This branch of cookery, though apparently very simple, requires the utmost attention, and no little judgment.

398. You should always boil vegetables in soft water, if you can procure it; if not, put a tea-spoonful or more of carbonate of soda in it to render it so.

399. Take care to wash and cleanse all vegetables from dust and other impurities, before putting them into the pot or pan; they should be thoroughly cleansed; for which purpose it will be necessary to open the leaves of greens, or otherwise you may send to the table some fine, fat, overfed caterpillars, and thus spoil the whole dish.

400. Upon the whole, it is best to boil vegetables in a saucepan by themselves. The quicker they boil, the greener they will be. When they sink, they are generally done enough, if the water has been kept constantly boiling. When done, take them up immediately, and thoroughly drain. If vegetables are a minute too long over the fire, they lose all their beauty and flavour. If not thoroughly boiled tender, they are tremendously indigestible; and much more troublesome during their residence in the stomach, than underdone meats.

401. Vegetables are in greatest perfection, when in greatest plenty, and they are only in greatest plenty when in full season. All vegetables are best when they are so cheap as to enable the artisan to eat them. Very early peas, or very early potatoes - that is, peas or pola toes raised by artificial means - may be valued as great rarities, but for nothing else. We may assert, the same thing of nearly all other vegetables. Sea kale and early rhubarb are, perhaps, exceptions. All vegetables should be ripe; that is, ripe as vegetables; otherwise, like fruits, they are bad tasted and unwholesome. To eat peas or potatoes in perfection, you must eat them not much before Midsummer.

402. With regard to the quality of vegetables, the middle size are to be preferred to the very large. Green vegetables, such as savoys, cabbages, cauliflowers, etc., should be eaten fresh, before the life is out of them. When once dead, they are good for nothing but the dunghill. This description of vegetables will live a long time after they are cut, but the fresher they are the better. Any one may easily see if they have been kept too long. There are two ways of sending peas to market: the one is, by packing them in sacks, where they frequently become heated, and, of course, in a great measure spoilt. The other is, by sending them in sieves, which is by far the best way, but, being somewhat more expensive, sieve peas fetch a higher price than sack peas.

403. Greens, roots, salads, etc. etc, when they have lost their freshness by long keeping, may be refreshed a little by putting them in cold spring water for an hour or two before they are dressed; but this process will not make them equal to those which are gathered just before they are boiled.

404. The following remarks, by a writer in the Edin. Encyclo. on this subject, are very just, and well worth the perusal: - "Most vegetables, being more or less succulent, require their full proportion of fluids for retaining that state of crispness and plumpness which they have when growing. On being cut or gathered, the exhalation from their surface continues, while, from the open vessels of the cut surface, there is often great exudation or evaporation, and thus their na tural moisture is diminished, the tender leaves become flaccid, and the thicker masses, or roots, lose their plumpness. This is not only less pleasant to the eye, but is a real injury to the nutritious powers of the vegetable; for in this flaccid and shrivelled state its fibres are less divided in chewing, and the water which exists in vegetable substances in the form of their respective natural juices, is directly nutritious. The first care, therefore, in the preservation of succulent vegetables is, to prevent them from losing their natural moisture."

405. To preserve colour, or give colour, in cookery, many good dishes are spoilt. This is a great folly. Taste, nourishment, and digestibility, ought to be the only considerations in the dressing of food.

406. When vegetables are quite fresh gathered, they require much less boiling than those that have been kept. According to Xitch-iner, fresh vegetables are done in one-third less time than stal

407. Strong-scented vegetables, we need scarcely say, ough to be kept apart. If onions, leeks, and celery, are laid amongst such deli cate things as cauliflowers, they will spoil in a very short time

408 Succulent vegetables, such as cabbages, and all sorts of greens are best preserved in a cool, damp, and shady place. Potatoes, tur-nips, carrots, and similar roots, intended to be stored up, should never, on any account, be cleaned from the earth adhering to them, till they are to be dressed. Never buy washed potatoes, etc. from your shopkeeper; have them with the soil about them, and wash them just before they are boiled.

409. As the action of frost destroys the life of vegetable, and causes them speedily to rot, and as the air also injures them, all roots should be protected by laying them in heaps, burying them in sand or earth, and covering them with straw or mats. There are, however, some sorts of winter greens, such as savoys, etc, which are made much better and more tender by frost.