MUSHROOMS & THEIR USE

Mushrooms have been and still are, much more largely consumed in Europe than in this country. In China, where, with her teeming population, the cost of living seems to be reduced almost to itt; miniuum, they are exteusively used. China itself does not supply its own de- mand for them, and therefore they import large quantities from Japan and other is- lands of the Pacific Ocean. In some of the cities of Europe the consumption of them is so great that a superintendent of the market is employed to inspect those offered for sale, and to destroy those that are un- wholesome or unfit for food. In this way it has been ascertained that more than thirty tons are annually consumed in Rome alone. The wealthy and nobility are apparently as fond of them as the poorer classes as they are ser^'ed at the tables of the hotels and on great occasions.

They constitute a very nutritious and sustaining diet. Chemical analysis, as well as experience indicates this. The former has shown that they contain in their dry matter from ao to 50 per cent of protein or nitrogoious material, and they may there- fore be called vegetable meat, and be used as a substitute for animal food.

A hearty meal of mushrooms alone might be expected to produce consequences similar to those following a large repast on nothing but beefsteak.

Only sound and &esh specimens, young or just mature should be taken. — Selected by Miss Mary Middleton from Mushrooms and their Use by Chas. H. Peck, State Botanist, N. Y.

Make home pleasant by planting trees.

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A FAMILY OF TWELVE. It is interesting sometimes to read old letters. Here are some extracts from one dated Colchester, England, March lo, 1886: "I thank God for my early intercourse with your own dear self and it cheers my heart that your life is still spared to be a blessing to others in this lower state. * * You will be pleased no doubt, to know that I have not deviated from my practice of Vegetarianism since I first totally ab- stained from the use of Sesh meat on the 22nd of November, 1847, which will be a period of 39 years next November. My health has been uncommonly good. Mrs. Beach is still healthy. She was 66 on the i6th of this month. We have brought up ten children to man and womanhood." — John Beach.

NUTS FOR EATINO. Nuts are much employed in high-class cookery, but their value seems not to be recognized by the majority of country housewives, too many of whom let the squirrels get them all. Very delicious dishes are made of chestnuts. No nut makes a cake more delicious. Nats chopped and sprinkled over puddings, hot or cold, give a new flavor and generally improve them, while mixed through custard they make a surprising change in this sim- ple dish. Stewed apples sprinkled with chopped nuts and the core space filled with jam make a good dessert, which need beof no cost except for the labor used, and this is of only nominal value. — Philadel- phia Inquirer. — Nuts when ground give forth their nutriment much more readily than when "chopped." The use of the Vegetarian S'y mill has done much to make nuts popular as food.

dri?:d olives.

I am continually in rweipt of letters from readers of Food, Homk & Gardicv enquiring if I sell dried olives and so would

like to make a general answer that I sell nothing and own nothing but consider what is placed in my hands simply to be held sub- ject to his orders. I do not believe in Christians earning their bread by the sweat of their brows, that was the curse which is removed when we return to God. Fanners will dry olives as soon as they are sure of a demand for them. Ifall who want dried olives would send their orders to you and you would order them in the bulk to the amount wanted there would probably be no difiSculty in my securing them for you. A farmer in National City was induced to dry some last &11 and I gave him orders for them all. — Rev. Isaac B. Riftnford. A VEGETARIAN TURKEY. Bv Wm. C. Ferris. Six cents provided the Turkey for four grown persons 00 Thanksgiving Day last year and there was much left over. The turkey was a Hubbard squash, browned in an oven to a fine dark tint and provided with a stem that certainly did look like the neck of a fowl .

For this dinner no flesh, fish or fowl was used ; no salt, pepper, mustard or vinegar : no animal products except a bit of butter. Yet the dinner was delightful in every way : The cranberry sauce was guiltless of skins and seeds and the fniit was all that an epi- cure could desire. We were served with Caramel Cereal Coffee and nuts for dessert. Professor Haskins of the Co-operative College of Citizenship with his wife and daughter are staunch Vegetarians who live the life for the good it does them, and they would do the same if they were alone in their convictions. Mrs. Haskins provided the Hubbard Squash Turkey Dinner spoken of. Their rooms are the headquarters of the Vegetarians of the West side. Chicaijo, and the work of their College is widening day by day.

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A NORTHWEST V. COLONY. Rev. Mrs. H. S. Lake is receiving letters from all parts of the country from those who desire to join the Northwest Vegetarian Colony. She writes : ' 'There is much good land about here that can be bought cheap. I would like a group of ten to twenty per- sons oil good fruit land over-looking the Sound. We could sustain ourselves well with fruit, bees and sheep. I have studied Ruskiii Colony and a great many others. My plans differ from all I have seen or known of. " Those who desire information should address Rev. H. S. Lake, Lock Box 502, Olympia, Washington,

THE WINEBERRY. "There is a new table berry on the market this year. ' ' said a niarket dealer to a WashingloH Star reporter, "which proves that there is something new under the sun after all, at least in the berry business. The newcomer is called tlie wineberry. In shape and color it is not unlike the raspberry, though it is a trifle smaller in size. In taste and flavor it is a combina- tion of the raspberry and the old-fashioned red-currant. It is superior to either of the berries from which it sprung, and has an advantage over either in that it ships better and lasts longer. It is a graft from the raspberry, and is the result of considerable study and experiment. It grows in every respect like the red raspberry, and is as prolific. Those that have been sent to niarket so far this season do not show up as well as they should, for the reason that there has been but very little rain in this section ©("ibe country for the past two months, when the fruit was making. The

retail price is about the same as that of the raspberry."

Out experience with this berry does not justify all that is said in its favor, but our location probably was not favorable.

NEW USE FOR PEANUTS. Peanut butter answers in the place of ordinary butter for table use, and is said to be excellent for shortening purposes and for gravies, sauces, etc. In point of purity it is superior to the best dairy butter. It is i\'ell designed for the use of Vegetarians who strenuously object to anything animal. There is already a considerable demand for this butter substitute, and it is very proba- ble there will be an enlarged market for the nuts. At present the product of the United States is about 500,000 bags annually, and that of the world is 600,000,000 pounds. — IVesl Coast Trade.

The use of peanut butter is extending and bids fair to build up an immense industry, as its manufacture can be carried on in thousands of homes by men. women and children in addition to other occupations. Our eight-page pamphlet ou the Vegetarian Society Mill gives the requisite information.