May, 1890. 
105 
^ O RCH t\R P $ r'nd % Gt\RDE W \ 
U. S. mall. 
In regard to the inquiry, published last 
month, “How can I get rid of Ants?” we 
have the following answers: 
1. Place Persian insect powder thickly 
on the shelves so that the ants cannot reach 
any food without going over it, and those 
that make the attempt will be killed. 
2. Wash the wood- work thoroughly with 
a solution of carbolic acid, also place a little 
in saucers on the shelves. 
3. Put some sugar in a cheap sponge and 
place it where the ants are thickest. When 
it is filled with ants, throw it in boiling wat- 
er which will kill them at once. Then 
rinse out the sponge, and set it again. 
p “K. C. B.” writes: 
“I hope a great many readers will tell their ways of 
canning and pi t serving, for I get so tired of doing up 
fruit the same way year after year. T will do my part 
by telling how f can strawberries. I use half a pound 
of sugar to a pound of fruit, and dissolve it with a little 
water. Then I add the berries and boil fifteen min- 
utes when f put them in Mason’s glass jars and screw 
the covers on at once. I make nice jam by using three- 
quarters of a pound of sugar to a pound of fruit. I put 
the berries and sugar together in the preserving kettle, 
and boil half an hour, stirring all the time. Then I 
pour it into jars but do not cover till the next day. 
Now I want to know somebody else’s plan.” 
“Mrs. J. T. R.,” in a bright, interesting 
letter says: 
“Last August I bought an ice-cream freezer and used 
it several times, but 1 always made the same kind of 
cream. This year I want to learn how to use fresh 
fruits in ice cream and ices. Will some one who has 
had experience, please tell me how to make them?” 
Excellent fruit creams can be made as fol- 
lows: Mash sugar and fruit together and 
let them stand one or two hours. Rub 
through a colander, add cream and freeze. 
For strawberry cream, use a quart of cream 
to a quart of berries and a pint of sugar. 
For raspberry, use a little less sugar. For 
banana, a cup and a half of sugar and 
half a dozen bananas is a good proportion. 
Of course the amount of sugar is a matter 
of taste, some families liking much less than 
others; but anything to be frozen must be 
much sweeter than it otherwise would be. 
Some prefer to heat the cream and dissolve 
a part of the sugar in it before adding the 
fruit. 
— 1 m i 
Save tlie Scraps. 
It is almost impossible to calculate so that 
no good food will be left at the end of a 
meal. Consequently every housekeeper 
ought to know a variety of appetizing ways 
of re- serving these scraps. The little c.ild 
meat and potato, which careless people 
would throw away, will make delicious cro- 
quettes for to-morrow’s dinner, thereby less- 
ening the amount of meat needed for that 
meal. Mince the meat very fine, and sea- 
son to taste. Add a little milk to the pota- 
to and beat it thoroughly; then add a well- 
beaten egg, butter, salt and pepper. It 
should be of the right consistency to han- 
dle. When cool, take up a spoonful of the 
potato, then some of the meat, form it into 
a cylinder with the meat in the center, roll 
in eggs and cracker-crumbs, place in the 
frying-basket and immerse in boiling lard. 
In warm weather, instead of the cro- 
quettes, make a salad by the addition of a 
few crisp lettuce leaves and a dressing 
made as follows; stir together one teaspoon- 
ful of mustard and two of oil, add an egg 
and beat thoroughly. Add four tablespoon- 
fuls of vinegar and boil one minute, 
stiring until it thickens. All kinds of meat 
and fish may be used in this or similar 
ways. Macaroni, rice and some vegetables 
will make a welcome addition to tomor- 
row’s soup. Hommy and rice are useful 
for muffins, waffles or croquttes. Bits of 
bread, dried and rolled may be used instead 
of cracker-crumbs for escalloping oysters, 
etc. In fact, there is scarcely a scrap of 
good food that need be thrown away, and 
the amount that can be thus saved will make 
a noticeable difference in the month’s bills. 
Five or ten cents a day amounts to a good 
deal in a year, but it is worth still more to 
have one’s conscience free from the sin of 
wastefulness. 
Kitchen Tables. 
Whatever else you have or do not have 
in your house, be sure to provide yourself 
w ith a sensible kitchen table, — not a board 
supported on four legs, but a generous, ca- 
pacious article of furniture. It should have 
a long drawer in the middle, two short ones 
at one end, and one at the other. Here may 
be kept materials for polishing silver and 
steel, dish-towels and cloths, scrubbing and 
cleaning cloths, extra lanp-wicks, etc. A 
high back, with shelves divided into com- 
partments, v ill be found convenient for 
knives, forks, spoons, sugar, pepper, salt, — 
in fact for all the little things which are 
constantly needed in cooking. Folding- 
cranes, to hold the jelly-bag or whatever 
needs straining, may be fastened here; while 
a rack to hold the open cook-book needs 
only to be seen to be appreciated. Such a 
table saves many weary steps and greatly 
simplifies the house-work. 

‘ Make Haste Slowly.” 
One of our exchanges, in writing about 
house-cleaning, said: “Early in March, 
pack away furs, blankets, flannels, and all 
winter clothing.” We wondered if the 
writer were a physician’s wife, anxious to 
increase the number of his patients. 
Certainly, for people north of the latitude 
of Washington, to follow these directions 
would seem like tempting Providence. In- 
deed, with our constant changes in temper- 
ature and frequent cold winds, winter cloth- 
ing ought not to be packed for the season 
before May. It may be laid aside when the 
weather is warm, but it should be at hand 
so that we may put it on in the cold rain 
that comes after the furnace fires are out, 
or when the north wind blows fiercely. In- 
deed, if people would be more particular to 
change their clothing in accordance with 
the changes in the weather, there would be 
fewer colds, throat and lung difficulties. It 
is almost as injurious to wear too much 
clothing on warm days as to wear too little 
ou cold. Hence the only safety, in our cli- 
mate, is in making frequent changes. 
Mothers should be especially careful with 
regard to their children's clothing, as the 
little ones are more sensitive than older 
people to variations in temperature. But 
for us all, the safest rule in regard to putting 
warm under clothing out of reach for the 
season is, “make haste slowly.” 
Hints About Washing. 
A handful of borax to ten gallons of wat- 
er will whiten the clothes without injuring 
them. When this is used, only about half 
as much soap will be needed, A tablespoon- 
ful of turpentine, added to the water in the 
boiler just before putting in the clothes, is 
by some preferred to borax for whitening. 
Silk handkerchiefs should be washed with 
fine white soap, in luke-warm water, and 
rinsed two or three times in clear cold wat- 
er without blueing. They should not be al- 
lowed to get very dry before ironing. Black 
stockings should be washed in strong salt 
and water, then in a weaker solution, and 
rinsed in clear water. To wash corsets, 
scrub with a clean brush, using soap and 
a little ammonia and rinsing thoroughly. 
Fruit stains will disappear if boiling wat- 
er be poured upon them at once. Old fruit 
stains should be wet with a solution of hy- 
posulphite of soda, with pulverized tartaric 
acid; afterward washed out in clear water. 
To remove grass stains, rub them thorough- 
ly with butter, and spread in the sun 
for three or four hours before washing. 
Lemon juice will take ink stains from white 
goods; while lemon juice and salt will us- 
ually remove iron rust. A little borax in 
the water will keep red table cloths and 
napkins from fading. To wash babys cro- 
cheted or knitted sacques, socks, etc., use 
corn starch, rubbing the articles just as you 
would if washing with water and they will 
soon look clean and white. 
A Suggestion. 
Although not a summer month, May us- 
ually givesusmany warm and summer-like 
days; it also, at its close, brings us the first 
and best of the summer fruits, — the straw- 
berry. From this time on, we have a con- 
tinuous succession of native fruits and ber- 
ries, in such profusion that we find it easy 
to believe the statement of travelers that no 
other country in the world has so varied 
and abundant a fruit supply as the United 
States. 
Since the facilities of transportation are 
so great, people in the cities and large towns 
rarely have any trouble in keeping their 
tables supplied, while one of the delights of 
every well-regulated country home is the 
unfailing abundance of absolutely fresh 
fruits and berries throughout the warm 
months. Yet in spite of this, there are 
housekeepers who persist in tiring themsel- 
