654 HOME AND HOUSEHOLD. 



whitewashed, to promote a neat look and pure air. The floor 

 of a kitchen should be painted or, which is better, covered with 

 an oil-cloth. To procure a kitchen oil-cloth as cheaply as pos- 

 sible, buy cheap tow-cloth and fit it to the size and shape of the 

 kitchen. Then have it stretched and nailed to the south side 

 of the barn, and with a brush cover it with a coat of thin rye 

 paste. When this is dry, put on a coat of yellow paint and let 

 it dry for a fortnight. It is safest to first try the paint and see 

 if it dries well, as some paint never will dry. Then put on a 

 second coat, and, at the end of another fortnight, a third coat. 

 Then let it hang two months, and it will last, uninjured, for 

 many years. The longer the paint is left to dry, the better. If 

 varnished, it will last much longer. 



A sink should be scalded out every day, and occasionally with 

 hot lye. On nails, over the sink, should be hung three good 

 dish-cloths, hemmed and furnished with loops, one for dishes 

 not greasy, one for greasy dishes, and one for washing pots and 

 kettles. These should be put in the wash every week. The 

 lady who insists upon this will not be annoyed by having her 

 dishes washed with dark, musty, and greasy rags, as is too 

 frequently the case. Under the sink should be kept a slop-pail, 

 and, on a shelf by it, a soap-dish and two water-pails. A large 

 boiler of warm soft water should always be kept over the fire, 

 well covered, and a hearth-broom and bellows be hung near the 

 fire. A clock is a very important article in the kitchen, in order 

 to secure regularity at meals. 



Every kitchen needs a box containing balls of brown thread 

 and twine, a large and small darning-needle, rolls of waste paper 

 and old linen and cotton, and a supply of common holders. 

 There should also be another box, containing a hammer, carpet- 

 tacks, and nails of all sizes, a carpet-claw, screws, and a screw- 

 driver, pincers, gimlets of several sizes, a bed-screw, a small saw, 

 two chisels (one to use for button-holes in broadcloth), two 

 awls, and two files. 



In a drawer or cupboard should be placed cotton table-cloths 

 for kitchen use ; nice crash towels for tumblers, marked T T ; 

 coarser towels for dishes, marked T ; six large roller-towels ; 

 a dozen hand-towels, marked H T ; and a dozen hemmed 

 dish-cloths with loops ; also two thick linen pudding or dump- 



