1 can or quart of tomatoes. 1 tablespoonful of sugar. 1/2 cup of butter. 1/2 cup of flour. 1 quart of milk. Salt and pepper. 1/4 teaspoonful of soda, if desired.

Cook the tomatoes and sugar fifteen minutes; add the soda, if the tomatoes are very ripe, or have been long canned, otherwise omit, strain and reheat. Make a white sauce of the other ingredients; add the tomato and serve at once with croutons.

Okra is cultivated extensively in the South and West for its young pods, which are very mucilaginous. These are used principally in soups, but they are sometimes boiled and dressed like asparagus. In the South, the pods of some varieties grow from four to eight inches in length. The dwarf varieties, having shorter pods, are best suited to Northern gardens. The pods must be gathered when they are young and tender. They may be preserved, for winter use, by drying or canning; they are also "put down" in salt, in the same manner as cucumbers. In the South, a soup or stew, made of chicken, oysters, etc., and thickened with these mucilaginous pods, is called "gumbo," a word thought to be of negro origin. Canned okra retails for about fifteen cents per can, and the gumbo powder for thirty cents per bottle. The powder is added just before serving the soup.