COMPARATIVE VALUE OF FUEL

A cord of wood is 128 cubic feet ; the sticks are cut four feet long and piled four feet high, and in a pile eight feet long. Wood cut to stove length, eighteen to twenty inches, is sometimes sold as a cord, when only eight feet long, four feet high, and as wide as the sticks are long, but it is not, of course, really a cord. The fair way to sell fuel, however, would be by weight; aiid "when weights are equal the wood containing the most hydrogen will pro- duce the most heat. Thus, one hundred pounds of dry pine are worth more as fuel than the same number of pounds of dry oak. Wood can never bo economically used in a green state, as it then contains about twenty-five per cent water, which must be evaporated, and all the heat required to evaporate this sap is wasted. We give below a table, in which shell-bark hickory is made the standard of comparison, rated at 100 in value and 1000 in weight, and the weights of other varieties show their comparative value, which may be readily estimated in dollars and cents. For instance, if hickory is worth $7.00 per cord, the proper value of white-oak would be $4.86, for as lOOJhick* ory) is to $6.00, so is .81 to the value of white-oak, $4.86.

Shell-bark Hickory,

White Walnut

White Oak

White Ash

Scrub Oak

Black Walnut

White Beech

Yellow Oak

Sugar Maple

White Elm

Yellow-pine

Pitch-pine

White-pine

Lombardy Poplar

• •■•••«• •••••• ■•• jv ••.■•••• ■•■«•••••

Comparative

Weight per

The quantity of combustible matter in fuel, if weight and other conditions are equal, is indicated by the amount of ashes or non-combustible matter remaining. The heating power of fuel is dependent partly on this, but not wholly. Fuel is valuable for various purposes in proportion to the flame it produces. A blaze is of great service when heat is to be applied to a great surface; but where an even or lasting heat is required, a more solid fuel is to be preferred.

The various qualities of bituminous, or soft, and anthracite coals, as sold in different markets, makes it impossible to give any accurate comparison of values. Measured by pounds, if anthracite is made the standard at 250, sea- soned oak ranks 125, or one-half in value; hickory, 137; white pine. 137; yellow pine, 145, coke, 285; while the bituminous coals vary from 188 to 248»

HOUSEKEEPING.

Housekeeping, whatever may be the opinion of the butt€rflie8 of the period, is an accomplishment in comparison to which, in its bearing on woman's rela- tion to real life and to the family, all others are trivial. It comprehends all that goes to make up a well-ordered home, where the sweetest relations of life rest on firm foundations, and the purest sentiments thrive. It is an accomplishment that may be acquired by study and experiment, but the young and inexperienced housekeeper generally reaches success only through great tribulation. It ought to be absorbed in girlhood, by easy lessons taken between algebra, music and painting. If girls were taught to take as much genuine pride in dustingalx>om well, hanging a curtain gracefully, or broiling a steak to a nicety, as they feel when they have mastered one of Mozart's or Beethoven's grand symphonies, there would be fewer complaining husbands and unhappy wives. The great lesson to learn is that work well-done is robbed of its curse. The woman who is satisfied only with the highest per- fection in her work, drops the drudge and becomes the artist. There is no dignity in slighted work ; but to the artist, no matter how humble his calling, belongs the honor which is inseparable from all man's struggles after per- fection. No mother, who has the happiness of her daughter at heart, will neglect to teach her first the duties of the household; and no daughter who aspires to be queen at home and in her circle of friends, can afford to remain ignorant of the smallest details that contribute to the cojifort, the peace and the attractiveness of home. There is no luck in housekeeping, however it may seem. Every thing works by exact rule, and even with thorough kno

One of the first ideas the young housekeeper should divest herself of is, that because she is able, or e.xpecte some time to be able, to keep servants, it is therefore unnecessary to understand household duties, and to bear their responsibility. *' Girls" are quick to see and note the ignorance or the inca- pacity of the mistress of the house, and few are slow to take whatever ad*

HOUSEKEEPING. ^2?>

vantage it brings them, but the capacity of a mistress at once establishes discipline. The model house should not be large, nor too fine and preten- tious for daily use. The mistress of many a fine mansion is tiie veriest household drudge. A great house, with its necessary retinue of servants, is not in keeping with the simplicity of a republic where trained servants are not known, and is seldom pleasant for the family or attractive to friends. Furniture should be selected for comfort rather than show. Most modem chairs put their occupants to torture, and tlirow Uiem into attitudes any thing but graceful. Comfortable chairs should have broad seats, and a part at least, low seats for women and children. Nothing is more out of taste and ** shoddy" tlian to crowd rooms with furniture, no matter how ricli or elegant it may be. Nor is it by any mesns necessary to have things in suites; varietj' is pref- erable, and each room, especially, should have an individuality of its own. Just now the "EasUake " style is in high favor, and perhaps there is danger of too strong a reaction from the •* modern styles," most of which, however, are a hap-hazard collection of styles, w^ithout any unity of idea in them. The " Eastlake " is, in the main, a protest against the falsehoods and shams of modern fine furniture, and so far it is a real reform. In a table, for exam- ple, we usually have a foundation of pine, put together mostly with glue ; this is covered with a veneer of mahogany, walnut, or other wood, and orna- mented with carvings, which may mean something or nothing, and which are glued to the work. In a few years the pine framework warps and shrinks out of shape, the veneer peels, t

424 HOUSEKEEPINQ.

pVincipal woods used are walnuts oC various kinds, ash, bird's-eye maple, satin wood and kingwoo<l. Kingwood is almost crimson in color. Book- cases are of all prices from twenty to fourteen hundred dollars, and side- boards fruiii seventy-live to one thousand dollars. It is a good rule in select- ing furniture, not to buy any thing not actually needed, to buy the best of its kind, and to pay cash or not buy. Never get any thing because some one else has it, and do nut be afraid to wait for bargains. Wise young house- keepers buy furniture in single pieces or small lots, as they have means, rather than expend more than they can afford in entire sets, which are really less attractive.

Carpets should, as a rule, be of small patterns. The stoves — ^If grates or fire-places are not used — should be of the kind that may be thrown open or closed at pleasure. If a furnace is used, great care must be taken that the rooms are not kept too hot in winter, and that there is most thorough venti- lation, as the health of the family depends as much on the quality of the air they breathe as the food they eat. To waste heat is not so bad as to waste health and rigor, and fuel is always cheaper, on the score of economy, than doctors' bills. In furnace-heated houses — ^and the furnace seems to be accepted as the best heater, though apparatus for steam and hot water seems likely to be so perfected as to supplant it by furnishing a milder and more agreeable heat, entirely free from noxious gases — there should always be grates or fire- places in living or sleeping rooms; and whenever the furnace heat is turned on, there should be a little fire, at least enough to start the column of air in the chimney and secure ventilation. It is a common mistake to buy too small a furnace or other heating apparatus. This ought to be ample for the coldest weather, so that ordinarily it need not be kept up to its full capacity. When a furnace is heated too hot, the little particles of dust afloat in the air are charred, and the air has a burnt flavor, as unwholesome as it is disagree- able. Without fire, chimneys are apt to draw down a current of cold air. If there are no grates or fire-places, do not rely on airing rooms from the halls, but throw open the windows and take in the outside air. This is especially necessary when a room is used as a study, or for an invalid. The air from the halls,

HOUSEKEEPINQ. * 425

damp and chill aatumn and spring days, a little fire is comfortable morning and evening. The food for the family must be fresh to be wholesome, and it is economy to buy the best as there is less waste in it. No housekeeper ought to be satisfied with any but the very best cooking, without which the most wholesome food is unpalatable and distressing; and no considerations of economy should ever induce her to place on the table bread with the slightest aour tinge, cake or pudding in the least heavy or solid, or meat with the slightest taint Their use means disease and costly doctor's bills, to say noth- ing of her own loss of repute as an accomplished housekeeper. If children and servants do work improperly, she should quietly insist on its being done correctly, and in self-defense they will soon do it correctly without supervis- ion. Order and system mean the stopping of waste, the practice of economy and additional means to expend for the table and for the luxuries and ele- gancies of life — things for which money is well expended. It requires good food to make good muscle and good brain, and the man or woman who habitually sits down to badly cooked or scanty dinners, fights the battle of life at a great disadvantage.

8WEBPU?0 AND DUSTING.

The sweeping and dusting of a room seems simple enough, but is best done systematically. ** Dusters," made of old prints, with which to cover books, statuettes, and such articles as are difficult to dust, and larger ones to cover beds, are indispensable in sweeping and dusting. " Carpet sweepers" are only fit for daily use, when thorough work is not required, a thorough sweeping once or twice a week sufficing even the tidiest of housekeepers. Before sweeping open the blinds and let in the light, and open the windows if it is not storming or too windy. Look on the ceiling for cobwebs, and sprinkle the carpet over with moistened brun, salt, damp coffee-grounds, or tea-leaves. Clean the corners and edges with a sharp-pointed stick and stiff whisk-broom. Brush down with the feather-duster all picture-cords, frames, and curtains, and remove all cob-webs with a broom about which a towel has been pinned, going through all rooms before removing the towel ; then clear one corner of furniture and begin sweeping toward the center with a short, light stroke, going slowly and carefully so as to raise no dust, and drawing, not pushing, the broom. The second time over, increase the length and force ol the stroke, and the third, brush with long and vigotevS strokes, using care as the dirt at the center of the room is approached. In this way it will take twenty minutes to sweep a large room, but it will be clean^ and the car- pet will wear, bright and fresh, much longer than if the dirt were allowed to grind out the fabric. After the sweeping remove the ''dusters'* carefull;% carrying them out of doora to shake, and rub, not simply wipe, off the furniture and other articles with a clean, soft, cotton cloth or a

426 SO USEKEEPISG,

any spot of dust is too firmly fixed, wash in luke-warm soap-suds, and izxi' mediately rub dry with chamois-skin. If there is open-work carving, draw the cloth through, or dust with a paint-brush; and it will be found more con- venient to blow out some of the places which are difficult to reach, for which purjx>se a small pair of bellows may be used. To clean and dust a piano, use half a yard best conton-flaunel with a nap free from all specks and grit, brushing lightly over to remove the dust; if there are finger-marks or spot8» rub up and down over them, always keeping the nap next to the instrument. i >ust under the wires may be blown out with a pair of bellows. Keep the ]iiano closed at night and in damp weather ; open on bright days, and if pos- sible let the sun siiine directly upon the keys, as the light will keep them, from turning yellow. Tune every spring and fall. As a last finishing touch to the rearranging of the parlor, leave late papers, magazines, a volume of poetry, or a stereoaoope and views, where they will be readily picked up bj callers.

THE 8ITTINO-ROOM.

The sitting-room should be the pleasantest, because most used, of all in tiie house. Do not put down a Brussels carpet here, because it is too hard to sweep and holds too much dust. To prevent moths under the carpets, grind black pepper coarsely, mix with camphor-gum, and strew thickly about the edges and wherever they are to be found. To clean the oil-cloth, use warm water without soap, or, what is much better, milk and water. By keeping mats at the doors it will only be necessary to sweep the sitting-room thoi^ oughly once a week, but occasionally, when very dusty, it may be cleaned by setting a pail of cold water by the door, wet the broom in it, knock ofiT the drops, sweep a yard or so, then wash the broom as before, and sweep again^ being careful to shake all the drops off the broom, and not to sweep far at a time. If done with care the carpet will be very nicely cleaned, and the quantity of dirt in the water will be surprising. The water must be changed several times. Snow sprinkled on and swept off before it has had time to melt (be careful to have rooms cool), is also nice for renovating a soiled carpet A scrap bag hung on the end of the sewing-machine, for storing all bits of cloth and ravelings, and ends of thread, will save much sweeping. In sum* mer, wire doors and mosquito-nettings in the windows will keep flies out, and at the same time admit the air. Washing windows and wiping off doors once a week after sweeping, keeps all tidy. To remove finger-marks, which are con- .stantly appearing on doors about the nobs, use a damp cloth as soon as they are observed.