Puff-paste, while being made, should be kept as cool as possible.

299. To remove the unpleasant smell of oiled or varnished cloths and stuffs, expose them to the action of a chloric fumigation in a close room.

300. It is said that the butchers of Geneva use the oil of laurel as a substance which prevents flies from approaching their meat: the odour of the oil, though strong, is not very disagreeable, and the flies will not approach the walls or parts which have been rubbed with it. The person who describes their effects, says that he has, in this way, guarded the gilt frames of mirrors and pictures most perfectly from flies.

301. Caustic as an application for corns should be used with great caution, and would be better left in the hands of a medical man.

302. By tying a silk or cotton handkerchief round the neck, and covering even the mouth and nostrils when out in cold and damp weather, colds will very frequently be prevented.

303. The best means to preserve eggs is to rub them very carefully over with fresh olive-oil, and then put them in jars with bran about them, and tie them with wax paper or bladder: in this operation the oil must not be rancid (good olive-oil has no particular smell, and is almost tasteless), and the whole surface of the eggshell must be saturated with it by rubbing,-the omission of a piece the size of a pea will cause the egg to be bad: fresh butter is used for the same purpose.

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304. Much waste of tallow is occasioned in many families that can ill afford it by careless and slovenly habits; such as carrying a candle aslant, or not properly fixing it in a candlestick, or suffering a lighted candle to stand in the draught of an open door or broken window or, in the daytime, instead of putting the pieces of candle in the box, exposing them in the candlestick to the influence of the sun or fire; or instead of sticking the small pieces upon a save-all, suffering them to burn away in the socket.

305. Nuts ought only to be eaten while fresh, and when the skin, which is extremely unwholesome, can be removed; they should be well chewed and eaten with salt: if eaten in large quantities they produce alarming disorders.

Hair trunks rarely fail to attract moths.

T

White feathers should never be worn while the weather is damp.

Trimmings of undressed meat and game are useful to enrich soups.

306. Artichokes are preserved by stringing them on pack-thread, and placing a clean piece of paper between every bottom, to prevent them from touching each other, and hanging them in a dry place.

307. Every one should know that coal-gas mixed with common air will explode like gunpowder when a light of any kind is brought into it.

308. If bottles, filled with beer, ale, or porter, are not soon enough corked, it turns flat and sour, and does much mischief to those who drink it.

309. When stung by nettles, rub the affected part with the bruised leaves of the common dock (Rumex patientia), a plant which generally grows in the vicinity of the nettle.

310. Boiling in a well-floured cloth will make meat white the cloths kept for this purpose should be boiled after being used in clean water, nor should they be suffered to hang in damp places, which would be the means of communicating a damp flavour to the meat. The same observation stands good as regards tapes, pudding-strings, and cloths.

311. In broiling, cooks should be careful never to baste anything on the gridiron, because that may be the means of burning it, and occasioning it to smoke.

312. Indian-rubber overshoes should be taken off immediately on entering a house; they prevent perspiration in a great measure, and are only useful as a less evil than getting the feet completely wet.

313. For making broths and soups, earthen vessels are preferable to those of metal, because the first are less conductors of heat; and when once heated, a few hot cinders will keep them in as gentle a degree of boiling as may be required.

314. In choosing salt butter trust rather to your smell than taste: if the butter be in a cask have it unhooped, and thrust a knife between the staves into the middle of it, for the top of the cask is sometimes better butter than the middle.

315. Well-burnt cinders are an excellent substitute for coke, and ought to be preserved, in every family, for the purposes of cooking.

Crabs of a middling size, are the sweetest.

Bones of dressed or undressed meat assist to make a good stock.

In preparing mussels, care should be taken to destroy the beards.

316. Remember that water is preferable to all brewed and distilled liquors, both in strengthening the organs of digestion, and preventing complaints that have their origin in fulness of the blood.

317. To make a pickle strong enough to preserve any meat; take six ounces of salt, one pound of sugar, and five ounces of saltpetre; boil them in four gallons of water, and let them stand to cool.

318. Lucifer-matches should always be kept in metal

cases.

319. To judge properly of an egg, put the greater end to your tongue, and if it feel warm, it is fresh; but if cold, it may be pronounced to be stale.

320. The muscles of many fish, with the exception of the heart, are quite white; and, in general, when the fish are good, they become opaque when cooked; when they remain semi-transparent, and blush after boiling, they are not in season.

321. Much more injury is done by admitting visitors to invalids than is generally supposed..

322. If fruit is necessarily gathered in wet weather, or early in the morning, they should be exposed a day to the sun to dry; and on no account should they be wiped, for it rubs off the bloom, which is a natural varnish, closing up the pores and preventing the evaporation of the juices.

323. In helping your guests to fish be careful not to break the flakes, which contribute much to the beauty of the fish.

324. In frying parsley be careful to pinch it very cautiously; wash it well, dip it into cold water, and throw it into a pan of boiling fat; this will make it very crisp, and of a finer green, provided it does not remain too long in the pan.

325. One pound and a quarter of lean beef, or one pound and a half of veal, will produce one pint of strong gravy.

326. Every woman should understand the making and applying of fomentations, leeches, poultices, warm baths, and similar things.

If soups are too weak, do not cover them in boiling.

Family clocks ought only to be oiled with the very purest oil.

A tallow candle placed near muffs and tippets will preserve them from moths.

327. Gruel should never be kept longer than fortyeight hours, as it becomes acescent after that period.

328. Never take lobsters when the shell is encrusted, it is a sign they are old.

329. Remember that all unfermented pastry is excessively trying to the stomach.

330. Cast-iron saucepans, although very strong, if carefully handled, are brittle, and will crack if cold water be thrown upon them when they are hot.

331. Bed-chamber brooms should be kept in a closet on the bedroom story, for them, and other similar utensils.

332. The best meat and the prime parts are unquestionably the cheapest in the end, although the first cost may be the greatest.

333. Rocking children is a dangerous practice: any child can be accustomed to sleep on merely being put into his cradle; rocking, therefore, should only be resorted to when the child is sick, to secure sleep, as a respite from suffering.

334. Use no cosmetic but that of exercise, pure air, and
a happy, healthy spirit.

335. Where chilblains are apprehended, the feet
should be bathed every night in warm salt-water, and
after they are thoroughly dried, cotton socks should be
immediately put on to go to bed in: equal quantities
of sweet oil, lime-water, and proof-spirits, are said to
form an excellent application in cases of chilblains.
336. When meat, pressed by the finger, rises up
quickly, it may be considered as that of an animal
which was in its prime; when the dent made by pres-
sure returns slowly, or remains visible, the animal had
probably passed its prime.

337. In buying a ham, a short, thick one is to be pre-
ferred to one long and thin.

338. Family stores of grocery, unless under peculiar circumstances, are not to be advised: a quick consumption of the finer articles is desirable, especially those with aromatic properties, which exposure to the air dissipates.

The best coffee is always the cheapest.

An oyster-shell in a tea-kettle will remove the crust in the inside.

Avoid the use of skewers in meat, as much as possible.

339. Every house-keeper should always have a store of old linen, cumbric, and calico-rags, and old pieces of flannel: they are invaluable in times of sickness and accident.

340. Pits, wells, cellars, deep vaults, or other places, that have long been pent up from air and light, ought never to be entered immediately after opening them : a lighted candle should first be let down, for where this will not burn, animal life cannot be long sustained.

341. To preserve butter for winter, let the salt be perfectly dried before the fire; roll it with a glass bottle until it is as fine as possible: spread a layer of salt at the bottom of the jar, then press and beat the butter down with a hard wooden rammer, cover the top with a thick layer of salt, so that when turned to brine, it shall entirely cover the butter.

342. Nettles, besides being wholesome to eat when cooked, make excellent tea. The best way to pick them is to quickly grasp a handful, by which you feel no sensation of pain, or by wearing gloves.

343. Soap improves in quality by being kept.

344. Eggs which have been boiled, may be again made hot by putting them into a basin of hot water, and covering them over for five minutes.

345. Gruel soon becomes sour, hence it should be made in small quantities at a time; for an invalid, or for a child fed upon gruel, it should be made daily.

346. When a beaver or silk hat has been wetted with rain, on reaching home it should be wiped dry and brushed, to lay the nap smooth.

347. Cloth of all colours, except scarlet, may be cleaned by rubbing the greasy spots with yellow soap, and when this is nearly dry, brushing off the soap with warm water if one trial is insufficient, the process may be repeated.

348. Be careful in hanging up linen to dry, that it does not come in contact with anything that may communicate a stain: iron in particular.

349. When spectacles are really necessary, they should only be purchased of some well-known optician: cheap glasses are not to be depended upon.

It is a sad waste to put fuel under a boiling pot.

Legs and shoulders of meat should be hung knuckle downwards.