264: 
AMERICAN AG-RICrJLTURIST 
[July, 
more trouble and risk, and I hardly think it can be 
any improvement upon the method with water. 
Still another way (recommended by one in whose 
judgment I have confidence), is to bury them in 
the sugar-barrel. We don’t all have barrels of 
Fig. 1.— A Y-SHAPED LEACH. 
sugar, but I suspect that salt would answer the 
same purpose—anything that prevents the evapora¬ 
tion of the fluid of the fruit and keeps it cool. I 
wonder whether the lemons would not impart some 
flavor to the sugar in which they were buried. Of 
course this would not be desirable. My friend 
said nothing about that.—[This advice, no doubt, 
refers to brown, or other unrefined sugar, and the 
following of it can hardly fail to flavor the sugar. 
We were once told by a sea-captain that he kept 
lemons for a long time by placing them in a jar, or 
keg, and covering them with molasses. The chief 
object is exclusion of air, which the molasses 
would do most effectively.—E d.] 
In Making ILetnonade, 
we usually pare off the yellow peel, unless the 
lemonade is to be used immediately, because the 
peel, by standing with the sugar, imparts a bitter 
taste to the drink. Some roll the lemons before 
they are peeled and sliced, to break the cells and 
set free the juices. Others slice the lemons upon 
the sugar, in the proportion of one lemon to two 
large spoonfuls of sugar, mashing the slices with 
the sugar and leaving it just covered with water 
for 10 or 15 minutes before filling up with water. 
Lemon Flavoring- 
may be prepared at home in two ways. 1. Save the 
peelings of lemons used for lemonade or other 
purposes, when the peel is not all required by the 
recipe. With a sharp, thin knife, cut off the yel¬ 
low part, and dry it quickly without scorching. 
Keep it in a dry place, and when needed, grind to 
a fine powder before using. 2. To two ounces of 
the thin yellow lemon rind, add one pint of good 
Alcohol, improving it if you choose with a few 
drops of 0:1 of Lemon. In a few days it is ready. 
Lemon Pudding Sauce. 
One lemon—the juice and half of the grated peel. 
One heaping tea-cup of sugar, one-third of a cup of 
butter, one egg. Beat well together the butter, 
sugar, and egg, then the lemon (and a little nutmeg 
if you choose). After a thorough beating together, 
add slowly half a tea-cup of boiling water, stirring 
it constantly for a few minutes, keeping it as hot 
as possible without boiling it. 
Baked Khubarl). 
A delicious sauce is made by baking the sliced 
stalks of rhubarb with sugar. Cut the slices an inch 
thick,and bake in a deep earthen pudding-dish, after 
mixing a tea cupful of sugar to a pint of sliced 
rhubarb. This can be preserved by canning while 
boiling hot, the same as fruit. 
Ithubarb and Orange Marmalade. 
Take one dozen oranges ; pare off the yellow 
peel, discarding the thick white rind and seeds. 
Cut the peel into fine bits, and put it with the 
sliced pulp. Add two quarts of sliced rhubarb, 
and three pounds of loaf or granulated sugar. Boil 
the whole slowly until it is quite thick. Turn into 
cups and cover, when cool, with paper varnished 
over with white of egg, pasted to the cup. 
Strawberry Siiorlcakc. 
Any good biscuit mixture will do for the short¬ 
cake. It is common to make it with sour cream, 
or sour milk (and soda, of course), with more or 
less butter, as the milk is more or less creamy. 
Roll out to form two thin sheets, placing one above 
the other. When done and still warm, the two 
sheets of the cake easily separate without cutting. 
Butter each half on the soft side, and cover thickly 
with sweetened strawberries. Place one sheet 
above the other, strawberries uppermost. 
Cauned Strawberries. 
It is an excellent way to sprinkle sugar over the 
hulled berries, and let them stand two or three 
hours. Say a heaping tablespoonful to a quart of 
fruit. Pour off the juice into the preserving kettle, 
and add sufficient sugar to make a good syrup. 
When hot, put in enough berries to fill one can, 
and allow them to boil about two minutes. Dip 
out the berries, boiling hot, into the bottle, and 
pour in enough of the boiling syrup to fill the can. 
Seal immediately. Put a fresh lot of berries with 
a little more sugar into the remaining syrup, and 
treat in the same way. If syrup remains when all 
the berries are canned, it makes excellent jelly. If 
the berries stand too long in the sugar, it injures 
their color and leaves them less firm. 
-- 
Leaeh.es, Lye, 'and Soap. 
In the older States, before the general use of coal 
as fuel, a leach was an important household appli¬ 
ance ; the ashes from the wood burned during the 
winter were carefully saved, and in spring, these, 
with the careful housewife’s savings of soap-fat, 
were put to use in the annual soap-making. As 
wood as a fuel went out of use, good, honest 
home-made soft-soap also disappeared. Still there 
are localities where wood is j'et the fuel, and 
though these arc much less than formerly, they are 
sufficient to bring us a number of inquiries about 
lye and soap-making. The value of ashes depends 
upon the kind of wood used, the soft woods yield¬ 
ing ashes very poor in potash, which is the import¬ 
ant constituent so far as soap-making is concerned. 
Where soap is to be made from ashes, the first step 
is to extract their soluble parts, to get a solution 
of them in water, known as lye. To do this, the 
ashes are placed in some receptacle, called a leach , 
in which water can gradually trickle through them, 
and come out below as a strong solution or lye. 
Fig. 2.—USING A HOGSHEAD AS A LEACH. 
Our correspondent, L. D. Snook, of Yates Co., 
N. Y., sends us drawings of two common forms 
of leaches. Figure 1 represents the old-fashion 
Y-shaped leach, sufficiently well to show its struc¬ 
ture. There is a frame of 2 x 3-inch scantling, 
about a foot from the top, which is stayed by side 
pieces; the bottom is a log, in which a gutter is 
dug, to convey the lye to a pail, or other receptacle, 
placed at its lower end. The manner in which the 
leach is supported, and the arrangements of its 
side-boards, is sufficiently shown in the engraving. 
Sometimes an old sugar or molasses hogshead, ob¬ 
tainable cheaply at “ the store,” is used as a leach. 
The hogshead, first having half-inch holes bored in 
its lower staves and ends, is set up, as shown in 
figure 2, upon a grooved plank, which will convey 
the lye to a vessel placed to receive it. This is 
kept in proper position by a frame, or by braces 
at the sides, as shown in figure 2. 
To “ Set tlic Leach,” 
as putting it in operation is called. The old method 
was to put in the bottom some bricks or stones, 
then some brush, and over this a layer of straw, 
and then put in the ashes. This will answer, if no 
better method can be followed, but it is much 
easier and better to place on the bottom of the 
leach, of whatever kind, a piece of old blanket, or 
old carpet. This will accomplish the purpose for 
which the straw, etc., are used— i. e., to prevent 
the ashes from clogging up the holes, and allow 
the lye to flow out. Ashes moisten slowly, and in 
filling the leach, it is better to put in a small 
quantity at a time, moistening each layer as it is 
put in, and compacting it with a pounder of some 
kind. If the ashes are thus moistened all through, 
the leach will work more evenly than when filled 
dry. It is customary to make in the top of the 
ashes a cavity large enough to hold a pailful or two 
of water, and replenish the water as it soaks away. 
The more slowly the water percolates among the 
ashes, the stronger the lye will be. It is a common 
practice to put lime in the leach, six or eight quarts 
of quick lime being placed on the first layer of 
ashes. This makes the lye much stronger, the 
lime converting the carbonate of potash, as it ex¬ 
ists in the ashes, in part into caustic potash. 
Making Soap with Lye. 
There are some facts about soap-making not 
generally understood, and are here given in brief. 
The alkali in lye from wood-ashes is always potash. 
Potash will not, with any fat whatever, form a hard 
soap. All hard soaps contain soda, instead of 
potash. All the recipes that are sold for making 
hard soap from potash, or from lye, require the use 
of salt. The salt decomposes the potash soap, its 
soda taking the place of the potash and forming a 
hard soap with the fat, while the potash, having 
formed a new combination, remains in the liquid 
at the bottom of the kettle. From lye alone, then, 
only soft soap can be expected, and this, when well 
made, is very useful for ordinary domestic pur¬ 
poses, and vastly better than the soft soap sold all 
over the country, which is merely common hard 
soap, thinned to a sort of jelly with water, and is a 
most expensive article to purchase. While almost 
every farmer’s wife, who makes soap from lye, can 
do it satisfactorily, and have the soap “come” 
every time, she will find it difficult to give a precise 
rule, so much depends upon practice and judg¬ 
ment, or “gumption.” In a general way she takes 
the strongest of the lye, and boils it with the rough 
grease, pours this into the soap barrel, and then 
adds the weaker lye as it runs from the leach. The 
usual result is a barrel of good strong soap, made 
without much reference to rules or proportions. 
So far as we can come at a rule, for soap with lye, 
an experienced soap-maker says: “Have the lye 
strong enough to float a potato. Take 12 pounds 
of clean grease, previously tried out, and add to it 
four gallons of lye, and boil together over a slow 
fire; put this into the soap barrel, and add more 
and weaker Jye, to make a barrel of soap, frequent¬ 
ly stirring.”—It will be seen that this is far from 
definite, and we shall be very glad if some one will 
give a more precise rule. In making soft soap 
from potash, the usual rule for a barrel of soap, is 
12 lbs. of potash to 14 lbs. of grease. Dissolve the 
potash in about two pailfuls of hot water, poured 
on it over night. The potash dissolves quite slow¬ 
ly, especially if in compact lumps. Have the grease, 
previously rendered, in a barrel, and pour on it the 
potash liquor, stirring well. If some of the potash, 
as will probably be the case, remains undissolved, 
pour on more hot water, and the next day add this 
to the barrel, and continue doing so, stirring 
thoroughly, until the potash is all dissolved. Then 
add cold water, in moderate quantities, stirring 
each time, until the barrel is full. 
-- ««•—* i* O ^ 
Butter-Coolers. 
Some time ago the manufacturer of a porous 
butter-cooler, Mr. A. Reeve, of Camden, N. J.,sent 
us one of his coolers for trial. After careful test¬ 
ing, we find it to be a desirable means for cooling 
butter in hot weather. It is well known that the 
process of evaporation results in a reduction of 
temperature ; and this is the principle upon which 
this cooler operates. It consists of a hollow piece 
of earthen-ware, as shown at figure 1. The bottom 
