GOOD FOOD FROM THE GARDEN. 83, 



directions. The gardeners often grow different varieties for their 

 own table from those the}' offer for sale, and the greengrocers 

 apparently know no difference in qualities of different species of 

 vegetable. One market handbook devotes fifty pages to describ- 

 ing meats and tish, Avhile but ten pages are given to vegetables, 

 and fruits. 



Easy transportation and culture under glass have served to- 

 take away our appetite, since when we can have anything at any 

 time we do not care for it at all. 



The forcing of vegetables out of season has confused the house- 

 keeper unfamiliar with farm life. She does not know when any- 

 thing is at its best and does not take advantage of an abundant 

 market, but supplies herself with canned vegetables, which are 

 always in season. 



There should be a strong movement against the use of foreign 

 substances in canned and dried vegetables and fruits. Salicylic 

 acid, coloring matters, and sulphur may or may not have ill 

 effects, but they surely cannot improve the quality or flavor of 

 first-rate vegetables. 



Dried fruit and vegetables would be more popular if specific 

 directions had been given for their use. Few persons realize that 

 long soaking and little cooking produce the best results. Per- 

 haps all this instruction will have to be given by some enterpris- 

 ing seedsman, just as the food-product people show how to cook 

 their wares. 



The housekeeper knows little of the comparative merits of the 

 vegetables in the market, and often is no wiser than the Xew 

 Jersey family recently reported by the United States Department 

 of Agriculture, where 14.8 per cent of the whole sum spent for 

 food went for oranges and celery, which furnished but 1.4 per 

 cent of the total full value. 



To quote Count Rumford again : " I constantly found that the 

 richness or quality of a soup depended more upon the proper 

 choice of the ingredients and a proper management of the fire in 

 the combination of these ingredients than upon the quantity of 

 solid nutritious matter employed ; much more upon the art and 

 skill of the cook than upon the sums laid out in the market." 



The methods of cookery applied to vegetables are similar to 

 those used for meat, but must be adapted to the composition and 

 condition of the individual specimen. 



