Cheap Refrigerators

A flower pot wrapped in a wet cloth, and placed over a butter plate, will keep the contents of the plate as hard and firm as if they were set on ice; and milk will not sour if the can containing it be wrapped in a wet cloth.

How To Mend Broken Crockery

We have used lime and the white of an egg for mending earthenware, and find it most satisfactory. It is a strong cement, easily applied, and generally at hand. Mix only enough to mend one article at a time, as it soon hardens, when it cannot be used. Powder a small quantity of the lime and mix to a paste with the white. Apply quickly to the edges, and place firmly together. It will soon become set and strong, seldom breaking in the same place again.

How To Polish Shirt Fronts And Wrist Bands

Starch the fronts and wrist bands as stiff as you can. Starch twice - that is, starch, dry, then starch again. Iron your shirt with a box iron, in the usual way, making the linen nice and firm, but without any attempt at a good finish; don't lift the plait; your shirt is now ready for polishing, but you ought to have a board same size as a common shirt board, made of hard wood, and covered with only one ply of plain cotton cloth. Put this board into the breast of your shirt, damp the front very lightly with a wet sponge, then take the polishing iron, which is flat and beveled at one end; polish gently with the beveled end, taking care not to drive the linen up into wave-like blisters. Of course this requires a little practice, but if you are careful and persevere, in a short time you will be able to give the enamel-like finish which is so much wanted.

Home-Made Camphor Ice

Melt half a teacupful of mutton tallow with a piece of camphor gum the size of a large hickory-nut; pour into a little cup or mold.

Home-Made Hard Soap

Were the good qualities of this inexpensive soap more generally known, no family would go without it. It is valuable for washing clothes, making them very clean and white, without in the least injuring them, and is excellent for flannels or calicoes. It is good also for the hands, making them soft and smooth. Take six pounds each of salsoda and lard, three pounds of stone lime, four gallons of soft water, dissolve the lime and soda in the water, stirring, settling, and pouring off, then return to the kettle, using brass or copper; add the lard, and boil until it becomes soap; then pour into a tub; when cold, cut in bars and dry.

A Beautiful Whitewash

To five gallons of whitewash, made of well-burned lime, add a quarter of a pound of whiting, half a pound of loaf sugar, one quart and a half of rice flour, made into a thin and well-cooked paste, and half a pound of white glue dissolved in water; apply warm; previously scrape off all old scaly whitewash; this is like kalsomine, and gives a brilliant and lasting effect.