When the oven is heated, the faggots, or other kind of wood which is used for that purpose, are lighted near the mouth, and then pushed on till they are as nearly as possible in the centre of the oven, so that the heat may spread as equally as possible through every part. When the heat is between 250° and 300°, it is judged sufficient, and the fire is drawn out to prepare the oven for the reception of the bread. As, however, few cooks can be expected to have a proper kind of thermometer at hand for ascertaining the heat exactly, it is necessary to have some easier rules for judging; and the following, the correctness of which I have experienced, are taken from the first volume of that excellent and useful work, the _Magazine of Domestic Economy_. "A judgment must be formed by the clear red heat of the bricks of the arch and sides of the oven, and the lively sparkling of the embers on its floor. The former criterion proves that the bricks have received enough of body heat to consume that black carbonaceous coating which the smoke communicates to them at the early stage of fire; the second shows that the principle of combustion is in full activity, and not rendered inert by a cold surface, either at the top, bottom, or sides. Finally, if the brickwork be hot enough, and the point of a long stake be rubbed forcibly over any part of it, so as for the moment to make a black trace of charcoal, this trace will be burnt off, and the bricks left clear in a second of time." When the oven is sufficiently hot, the remaining embers are drawn out with an iron hook fixed at the end of a long pole, and the bottom of the oven is cleaned with a wet mop, made of long shreds of woollen cloth or coarse sacking. The oven is then quite ready to receive the bread, and it should be put in immediately. It generally takes about an hour to heat a moderate-sized oven properly; and it takes an hour and a half, or two hours, to bake loaves of the ordinary size. Little iron grates are sometimes sold for heating ovens, but they are more suitable for coal than wood; and, though an oven may be heated with great rapidity with coal, it does not retain its heat so long, and is more fitted for baking French bread, or cakes, than large-sized household loaves. When, on the contrary, a brick oven is heated with wood, and the hot embers are pushed by the scraper to every part of the oven, the whole mass of brick becomes what is technically called soaked, and is in a fit state for a family baking of bread. When the bread is in, the oven door should be stopped quite close; but over the door is a small opening called the stopper, which should be opened when the bread has been in a little time, in order that the vapour from the bread may escape. It is from not attending to this that home-baked bread is so frequently heavy.