FRUITS may be served singly or together as an ornamental center dish. Apples, peaks and peaches should be well rubbed with a clean, coarse cloth before serving. All bruised and defective fruit should be carefully picked out.

Grapes should be carefully selected and all the defective ones picked from the stem. Much taste and artistic skill may be displayed in arranging these fruits for the table. The tired housewife will find them a pleasing, healthful substitute for the carefully prepared dessert, while at the same time they are indispensable to the costly meal of many courses.

How To Keep Fresh Geapes

Take full, perfect clusters; remove all unsound and unripe grapes. Spread out for a few days in an empty room and then pack in layers in a dry, empty box, alternating with a layer of white paper; blank newspaper is best. There should not be more than four layers in one box. Some prefer cut straw in which to pack grapes. Others dip the end of the stem of each bunch in melted sealing-wax, wrap the bunches in tissue paper separately, and pack in layers with paper as before mentioned. If the precautions mentioned first are observed, there will be no difficulty in preserving grapes from October to May by any of these methods. Keep the box or boxes in a cool dry place.

Oranges (To Choose)

Choose oranges by weight; the heaviest are the best; they have the thinnest skin and more weight of juice. Thick skinned oranges are apt to be dry, and always weigh less according to their size. The sweetest and richest orange will be found among the rusty-coated. The Jamaica and Havana oranges are a pale yellow, and the juice of a more acid quality than the home-grown fruit.

Oranges (To Serve)

Cut the peel of the orange in six sections; turn half-way down the fruit. In this way they are ornamental as well as a most acceptable dessert. Oranges and grapes arranged together give a pleasing effect.

Bananas

Bananas are very nutritious. 1 pound of this fruit contains, it is said, more nutriment than 3 pounds of meat or many pounds of potatoes. There are many ways of serving them.

First

Slice the bananas and serve with cream and sugar.

Second

Slice, sprinkle with powdered sugar, and, before it dissolves, squeeze the juice of one or more oranges over them. Set on ice.

Third

Serve whole, alone or with other fruits.

Fourth

Alternate layers of peeled and sliced oranges (cut the oranges in circular slices) with layers of sliced bananas, sprinkling each layer with powdered sugar. Set on ice, if possible, before serving.