Grandma's Scrapbook

Weather Observations: The nearer the time of the moon's change, First Quarter, Full and the Last Quarter, are to midnight the fairer will be the weather during the seven days following.

Onion Cough Syrup: Six large onions cooked in one quart of vinegar until soft, strain and squeeze out all the juice; add 3 pounds of sugar and when cool add 2 oz. tinc. of lobelia.

Cure for Felons: Put a poke root on the felon.

Relief for Chilblains: Slice raw potatoes with skins on; sprinkle over them a little salt, and as soon as the liquid therefrom settles in the bottom of the dish, wash with it the chilblains. One application will give relief.

Poison Ivy: Sweet fern made into tea a cure for poison ivy.

To Clean Feathers: Pour boiling water over some white soap which has been cut into small pieces. Add a little pearlash. When dissolved and cool to the hand put feathers into it and draw them through the hand.

-- Leona G. Phillips, Sheldon

Vermont History, edited by Leon W. Dean, President, Green Mountain Folklore Society, Vol. XXIV, No. 4, October 1956