152 



proportion of a large spoonful of alum, and a tea-cup of 

 salt to a gallon of vinegar. Throw in your cucumbers, 

 which will require to be picked every other day. When 

 you have done collecting them, turn the vinegar from 

 the cucumbers, scald and skim it till clear ; then put in 

 the pickles, let them scald, without boiling, for half an 

 hour, then turn them while hot into the vessel you wish 

 to keep them in. If you wish them spiced, you can pul- 

 verize pepper, cloves, allspice and mace, tie them in a 

 cloth, and throw into the vinegar after it is skimmed, and 

 let them scald with the cucumbers. Should your vine- 

 gar become weak, throw it away, and put fresh to the 

 cucumbers with the spices. Whenever any scum rises 

 the vinegar needs scalding. String-beans and radish 

 pods, make a very nice sickle. Keep them in salt and 

 water, while collecting them, changing the water as 

 often as once in four or five days. Scald them in hot 

 salt and water ; let them lie until cool, and then pour on 

 hot vinegar and spice. 



TO MAKE SOFT SOAP. 



Save all your ashes in a dry place. Take a good 

 strong barrel, bore a large hole in the bottom, and place 

 it on some blocks of wood, to raise it from the ground 

 sufficiently high to set a pail or a kettle under it. Then 

 place on the bottom of the barrel inside, three or four 

 bricks or pieces of wood, and a wisp or two of clean 

 straw on the top of them. Then fill the barrel with ashes. 

 Then add sufficient cold water to wet the ashes thorough- 

 ly. Let it soak thus for three days. After this, add a 

 gallon of water every hour or two, for two days, and let 

 it drop from the hole in the barrel, into a tub beneath. 

 Keep it dripping until the lye loses its color. Sometimes, 

 it is necessary to add fresh ashes to the barrel. You 



