164. Drying Clothes.—If the weather be favorable, the drying may be best finished in the open air; but if the weather be damp or doubtful, the article should be, without delay, spread before a fire, or hung in an apartment where there is a strong current of air. A dry cloth should be placed on the line hedge, or horse, and the woollen article spread upon it. The more quickly the drying can be accomplished the better. For this reason, settled dry weather should be chosen for this kind of work; if windy, all the better.
165. Family Washing.—[The following method, though not generally known, is much practiced in many families.] Melt together half a pound each of washing soda and of soap cuttings, mix well with sixteen gallons of water, pour it lukewarm over the dirty linen, and leave to soak for twenty-four hours. Drain this water from the clothes, and put them into a boiler, with a second supply of the same preparation cold, and let them boil for rather a longer time than if they had been previously washed. They will then require to be washed out in clean, warm water, looking carefully over them that the parts requiring it may be rubbed; afterwards rinse in the usual way. This direction applies to all white and brown-holland articles. Bobbinet, and lace, retain their color best, if only scalded, not boiled. This mode of washing has been adopted for many years in a family of seven persons; the linen is of an excellent color, with only half the assistance formerly required, and the quantity of soap used is much lessened.
N. B. The refuse water is a good manure for fruit trees.
166. Substitutes for Soap.—Put any quantity of pearl-ash or soda into a large jar, cover it lightly, and in a few days it will become liquid; then mix with it an equal quantity of newly-slaked lime, and double its quantity of soft water: boil it half an hour, add as much more hot water, and pour off the liquor.
Two ounces of pearl-ash, used with a pound and a half of soap, will effect a considerable saving.
For coarse purposes, soft soap is a saving of nearly one-half. The most economical plan of keeping hard soap, is to cut it into pieces of about a pound each, and keep it moderately dry.
A little pipe-clay dissolved in the water, or rubbed with the soap on the clothes, will give the dirtiest linen the appearance of having been bleached; it will also clean them with about half the labor, and a saving of full one-fourth of the soap. Pipe-clay will also render hard water nearly as soft as rain-water.