211. TO COLOUR A BRIGHT MADDER

For 1 lb. of yard or cloth, take 3 ozs. of madder; 3 ozs. of alum;
1 oz. of cream tartar; prepare a brass kettle with two gallons of
water, and bring the liquor to a steady heat, then add your alum and
tartar, and bring it to a boil; put in your cloth, and boil it two
hours; take it out, and rinse it in cold water; empty your kettle,
and fill it with as much water as before; then add your madder; rub
it in fine in the water before your cloth is in. When your dye is
as warm as you can bear your hand in, then put in your cloth, and
let it lie one hour, and keep a steady heat; keep it in motion
constantly, then bring it to a boil fifteen minutes, then air and
rinse it. If your goods are new, use 4 ozs. of madder to a lb.


212. TO COLOUR GREEN

If you wish to colour green, have your cloth as free as possible
from the old colour, clean, and rinsed; and, in the first place,
colour it deep yellow. Fustic, boiled in soft water, makes the
strongest and brightest yellow dye; but saffron, barberry-bush,
peach-leaves, or onion-skins, will answer pretty well. Next take a
bowlful of strong yellow dye, and pour in a great spoonful or more
of the blue composition, stir it up well with a clean stick, and dip
the articles you have already coloured yellow into it, and they
will take a lively grass-green. This is a good plan for old
bombazet-curtains, dessert-cloths, old flannel for desk coverings, &c.