten as soon as they are taken up, either out of the water or the steamer, they are apt to fall and become heavy. Eaten with cold b.u.t.ter they are much better than with any kind of sauce, except meat dripping directly from the pan. The addition of a few currants will make good currant dumplins.

YELLOW BLAMANGE. Pour a pint of boiling water to an ounce of isingla.s.s, and add the peel of one lemon. When cold, put in two ounces of sifted sugar, a quarter of a pint of white wine, the yolks of four eggs, and the juice of a lemon. Stir all well together, let it boil five minutes, strain it through a bag, and put it into cups.

YELLOW DYE. There is a new stain for wood, and a yellow dye for cloth, which consists of a decoction of walnut or hickory bark, with a small quant.i.ty of alum dissolved in it, in order to give permanency to the colour. Wood of a white colour receives from the application of this liquid a beautiful yellow tinge, which is not liable to fade. It is particularly for furniture made of maple, especially that kind of it which is called bird's eye, and which is commonly prepared by scorching its surface over a quick fire. The application of the walnut dye gives a l.u.s.tre even to the darkest shades, while to the paler and fainter ones it adds somewhat of a greenish hue, and to the whiter parts various tints of yellow. After applying this stain to cherry and apple wood, the wood should be slightly reddened with a tincture of some red dye, whose colour is not liable to fade. A handsome dye is thus given to it which does not hide the grain, and which becomes still more beautiful as the wood grows darker by age. Walnut bark makes the most permanent yellow dye for dyeing cloth of any of the vegetable substances used in this country. Care should be taken that the dye be not too much concentrated: when this happens, the colour is far less bright and delicate, and approaches nearer to orange. It is hardly necessary to add, that the dye should be boiled and kept in a bra.s.s vessel, or in some other which has no iron in its composition. A lively yellow colour for dyeing cloth, may be produced from potato tops. Gather them when ready to flower, press out the juice, mix it with a little water, and suffer the cloth to remain in it for twenty-four hours. The cloth, whether of wool, cotton, or flax, is then to be dipped in spring water. By plunging the cloth thus tinged with yellow, into a vessel of blue dye, a brilliant and lasting green is obtained.