THE KURAb NEW-YORKER 
833 
watching the little nest, and keeps well 
up in the tree. 
The oriole was shouting his opinion 
that “all's right with the world,” and ap¬ 
parently had an earnest wish that every 
one should realize it. He keeps it up all 
around our yard, but we know that his 
mate has suspended her strongly-woven 
nest on the swaying, slender tip of a 
bough of the big elm across the street, 
where our neighbors have for years 
watched the family life, and loved the 
hold and beautiful bird. We discovered 
the nest this year because we heard a 
great scolding in that tree, and looking 
across, we saw Mrs. Oriole returning to 
the gray pocket that she was weaving. 
Some bird had disturbed her, and she was 
defending her home. Some purple grac- 
kles stay about here. They are hand¬ 
some in their iridescent purple and blue, 
but they are fond of eggs and nestlings, 
and evidently the fact is known in the 
bird world. Several times we have seen 
a robin give one of those graekles a hard 
chase, and he was saying things quite to 
the discredit of that black fellow. An¬ 
other day, our vireos were much dis¬ 
tressed by the grackle’s presence in their 
tree. 
The tiny yellow warbler that has a nest 
each Spring somewhere near our neigh¬ 
bors, between us and the bridge, was 
visiting us, that cloudy day, as he often 
does. We expect to hear him every Sum¬ 
mer in that region, as much as we ex¬ 
pect the season to come. His sharp lit¬ 
tle voice was a part of my chorus all 
day. 
These three birds were not uncommon, 
but that day a visitor came that does not 
often stay with us. A rose-breasted 
grosbeak joined the choir, and partly be¬ 
cause his song is beautiful and partly 
because of the novelty of his presence, 
gave me even more pleasure than the 
others. He sang frequently all that day, 
putting in some of the extra notes that 
surprised me so when I first heard one 
do it, a few years ago. They seem to 
have the power of adding phrases to the 
regular song that resembles that of the 
robin, and these extra phrases vary with 
different individuals, some being much 
prettier than others. Then throughout the 
day, a white-crowned sparrow now and 
then sweetly informed me, “I have plenty 
to eat but have no cheese”—at least so 
some one interprets it, and the words 
lit well to the music. They seem to be 
shy this Spring, and only once have we 
seen the dainty Northerner in our gar¬ 
den. He is worth hunting for if one 
has the time, and if not, his voice alone 
is wonderfully pleasing. 
These were my all-day choir, and 
enough to keep me cheerful, but some¬ 
times a Maryland yellowthroat gave me 
to understand that there were “witches 
here, witches here, witches!” It is a 
sprightly voice and a pleasant little fel¬ 
low to think about as I moved things 
unpleasant to handle. Then the voice of 
our rare Philadelphia vireo reached me 
from the riverside trees, at times. This 
is the fourth season he has returned, and 
we are proud to list him, as he is not 
often found by Vermont bird lovers. Our 
town is favored in being chosen as his 
Summer home. There was another song 
in the same direction that I felt doubt¬ 
ful about. It might be a Wilson warb¬ 
ler, but I would have to see him to be 
sure. No time to hunt him up now, but 
there were other days coming. 
Some one has sajd, “One is scarcely 
sensible of fatigue while he marches to 
music. The very stars are said to make 
harmony as they revolve in their spheres. 
Wondrous is the strength of cheerfulness, 
altogether past calculation its powers of 
endurance.” So then, I count one of 
the joys of Spring cleaning to be the mu¬ 
sic furnished us while we work, and 
furnished “without money and without 
price.” E. F. M. 
Canning Questions. 
Will you give recipes for canning 
cherries, crab apple and grape jelly, also 
state if jellies will keep in pint Mason 
jars with only rubber and cover? AVe 
have many Sockel pear trees and last 
season for want of knowing how to pre¬ 
serve them were left on the trees. I trust 
some of your readers may suggest a way 
of canning. E. B. s. 
Canned Cherries.—Stem and wash the 
cherries; put in quart jars. Pack them 
solid, but without bruising. Prepare a 
syrup by melting two cups of sugar in 
one quart of water, letting it come to the 
boil, and skimming off any scum that 
forms on top. Pour syrup into jars of 
fruit, filling carefully so as to destroy 
air bubbles. Set jars on boards or false 
bottom in a wash-boiler, containing water 
enough to come more than half way up 
jars. Lay covers on jars, move boiler 
over fire, and let it come to a boil. Let 
the fruit cook about 10 minutes after 
water boils, then remove and seal. Have 
some boiling syrup to fill up any jars 
that have shrunk down. Sterilize jars 
and lids before using, and have new rub¬ 
bers, sterilized with boiling water. 
Crabapple Jelly.—Wash the fruit, cut 
in halves or quarters. Put in granite or 
porcelain-lined preserve kettle, and for 
three pounds of apples add one pint of 
water. Cover and cook slowly until ap¬ 
ples are in rags. Allow juice to drip 
through a double thickness of cheesecloth 
or flannel jelly bag. Do not squeeze, or 
jelly will be cloudy. Measure juice, boil 
20 minutes, and add an equal quantity 
of heated granulated sugar, boil five min¬ 
utes, skim and turn into glasses that 
have been dipped into scalding water and 
placed on a wet cloth. 
Grape Jelly.—The grapes gathered just 
as they begin to turn are the best for 
jelly. Free them from their stems and 
iltiiiiniiimmiuimmniiitnnininnmnniiiniiiimniiinniimiiiiiiiiiuininiiuiiimi«iiiininiroim»m^ 
BiiiiiuimiHiiniiiMJiiuiiiiiiiimiiuiiiiiiimniuHiiiiMmmttwniniiiimiiimmiiiiiiiiiiiiiHiuiiiiiiimur. 
wash them, heat slowly ; cook them until 
the juice is well drawn out; turn into 
a flannel bag and let it drip without 
pressure; measure the juice, and, if cul¬ 
tivated grapes are used, allow an equal 
amount of sugar; if the wild grape, al¬ 
low a little more than an equal measure. 
Heat the sugar (put in a pan in the 
oven and stir often) ; boil the strained 
juice 15 minutes; skim and strain again 
add the sugar, boil until the surface 
looks wrinkled, skim well and turn into 
glasses. 
Green Grape Jelly.—Select the grapes 
when full grown, just before they begin 
to turn purple. After separating from 
the stem, wash, adding a little water if 
the grapes are not very juicy. Stew un¬ 
til the skins are cooked. Strain through 
the jelly bag. Measure the juice, meas¬ 
ure the same amount of sugar, putting 
it in the oven while the juice is being 
boiled. The boiling will take half an 
hour. Now add the hot sugar, which 
you must be careful not to scorch, boil 
about five minutes longer, and then the 
jelly should be ready to pour in glasses. 
Jelly made from the green grapes is solid, 
of a delicious flavor and of a pretty 
green tint. 
There is no reason why jelly would not 
keep in jars as well as in jelly glasses, 
only it would not turn out in a mold, 
owing to shape of jar, and this would 
lead to some waste. 
Seckel pears are delicious in sweet 
pickle, canned or preserved. For can¬ 
ning, prepare a syrup as for cherries. 
Peel the fruit, halve if large, or leave 
whole; put in jars, pour syrup over, 
and cook like the cherries. They will 
take about 40 minutes boiling unless very 
ripe (which is not desirable) but may 
be tested with bi’oom straw. 
Sweet Pickle.—The pears are usually 
left unpeeled for this, but we dislike 
the skin, and always peel them. Leave 
whole. For seven pounds of pears use 
four pounds sugar, one pint vinegar, one- 
half ounce ginger root, one teaspoonful 
ground cloves, two teaspoonfuls allspice, 
two teaspoonfuls cinnamon, one-half tea¬ 
spoonful gi’ound mace. Divide the spices 
into four parts, and tie each portion into 
a little square of muslin, add to sugar 
and vinegar, and bring all to a boil. 
Then put the fruit into the syrup, and 
cook until it may be pierced with a 
broom splint. Skim out the fruit, put 
in a crock, bring the syrup to a boil 
again, and pour over the fruit. Many 
recipes call for a repetition of this nine 
days in succession; each day the syrup 
is poured off, boiled and then poured 
over the fruit again. This gives a very 
rich syrup, but we find the pickle keeps 
well when only syrup is only boiled twice, 
if one prefers this. Cover jar closely. 
Sweet Cucumber Pickles. 
My way is to cut lai’ge cucumbers into 
chunks but they are most delicious and 
will keep the year around. Maybe some¬ 
one else will be glad of it if A. W. L. is 
not. Soak cucumbers in strong brine 
three days. Pour off brine and freshen 
for three days, changing water each day.- 
Then slice in thick chunks. For each 
seven pounds of cucumbers take three 
pounds sugar, 1 % pints vinegar, one 
ounce each of cloves, cinnamon and all¬ 
spice. (I omit allspice, not liking it.) 
Before putting this mixture onto cucum¬ 
bers, bring them to brisk boil in weak 
vinegar in which put small piece of alum. 
Then boil them in spiced vinegar, and 
heat in it again two following days, mak¬ 
ing them “Nine-Day pickles.” Put into 
stone jar and cover with horseradish 
leaves. Half grown cucumbers or over¬ 
grown ones can be used. 
I have seen your request about sweet 
pickles in The R. N.-Y. on page 185, 
and I think here is a recipe that would 
please Mrs. N. J. I and others have 
found it best of all. The cucumbers are 
put in salt and water, so strong that an 
egg will float on it, for 24 hours. They 
are then taken up and dried with a towel. 
One quart of vinegar is boiled with one 
pound sugar, one cup white small onions, 
one-half teaspoonful whole pepper, white 
or black, one-half teaspoonful whole must- 
ard, one-half teaspoonful whole cloves, 
one stick cinnamon, a little dill or dill seed 
and a piece of horseradish. When all 
this boils pour over cucumbers and let 
stand for 10 minutes. Take cucumbers 
up and boil vinegar again and pour 
over them; then let them stand for two 
days, after which cucumbers are again 
taken up and vinegar boiled and skimmed, 
and when cold pour over cucumbers. 
White vinegar should be used, as cider 
vinegar makes them dark in color. If 
cucumbers ai’e large, they are cut in 
two, cleaned and salt put on them in¬ 
stead of salt water; larger ones are to be 
peeled. They should only stand with 
salt over night. It is not necessary to 
boil vinegar after two days, but they 
keep better. It is also good with only 
vinegai’, sugar, onions, and pepper, but 
dill and other flavors make it excellent. 
A. P. 
Mankind may now be in the dawn of 
a fx-esh phase of living altogether. It is 
possible. The forces of construction aro 
proportionately gigantic. There was nev¬ 
er so much clear and critical thought 
in the world as thei-e is now, never so 
large a body of generally accessible knowl¬ 
edge and suggestion, never anything like 
the same breadth of outlook, the same 
universality of imaginative freedom * * * 
We find ourselves, in spite of quarrels 
and jealousies and conflicts, helping and 
serving in the making of a new world- 
city, a newer State in which all human 
life becomes a splendid enterprise, free 
and beautiful.—II. G. Wells. 
When you write 
advertisers 
mention 
The R. N.-Y. and 
you'll 
get 
a quick 
reply and a “square 
deal.” 
See 
guaran- 
tee editorial page. 
• 
• 
• • 
• • 
-26* 
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