9 
7 
Canning Tomatoes. 
Many persons who are quite successful in 
canning fruits generally,are apt to fail with 
the tomato. A lady writer in Purdy's 
Fruit Recorder , gives the following inter¬ 
esting account of how she succeeds :— 
We have ten acres of fruit of all kinds, 
and I take a great deal of pride in canning 
fruit. I get nearly all the prizes at the 
fairs. I wish you could just peep into my 
cellar to see my tomatoes and peaches, 
some canned last fall and some a year ago, 
not mentioning my other fruit. 
I will tell you how I can my tomatoes, 
both red and yellow. I pick the apple to¬ 
matoes—the smoothest and best shaped— 
and scald and skin them very carefully; 
take the stem out with a penknife, taking 
care not to cut the tomato, so as to let the 
juice or seeds run out; then I place them 
in the cans, some of them with the stem 
end next to the can, and some with the 
blossom ends; then I take the juice that has 
run out of what I have peeled to cook, hav¬ 
ing no seeds or pulp, and add a little salt, 
and pour on my whole tomatoes until near¬ 
ly full; then place them in a kettle of cold 
water, and let them cook till I think they 
are hot clear through; then I seal them. 
I use nothing but glass two quart jars, 
and after the cover has been on about five 
minutes I take it off so they will settle, let¬ 
ting the gas out; then I fill up with juice 
and seal again, and my cans are always full 
to the cover. A great many have not 
learned tuis. 
You have no idea how nice they look 
through the glass; they show every vein 
and rib, and look as if they were put up 
raw, and when used, they are just as if 
they had been taken from the vines—and if 
you don’t believe me, try it this summer. I 
always keep my fruit in the dark, and it 
don’t fade through the glass. 
A California experimenter has discovered 
that plants can be completely freed from 
scale bugs by applying a mixture of crude 
petroleum and castor oil with a feather 
daubing it slightly on the leaves and stems, 
but not allowing any to fall to the ground 
or touch the roots. 
Tlie Hollyhock. 
By L. W. Goodell, Amherst, Mass. 
Among the old fashioned flowers that for 
a time lost their popularity, but are now 
again coming into favor, none are more de¬ 
serving than the Hollyhock. Its botanical 
name is Althea rosea , and it has been in 
cultivation so long that its native country 
is doubtful, but is probably China, though 
some authorities say Syria and others 
Egypt. While the old varieties, with then- 
large single flowers scattered on stems 
eight or ten feet tall, are really fine and 
good for some situations, they are far sur¬ 
passed by the improved modern sorts, 
which are of dwarfer habits, usually not 
growing more than three or four feet in 
height, with the stems covered from near 
the ground to the top with densely double 
flowers, which are of almost every hue 
from purest white to deep purplish maroon 
and almost black. 
The Hollyhock is properly a biennial, 
though plants can be kept for several years 
by careful divisions of the roots and good 
culture; but the best flowers are produced 
the second season and it grows so rapidly 
and comes so true from seed that it is less 
trouble to get them from seed every year or 
two than to try to keep old plants. The 
seed can be sown at any time before August, 
and will usually make plants large enough 
to bloom the second season, but very young 
plants are often winter-killed, and it is 
better to get them started in May or June, 
for the larger the plants grow the first 
year the more abundant will the bloom 
usually be the second. The plants are very 
sensitive to water about their roots in win¬ 
ter, which often causes the crowns to de¬ 
cay. and they should be set where water 
will not settle around them, and it is well 
to give them a little protection with leaves 
or some similar material .—Farm and Gar¬ 
den . 
Now is the time to gather the beautiful 
Autumn leaves for winter bouquets before 
their brilliant colors are destroyed by frost. 
When properly prepared they make wreaths 
fit to grace the brow of a queen. 
