_Note._--Boiled potatoes are said to cleanse the hands as well as common soap; they prevent _chaps_ in the winter season, and keep the skin soft and healthy. 1290. _Boiling Potatoes._--The following method of dressing potatoes will be found of great use at the season of the year, when skins are tough and potatoes are watery. Score the skin of the potato with a knife, lengthwise and across, quite around, and then boil the potato in plenty of water and salt, with the skin on. The skin readily cracks when it is scored, and lets out the moisture, which otherwise renders the potato soapy and wet. The improvement to bad potatoes by this method of boiling them is very great, and all who have tried it find a great advantage in it, now that good potatoes are very difficult to be obtained. 1297. _To keep Celery._--Celery should be kept in the cellar, the roots covered with tan, to keep them moist. 1298. _To keep Lettuce._--If the tops of lettuce be cut off when it is becoming too old for use, it will grow up again fresh and tender, and may thus be kept good through the summer. 1299. _Good Squashes._--Green squashes that are turning yellow, and striped squashes, are more uniformly sweet and mealy than any other kind. 1300. _To dry Pumpkin._--Cut it round horizontally in tolerably thin slices, peel them and hang them on a line in a warm room. When perfectly dry, put them away for use. When you wish to use it, put it to soak over night; next day pour off the water, put on fresh water, stew and use it as usual, &c. Another and, as some think, a much better way, is to boil and sift the pumpkin, then spread it out thin in tin plates, and dry hard in a warm oven. It will keep good all the year round, and a little piece boiled up in milk will make a batch of pies. 1301. _To pickle large Mushrooms._--Pick them carefully, and take out the stalks; put them into a jar, and pour on them boiling spiced vinegar, with a little salt in it. 1302. _To preserve Green Currants._--Currants may be kept fresh for a year or more, if they are gathered when green, separated from the stems, put into dry, clean junk bottles, and corked very carefully, so as to exclude the air. They should be kept in a cool place in the cellar.