For boiled starch, a half-cupful of the dry starch is needed in proportion to a quart of boiling water. The starch is made to a paste with cold water, the boiling water poured upon it, and the mixture stirred over the fire until it is clear and smooth. Some laundresses insist upon boiling the starch an hour, but good results may be gained with the preparation made as just directed. This starch is of the right consistency for shirts, aprons, etc., but it must be thinned to use for either table-linen or for delicate underwear until it is little thicker than single cream. If shirt bosoms or cuffs or the cuffs of shirtwaists are to be stiffened, raw starch must be added to the boiled. Raw starch is prepared by moistening a handful of the raw starch to a paste with a little cold water, increasing the water until a quart of it has been used, and stirring it with a piece of fine white soap. The pieces which have already been passed through the boiled starch may be dipped into the raw starch for additional stiffening, after the first starch has dried in them. They are well moistened in the raw starch, rolled up and left for half an hour or so, and ironed while damp. The quantity for which direction has just been made is rather large for a small family, but the proportions may be used in smaller measure. Cheap soap and starch should never be employed; they are an extravagance in the end. The soap should be bought, in a small family, about a dozen cakes at a time and dried. One cake is enough for a small wash, unless left floating in the tub after its use is over. All stains should be looked to before the clothes are washed at all. Fruit and wine stains, like those from coffee and tea, may be taken out by stretching the spotted part over a basin and pouring boiling water through the fabric. The process should be repeated several times or until the stain is gone. Soap will often “set” a spot which would come out if washed in clear water. Fruit stains, rust stains--such as iron-mold--and sometimes ink stains may be removed by wetting the spots with lemon-juice, sprinkling salt upon this, and laying the article in the sun. The operation must be done more than once before the spot will come out entirely. The same treatment will sometimes obliterate mildew stains, but if these prove obstinate, boiling in buttermilk the article marked will perhaps take them out. Turpentine will remove paint stains, and oil marks must be washed with cold water and a good white soap. Grass stains are sometimes taken out by rubbing with butter and then washing this out. All spots or stains are far harder to get rid of after they have once been put through the regular wash.