HOUSEKEEPERS have always found difficulty in making certain fruit juices " jell " - some, such as those of the ordinary summer strawberry, raspberry, and other oversweet or overripe fruits, because they lack sufficient acid, and others, such as the juices from rhubarb, pineapple, and orange, which have sufficient acid, because they have not enough pectin, the jelly-making property of fruits. Recently, however, it was discovered at the University of Illinois, through experiments following those of Alice Dyar Russell with sweet fruits, that the lack of acid can be offset with tartaric acid. With this addition, perfect jelly can be made from even ripe blueberries; and Miss Goldthwaite, also of the University of Illinois, discovered further that by using the inner white rind of the orange, together with a certain proportion of its juice, rhubarb, the despair of generations of jelly-makers, can be supplied with pectin, and made to " jell."

Valuable as is this latter discovery, it still cannot greatly help the women of those regions where the orange, either from lack of regular supply or because of its expense, is not yet a " stand-by." It is particularly to these women that the latest discovery concerning the citron-melon will mean much; for it has been found that the enormous proportion of pectin which it contains may be practically applied in "jelling" a number of fruits that contain little pectin of their own.

Unfortunately, the citron-melon is but little cultivated to-day. Although it can be found in many parts of the country, it usually appears only as a " volunteer," the result of plantings of many years ago. Yet before the introduction of the now familiar commercial or real citron - a candied citrus product - the citron-melon was so • universally employed for the same purposes, for which the commercial citron is how used, that some recipes and writers still mention the common market melon of to-day as " citron" or " the citron." Such confused usage might be accepted as a quaint and harmless reminder of the past, were it not for this recent discovery which makes the old-time garden product of new interest and value to every woman who makes jelly. For the citron-melon still possesses those qualities that once made it esteemed - qualities capable of solving what have usually been the home jelly-maker's greatest problem. Furthermore, these melons can be so easily and inexpensively grown that there is no reason why, once she knows of them, every woman should not be able to avail herself of their advantages.

Although this pectin attribute which it contains has not been unknown to scientists at large, it was made to serve no practical purpose in the home until Mr. and Mrs. Theodore Mead, of Lake Charm, Oviedo, Florida, began experiments with guava jelly.

Because of its peculiar character, the ordinary guava usually, upon first acquaintance, proves a stumbling-block in jelly-making, even to skilled and careful housewives; and when Mr. and Mrs. Mead first came to Florida, though Mrs. Mead brought an unusual amount of brain-power to bear upon the guava, even she was balked by its refusal to " jell." Mr. Mead - a graduate of both the regular and agricultural courses at Cornell, by instinct and training a chemist, and also specially interested, as a practical pomologist, in all Florida fruits - suggested adding to the guava some pulp from citron-melons, which were then plentiful in their grove. Mrs. Mead did this, and immediately the stubborn juice " jelled." But as her experience grew and she learned to overcome the obstinacy of the guava, she preferred to use only its pulp and juice, and she did not carry out further experiments with the citron-melon. Experiments with it in connection with the guava and a number of other fruits have been carried on by the writer, however, and have continued to prove its practicability and value as " first aid " to jelly-makers.