The Country Gentlewoman 



320 



made to fit the top of the dust-bin. It should be 

 affixed as a lid, and have a padlock, to prevent ser- 

 vants from removing it, excepting at stated times, for 

 the dust to be taken away by the carts. This would 

 be found by householders to promote both health and 

 economy, and the grating being small, or, rather, fine 

 enough to allow the dust only to pass through, the 

 cinders would remain on the top, and could be col- 

 lected and replaced in the cinder-scuttle for household 

 purposes. Thus, the lazy extravagant habit of ser- 

 vants, who rarely sift cinders, would be obviated. 



and the labour spent in polishing be saved. A good 

 coating of the paint, the author says, will last a year or 

 two. 



PRESERVING EGGS. ' 

 No egg is fresh that will shake ; this is be- 

 cause it has lost some of its albumen. No egg 

 has ever been preserved over a month that will 

 not shake, except it be air-rooted, which is a term 

 not generally understood, and is a new process. 

 The egg has been coated with every conceivable 

 composition, even in solid stone, and galvanised, 

 STOVES AND OVENS. ^^^ ^^ watery material escapes. The philosophy 



Black lead is a great institution in this country, of this is, that there is air in the egg before it is 

 and probably few but cooks and housemaids would treated, and this, uniting its oxygen and carbon, pro- 

 care to see its use diminished. It certainly has its duces decomposition by carbonic acid gas, the yellow 

 recommendations, but it can hardly be said to be of the egg first breaking ; then follows the destruction, 

 ornamental, while it entails an immense amount of Eggs are naturally designed to last as long as the hen 

 labour on our servants. Ir Germany, where a requires to get her brood, and the life-germ can be 

 stove and sort of kitchen range is continually to be preserved a few weeks — seven or eight — but no longer, 

 found in the common sitting-room of a respectable The egg itself may be kept in a preserved state for two 

 family, the unsightliness seems to have been felt, years, by greasing with butter, oil, or lard, but from 

 and a suggestion has been made to do away with the the time it is thus put up, to the end of two years, it 

 black lead, and paint the stoves and ovens. Oil paint, ^\•ill daily lose its albumen by transpiration, and while 

 of course, cannot be employed, but water glass its carbonic acid escapes to a certain extent, the egg- 

 (silicate of potash) coloured with pigment to match meat will be reduced two-thirds, and will shake. For 

 the paint of the apartment, is the material recom- culinary purposes they will do well. But we want a 

 mended. Before this is applied the iron must be whole egg, not a half one, and we want them fresh, 

 thoroughly cleansed from grease, and all rust spots Butter, and lard, and suet have been used for half a 

 must be rubbed off with a scratch brush. Two or century ; still nothing has recommended itself over the 



three coats of the paint may then be put on and allowed 

 to dry, after which the fire may then be lighted with- 

 out fear of injury to the colour, which miay, indeed, be 

 heated to redness. Grease or milk spilt over the paint 

 has no efiect upon it, and it may be kept clean by 

 washing with soap and water. Dutch ovens and like 

 utensils may also be coated with the same materials. 



liming system in a commercial point of view. The 

 theory has always been, and still is, that to keep an 

 egg fresh the air must be excluded. It is the only 

 philosophical treatment of it that can be made. Ex- 

 ternally kept from the air, the latter is powerless to do 

 harm, but the air inside no mortal can prevent, and 

 that alone in time will decompose the egg. 



