434 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



old tops and old rubbers oftener cause fruit to spoil than anything- 

 else, and as rubbers are eo cheap it does not pay to use old ones. 



I would much rather have home put up fruit than what we can 

 buy at the stores, as I think it is healthier. 



I make my own vinegar, even if I am not living where they are 

 making cider, but I call it cider vinegar. After I make jellies, espe- 

 cially apple, I always save the pomace, and as apples are generally 

 plentiful and cheap,and I don't bother to press them very hard;I put it 

 in two or three gallon jars, as I happen to have, and let it stand two or 

 three days, putting on water enough to thin it. I then drain off, and 

 to every two gallons of juice I put one pint of molasses, letting it 

 stand in jars until it ferments: then I strain it into stone jugs and 

 keep in a warm place. I have bought but one gallon of vinegar in 

 the twenty-five years I have kept house, and I almost always have 

 from five to ten gallons on hand. Some say it is too much trouble, 

 but we cannot have anything without work, and I find home-made 

 vinegar much better, as we are apt to get acids in what we buy. 



As for spiced fruit, you can spice almost all kinds of fruit, and as 

 most people spice much the same way, except that some prefer more 

 of one spice than of another to suit the taste, I will not discuss that 

 subject, as my way is like all others. For spicing, I prefer the 

 Orange crab, as it retains its shape best. 



As for pickles, I have tried a great many receipts. I prefer cucum- 

 bers put up in jars from the vines than to put them in salt and soak 

 them afterwards, as they are always ready for use. 



With all these fruits, spices, jellies and pickles as pantry stores, I 

 think that almost any one could get a good meal in a short tiine and 

 with very little trouble, or at least that has been my experience in 

 housekeeping, and I think it w^ill pay every housekeeper to spend 

 the time and work to have such things ever at hand. 



The Crozy Canna. — I received a small growing plant of it two 

 summers ago. It was too early to set it in the open ground, so I 

 potted it, and when the season was sufficiently advanced it was 

 bedded out and grew — how it did grow! — and bloomed all summer. 

 Just before the cold weather came on, I took it up very carefully, 

 gave it a paint keg for a home, with rich soil to live in, and after a 

 short interval it bloomed again, continuing to do so all winter. In 

 the spring, I took it from the keg, cut it all to pieces, gave away sev- 

 eral and kept two large clumps myself. Owing to the dry weather it 

 did not do so well as before, though it was not entirely without bloom 

 at any time during the summer. In the fall, I put one of the clumps 

 in the cellar, where it lay all winter, apparently a lump of dry earth. 

 About the first of May, I divided it again, this time in three parts, 

 two of which I gave away, and the third piece I placed in the center 

 of a circular geranium bed, where it now promises to do great 

 things; the other I potted in the autumn and have enjoyed the 

 beauty of its rich bloom in the house when other flowers were not 

 very plentiful. — Western Garden. 



