Economy Of Fuel-T here is no part of domestic economy which everybody professes to understand better than the management of a fire, and yet there is no branch in the household arrangement where there is a greater proportional and unnecessary waste, than arises from ignorance and mismanagement in this article.

1136. It is an old adage that we must stir no man's fire until we have known him seven years; hut we might find it equally prudent if we were careful as to the stirring of our own.

1137. Anybody, indeed, can take up a poker and toss the coals about: but that is not stirring a fire !

1138. In short, the use of a poker applies solely to two particular points - the opening of a dying fire, so as to admit the free passage of the air into it, and sometimes, but not always, through it - or else approximating the remains of a half-burned fire, so as to concentrate the heat, whilst the parts still ignited are opened to the atmosphere.

1139. The same observation may apply to the use of a pair of bellows, the mere blowing of which, at random, nine times out of ten will fail; the force of the current of air sometimes blowing out the fire, as it is called, that is, carrying off the caloric too rapidly, and at others, directing the warmed current from the unignited fuel, instead of into it.

1140. To prove this, let any person sit down with a pair of bellows, to a fire only partially ignited, or partially extinguished; let him blow, at first, not into the burning part, but into the dead coal close to it, so that the air may partly extend to the burning coal. 1141. After a few blasts, let the bellows blow into the burning fuel, but directing the stream partly towards the dead coal; when it will be found that the ignition will extend much more rapidly than under the common' method of blowing furiously into the flame at random.

1142. If the consumer, instead of ordering a large supply of coal at once, will at first content himself with a sample, he may with very little trouble ascertain who will deal fairly with him; and, if he wisely pays ready money, he will be independent of his coal merchant; a situation which few families, even in genteel life, can boast of.

1143. Indeed, we cannot too often repeat the truth, that to deal for ready money only, in all the departments of domestic arrangement, is the truest economy.

1144. Ready money will always command the best and cheapest of every article of consumption, if expended with judgment; and the dealer, who intends to act fairly, will always prefer it.

1145. Trust not him who seems more anxious to give credit than to receive cash.

1146. The former hopes to secure custom by having a hold upon you in his books; and continues always to make up for his advance, either by an advanced price, or an inferior article; whilst the latter knows that your custom can only be secured by fair dealing.

1147. There is, likewise, another consideration, as far as economy is concerned, which is, not only to buy with ready money, but to buy at proper seasons; for there is with every article a cheap season and a dear one; and with none more than coals: insomuch that the master of a family who fills his coal cellar in the middle of the summer, rather than the beginning of the winter, will find it filled at less expense than it would otherwise cost him: and will be enabled to see December's snows falling without feeling his enjoyment of his fireside lessened by the consideration that the cheerful blaze is supplied at twice the rate that it need have done, if he had exercised more foresight.

1148. We must now call to the recollection of our readers that chimney often smoke, and that coal is often wasted by throwing too much fuel at once upon a fire.

1149. To prove this observation, it is only necessary to remove the superfluous coal from the top of the grate, when the smoking instantly ceases; as to the waste, that evidently proceeds from the frequent, intemperate and injudicious use of the poker, which not only throws a great portion of the small coals among the cinders, but often extinguishes the fire it was intended to foster.