Spons' Household Manual: A treasury of domestic receipts and a guide for home management
General
Spons' Household Manual: A treasury of domestic receipts and a guide for home management
Home economics
_Kitchen Waste._--Accumulation of waste animal and vegetable matter
should be strictly forbidden; what cannot be used as food, even for
domestic animals, ought to be burned daily. Where there is a large
garden, refuse may be buried. The objection frequently raised to
burning is the unpleasant smell which is caused by it; this may, with
a little care, always be avoided. Where a close range is used, choose
a time when the fire is bright but low; draw out all the dampers and
put everything into the fire, close the door in front, and a very
large amount of rubbish can be got rid of in a quarter of an hour.
In open fireplaces this is a little more difficult, but may still be
accomplished. Put all vegetable matter under the grate to dry, then
put it on the fire. The oven dampers must be drawn out; the strong
draught up the oven flue will carry off the smell. Fish-bones and
other scraps may thus be burned. The habit prevalent in many country
places of keeping a swill-tub cannot be too strongly condemned. A day
or two of damp summer weather is enough to cause a most offensive
smell to be given off. Dwellings in large towns become dangerous in
warm weather from their close proximity to ashpits, which are made
the receptacle of all kinds of decaying animal and vegetable matter.
Much sickness might be prevented during the summer months if it could
be made compulsory to have ashpits, &c., well sprinkled with chloride
of lime or some similar disinfectant at least twice a week.
_Sinks._--The stoppage of drains by grease may be partially prevented
by the use of soap-powder, which combines with the grease; but at
least twice a week there should be poured down kitchen sinks one
or two bucketfuls of boiling water, in which common soda has been
dissolved. A much better plan is to use potash instead of soda, as
potash makes a _soft_ soap with fats. The application of one or
two doses of potash lye in hot water will almost always effect a
clearance in stopped drains, which at first appear to be irremediably
choked, and at the same time no injury whatever results to the pipes.
[Illustration: 23. Kitchen Sink.]
The proper arrangement and disconnection of a kitchen sink is shown
in Fig. 23; _a_, stoneware trough; _b_, 2 in. stoneware waste pipe;
_c_, stoneware gully or trap; _d_, iron grating; _e_, house wall;
_f_, pipe leading to sewer.
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