se crocks, stone butter-jars or any other convenient dishes. Prepare
and cook the fruit precisely as for canning in glass jars; fill your
dishes with fruit while hot and immediately cover with cotton batting,
securely tied on. Remember that all putrefaction is caused by the
invisible creatures in the air. Cooking the fruit expels all these,
and they cannot pass through the cotton batting. The fruit thus
protected will keep an indefinite period. It will be remembered that
Tyndall has proved that the atmospheric germs cannot pass through a
layer of cotton.

MACEDOINES.

Suspend in the centre of the jelly mold a bunch of grapes, cherries,
berries, or currants on their stems, sections of oranges, pineapples,
or brandied fruits, and pour in a little jelly when quite cold, but
not set. It makes a very agreeable effect. By a little ingenuity you
can imbed first one fruit and then another, arranging in circles, and
pour a little jelly successively over each. Do not re-heat the jelly,
but keep it in a warm place, while the mold is on ice and the first
layers are hardening.

[Illustration]

CANNED FRUITS

Berries and all ripe, mellow fruit require but little cooking, only
long enough for the sugar to penetrate. Strew sugar over them, allow
them to stand a few hours, then merely scald with the sugar; half to
three-quarters of a pound is considered sufficient. Harder fruits like
pears, quinces, etc., require longer boiling. The great secret of
canning is to make the fruit or vegetable perfectly air-tight. It must
be put up boiling hot and the vessel filled to the brim.

Have your jars conveniently placed near your boiling fruit, in a tin
pan of hot water on the stove, roll them in the hot water, then fill
immediately with the hot, scalding fruit, fill to the top, and seal
quickly with the tops, which should also be heated; occasionally screw
down the tops tighter, as the fruit shrinks as it cools, and the glass
contracts and allows the air to enter the cans. They must be perfectly
air-tight. The jars to be kept in a dark, cool, dry place.

Use glass jars for fruit always, and the fruit should be cooked in a
porcelain or granite-iron kettle. If you are obliged to use common
large-mouthed bottles with corks, steam the corks and pare them to a
close fit, driving them in with a mallet. Use the following wax for
sealing: One pound of resin, three ounces of beeswax, one and one-half
ounces of tallow. Use a brush in cover