In accommodation to the requirements of dyers, many of the recipes describe dyes for large quantities of goods; but to make them equally adapted for the use of private families, they are usually given in even quantities, so that it is quite an easy matter to ascertain the quantity of materials required for dyeing, when once the weight of the goods is known, the quantity of materials used being reduced in proportion to the smaller quantity of goods.

Use soft water for all dyeing purposes, if it can be procured, using 4 gals, water to 1 lb. of goods; for larger quantities, a little less water will do. Let all the implements used in dyeing be kept perfectly clean. Prepare the goods by scouring well with soap and water, washing the soap out well and dipping in warm water, previous to immersion in the dye or mordant. Goods should be well aired, rinsed, and properly hung up after dyeing. Silks, and fine goods should be tenderly handled, otherwise injury to the fabric will result.

Mordants are solutions used to fix colors and may be made from several common chemicals. A good one is made by mixing copperas and acetate of iron in proportion of four of the former to six of the latter. Immerse the cotton or linen to be colored, in this before putting in color vat. Mordants must be used in dyeing cotton fabrics, as they fix the color.

Before using Cudbear, it must always be drenched with a little hot water, to the consistency of paste; then scald or boil it as occasion may require.

A solution of tannin or sumac makes a good mordant. Alum or cream of tartar will answer.

"Sour," referred to in some recipes, is made by stirring into clean water enough sulphuric acid to give a sharp taste. The acid can be procured at any druggist's.

How To Color Straw Hats Or Bonnets A Beautiful Slate

First, soak the bonnet in rather strong warm suds for 15 minutes, to remove sizing or stiffening; then rinse in warm water, to get out the soap; now scald cudbear, 1 oz., in sufficient water to cover the hat or bonnet; work the bonnet in this dye, at 180° of heat, until you get a light purple; now have a bucket of cold water, blued with the extract of indigo, 1/2 oz., and work or stir the bonnet in this until the tint pleases; dry, then rinse out with cold water, and dry again in the shade. If you get the purple too deep in shade, the final slate will be too dark.

Dye For Feathers

Black: Immerse for two or three days in a bath, at first hot, of logwood, eight parts, and copperas or acetate of iron, one part. Blue: with the indigo vat. Brown: by using any of the brown dyes for silk or woolen. Crimson: a mordant of alum, followed by a hot bath of Brazil-wood, afterward by a weak dye of cudbear. Pink or Rose: with saf-flower or lemon juice. Plum: with the red dye, followed by an alkaline bath. Red: a mordant of alum, followed by a bath of Brazil-wood. Yellow: a mordant of alum, followed by a bath of turmeric or weld. Green Dye: take of verdigris and verditer, of each one ounce, gum water 1 pt.; mix them well, and dip the feathers, they having been first soaked in hot water, into the said mixture. For Purple, use lake and indigo For Carnation, vermilion and smalt. Thin gum of starch water should be used in dyeing feathers.