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. Carpets, moreen curtains, or other woollen goods, may be cleaned with the coarse pulp of potatoes, used as a kind of soap. 167. _Horse-chestnut Soap._--It is not generally known that the horse-chestnut contains a soapy juice, not only useful in bleaching, but in washing linens and stuffs. The nuts must be peeled and ground, and the meal of twenty of them will be sufficient to mix with ten quarts of hot water, with which the clothes may be washed without soap; the clothes should then be rinsed in spring-water. The same meal being steeped in hot water, and mixed with an equal quantity of bran, will make a nutritious food for poultry. 168. _To wash a Cotton Counterpane._--Slice a pound of mottled soap, dissolve it in a pailful of boiling water, and add a small lump of pearl-ash; next, put the counterpane into warm water, with a bowl of the soap-solution, beat it and turn it, wash it in a second liquor, and rinse it in cold water; then put three tea-spoonfuls of liquid blue into a thin liquor, stir together, and put in the counterpane; beat it a few minutes, and dry it in the air. 169. _To wash Silk Stockings, White and Black._--Cut in thin bits some white soap, and boil it in soft water; pour a little of it among cold, soft water, and wash the stockings, first upon the inner side; repeat the washing with fresh suds and water, till they are washed quite clean; turn the outside, the last time of washing, and if the feet be very dirty, rub a little of the boiled soap upon them, but not upon the legs. If to be colored, mix the dye with a little clean suds, and dip in the white stockings; draw them out smooth, and lay them upon a sheet on a bed, with the window open, and when almost dry, lay them upon a piece of flannel, and with another bit rolled up, rub them hard and quick one way till they are dry. 170. _To wash Thread Stockings and Gloves._--Fine thread-stockings and gloves should be well soaped, put into a lather of cold water, and boiled; they should then be put into a fresh, cold lather, and be boiled again; when, on taking them out, they will require little more than rinsing. 171. _To wash Cotton Stockings._--Lay them in cold water at night; next day boil them in a copper with some soda and soap; stir them well about, and they will become quite clean without any rubbing; rinse them well in cold water, and bleach them; when nearly dry, draw them smooth, folding them straight over the instep. Place them under a heavy weight, or iron them.