Year: 1873

How 1 Make Soft Soap.


I keep my ashes dry, and when put in
the hopper preparatory to making soap,
I have from half to one peck of un-
Stacked lime put in with the ashes.
Before putting the grease in, swing
the kettle off the fire and let it hang a
few moments. If there is any potash in
it, I take a shovel and take it out, for
| if there is much potash in it it will not
adding water enough to dampen them.
Then I put three or four buckets of
water on each day for two or three days,
until I think it sufficiently soaked. And
lastly, I pour on boiling water to run
the lye off. AS soon as I have enough
run off to commence boiling, put my
kettle over the fire, and boil the lye as
fast as it will boil, still adding more lye
as it boils down. In this way 1 continue
for a whole day. By evening it will
probably be sufficiently strong to eat q
feather in passing it three times across
the liquid I now put my grease in (all
I think it will eat) still boiling as fast as
can without its running over If it
eats the grease all up / add more I
now leave my kettle to hang over the
fire all night. In the morning, if there
are any scraps of grease that are not
eaten up, I boil again for an hour or
two, and if they do not dissolve I take
them out. Then I take out a few
spoonfuls of the soap, and set it away
little while to cool When cold, if there
is no lye under it, and it appears free
from grease, I set my kettle off, and
hang another one to boil more lye.
Managing in this way, generally can
make from sixteen to eighteen gallons
of nice white soap in two days, and often
in one day and night.-Cor. Cincirs-
natl Gazette.


Tendency to Monopoly.


Thos. Meehan, in the Philadelphia
Press, expresses the belief that the
steam-plow cannot be made profitable
on small farms, but that, as steam can
do the work cheaper than horses, the
tendency will be to tempt capitalists to
work the land more than they do, and
thus bring about larger farms, and more
stupendous enterprises in the business
than we find now. If this be true, we
may have great monopolists in the agri-
cultural as in the mercantile world. In
England, the tendency has been toward
large farms, and farming pays in that
country. In France, the farms are small
and improbable. The prospect of CO.
operation affords the most convenient
solution of this problem which occurs to
us, and it is not wholly unreasonable to
suppose that, as machinery becomes
necessary and expensive, farmers will
combine, and succeed in joint-stock con-
Germs where they fail singly.


Preserving Potatoes.


A correspondent of the Scientific
american says that he has tried the fol-
lowing method of keeping potatoes for
years with complete success, though in
some instances the tubers were diseased
when taken out of the ground: "Dust
over the floor of the bin with lime, and
about six inches deep of potatoes, and
dust with the lime as before. Put in
six or seven inches of potatoes, and lime
again repeat the operation until all are
stored away. One bushel of lime will do
for forty bushels of potatoes, though
more will not hurt them-the lime rather
improving the flavor than otherwise.
Household Notes.


To Make Sausage. ten pounds of
meat, add four and half ounces salt,
one ounce pepper, three-quarters of an
ounce sage.


Scotch Cake.-Take one pound of fine
-four, half pound of fresh butter, a
half pound of finely-sifted loaf sugar
mix well in paste, roll out an inch
thick in square shape, pinch the edges
SO as to form small points ornament
with comfits and orange chips bake III a
quick oven. When of pale lemon color
it is done.


Deviled Itwkey.-Take the legs of a
turkey or large fowl, cut it all over to
the bone, pepper and salt it well then
take mixed mustard, mix it with one
third its quantity of -four, and plaster
the legs over with the mixture as thick
as it will stick, also stufing the gashes
in the legs with it; when this is done
put it on gridiron over a clear fire
serve hot.


Delicate Cdke.-Take one pound OF
-four. one of sugar, three-quarters of a
pound of butter, one wine-glass of wine,
one of brandy, the whites of sixteen
eggs. This makes a delightful cake,
well named.