What Makes a Bushel. — A bushel is a bushel, but the weight of different articles varies greatly; for instance, a bushel of corn, shelled, weighs fifty-eight pounds; rye, fifty-six pounds ; Irish potatoes, sixty pounds ; a bushel of barley weighs forty-six pounds ; wheat, sixty pounds ; corn on the cob, seventy pounds ; buckwheat, fifty-two pounds; oats, thirty-two pounds; sweet potatoes, fifty pounds ; onions, fifty-seven pounds ; beans, sixty-two pounds ; bran, twenty pounds ; clover-seed, forty-five pounds ; timothy-seed, sixty pounds ; flax- seed, forty-five pounds ; hemp-seed, forty-five pounds ; blue grass- seed, fourteen pounds; dried apples, twenty-four pounds; dried peaches, thirty-two pounds. Household Measures. — As all families are not provided with scales and weights, referring to ingredients in general use by every housewife, the following information may be useful : Wheat flour, one quart, is one pound; Indian-meal, one quart is one pound ; butter, when soft, one quart is one pound, one ounce; loaf-sugar, broken, one quart is one pound ; best brown sugar, one quart is one pound, two ounces ; eggs, average size, ten eggs are one pound ; sixteen large tablespoonfuls are a half-pint; eight, one gill. Pillows long used acquire a disagreeable odor. The ticks should be emptied and washed, the feathers put into a bag and exposed to the heat of the sun for several hours. To Keep Seeds from the Depredations of Mice, mix some pieces of camphor-gum with the seeds. Camphor placed in trunks or drawers will prevent mice from doing. them injury. Cockroaches v/ill flee the paint which has been washed in cool alum-water. Common Bricks may be made fireproof by soaking them in hot tar. Boiling-hot Water should never be poured upon china; it cracks the enamel. Benzole and common clay will clean marble. MISCELLANEOUS HOUSEHOLD RECIPES. 553 Grease can be drawn from unpainted kitchen floors by putting plenty of soft soap on the spot and rubbing a hot flat-iron through the soap. One appHcation is usually sufficient ; sometimes another is required, washing thoroughly afterwards. Rubbing Flat-irons on sand-paper will remove every bit of starch, and render them very smooth. To Prevent Moths in Carpets, wash the floor, before laying them, with spirits of turpentine or benzine. To Keep Lemons Fresh place them in a jar filled with water, to be renewed every day or two. Dry Paint can be softened and removed by an application, with a swab, of a strong solution of oxalic acid. To Clean Sea-Shells. — Fresh-water shells can be cleaned by soaking them in a solution of chloride of lime and polishing them with pumice-stone. Keeping Meat Fresh in Hot Weather. — Place it in a clean porcelain bowl, and pour very hot water over it so as to cover it ; then pour oil on the water. The air is thus excluded and the meat is preserved. To Make Hens Lay in Winter. — Keep them warm, and give them daily fresh meat; do not feed them corn in the usual manner, but keep it by them constantly.

AI-modernized reading of the original text

What Makes a Bushel. — A bushel is a bushel, but the weight of different articles varies greatly; for instance, a bushel of corn, shelled, weighs fifty-eight pounds; rye, fifty-six pounds ; Irish potatoes, sixty pounds ; a bushel of barley weighs forty-six pounds ; wheat, sixty pounds ; corn on the cob, seventy pounds ; buckwheat, fifty-two pounds; oats, thirty-two pounds; sweet potatoes, fifty pounds ; onions, fifty-seven pounds ; beans, sixty-two pounds ; bran, twenty pounds ; clover-seed, forty-five pounds ; timothy-seed, sixty pounds ; flaxseed, forty-five pounds ; hemp-seed, forty-five pounds ; blue grass-seed, fourteen pounds; dried apples, twenty-four pounds; dried peaches, thirty-two pounds. Household Measures. — As all families are not provided with scales and weights, referring to ingredients in general use by every housewife, the following information may be useful : Wheat flour, one quart, is one pound; Indian-meal, one quart is one pound ; butter, when soft, one quart is one pound, one ounce; loaf-sugar, broken, one quart is one pound ; best brown sugar, one quart is one pound, two ounces ; eggs, average size, ten eggs are one pound ; sixteen large tablespoonfuls are a half-pint; eight, one gill. Pillows long used acquire a disagreeable odor. The ticks should be emptied and washed, the feathers put into a bag and exposed to the heat of the sun for several hours. To Keep Seeds from the Depredations of Mice, mix some pieces of camphor-gum with the seeds. Camphor placed in trunks or drawers will prevent mice from doing. them injury. Cockroaches v/ill flee the paint which has been washed in cool alum-water. Common Bricks may be made fireproof by soaking them in hot tar. Boiling-hot Water should never be poured upon china; it cracks the enamel. Benzole and common clay will clean marble. Grease can be drawn from unpainted kitchen floors by putting plenty of soft soap on the spot and rubbing a hot flat-iron through the soap. One appHcation is usually sufficient ; sometimes another is required, washing thoroughly afterwards. Rubbing Flat-irons on sand-paper will remove every bit of starch, and render them very smooth. To Prevent Moths in Carpets, wash the floor, before laying them, with spirits of turpentine or benzine. To Keep Lemons Fresh place them in a jar filled with water, to be renewed every day or two. Dry Paint can be softened and removed by an application, with a swab, of a strong solution of oxalic acid. To Clean Sea-Shells. — Fresh-water shells can be cleaned by soaking them in a solution of chloride of lime and polishing them with pumice-stone. Keeping Meat Fresh in Hot Weather. — Place it in a clean porcelain bowl, and pour very hot water over it so as to cover it ; then pour oil on the water. The air is thus excluded and the meat is preserved. To Make Hens Lay in Winter. — Keep them warm, and give them daily fresh meat; do not feed them corn in the usual manner, but keep it by them constantly.

The hearthstone; or, Life at home