126 FARM HOMES, IN-DOORS AND OUT-DOORS. 



soggy masses that are only rendered palatable by plenty 

 of cream and sugar, or some kind of rich pudding sauce. 

 The good way is to soak a large cupful of rice in cold 

 water for two or three hours or even over night ; then 

 turn off the water, put the rice into an earthen or granit- 

 ized dish ; pour over it a quart of new milk sufficiently 

 salted, and set the dish into another containing boilin^ 



7 on 



water the same as in cooking oatmeal. Cover it closely, 

 and let it cook for an hour without any stirring. When 

 served, its superiority to indifferently cooked rice will be 

 decidedly apparent. Rice-boilers, which can be used for 

 oatmeal, wheat, hominy, and the like, are manufactured 

 expressly for cooking grains in this way ; but they are 

 quite expensive, and the above method, although not quite 

 so " handy," answers very well. 



FRUITS FRESH AND PRESERVED. 



" If every one would eat an orange or two every morn- 

 ing before breakfast," says a clear-headed doctor, "I 

 should soon lose all my patients !" 



Fortunately for the doctor, every one cannot have one 

 or two oranges, or even half an orange, before breakfast. 

 And particularly in the country are they an expensive 

 luxury. 



But there are many substitutes for oranges, which are 

 both delicious and plentiful, and if we can add so much 

 to our stock of Good Health as this physician intimates, 

 by breaking the night's fast with a little fresh fruit, we 

 ought not to be slow in adopting such an agreeable pre- 

 scription, and providing, as far as possible, a plentiful 

 supply. Toward the end of winter, and through the 

 spring months, nothing is so grateful and beneficial to 

 the system as fruit not the sweet "preserves," but the 

 fresh or nicely canned article ; if these cannot be had, 

 use the dried fruits stewed, and just palatably sweetened. 



