If you are troubled to get soft water for Washing, fill a tub or
barrel half full of wood ashes, and fill it up with water, so that you
may have ley whenever you want it. A gallon of strong ley, put into a
great kettle of hard water, will make it as soft as rain water. Some
people use pearlash, or potash; but this costs something, and is very
apt to injure the texture of the cloth.