secretary's budget. 371 



PRESERVING FRUITS. 



The Philadelphia Press says fruit and llowers may be preserved 

 from decay and fading by immersing them in a solution of gum arable 

 and. water two or three times, waiting a sufficient time between each 

 immersion to allow the gum to dry. This process covers the surface of 

 the Iruit with a thin coat of gum, which is entirely impervious to the 

 air, and thus prevents the decaj'- of the fruit or the withering of the 

 flowers. Roses thus ureserved have all the beauty of fresh plucked 

 ones, though they have been plucked several months. It is reliable 

 and something all may try. 



NO BLUFFING. 



Shall we allow blights and rots and mildews and insects to scare 

 us out of planting orchards? No! The indolent are driven out of 

 fruit-growing. The successful reap double reward for their industry, 

 thrilt and painstaking. The difficulties are only insurmountable for 

 those that consider them so. — Orchard and Garden. 



PRESERVING RECIPE. 



Salicylic acid is sold by most druggists at twenty five cents an 

 ounce, and half an ounce goes a great way in preserving, as there are 

 437^ grains in a single ounce. Mrs. Johnson's directions are: Into 

 one quart (or each quart) of soft water put thirty grains of salicylic 

 acid and six ounces of white sugar; boil until dissolved, and partly 

 cool. Prepare the fruit just as if to be canned ; then, without cooking 

 the fruit at all, fill jars or bottles of any kind with it \ then pour in the 

 salicylic and sugar solution until all the spaces in the fruit are filled 

 up to the top of the jars ; cork or cover in any way to keep out dust, 

 and set away just as if canned. Mrs. Johnson says she has now 

 •cherries and raspberries put up last year, all of which are in a state of 

 perfect preservation. This year she put np strawberries in the same 

 manner. It is probably just as applicable to peaches, plums, etc. The 

 small quantity ^f salicylic acid cannot be harmful — twelve f'rains to 

 the quart of fruit — as one in eating it would rarely consume over two 

 ■or three grains of the acid if the liquid was taken. Salicylic acid was 

 first < btaiiied from salician obtained from the willow bark (salix), but 

 is now produced by chemical processes, we believe. It acts something 

 like quinine, but is given in much lorger doses — often fifty to one hun- 

 dred grains a day. — Prairie Farmer. 



