_To make Soft-Soap._ Save all drippings and fat, melt them, and set them away, in cakes. Some persons keep, for soap-grease, a half barrel, with weak ley in it, and a cover over it. To make soft-soap, take the proportion of one pailful of ley to three pounds of fat. Melt the fat, and pour in the ley, by degrees. Boil it steadily, through the day, till it is ropy. If not boiled enough, on cooling, it will turn to ley and sediment. While boiling, there should always be a little oil on the surface. If this does not appear, add more grease. If there is too much grease, on cooling, it will rise, and can be skimmed off. Try it, by cooling a small quantity. When it appears like gelly, on becoming cold, it is done. It must then be put in a cool place and often stirred. _To make cold Soft-Soap_, melt thirty pounds of grease, put it in a barrel, add four pailfuls of strong ley, and stir it up thoroughly. Then gradually add more ley, till the barrel is nearly full, and the soap looks _about right_. _To make Potash-Soap_, melt thirty-nine pounds of grease, and put it in a barrel. Take twenty-nine pounds of light ash-colored potash, (the _reddish_-colored will spoil the soap,) and pour hot water on it; then pour it off into the grease, stirring it well. Continue thus, till all the potash is melted. Add one pailful of cold water, stirring it a great deal, every day, till the barrel be full, and then it is done. This is the cheapest and best kind of soap. It is best to sell ashes and buy potash. The soap is better, if it stand a year before it is used; therefore make two barrels at once. _To make Hard White Soap_, take fifteen pounds of lard, or suet; and, when boiling, add, slowly, five gallons of ley, mixed with one gallon of water. Cool a small portion; and, if no grease rise, it is done: if grease do rise, add ley, and boil till no grease rises. Then add three quarts of fine salt, and boil it; if this do not harden well, on cooling, add more salt. Cool it, and if it is to be perfumed, melt it next day, put in the perfume, and then run it in moulds, or cut it in cakes. _Common Hard Soap_, is made in the same way, by using common fat. _To manufacture Starch_, cleanse a peck of unground wheat, and soak it, for several days, in soft water. When quite soft, remove the husks, with the hand, and the soft parts will settle. Pour off the water, and replace it, every day, with that which is fresh, stirring it well. When, after stirring and settling, the water is clear, it is done. Then strain off the water, and dry the starch, for several days, in the sun. If the water be permitted to remain too long, it sours, and the starch is poor. If the starch be not well dried, it grows musty. CHAPTER XXVII. ON STARCHING, IRONING, AND CLEANSING.