1879 .] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
105 
tin-plate—a, thin sheet of iron, coated with a film of 
tin. Plates of iron of the proper size and thickness 
are scoured with sand and acid until perfectly clean, 
and then dipped several times in melted tin; a 
coating of tin, of variable thickness, adheres to the 
iron. The object of coating iron with tin in this 
manner is to protect the iron from rusting. Tin 
when exposed to the air does not rust or even tar¬ 
nish, while iron readily does so, but the thin coat¬ 
ing of tin completely protects it. No doubt that 
mauy housekeepers will be ready to assert that tin¬ 
ware does rust-—and they are correct— tm-uiare does 
rust, but tin itself does not; so long as the coating 
of tin is perfect, no rusting can take place. The 
knowledge of the fact that all our tin-ware is only 
tin upon the surface, but that the body is iron, 
should lead to greater care in the purchase and the 
use of such articles. Aside from the fact that the 
iron plate to be covered with tin may be good or 
had, there is a great difference in the coating of 
tin ; for cheaper ware, not only is the tin adulter¬ 
ated with lead, but this put on in the thinnest pos¬ 
sible coating, various expedients being used to 
quite cover the iron and yet make the coating as thin 
as possible—a mere film or wash. In this, as in 
many other cases, the purchaser must rely upon the 
honesty of the manufacturer, for in this as in sil¬ 
ver plate the bad looks equally well with the good ; 
the maker of the ware can buy tin-plate on which 
there are three or four times as heavy a covering of 
tin as on the cheapest. It is important to have 
good ware at the start. It will be understood that 
when a plate of tin is cut, the iron is exposed at 
the edges ; in making up utensils careful manufac¬ 
turers tin these edges, i. e., cover them with a film 
•of tin. The neglect to do this is what makes cheap 
ware show rusty spots after a few days’ use. With 
the best of ware the tin will in time wear off and 
•expose the iron, but this is often hastened by im¬ 
proper cleaning. Some persons, especially help, 
pride themselves upon their bright tin-ware, which 
is furiously scoured with soap and sand ; one such 
scouring will remove the tinning from cheap ware, 
and the best can not stand many repetitions un¬ 
harmed. Nothing coarser than whiting should be 
used upon tin-ware, unless in the rare cases when 
some accident has made it necessary ; care in its 
use, and the knowledge that the tin, like beauty, 
“is but skin-deep”—that the articles are really 
Iron, with a thin covering of a very soft metal—tin 
—should lead to a more economical treatment of 
these most useful household conveniences. 
--KS-IJ*-- 
Methods of Washing. 
A correspondent, “R.,” writes: Iwasverymuch 
interested and somewhat perplexed by the com¬ 
munication of “ Ceres,” a few months ago, on “ The 
Management of the Washing.” Is it progress, 
then, to “repudiate all washing fluids, chemical 
soaps, and the like?” Why not “advance” yet 
farther in the same direction and repudiate the 
soap, using still more tubs and water and hand and 
foot labor? The action of soap is “chemical” I 
suppose. What constitutes “pure” soap? For 
nearly a year I have been using an “ electric soap ” 
according to the directions upon the wrapper, ex¬ 
cept that I have found half a bar sufficient for the 
washing of the white clothes of my family, and 
have used common hard washing-soap with the 
colored clothes. I have not found this “ electric ” 
soap injurious to the clothing in any respect, neither 
to fabric, color, nor smell. It is never rubbed direct¬ 
ly upon the cloth, but is dissolved in boiling water 
and made into a suds iu the tub, into which the 
soiled garments are afterwards put. I have been 
astonished, in the meantime, to see how some shirts 
and other garments which I thought must be re¬ 
placed several months ago, still hang together and 
do continued service. I have often thought how 
quickly an average washer-woman would have 
rubbed them to tatters upon the wash-board, while 
by the use of the soap and a little washing imple¬ 
ment used inside a common tub, they have been 
preserved. I have not given a fair trial to any 
washing fluid except that made of sal-soda and 
borax—half as much borax as sal-soda. I had no 
fault whatever to find with this, and thought it a 
great help in saving labor. I have heard only 
praise concerning it from those who have used it— 
a general testimony that the clothes were as white 
and as well preserved after years of use as when 
washed in simple suds of soft-soap and water. I 
have no doubt whatever that clothing washed in 
the manner described by “ Ceres ” is very white 
and sweet, but if “Ceres” had it to do herself— 
four tubs (at least three) to handle, with the 
wringer to change back and forth, and so much 
water to fetch and empty out again, and the same 
heavy basket of wet clothes to carry out twice to 
the bleaching ground or clothes line, with all the 
steps back and forth to sprinkle the clothes as they 
lie in the sun each washing-day—I think she would 
soon find herself wearing out, whether the clothes 
did or not. I am afraid the process is too long and 
elaborate for most house-keepers to undertake. I 
want Science to come to the relief of house-keepers 
and lighten our labors. To be sure the object of 
washing is to make clean, and something must be 
done first to loosen the dirt which is usually held in 
the meshes of the cloth by the oily perspiration 
communicated from human bodies. Good hot soap¬ 
suds will do this, and good washing fluid of some 
safe alkali will hasten the process. Then this 
loosened dirt must somehow be removed from the 
meshes of the fabrie. Rubbing on a wash-board, or 
by the hands alone, will do it, but an easier way 
is to use a washing-machine, provided the machine 
is not so cumbersome that it is more bother to get 
it out and use it and put it away, than it is to do 
without it—iu short, “more plague than profit,” 
The scalding by boiling water, either over the fire 
or in a tub, helps to make sure that all the oily 
perspiration, or other grease, is dissolved, while 
the soap or alkali in the water changes its proper¬ 
ties by chemical action and renders it harmless. 
The hot sunshine afterwards completes this busi¬ 
ness, and carries off in vapor, while the clothes are 
drying, the last remnants of “dirt,” provided you 
have used sufficient water in washing and rinsing 
to carry away the dust and other solid “ dirt,” as 
well as the last remains of soap used in the suds. 
An Easily Made Hand Snow-Plow. 
Clearing the paths and shoveling off the snow is 
a job that generally belongs to the boys of the 
family, and while a snow-plow is hardly a house¬ 
hold implement, the results of its use are of so 
much importance to the household generally that 
we give it here. Upon every place of sufficient 
size to warrant it, there should be a snow-plow 
drawn by a horse, but a hand-plow is a great help, 
especially if used while the snow is still light and 
dry. We have in times past described several styles 
of such plows, and now give one which may be 
put together in a few minutes, and which Mr. “ M. 
O. L.,” of Shelburne Falls, Mass., who sends the 
sketch, finds “a very handy device for clearing 
the box is taken off, and a strip of board 36 inches 
long and 10 wide is put through the center and 
braced by two pieces, each 30 inches long and 10 
wide, which are nailed to this center-board and the 
ends of the box, as seen in the engraving. Holes 
are bored near the top edge of the center-board to 
allow the rope to be attached by which the plow is 
drawn. The box will fill with snow, which will 
give it sufficient weight. Mr. L. thinks that by 
using this plow he can clear his paths in one-tenth 
the time ordinarily required to shovel them. 
^ERIC/l/y 
CUITV)^ 
/ V 
A File for the American Agriculturist. 
Where papers are much read, and especially 
where, as with the American Agriculturist, they are 
read by all the members of the family, and then 
kept for future reference, some contrivance for 
holding or temporarily binding them, helps greatly 
to preserve 
them. Several 
covers or tem¬ 
porary binders 
that answer 
the purpose 
excellently, 
are to be had 
at a moderate 
cost. Those 
who do not 
care to pur¬ 
chase these, 
can adopt 
some home¬ 
made device, 
and we have 
in back vol¬ 
umes given 
several that 
suggested. Any con- 
VOL.XXXVII NO.I 
A PAPER FILE. 
our correspondents have 
trivance that will hold the papers together, is bet¬ 
ter than to allow them to lie about loose, and one 
having something in the form of a cover to prevent 
soiling and tearing, is all the better. Nothing can 
be simpler than the method in which our correspond¬ 
ent, “ J. H. C.,” secures papers ; he sends us a neat 
little model of the affair. It is merely four pieces 
of hard wood, with two holes in each, the corners 
being nicely rounded. The engraving shows how 
these are used in pairs with a piece of cord passed 
through the holes. If two pieces of thin paste¬ 
board, or even very heavy brown paper, of the 
proper size be provided to serve as covers, even so 
simple and inexpensive affair as this, will be found 
a great help, and at the end of the Volume, the 
papers will be in a vastly better condition for bind¬ 
ing, than they would be without such protection. 
A Useful, Easily-made Egg Tester. 
“A New Reader,” Abilene, Kas., gives the fol¬ 
lowing directions for making an Egg-tester that he 
finds useful: “Procure a paste-board box about three 
inches deep, with 
a cover sufficient¬ 
ly large to ad¬ 
mit of cutting 
through it three, 
six, or more egg- 
shaped holes, 
large enough to 
nicely hold an 
egg, without per- handy egg-tester. 
mitting it to pass entirely through; procure a 
small looking-glass that will fit snugly at the bot¬ 
tom of the box, fasten it there with strips of stick¬ 
ing paper, or otherwise. Cut away about half an 
inch of one end of the box the full width, and re¬ 
move from one end of the cover the part that comes 
down over the box when the lid is in its place on 
the box, and there will be an opening at one end, 
half an inch wide, for looking into the box, as shown 
in the engraving. Fill all the egg-shaped holes in 
the cover with eggs, place the affair in a strong 
light, look into the box through the opening at the 
end directly at the mirror, and you will be sur¬ 
prised to find how easy it is to see through an egg. 
If the inside of the box is colored or painted dark- 
brown, or black, the effect will be better. I have 
made such an egg tester of a wood box, with a 
handle to it, so that it can be moved aoout easily.” 
[We like to test all such devices before publish¬ 
ing them, and having a piece of looking-glass at 
hand, we had, with the aid of this and an empty 
