MAreh, 1914 



TiJE (JAUDKN AND FIELD. 



479 



@ Home 



Home Hints. 



When putting away canned fruit and 

 vegetables, jams, jollies, etc.. label eacli 

 glass or can with the name of the con- 

 tents, wipe clean with a damp cloth, and 

 set in a dark, dry closet. 



Tomatoes can be served in many ways. 

 There should be an abundance to use 

 when fresh, and plenty to can, pickle, 

 and make into catsup. 



It may be impossible to exterminate 

 the flies and mosquitoes, yet this danger 

 and trouble may be greatly lessened by 

 the proper use of screen doors and win- 

 dow screens. In this day of inexpensive 

 screens and wire cloth there is no excuse 

 for any householder of even moderate 

 means being without screens, which add 

 so much to the comfort, health, and se- 

 curity of the home. Messrs. Davis. 

 Brown. & Co., make a special line of 

 these necessities. 



If a bruised beetroot is boiled, the 

 juice and colour is lost and injured, but 

 if baked instead, the root will, when 

 cooked, come out as juicy and perfect in 

 colour as if it had not been injured. 



During the hot months, when the pre- 

 servation of fresh meat is a problem 

 constantly needing attention, it is well 

 to remember that meat should never be 

 laid directly on ice, as it extracts all 

 the good meat juices. 



Beans, when fresh, young, and tender, 

 are most delicious, and should be cooked 

 immediately after being picked to be at 

 their best. If, for any reason, they have 

 lost some of their natural sweetness, 

 they may he improved by a bit of sugar. 



Beetroot is a very healthy, wholesome, 

 and nutritious vegetable. It contains a 

 large quantity of sugar, and should be 

 more freely used than it is. 



Fruit juices will prove a delightful and 

 welcome addition to the housekeeper's 

 store. Prepare the fruit as for jelly, 

 heat until soft and broken, turn into a 

 jelly bag, and drain. Return the juice 

 to the fire and heat until boiling hot. 

 Stand sterilised bottles in a pan, with a 

 wet cloth beneath them, and fill ; insert 

 the corks firmly, and immediately dip 

 the top of each bottle in melted wax. 

 Almost any desired fruit may be treated 

 in this way. and the result will prove in- 



Wotes. ® 



valuable to concocting delicious beve- 

 rages, flavouring puddings, and other 

 desserts. The clever housewife will find 

 innumerable ways for their use. Sugar 

 may be added when they are bottled, but 

 we prefer most of them without this ad- 

 dition and therefore can use them in a 

 greater variety of ways. 



"School Gardening" writes on enthu- 

 siastic believer in its potent influence for 

 good, "costs, labour, time, and money. 

 Yes. all these, but the investment pays 

 large dividends. To note the educative 

 influence on the children, to observe the 

 effect on some of the home gardens, to 

 find that the very roughest boy will care- 

 fully protect the flowers from injury, to 

 see how proud the parents become of our 

 school garden, to enjoy the wondering 

 surprise of the stranger when told that 

 no plant is ever maliciously injured or 

 stolen, to realise that such a yard may 

 prove an effective object lesson to some 

 fellow-workers. These are some of the 

 rewards. 



The frame surrounding a picture 

 should harmonise with and enhance the 

 beauty of the picture itself. A setting 

 of pure gold seems none too good for a 

 painting of great merit. On the other 

 hand, to place around an inferior pic- 

 ture a pretentious frame, means poor 

 .taste on the part of the owner. Such a 

 misfit emphasises the defects, and the 

 gaudy frame brings out in strong con- 

 trast the poverty of the picture. So in 

 dressing loud colours and over-dressi- 

 ness of even good clothes emphasise any 

 lapse from the most perfect personal 

 cleanliness and any neglect of the hun- 

 dred and one little niceties of a woman's 

 toilet. 



Success in life does not depend on 

 having immense brain power or a high 

 class and expensive education. Nothing 

 of the kind. The secret is the ability to 

 use the brains you have, and hundreds 

 of men fail because they do not know 

 how to do so, and will not take the 

 trouble to try. 



— Stuffed Shoulder of Mutton. — 

 Ask the butcher to bone the mutton, as 

 a shoulder is a difficult joint to do at 

 home. Fill the cavity with veal force- 

 meat, cover with buttered paper, and tie 

 securely. Bake in a moderate oven, bast- 

 ing frequently, and serve with a garnish 

 of baked tomatoes. 



Cleaning the Storeroom. 



Have the room liioroughly cleaned be 

 fore the contents of the various trunks 

 arc touched. Then, after trunks and 

 boxes are emptied, the floor may once 

 more I)e brushed up. It is well to wipe 

 the floor and the inside walls with a 

 weak solution of chloride of lime, and 

 the insides of boxes that are to contain 

 woollens may be painted with a strong 

 solution of the same. This is sure death 

 to all moths and other vermin, and will 

 destroy any eggs which may have been 

 deposited in crack and crevices. 



Perhaps there is no other time when 

 the housekeeper sighs, "Blessed be no- 

 thing !" as when looking through the 

 accumulation of "things" in the attic. 



Said one woman : "The curse of my 

 life is the things that are too shabby to 

 wear and too good to throw away." Of 

 course there are the deserving poor, and 

 there are missionary boxes to be sup- 

 plied with cast-off articles, but one 

 would hardly send to the wife of a mis- 

 sionary a low-necked and short-sleeved 

 white satin bodice which is now too 

 small for the owner's portly figure. 



I seriously doubt the advisability of 

 keeping many cast-off gowns. They 

 gather moths, and are seldom altered 

 to satisfaction after they are so shabby 

 as to be once relegated to the attic. If 

 a dress is perfectly good, and its only 

 fault is that it is old-fashioned or too 

 small, it is well to keep it on the chance 

 that it may sometime be successfully 

 combined with some other material and 

 made over. Dresses that are shabby 

 should never be put in a missionary box, 

 but may be turned over to the rag man. 



When the summer clothes of all the 

 members of the family are brought out, 

 the winter apparel must be put away in 

 good order as to buttons, button holes, 

 rips, and tears. When they are carefully 

 repaired, brushed in the open air, and 

 sunned, they may be wrapped in tar- 

 paper, with moth balls in their folds, and 

 packed down in a trunk or case which 

 has a tight, close-fitting top. Any light 

 clothing which is not to be used this 

 season must be aired and put away again. 

 The rag bag and piece trunk are fre- 

 quently neglected by otherwise careful 

 housekeepers, but they require pains- 

 taking examination, as they are too often 

 the breeding places of the wily moth. 



During the summer months the win- 

 dows of the attic must be opened fre- 

 quently, and the breezes allowed to stray 

 into all the corners, which should never 

 be allowed to become musty. It is also 

 an excellent plant to leave the attic win- 

 dows open on clear nights in summer. 



