T.'WLC KU.cAL NEW-YORKliR 
1113 
l'Jlo.. 
In My Neighbors’ Gardens: 
Geraniums. 
Making a midsummer call upon a 
friend in the village whom I had not 
visited for many seasons the attractive¬ 
ness of her home promptly impressed it¬ 
self upon me. Yet it was but the ordi¬ 
nary neat, village dwelling, worth no 
more and no less in the real estate line 
than 20 other houses on the same quiet, 
well-kept street. A second look and I 
realized that its cheerful, welcoming look 
was due to scarlet geraniums. They 
flanked the front veranda, they smiled 
from a long box on the veranda rail, 
they crept around the house on either 
side and finally took up conspicuous posi¬ 
tions in two large circles where the back 
yard began. 
"Come and see my flowers,” said the 
friend when my call indoors was over, 
and when I learned her system of hand¬ 
ling her favorite plants it seems so sim¬ 
ple and so successful as to be worth copy¬ 
ing by all who love geraniums and can 
give them Winter quarters so to their 
liking, or at least to their endurance. 
My friend’s house stands on a hillside 
and has, in consequence, large cellar win¬ 
dows on one side. In the Fall she lifts 
all her geraniums and sets them closely 
in big boxes with soil to fill in about the 
roots. They are probably packed in as 
many as each box can be made to hold 
for they are then placed in the two or 
three west windows of the cellar where 
is considerable light, but no furnace heat, 
as stoves are used upstairs. The leaves 
drop and they rest during early Winter, 
no water being given. Some time in 
January she gives them their first water¬ 
ing, and after that keeps the soil slightly 
damp. By planting-out time the leaves 
are well started, the largest being the 
size of a half dollar. This means, you 
see, that while growth has gotten under 
way, lengthening of the branches has not 
really begun. 
The beds are well spaded and usually 
commercial fertilizer is added, though she 
has had them blossom as freely when the 
soil was not enriched. Every Spring¬ 
time she buys a dozen new plants for the 
front bed below the veranda. Thus the 
supply is kept up, for naturally a few 
old ones will drop out each year. But 
probably her wealth of these brilliantly 
decoratively plants is the result of the 
constantly increasing investment. Her 
choice seems always to be for a double 
variety and one intensely scarlet. The 
shades vary slightly, but no crimsons, 
pinks or salmons dilute the warmth or 
their cheerful blaze. Against the gray of 
the house and the green of well-kept turf 
the color scheme could not be improved 
for the locality. It goes without saying 
that her plants are watered and kept 
free from weeds, for she said as we went 
from one bed to another, “I love them,” 
and when she told of trouble with worms 
in the roots of those bought this Spring 
I knew that she had practical farm sense 
as well as sentiment concerning her pets. 
Indeed she had been a farmer’s daughter, 
which accounts for her success, I fancy, 
for it often turns out that the best vil¬ 
lage gardeners are graduates—or shall 
we say retrogrades—from farm life. Af¬ 
ter the heavier burdens and Summer’s 
avalanche of work upon a farm the pro¬ 
scribed limits and play labors of the or¬ 
dinary village lot seem mere diversion to 
the ouee-a-farmer, while the knowledge of 
soil and plant needs makes for success. 
PRUDENCE PRIMROSE. 
Tested Recipes. 
Bran Biscuits.—One cup sour milk, 
one teaspoon soda, salt, one tablespoon 
shortening chopped into pint of flour; 
one cup of bran or a little less bran if 
one does not like the taste of bran. Pro¬ 
ceed as in making any baking powder 
biscuits. Sweet milk and baking pow¬ 
der can be used instead of sour milk and 
soda. I prefer using baking powder in¬ 
stead of soda with sour milk. When do¬ 
ing this use three teaspoons baking pow¬ 
der to pint of Hour. Biscuits made from 
sour milk and baking powder we con¬ 
sider beat those made from sour milk and 
soda. One lady, an exceptionally fine 
cook, who was visiting us, exclaimed over 
the fine biscuits we had for dinner one 
day. I told her, as I had no sweet milk, 
I had to use sour milk. “What!” she ex¬ 
claimed, “sour milk and soda? I never 
have success with sour milk and soda.” 
I then told her to use baking powder. 
The rule calls for one teaspoonful more 
baking powder than you would use if 
using baking powder and sweet milk. My 
husband is fond of pancakes made from 
this prepared pancake flour. I like them 
but find them disturbing to digestion, so 
I put some bran in them which enables 
me to enjoy the eating of pancakes. 
Another recipe I wish The Rural 
cooks would try is gelatin and rhnbarb; 
as a rule there is an abundance of rhu¬ 
barb to be found on most farms, and the 
families get tired eating rhubarb sauce, 
so try the following for a change: Peel 
the rhubarb unless stalks are young, then 
peeling will cook up and not be noticed. 
Then take plain gelatine. Most gelatines 
say soak in cold water, then dissolve in 
hot, so after soaking gelatine in cold 
water, take hot rhubarb sance sweetened 
to taste, pour on gelatine, let set in cold 
place. If yon do not care to have rhn¬ 
barb show in the gelatine, then strain 
rhubarb sauce and use only hot juice. 
If you wish it colored and have no gela¬ 
tine coloring, when cutting up the rhu¬ 
barb stalks select part that are a deep 
dark red, generally the part of the stalk 
near the root or heart of the plant will 
be found to be colored enough. We en¬ 
joy this gelatine rhubarb dish especially 
for dinner or when we have cold meat 
or fish. mrs. J. w. P. 
Mutton Recipes. 
The following recipes are from the 
bulletin issued by the National Depart¬ 
ment of Agriculture on “Mutton and Its 
Value in the Diet.” 
Mutton with Quinces or Sour Apples. 
—For this recipe use any cut of mut¬ 
ton suitable for stewing and twice its 
weight of raw quinces. Cut the meat 
into small pieces and brown them either 
in mutton, fat or butter. Cover with boil¬ 
ing water, add salt and cook slowly un¬ 
til tender. Pare and quarter the quinces 
and cook them in a small amount of 
water until tender. Combine the meat 
with the fruit and cook slowly for 10 or 
15 minutes. Serve witn rice. Variety 
may be obtained by making a brown 
gravy with the fat in which the meat is 
fried and cooking the meat in that. In 
the above recipe sour apples may be sub¬ 
stituted for quinces. 
Sauce for Warmed-over Mutton.—One 
and one-half cup white stock, one slice 
onion, one slice carrot, one sprig parsley, 
two peppercorns, one-quarter cup butter, 
one-quarter cup floor, one cup scalded 
milk, one-half teaspoon salt, one-eighth 
teaspoon pepper. Cook the stock 20 min¬ 
utes with onion, carrot, bay leaf, parsley 
and peppercorn and strain. There should 
be one cup. Melt the butter, add the 
flour and gradually the hot stock and 
milk. Season with salt and pepper. 
Haricot of Mutton.—Two tablespoons 
butter or drippings, two tablespoons 
chopped onions, 1*4 pounds lean mutton 
cut into two-inch pieces, two cups water, 
salt and pepper, Lima beans, chopped 
parsley. Fry the onions in the butter, 
remove the onions, add the meat and 
brown; cover with water and cook until 
the meat is tender. Serve with a border 
of Lima beans, seasoned with salt, pep¬ 
per, butter and a little chopped parsley. 
Fresh, canned, dried or evaporated Lima 
beans may be used in making this dish. 
Canned Fruit Syrup. 
Will some one tell me what to do with 
fruit juices left over after canning? I 
have several quarts of it put up by a 
servant who evidently did not understand 
canning. I need the cans and do not 
need the fruit juice. f. a. 
M ithout knowing what the fruit juices 
are one cannot give full advice, but such 
syrup is valuable for making pudding 
sauce, for moistening mincemeat, flavor¬ 
ing ice cream, and as a foundation for 
gelatine desserts. This material is often 
extremely useful in Winter, aqd we 
would save all of it. Remove from the 
jars and put in bottles; stand the bottles 
on a rack in a kettle, with water around 
them as in canning fruit; cook like 
canned fruit, so as to insure keeping, and 
seal while hot. If corks are used, give 
the cork a good coating of melted paraf¬ 
fin, coming down on to the neck of the 
bottle. 
Be still, sad heart! and cease repining; 
Behind the clouds is the sun still shining; 
Thy fate is the common fate of all— 
Into each life some rain must fall, 
Some days must be dark and dreary. 
—Longfellow. 
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