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Blackberry Syrup

Make a simple syrup of a pound of sugar to each pint of water, and boil it until it is rich and thick. Then add to it as many pints of the expressed juice of ripe blackberries as there are pounds of sugar; put half a nutmeg, grated, to each quart of syrup; let it boil fifteen or twenty minutes; then add to it half a gill of fourth-proof brandy for each quart of syrup; set it by to become cold, then bottle it for use. A tablespoonful for a child, or a wineglassful for an adult, is a dose.

XII. Drying Fruits.

FRUITS are dried in four ways: 1. By slicing thin, and exposing the natural fruit, spread on cloth or frames of silvered wire to the heat of the sun, taking them under cover in the event of rain, and at night. When dry they are placed loosely in paper bags and hung in a dry place. 2. The fruit is cured after slicing by being kept in a warm oven until dry. 3. They are cooked sufficiently to make them soft and then dried by fire heat. 4. They are also dried in dry-houses, more or less simple, by continuous fire heat. This plan is altogether the most economical when a considerable quantity is dried each year. In all fruit neighborhoods these houses may be found where the fruit is dried either on shares or at a given price per pound. Pip fruits are pared, cored and sliced. Stone fruits may or may not have the stones removed. Peaches always should, and it is better to pare and slice them. Plums are generally halved, and cherries have the pits removed.