SECRETARY'S PORTFOLIO. 481 



family use. In fact, by the time sweet corn comes, seventy or eighty cans will 

 have been filled with summer and fall fruits, and it is scarcely worth while to bny 

 more just to put up corn. If the corn is cooked thoroughly on or off the 

 cob, then cut from it and dried quickly in an oven, it will keep fresh and good 

 through the winter. It will need recooking when used, and is preferred by 

 every one to the staple diet of potatoes, cabbage and roots kept in the cellar. 

 The corn should be placed in paper bags to exclude the flies. 



Canning Tomatoes. — A writer in Farm and Fireside says: 



I pick the apple tomatoes — the smoothest and best shape — scald and skin 

 them very carefully, remove the stem with a penknife, taking care to not cut 

 the tomato so as to let the juice or seeds run out. Next place them in the 

 cans, some with the stem end and some with the blossom end next to the glass. 

 Then I take the juice that has run out of what I have peeled to cook, having 

 no seeds or pulp, and add a little salt, and pour on my whole tomatoes until 

 nearly full; then place them in a kettle of cold water, and let them cook 

 till I think they are hot clear through; then I seal them. I use nothing but 

 glass two-quart jars — and after the cover has been on about five minutes, I take 

 it off so they will settle, letting the gas out; then I fill up with juice and seal 

 again, and my cans are always full to the cover. A great many have not 

 learned this. You have no idea how nice they look through the glass; they 

 show every vein and rib, and look as if they were put up raw; and when used 

 they are just as if they had been taken from the vines. I always keep my 

 fruit in the dark, and it doesn't fade through the glass. 



LANDSCAPE GARDENING 



THE FARM HOME. 



Naming Rubal Homes. — Mr. P. C. Reynolds, of Rochester, New York, says 

 that he thinks the custom of naming farm homesteads, which has long pre- 

 vailed in some of the older commonwealths, and, notably in Virginia, is worthy 

 of more general adoption throughout the country. An appropriate and ex- 

 pressive name must render any rural home more attractive and pleasant to both 

 occupants and visitors, and it is a matter of surprise that so little attention is 

 given to farm nomenclature. Aside from the pardonable pride one may feel 

 in a suitable and euphonious name for his home, there are some obvious ad- 

 vantages desirable from properly designating places occupied by the Browns, 

 Smiths, Johnsons and Robinsons in thickly populated neighborhoods. When 

 you go to visit a neighbor, either on business or pleasure, instead of saying you 

 are going to Jones's, or to Brown's or Smith's, you will say you are going over 

 to " The Cedars," or to the " Hickory Grove," or to " Holly Hill." How much 

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