The new practical housekeeping

Let the cans stand over night bottom side up ; in the morning turn down covers again with the can-tightener, wrap well in paper, tying it on to exclude all light, label — the gummed labels that can be purchased in book form ready to cut and use are very convenient — and place in fruit closet or cellar. Where one can have a small room in cellar, with one or more windows, place shelves around the sides on which to put stone jars of pickles, preserves, jam, etc. It is nice to make in one cotner a fruit closet with a door, and shelves arranged in heights to fit one and two-quart cans and jelly glasses ; then each shelf or part of shelf can be labeled with the fruit or jelly placed upon it. Have in upper part of door a small piece of window wire put in, or two or three augur holes made to admit the air. In lieu of this closet many bury cans in boxes of sand. Light injures all fruits, but especially strawberries. The place should be dry and dark and cooly but where there is fresh air ; if too warm the fruit will spoil, as heat makes it ferment and dampness causes mold. Cans should be examined two or three days after filling, and if syrup leaks out from the rim *they should be unsealed, the fruit thoroughly cooked and kept for jam or jelly, as it will have lost the delicacy of color and flavor so desirable in canned fruits. When canning a quantity of fruit, after removing the first lot of cans from the pan of hot water the water must be made tepid before setting in the remaining cans, then heated gradually to boiling again and kept hot until those cans are filled, repeating thus until all are done. If at any time there is not fruit enough to fill a can it may be left standing partly filled in the hot water until more fruit is cooked, then filled and removed like the rest to the hot platter. It is always best to cook a small quantity of fruit, either large or small, at a time (not more than one or two quarts of the large varieties, and two or three of berries) that it may be done evenly. If a large mass is cooked at once that in the bottom will be done sooner than that on top, and if stirred to secure uniformity its shape will be injured. It should also be cooked slowly to preserve the form, and the larger fruits after being put in the syrup must be watched very closely and each piece taken out and placed in can as soon as it becomes tender, as some pieces will cook in much less time than others. In canning berries use as little water as possible, and some can successfully without water. To better preserve the form of fruit many place it in the cans raw, cover with a hot syrup and cook by placing in a boiler of water. The same object is attained by first steaming the fruit, and when done carefully removing to the boiling syrup a moment or two, then place in cans when steamed tender, or place at once in cans and fill up with hot syrup, testing by piercing with a silver fork. The cold process has also been successfully tried by good housekeepers, and considering the amount of labor saved is certainly worth an experiment by all. Recipes are given for each method. To clarify sugar for canning break a pound of loaf sugar in small pieces, put on the stove in porcelain-lined or granite ironware vessel with half pint water and well- whisked white of one egg.