400 



DOMESTIC ECONOMY. 



[Chap. IV. 



Bread and cakes should be kept in a tin box or stone jar. 



Salt codfish should l)e kept in a dry place, where the odor of it will not 

 afi'ect the house. Tlio best kind is that -n-hieii is called dun, from its jjcculiar 

 color. Fish skin, for clearing coflee, should be washed, dried, cut small, and 

 kept in a box or paper bag. 



iSoft soap should be kept in a dry place in the cellar, and should not be 

 used till three months old. 



Bar soap should be cut inio pieces of a convenient size, and left where it 

 will become dry. It is well to keei^ it several weeks before using, as it 

 spends fast when it is new. 



Cranberries will keep all winter in a firkin of water in the cellar. 



Potatoes should be put into the cellar as soon as they are dug. Lying 

 exposed in the sun turns them green and makes them watery. Some good 

 housekeepers have sods laid over barrels of potatoes not in immediate use. 

 To prevent them from sprouting in the spring, turn them out on the cellar 

 bottom. 



To thaw frozen potatoes, put them in hot M-atcr. To thaw frozen apples, 

 put them in cold water. Neither will keej) well after being frozen. 



437. Storing Butter and fheese.— The most economical, and, to our taste, 

 the best table butter is that which is packed in September and October for 

 the next winter's use. If well made, in a soft-water region, there is no 

 difficulty about keeping butter sweet in a temperate climate, if propei'ly 

 made. J^ever keep butter and cheese together, except it is in a very cool 

 room, and then not in close contact. 



If cheese is rich and good, it always feels soft under tlie pressure of 

 the fingers. Even if kept until quite old, it does not become horny. Be 

 careful not to select a horny cheese. That which is rery strong is neither 

 good nor healthy. To keep one that is cut, tie it up in a bag tliat will not 

 admit flies, and hang it in a cool, dry place. K mold appears on it, wipe 

 it ofl:" with a dry cloth. 



43S. Keeping Sweet Potatoes. — One who is a successful grower of sweet 

 potatoes in quite a northern latitude— near 42 degrees — gives the following 

 as his method of keeping them over winter. He says: 



" I use dry sand to put them up in ; it does not matter how the sand Avas 

 dried — in a kiln, a log heap, or in the sun — if it is dry, that is all that is 

 required. I prefer drying it in a log heap, as it costs at least four times less, 

 and is just as good. And a family that has a little room with a stove in it, 

 may keep a box or two, with eight or ten bushels in them, without any in- 

 convenience of consequence. The boxes must be raised a few inclies from 

 the floor, and they must not be less than four inches from the wall. Fill the 

 boxes with potatoes, and then put in dnj sand until they are covered. 



" I have known them kept well in buckwheat chaff. In order to keep 

 potatoes with success, there must be a thermometer kept in the room. The 

 mercury must not sink below 40 degrees ; if it does, the potatoes will chill 

 and rot ; and it must not rise above 60 degrees, or they will grow." (See 565.) 



