WISE ECONOMY

1966. If you have a strip of land, do not throw away soap-suds. Both ashes and soap-suds are good manure for bushes and young plants.

1967. _Woolen Clothes_ should be washed in very hot suds, and not rinsed. Lukewarm water shrinks them.

1968. Do not let coffee and tea stand in tin.

1969. Scald your wooden-ware often, and keep your tin-ware dry.

1970. Preserve the backs of old letters to write upon.

1971. If you have children who are learning to write, buy coarse white paper by the quantity, and keep it locked up, ready to be made into writing-books. It does not cost half so much as it does to buy them at the stationer's.

1972. See that nothing is thrown away which might have served to nourish your own family or a poorer one.

1973. As far as possible, have bits of bread eaten up before they become hard; spread those that are not eaten, and let them dry, to be pounded for puddings, or soaked for brewis.

1974. _Brewis_ is made of crusts and dry pieces of bread, soaked a good while in hot milk, mashed up, and eaten with salt.

1975. Above all, do not let crusts accumulate in such quantities that they cannot be used. With proper care, there is no need of losing a particle of bread.

1976. All the mending in the house should be done once a week, if possible.

1977. Never put out sewing. If it be not possible to do it in your own family, hire some one into the house, and work with them.

1978. Do not let knives be dropped into hot dish-water. It is a good plan to have a large tin pot to wash them in, just high enough to wash the blades _without wetting_ the handles.

1979. It is better to accomplish perfectly a very small amount of work, than to half do ten times as much.

1980. _Charcoal Powder_ will be found a very good thing to give knives a first-rate polish.

1981. _A Bonnet_ and trimmings may be worn a much longer time, if the dust be brushed well off after walking.

1982. Much knowledge may be obtained by the good housewife observing how things are managed in well-regulated families.

1983. _Apples_ intended for dumplings should not have the core taken out of them, as the pips impart a delicious flavor to the dumpling.

1984. _A Rice Pudding_ is most excellent without either eggs or sugar, if baked gently; it keeps better without eggs.

1985. "Wilful waste makes woful want." Do not cook a fresh joint whilst any of the last remains uneaten--hash it up, and with gravy and a little management eke out another day's dinner.

1986. A warming-pan full of coals, or a shovel of coals, held over varnished furniture, will take out white spots. Care should be taken not to hold the coals near enough to scorch; and the place should be rubbed with a flannel while warm.

1987. _Sal-volatile_ or hartshorne will restore colors taken out by acid. It may be dropped upon any garment without doing harm.

1988. _New Iron_ should be very gradually heated at first. After it has become inured to the heat, it is not so likely to crack.

1989. The shanks of mutton make a good stock for nearly any kind of gravy--and they are very cheap--a dozen may be had for a penny, enough to make a quart of delicious soup.

1990. Thick curtains, closely drawn around the bed, are very injurious, because they not only confine the effluvia thrown off from our bodies whilst in bed, but interrupt the current of pure air.

1991. Regularity in the payment of accounts is essential to housekeeping. All tradesmen's bills should be paid weekly, for then any errors can be detected whilst the transactions are fresh in the memory.

1992. _Linen Rags_ should be carefully saved, for they are extremely useful in sickness. If they have become dirty and worn by cleaning silver, &c., wash them and scrape them into lint.

1993. If you are troubled to get soft water for washing, fill a tub or barrel half full of wood ashes, and fill it up with water, so that you may have ley whenever you may want it. A gallon of strong ley put into a great kettle of hard water, will make it as soft as rain water.

1994. "_Morning's Milk_," says an eminent German philosopher, "commonly yields some hundredths more cream than the evening's at the same temperature. That milked at noon furnishes the least; it would therefore be of advantage, in making butter and cheese, to employ the morning's milk, and to keep the evening's for domestic use."

1995. _Scouring Drops for Removing Grease._--There are several preparations of this name; one of the best is made as follows: Camphene, or spirits of turpentine, three ounces; essence of lemon, one ounce; mix.

1996. _Sweeping Carpets._--Persons who are accustomed to use tea-leaves for sweeping their carpets, and find that they leave stains, will do well to employ fresh cut grass instead. It is better than tea-leaves for preventing dust, and gives the carpets a very bright, fresh look.

1997. _Economy of Fuel._--There 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 arrangements where there is a greater proportional and unnecessary waste, than arises from ignorance and mismanagement in this article.

1998. It is an old adage that we must stir no man's fire until we have known him seven years; but we might find it equally prudent if we were careful as to the stirring of our own.

1999. Anybody, indeed, can take up a poker and toss the coals about; but that is not stirring a fire!

2000. 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.

2001. 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.

2002. 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.

2003. Trust not him who seems more anxious to give credit than to receive cash.

2004. 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 advance price, or an inferior article; whilst the latter knows that your custom can only be secured by fair dealing.

2005. 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.

2006. The master of a family who fills his coal cellar in the middle of the summer, rather than the beginning of the winter, will save one-fourth which 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.

2007. We must now call to the recollection of our readers that chimneys often smoke, and that coal is often wasted by throwing too much fuel at once upon a fire.

2008. To prove this observation, it is only necessary to remove the superfluous coal from the top of the grate, when the smoking instantly ceases.

2009. 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.

2010. _Economy in Carpets._--In buying a carpet, as in every thing else, those of the best quality are cheapest in the end. As it is extremely desirable that they should look as clean as possible, avoid buying carpet that has any white in it. Even a very small portion of white interspersed through the pattern will in a short time give a dirty appearance to the whole; and certainly no carpet can be worse for use than one with a white ground.

2011. A carpet in which all the colors are light, never has a clean, bright effect, from the want of dark tints to contrast and set off the light ones.

2012. For a similar reason, carpets whose colors are all of what artists call middle tint (neither dark nor light), cannot fail to look dull and dingy, even when quite new.

2013. The caprices of fashion at times bring these ill-colored carpets into vogue; but in apartments where elegance is desirable, they always have a bad effect.

2014. For a carpet to be really beautiful and in good taste, there should be, as in a picture, a judicious disposal of light and shadow, with a gradation of very bright and of very dark tints; some almost white, and others almost or quite black.

2015. _Red Carpets._--The most truly chaste, rich and elegant carpets, are those where the pattern is formed by one color only, but arranged in every variety of shade. For instance, we have seen a Brussels carpet entirely red; the pattern formed by shades or tints, varying from the deepest crimson (almost a black), to the palest pink (almost a white).

2016. _Green Carpets._--Also one of green only, shaded from the darkest bottle-green, in some parts of the figure, to the lightest pea-green in others.

2017. _Brown Carpets._--Another, in which there was no color but brown, in all its various gradation, some of the shades being nearly black, others of a light buff. All these carpets had much the look of rich cut velvet.

2018. _The Curtains, Sofas, &c._, of course, were of corresponding colors, and the effect of the whole was noble and elegant.

2019. Carpets of many gaudy colors are much less in demand than formerly. Two colors only, with the dark and light shade of each, will make a very handsome carpet.

2020. A very light blue ground, with the figure of shaded crimson or purple, looks extremely well; so does a salmon-color or buff ground, with a deep green figure; or a light yellow ground, with a shaded blue figure.

2021. _Rugs._--If you cannot obtain a hearth-rug that exactly corresponds with the carpet, get one entirely different; for a decided contrast looks better than a bad match.

2022. We have seen very handsome hearth-rugs with a rich, black, velvet-looking ground, and the figure of shaded blue, or of various tints of yellow and orange.

2023. A carpet decidedly light-colored throughout, has a good effect on the floor, or continues long to look clean.