[181] ‘botts’ in horses, and were used to pack with dried fruits to preserve them from ravages of insects. A soap was made from the berries, called ‘Poor Man's Soap.’
The ox-eyed daisy was used in place of Persian insect powder—an insecticide used as far back as 1857. In the country, fresh elderberry leaves were laid near the head of a bed-ridden person to keep away flies.
In the households on the farms many interesting expedients were resorted to. The newspapers were full of directions about soap-making and for preparing and obtaining the materials. The Richmond Dispatch and Wilmington Journal published minute directions for making soda from sea-weed and corn-cobs, and receipts for making soaps.
Blackberry wine was used almost exclusively as a substitute for foreign wines, and some wine was also made from wild grapes and the berries of the elder bush. All the newspapers published recipes for making these wines, and there is scarcely a housewife in the South who does not know how to make them to perfection.
In the Mobile Register I find the following: ‘To alleviate the suffering and perhaps save the lives of many of our soldiers, when sickness may be traced to the use of unwholesome water in limestone regions, blackberry cordial is recommended. The following is a good receipt: Bruise the berries and strain through a bag; to each quart of juice add half a pound of loaf sugar, heaped teaspoonful of powdered cinnamon, the same of cloves, and a grated nutmeg; boil twenty minutes, skimming well. When cool add half pint of brandy for each quart, or add good whiskey.’
Compound syrup of blackberries was recommended and used as a vehicle for medicines. It was made by adding half ounce each of cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, cloves, to half a gallon blackberries. These were boiled twenty minutes in a kettle and strained through a piece of flannel. To this was added loaf sugar to make it very sweet, and half pint of cognac brandy to two quarts.
A decoction of the blackberry root and the rind of the pomegranate fruit boiled in milk was a common remedy in diarrhoea.
The roots and leaves of the cockleburr were considered serviceable in passive hemorrhages, diarrhoea, gonorrhoea, and as a deobstruent in obstructions of the spleen and diseases arising from torpid liver.
One or two ounces of a decoction of Indian physic root (Gillonia
