424 AGRICULTURE. 



mer. Lima beans are so easily grown and prepared for winter use, 

 and are so truly excellent, that my family usually dry enough for 

 use every other day all winter ; and they are so fresh and tender 

 (being soaked in warm water for twelve hours before cooking), that 

 I have frequently some little difficulty in persuading my guests at a 

 dinner in the holidays, that I have not a forcing house for beans, 

 with the temperature of Lima all winter. 



Ed. That is an easy and simple process, and its excellence we 

 well know from experience. But, best of all, and most rare of all, 

 is the tomato, as we have eaten it here, in mid-winter. As we have 

 seen many trials in preserving this capital vegetable for winter use, 

 nearly all of which were partly or wholly failures, pray let us into the 

 secret of your tomato formula, which we promise not to repeat to 

 more than eight or ten thousand of our particular friends and 

 readers. 



Sub. You are heartily welcome to tell it to twenty thousand. 

 It is a real discovery for the gourmand in winter, who loves the 

 pure, genuine, unalloyed and delicious acid flavor of the Solanum 

 Lycopersicum, and knows how greatly it adds to the piquancy of a 

 beef-steak, done to a second, and reposing, as CHRISTOPHER NORTH 

 would say, in the mellow richness of its own brown juices. 



Ed. Don't grow so eloquent over the remembrance as to forget 

 the modus operandi of drying. Remember we must stake our repu- 

 tation on its being equal to the genuine natural berry, when it is of 

 the color of cornelian, and plucked in the dew of a July morning. 



Sub. I remember. First, gather the tomatoes. 



Ed. When? 



Sub. When they are quite ripe, least full of water, and most 

 full of the tomato principle ; that is to say, in sunny weather in 

 July or August. If you wait till September, or, rather, till the 

 weather is so cold that the fruit is watery, you will fail in the pro- 

 cess for want of flavor. 



Ed. Go on. 



Sub. Choose tomatoes of small or only moderate size. Scald 

 them in boiling water. Next, peel them, and squeeze them 

 slightly. Spread them on earthen dishes, and place the dishes in a 

 brick oven, after taking the bread out. Let them remain there till 



