mate. When
this had been repeated four or five times, the house was effectually
cleared. Too much care cannot be taken of corrosive sublimate,
especially when children are about. Many dreadful accidents have
happened in consequence of carelessness. Bottles which have contained
it should be broken, and buried; and cups should be boiled out in
ashes and water. If kept in the house, it should be hung up high, out
of reach, with POISON written upon it in large letters.

The neatest way to separate wax from honey-comb is to tie the comb
up in a linen or woollen bag; place it in a kettle of cold water, and
hang it over the fire. As the water heats, the wax melts, and rises to
the surface, while all the impurities remain in the bag. It is well
to put a few pebbles in the bag, to keep it from floating. Honey may
be separated from the comb, by placing it in the hot sun, or before
the fire, with two or three colanders or sieves, each finer than the
other, under it.

* * * * *

SOAP.

In the city, I believe, it is better to exchange ashes and grease for
soap; but in the country, I am certain, it is good economy to make
one's own soap. If you burn wood, you can make your own lye; but the
ashes of coal is not worth much. Bore small holes in the bottom of a
barrel, place four bricks around, and fill the barrel with ashes. Wet
the ashes well, but not enough to drop; let it soak thus three or four
days; then pour a gallon of water in every hour or two, for a day or
more, and let it drop into a pail or tub beneath. Keep it dripping
till the color of the lye shows the strength is exhausted. If your
lye is not strong enough, you must fill your barrel with fresh ashes,
and let the lye run through it. Some people take a barrel without
any bottom, and lay sticks and straw across to prevent the ashes from
falling through. To make a barrel of soap, it will require about five
or six bushels of ashes, with at least four quarts of unslacked stone
lime; if slacked, doable the quantity.

When you have drawn off a part of the lye, put the lime (whether slack
or not) into two or three pails of boiling water, and add it to the
ashes, and let it drain through.

It is the practice of some people, in making soap, to put the lime
near the bottom of the ashes when they first set it tip; but the lime
becomes like mortar, and the lye does not run through, so as to get
the strength of it, which is very important