Domestic Cookery, Useful Receipts, and Hints to Young Housekeepers

pores being filled with the application it becomes hard. Always give a table that is in use a rub with a dry cloth every morning. For Filtering Water. Put a thick layer of pounded charcoal, (say six inches,) at the bottom of a large earthen flower-pot; over this, lay a bed of fine sand, which has been washed, (to prevent its giving a taste to the water;) pour the water in the filterer and put a large stone pitcher under to receive it. On A Larger Scale. Prepare a tight barrel by charring it on the inside, (by having some hickory or oak shavings burnt in it,) then put in half a peck of quick lime, and fill it with water. After the lime water has stood in the barrel for two weeks, it will be ready for use. This preparation of the barrel is necessary to remove the acid from the wood, which would communicate an unpleasant taste to the water. Fit a partition in the barrel, (perforated with many holes,) about three inches from the bottom of the barrel, and having put in a tube, to go down from the top through the partition nearly to the bottom, put on the perforated partition some broken charcoal, then finer charcoal a foot thick, then about a foot of clean washed sand. To use this filter pour the water through the tube, (which should be open at the top like a funnel;) the water runs to the bottom, and filters upward, leaving all the impurities at the bottom. The pure water is drawn off from the top of the barrel by means of a spile or faucet. To Keep Water Cool in Summer, when you have not Ice. Where you live at a distance from water, and wish to keep it cool, put a large stone vessel in the coldest place you can find; fill it with water, cover it with a towel and wrap a wet cloth around it; this will keep it cool for some hours, which is a comfort in warm weather. To Purify Water. To put