414 



DOMESTIC ECONOMY. 



[Chap. FV. 



woman conld wring it with all her strength and ten-fold more time. Tlicso 

 machines cost from $5 to $10, according to size, and are very simple in con- 

 struction, very efi'ective, and look as though they would be very durable, 

 and are certainly very great labor-saving machines, and one should be in 

 every family, and we are doing a jniblic duty in making them as exten- 

 sively known as any other fact for Atrmcrs. With a Metropolitan washing 

 machine and a clothes-wnnger, or, rather, a clothes-squeezer, which has 

 been several years in use in the author's family, washing-day is no longer 

 one that is dreaded. With these, washing is made easy. 



462. Soft Water. — No woman can wash with any satisfaction unless she 

 has soft water. It is for this that we have treated so fully upon cisterns — 

 333, 334, 335. Hard well water can be softened with lye, potash, or soda. 

 We have seen a statement that a well of hard water was permanently cured 

 by putting four feet of coai-se gravel in the bottom, where the water oozed 

 in through the blue clay. We recommend that a space at least a foot 

 wide behind the wall should also be filled with gravel as high as the water 

 comes in. 



As Ikoxing follows washing, we sa}': If your flat-irons are rough, rub 

 them well with fine salt, and it will make them smooth ; so will rubbing 

 them with a waxed rag. Be sure to use them hot. 



463. Beds and Bedding. — There is no article of household furniture of so 

 much importance as the bed. It is the place where exhausted nature enjoys 

 recuperation, and all that art can do to make it comfortable at all seasons 

 of the year, should be'done, particularly in the farmer's home, where the 

 nature of the lalior is so exhausting. We are so much opposed to feather 

 beds, that we have not had one in the house for manf years, and we never 

 sleep more comfortably than we do at home upon hard mattresses. . We 

 think that feather beds ouglit to be done away with, especially in warm 

 weatlier. For spring, summer, and fall, husk beds ought to be in use in 

 every family, and would be if better known. There is no better time for pro- 

 curing husks than when the corn is being harvested, and the husks will be 

 much nicer and cleaner when corn is cut and shocked, and not become so 

 dry and weather-beaten. A good husk bed will last from twenty to thirty 

 years. Every farmer's daughter can supply herself with such beds against 

 time of need at a trifling expense. 



No one who has not tried them knows the value of husk beds, which is 

 s'.icli that some persons think that straw and mattresses would be entirely 

 done away with if husk beds were once tried ; that they are not only more 

 pliable than mattresses, but are more durable, and the first cost is but little. 

 To have husks nice they may be split after the manner of splitting straw for 

 braiding. The finer they are the softer will be the bed, although they will 

 not be likely to last as long as when they are put in wliole. Three barrels 

 full, well stowed in, will fill a good-sized tick, that is, after they have been 

 split. The bed will always be light, the husks do not become matted down 

 like feathers, and they are certainly more healthy to sleep on. 



