TO PRESERVE PEACHES.
Take ripe free stone peaches—pare, stone and quarter them; to six pounds of the cut peaches allow three pounds of the best brown sugar; stew the sugar and peaches together, and set them away in a covered vessel; next morning put them into a preserving kettle and boil it slowly about an hour and three quarters, skimming it well.
TO PRESERVE PLUMBS, &c.
A pound of sugar to a pound of fruit; the sugar should be melted over a fire, moderate enough not to scorch it when melted. It should be skimmed clean and the fruit dropped in to simmer until it is soft. Put them in jars and cover carefully from the air. Glass is much better than earthen for preserves—they are not so apt to ferment.
SOAP TO TAKE GREASE OUT OF CLOTH, SATINS, SILKS, &c.
Take 4 pounds of white bar soap, 1½ pints 95 per cent. alcohol, 1½ ounces of nitric acid, 2 do. of saltpetre, 2 ounces soda, ¾ ounce camphor; cut the bar soap into thin shavings, put all the above ingredients in a crock, then boil over a slow fire, with very little blaze; pulverize your camphor as fine as possible and when all is properly dissolved, which will take 1 hour or so then take the pot off the fire and when cooled add 1½ ounces spirits of amonia, pour in slowly stirring all the time; should it catch on fire smother it with a cover or by throwing a cloth over the pot. Stir while boiling, and scent with ½ ounce of oil of cinnamon. This will remove grease spots from cloth, silks, &c., by taking a tooth brush—dip into water and make a lather with the soap, rub the grease spot well with the brush and lather, then wash it out twice in cold water, rinsing and squeezing the soap out as clean as possible—let it be clean water each time. This will take grease, paint, tar, oil, &c., out of any kind of goods when properly applied. By pouring it in a flat pan you can cut your soap into cakes of any size.
SOAP FOR GREASE, TAR, PAINT, &c.
Take 1 quart 95 per cent. alcohol, 2¾ pounds best home made soap; cut the soap into thin shavings, then put the soap and alcohol into a pan or vessel over a slow fire, and let all dissolve before it boils; when dissolved boil a few minutes, then pour the soap into a pan, and when cooled off cut into cakes. This preparation is excellent for washing dirty clothes and will not require near the labor that the common soap does. For cloth, silks, &c., you may take less soap. It may be used in the same manner directed for the other soap.