201. _Fuel_ should be, if possible, provided in summer, or at least some of it. Turf and peat must be got in summer, and some _wood_ may. In the woodland countries, the next winter ought to be thought of in _June_, when people hardly know what to do with the fuelwood; and something should, if possible, be saved in the bark-harvest to get a part of the fuel for the next winter. Fire is a capital article. To have no fire, or a bad fire, to sit by, is a most dismal thing. In such a state man and wife must be something out of the common way to be in good humour with each other, to say nothing of colds and other ailments which are the natural consequence of such misery. If we suppose the great Creator to condescend to survey his works in detail, what object can be so pleasing to him as that of the labourer, after his return from the toils of a cold winter day, sitting with his wife and children round a cheerful fire, while the wind whistles in the chimney and the rain pelts the roof? But, of all God's creation, what is so miserable to behold or to think of as a wretched, half-starved family creeping to their nest of flocks or straw, there to lie shivering, till sent forth by the fear of absolutely expiring from want?
202. I treated of them before; but before I conclude this little Work, it is necessary to speak of them again. I made a mistake as to the _tax_ on the Hops. The positive tax is 2_d._ a pound, and I (in former editions) stated it at 4_d._ However, in all such cases, there falls upon the _consumer_ the _expenses_ attending the paying of the tax. That is to say, the cost of interest of capital in the grower who pays the tax, and who must pay for it, whether his hops be cheap or dear. Then the _trouble_ it gives him, and the rules he is compelled to obey in the drying and bagging, and which cause him great _expense_. So that the tax on hops of our own English growth, may _now be reckoned_ to cost the _consumer_ about 3-1/4_d._ a pound.
203. Yeast is a great thing in domestic management. I have once before published a receipt for making _yeast-cakes_, I will do it again here.
204. In Long Island they make _yeast-cakes_. A parcel of these cakes is made _once a year_. That is often enough. And, when you bake, you take one of these cakes (or more according to the bulk of the batch) and with them raise your bread. The very best bread I ever ate in my life was lightened with these cakes.