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HINTS ABOUT PLANTS

Few things are necessary for the successful cultisuccessful cultivation of house plants. A patient, untiring spirit is most important. The other requisites are plenty of sunlight, fresh air, and water when they need it. It is better to give a good supply of water when called for by drooping leaves, than to give a little at a time often. Never leave pots to set in water in saucers except for the calla lily. To repot, turn plants upside down on the left hand, rap pots sharply with stick; this will loosen it from the ball of earth; lift it off, and place the plant in a pot two sizes larger, or in the ground. Do not leave the soil too rich with manure but well mixed, and composed of sod-soil, wild or leaf-mold, and well-rotted stable manure. Cut manure. plants back pretty closely when you change them, and they will thrive betwill thrive better afterwards. Water well at first, then only moisten slightly until they begin to grow.

A good rule for watering plants is once a week in winter if the weather is mild, or when it has moderated, have a gallon watering-can filled with blood-warm water, stir in a tea-spoonful of aqua ammonia , and as you set the plants in a convenient place (I set mine on the kitchen floor), pour in pot a plentiful supply of this warm water, and after this, sprinkle well with warm water without ammonia. In summer two or three times a week is the rule. Ivies need large pots, and should be repotted every year in the summer time.

A good way to start slips is to partly break off the slip, but do not entirely sever it from the parent stock, leaving it hanging for ten or twelve days; then remove, and plant in a box of half sand or brick -dust and half leafmold, and it will be well rooted in a week. Do not water too freely, or the slip will rot. This is better for both slip and plant, as the slip will get nourishment from plant while healing over, and its removal will not weaknot weaken the plant SO much. Hyacinths are very attractive flowers for windowfor windowgardening, and at the same time require very little care or trouble. Get the bulbs in the fall before frost from any good florist (Vick is my favorite), and keep in a cool place until December, then plant each one in a fourin a fourinch pot with soil one-fourth sand, one-fourth well-rotted manure, one-fourth garden or sod-soil, and one-fourth broken bits of moss and leaf-mold; and leaf-mold; water thoroughly at first, and set in dark closet until the first of Januthe first of January, then bring to light and give plenty of water. A very good way is to set half a dozen or more pots in a large dripping -pan, pour hot (not boiling) water in pan, and let set for one hour. After they are done blooming, let them dry out gradually. They will not bloom the second season as well as the first.-M. E. C.

A MAN may eat his fill and yet be hungry. It is not the quantity but the proper quality in food that satisfies. It is not only true that what is one man's food is another's poison; but it is also true that what is food at one season of the year, at one period of life, or in one climate, may be poison to the same individual at another season or age, or in another climate. The inhabitant of the tropic subsists and thrives on fruits on which the Ice lander would starve; while the blubber and oil that makes up the diet of the inhabitant of the frozen zones would be fatal to those who live under the burning sun of the equator. Even the same person requires a fruit diet in the tropics, and one of fats in the north region. The child requires food made up of different elements from that which best suits the adult; and the diet of a laborer in the open air must differ from that of the brain. worker, who takes little exercise, and whose work makes heavy draughta on the nervous system.

No one has mastered the art of cooking who does not know something of the chemical elements of foods, and the purpose they serve when taken into the system. It is particularly important that those who are compelled to practice rigid economy should know just what foods will best supply the real needs of the family, and how the most real nourishment may be had for their money.

An adult takes into the system daily, through lungs and mouth, eight and a quarter pounds of dry food, water, and air necessary for respiration. The same amount is given off as waste through the pores, lungs, kidneys, and intestines. Life and activity consume this amount as fuel just as a lamp consumes oil. Every movement, every breath, every heart-beat, every thought burns up a certain amount of fuel-material, and if the supply is not forthcoming, the machinery stops and death ensues. The better the oil the more perfect the light; and the more perfectly the food is adapted to its wants, the more vigorous the body, and the more perfect the working of its intri cate machinery of muscle, nerve, and brain.

Food is first masticated and then digested. In mastication it is not only moistened with saliva, but acted upon chemically in preparation for the more vigorous and thorough work of the stomach. It is a mistake to suppose that water or any of the various drinks taken at table are a substitute for saliva. They not only do not prepare food for the stomach, but force it into the stomach unprepared, and, besides, retard digestion by delaying the process until the water can be absorbed into the blood. For these reasons drinks should precede or follow a meal. Crusts of bread and hard and firm food is wholesome, principally because it must be thoroughly masticated before it can be swallowed.

When the food reaches the stomach it rouses into action, the gastric juice pours from hundreds of little points, the food is diluted and the more solvent parts dissolved, to be taken up by the thousands of little mouths which honeycomb the surface, and carried into the circulation to repair the waste of tissues. The oily portions of food, and such as do not yield to the action of the gastric juice, pass on and are subjected to the influence of the bile and pancreatic fluid, until all that is of value is absorbed, while the waste is rejected and passes off. (512) This much of the digestive process needs to be known to make clear the why of certain processes in cookery. As the juices of the stomach only act on the surface of the food which passes into it, it is easy to see why light bread is more wholesome than heavy. The gastric and other juices can act only on the outside surface of a heavy lump of dough; but when made into light and porous bread, the outer surface is not only vastly increased, but the juices pour through thousands of avenues, and penetrate and act on every part. If the frugal housewife knew this, would she set the heavy, soggy loaf of bread before her children "to save it?" Many a mother ignorantly gives her child a stone when it asks for bread. Fats of all kinds do not digest in the stomach. The gastric juice mingles with but does not dissolve them. It is only after they have passed on and become subjected to the action of the bile and pancreatic fluid that they are taken up and made available as carbon for lung combustion. Fats, uncombined with other substances, act as emetics or cathartics and not as food. It is only when combined with other food that they are capable of being taken up by the absorbing vessels, and made to act as fuel to the system. A half pound of crude lard, unmixed with any other substance, would be rejected, but when thoroughly and skillfully mixed into a flakey crust will not derange the stomach, and will be assimilated and utilized. Remember that the use of more fat than can be perfectly blended, or any carelessness or imperfection in the process, is sure to produce indigestion and work mischief. Foods differ in the time required for digestion. Some fruits refresh instantly, the juices being at once absorbed into the circulation. Some meats and vegetables yield almost immediately to the action of the gastric juice, and pass into the circulation. Others require a long time for digestion. The more subtle and delicate flavors and parts of food yield first; then the gluten of the flour, the curd of the milk, the fiber of the flesh, reinforce the blood and supply muscular waste, while, later, the oily and sugary portions are worked over to repair waste or furnish fuel to keep up the heat of the body.

Food has chiefly two offices to perform: the repair of muscular waste, and the supply of the body with fuel to keep its heat up to 98°. Each of these is indispensable to health and strength. The chief part of what we eat is used by the lungs for fuel; the rest, excepting small portions of mineral substances, such as lime, potash, sulphur, etc., goes to the production of muscular and brain force. The great secret in the preparation of food that will prolong life and maintain a high state of health, is to adapt it to the peculiar conditions of those to be fed, -age, occupation, climate, and season to be considered. Variety of food is nearly always at hand; knowledge only is necessary to choose that best adapted to present needs. The heat of the body is produced by the action of the lungs, which uses up the heat-producing food, as action of muscle or brain consumes the muscle-making material. The former is non-nitrogenous; the latter nitrogenous. Foods may be divided into three groups: the nitrogenous, in which nitrogen is the chief element, and which feed muscle only; the non-nitrogenous, chiefly carbon, which produce heat only; and those in which both are united.

It has been proved by chemical analysis that the body requires four to five ounces for heat to one for muscle, and this gives us the key to the proper proportion of the elements in food, varying slightly, of course, with seasons, climates, occupation, and conditions.

The substance richest in nitrogen, the muscle-making element, is albumen, found in its most perfect form in the white of an egg. The lean or red parts of beef, mutton, venison, and chicken contain nearly as great a percentage-about fifteen per cent. The curd of milk, also, contains a large percentage, as well as grain, pease, and beans. If muscles only were to be fed, these would be nearly perfect foods, but for one ounce that goes to muscle, five ounces must go to heat, and this calls for carbon. The carbon needed to keep up the bodily heat comes chiefly from starch, which is abundant in the vegetable kingdom. Grate a potato and wash in a succession of waters, allowing the sediment to deposit each time, and a floury substance will appear, perfectly white, and dry and crispy to the touch. This is starch, and consists of round grains, too small to be seen by the eye. One-half of the bulk of dry starch is carbon; the remainder is oxygen and hydrogen in exactly the proportion as in water; and in that wonderful laboratory, the stomach, the carbon is eliminated from the starch, and the oxygen and hydrogen combine to form water.

The starch made from wheat is seldom used as food. Sago, Tapioca, and arrowroot, so much used for puddings, are almost pure starch, with slight coloring matter taken from the material. Corn starch is less agreeable in flavor, and makes a less firm jelly when cooked. These dessert dishes are easily digested, and contribute carbon, but do not feed muscle, except as they are combined with milk, eggs, etc., in cooking, which contain a little nitrogen and a good deal of carbon. This food, then, is not adapted to a working man or to growing children, who need to have their muscles fed. For persons of sedentary habits, especially for the aged, whose feebler respiration needs a large supply of carbon to keep up heat, they are valuable because easily digested. For others they are of value only to supplement muscle-making food as a dessert.

The following table (Prof. Yeomans) gives the proportion of starch in common grains: