Boil each lot of clothes from half an hour to an hour. Then rinse them well in cold blue water. When dry they will be beautifully white.
The same water will do for _three_ lots. Wash the finer things first.
After having been used for the clothes, the mixture may be employed for cleaning silver, brass, or any other kind of metal; which should afterwards be dried and polished with leather. The liquid may also be used for scouring floors, or cleaning paint.
157. _To make Starch._--Dissolve as much starch as will be required in a very small quantity of cold water; then pour boiling water on it till it is of the right consistency, and let it boil once or twice.
In _mixing starch_, put a lump of sugar in it to prevent it from sticking to the iron. Stirring the starch for a minute with a sperm candle improves it when it is wanted for shirt bosoms or collars.
158. _Gum Arabic Starch._--Get two ounces of fine white gum arabic, and pound it to powder. Next put it into a pitcher, and pour on it a pint or more of boiling water, (according to the degree of strength you desire,) and then having covered it, let it set all night. In the morning, pour it carefully from the dregs into a clean bottle, cork it, and keep it for use. A table-spoonful of gum water stirred into a pint of starch that has been made in the usual manner, will give to lawns (either white or printed) a look of newness to which nothing else can restore them after washing. It is also good (much diluted) for thin white muslin and bobbinet.
159. _To keep Muslins of a good Color._--Never wash muslins or any kind of white cotton goods, with linen; for the latter deposits or discharges a gum and coloring matter every time it is washed, which discolors and dyes the cotton. _Wash them by themselves._
160. _To wash Flannels._--Flannels should be washed in soft water, soap, and much blue. The water should be as hot as the hands will bear; wring them as dry as possible, shake them and hang them out; but do not rinse them after the lather.
161. _To make Flannels not shrink._--The first time of washing put them into a pail of boiling water, and let them lie till cold.
162. _To scour Flannels._--Slice half a pound of yellow soap, and dissolve it in boiling water, so as to make it of the thickness of oil; cover the flannels with warm water, add a lump of pearlash, and about one-third of the soap-solution; beat them till no head rises on the water; then pour it off, and proceed as before with hotter water, without pearlash.