WATERMELON PRESERVES.
From MRS. H.K. INGRAM, of Florida, Alternate Lady Manager.
Take a thick rind of a ripe watermelon. Cut into small strips, or any desirable fancy shapes; cut off all the red inside part and scrape off all the hard outside shell. Boil the pieces in water with peach or grape leaves and soda, in the proportion of a dozen leaves and a teaspoonful of soda to two quarts of water. When tender, take them out of the water and put them in cold water that has had half a large spoonful of alum dissolved in it. They will then become brittle and green. Let them soak in the alum water for an hour; then rinse in clear, cold water, and boil in a syrup made of equal weight of white sugar. Boil with them lemons cut in thin slices, allowing one lemon to two pounds of rind. Boil fifteen or twenty minutes. When a little cool, add a little essence of ginger, or if not the essence, boil in the syrup with the rinds a little green or ground ginger tied in bits of thin cloth. After three or four days pour the syrup off and boil down to a rich syrup that will just cover the rinds, and pour it over them scalding hot.