Curious Facts

Everything below is in the book — each one links straight to the page it comes from.

The book tells you not to buy baking powder. Its bluntest page: "Do Not Buy Baking Powder — when you have sour milk or buttermilk, which costs nothing." A soda company's entire business case in one sentence. Read it in the book →
Soda cures colic in horses — by the half pound. Dissolve half a pound in warm water, "put in a longnecked bottle, and pour the contents down the animal's throat." Repeat in an hour if needed. Read it in the book →
It promises more milk from the same feed. A teaspoonful of soda in the feed once a day will increase a cow's yield "without increasing the food" — allow about ten days for the effect. Read it in the book →
Soda is the house's fire extinguisher. A large package "should be kept in every part of any building" — thrown at the base of the flames, because heated soda releases carbon dioxide. Read it in the book →
It grants pet dogs a bath. Among the household hints: "Feather dusters and even pet dogs look fluffy and clean, after a bath in The Great Arm & Hammer Soda." Read it in the book →
Reluctant butter is dosed too. "Butter that fails to come after the customary amount of churning will be hastened by a teaspoonful" — soda as dairy first aid. Read it in the book →
Weevils get a chapter. Farmers cribbing corn are told to sprinkle soda between six-inch layers of ears — insurance "against damage from weevil in grain." Read it in the book →
The baby-bottle rules come from the top authority. The infant-care pages quote Dr. L. Emmett Holt of New York on how nursing bottles "should be cared for" — rinsed the moment they are emptied. Read it in the book →
It prints the nation's postage rates. Between the cookies and the cures sit the Domestic and Foreign Rates of Postage — two cents an ounce to England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales — because a giveaway book earned its keep as a reference. Read it in the book →
Every meat gets wiped with soda water. The kitchen advice opens: "Wipe all meats that come into your kitchen with a cloth wet with a solution of The Great Arm & Hammer Soda." Read it in the book →