290 



CURING AND STORING. 



ROSEBUDS, To Preserve.— A method 

 employed in Germany to keep rosebuds 

 iresh into the winter, consists in first 

 covering the end of the recently cut stem 

 with wax, and then placing each one in a 

 closed paper cap or cone, so that the 

 leaves do not touch the paper. The cap 

 is then coated with glue, to exclude air, 

 ■dust, and moisture, and when dry it is 

 .stood up in a cool place. When wanted 

 for use, the bud is taken out of the cap 

 . and placed in water, after cutting of the 

 end, when the rose will bloom in a few 

 hours. 



SWEET POTATOES, To Keep.— Sweet 

 potatoes can be kept by placing them in 

 bulk in a bin or box (the more the better) 

 without drying, and maintaining for them 

 a uniform temperature of 45 to 50 . Put- 

 ting something between, among, or around 

 them may serve to keep them at the pro- 

 per temperature, but it is of no value 

 whatever aside from this ; and if it should 

 retain dampness, -it will be a positive in- 

 jury. After the sweat takes place, say in 

 three or four weeks, scatter over them a 

 light covering of dry loam or sand. In 

 this way it is easy to keep sweet potatoes 

 for table use or for seed, as well as "the 

 inferior and less nourishing Irish potato." 

 Another way is to pack in barrels, and pour 

 in kiln-dried sand until the intervals are 

 full ; or boxes of uniform size, piled up on 

 the side of a room where the temperature 

 never falls to the freezing point, which is 

 a condition of first importance. This 

 wall of boxes may be papered over, and 

 left undisturbed till spring, when the pota- 

 toes will command the highest prices. 



SWEET POTATOES, In Bulk.— A 

 sweet potato grower in Sonthern Illinois 

 states that sweet potatoes will keep in 

 bulk. He has kept seven hundred 

 Ibushels in one pile. The potatoes should 

 Ibe dug before the vines are injured by 

 frost, sunned until dry, and then placed 

 in a cellar on a clay floor, putting fine hay 

 or flax straw between the potatoes and 

 the wall, and covering with the same 

 material. The deeper and larger the pile 

 the better. The hay or straw should be 

 covered with clay, a thickness of one or 

 two inches being sufficient for the climate 

 of that region. At the top should be left 

 one or more air-holes, according to the 

 ;size of the pile, for the escape of steam. 



In damp warm weather open a window 

 or door in the day-time. 



SOAP, HARD, To Make.— After the raw 

 soda or barilla is ground or pounded, it is 

 placed in a vat in alternate layers with 

 unslacked lime, the bottom layer being 

 lime. Water is allowed to infiltrate 

 through those layers, and the lye is se- 

 cured as it trickles through a hole in the 

 bottom of the vat. The lime absorbs 

 the carbonic acid of the soda, making the 

 lye caustic or fit for the soap-kettle ; and 

 the quantity of lime applied must be in 

 proportion to the quantity of carbonic 

 acid in the soda. To every twenty 

 pounds of tallow add one gallon of weak 

 lye, and boil until the lye is spent. The 

 mass must then cool for one hour, the 

 spent lye drawn off, and another gallon of 

 strong lye added; the mixture again 

 boiled until the second dose of lye is 

 spent, and the same process must be re- 

 peated for several days, until the mixture, 

 if properly managed, is converted into 

 white tallow soap, which should be al- 

 lowed to cool gradually and settle, when 

 it is poured into molds, and when solid it 

 is cut into the bars which are found in our 

 markets. Twenty pounds of tallow ought 

 to make 30 pounds of first-quality hard 

 soap, allowing three pounds of soda-ash 

 for every 20 pounds of tallow. The bal- 

 ance of the weight is made up by the 

 large quantity of water which enters into 

 combination with the grease and alkali in 

 the course of saponification. 



When yellow or resin soap is required, 

 the hard soap has to be made in the usual 

 manner, and at the last charge of lye, or 

 when the soapy mass ceases to absorb 

 any more lye, one-third the weight of 

 pounded resin is introduced, the mixture 

 constantly stirred, and the boil kept up 

 vigorouly until the resin has become in- 

 corporated with the soap. The whole 

 must stand until it settles, and the soap 

 then dipped out. Resin soap, when well 

 made, should be a fine, bright color. 



SOAP, SOFT, To Make.^The principal 

 difference between hard and soft soaps is, 

 that three parts of fat afford, in general, 

 fully five parts of hard soda-soap; but 

 three parts of fat or oil will afford six or 

 seven parts of potash-soap of a moderate 

 consistence. From its cheapness, strength, 

 and superior solubility, potash-soap is pre- 



