The household (of the Detroit free press)

Before putting fresh paper on walls the old paper should be carefully removed by wetting it with saleratus water, when it will fall off easily. The walls should be brushed over with a weak solution of carbolic acid, which will drive away insects and sweeten the walls. The Chinese often remove plaster from old houses and replace it with new, and are paid for their trouble in the value of the old plaster for fertilizing purposes. If there is too much whitening on the wall, take a scraper about three inches wide, with handle; wet the wall with clean water and scrape. After getting off all the old whitening, give the wall a thin coat of glue sizing, made by dissolving common glue in water. A little alum in the paste will help it greatly. Or to one gallon of soft water use one pint of rye flour, half an ounce of white glue and one ounce of alum. The glue and alum are to be dissolved, of course, and the flour is put into the water while cold, and put over the fire and stirred until boiling hot; pour in the solutions mentioned. Scrub the wall thoroughly with a stiff broom, dust off, and it is ready for papering. If the paste in cooling becomes thick, thin it with boiling soft water until very thin. [illustration: MOTH EXTERMINATORS.] A GOOD AND CHEAP WHITEWASH. Few people know how easily whitewash is made and how valuable it is when properly applied. It not only prevents the decay of wood, but is greatly conducive to the healthfulness of buildings, whether wood or stone. Out-buildings and fences, when not painted, should be supplied once or twice a year with a good coat of whitewash, which should be prepared in the following way: Take a clean, water-tight barrel or other suitable cask, and put into it about half a bushel of lime ; slack it by pouring water over it boiling hot, and put in a sufficient quantity of water to cover it five inches deep, and stir it briskly till thoroughly slackened ; when the slackening has been thoroughly effected, dissolve it in water and add two pounds of sulphate of zinc and common salt. These will cause the wash to harden and prevent the cracking, which gives an unseemly appearance to the work. If desirable a beautiful cream color may be given to the above wash by adding three pounds of yellow ochre, or a good pearl by lead, lamp, vine or ivy black. For fawn color add four pounds of umber ; Turkish or American — the latter is the cheapest — one pound of Indian red, and one pound of common lamp-black MOTH EXTERMINATORS. The worst month for moths is said to be June, and before that time all articles likely to be molested by them should be securely packed away. Fortunately furs, which are the most difficult thing to protect from the moth, are also the first which may be laid aside for the season. Before this is done have them beaten thoroughly, z. <?., whipped well with a small rattan, which is what furriers use for the same purpose. Then examine the felt carefully, and where you find the hairs matted tightly together, part them and wet the spot thoroughly, yet daintily, so as not to touch the adjacent hair, with spirits of ammonia. After this, fold the garment, with layers of newspapers between each fold, and gum camphor sprinkled on the fur ; and, finally, either sew the bundle in an old sheet or wrap it in newspapers, pasting the edges.