A Practical Manual for Housekeepers, containing nearly seven hundred recipes for wholesome preparations of foreign and domestic fruits. By Mrs, Hester M. Poole, New York: Fowler & Wells, 12mo. Pp. 242. "To women the increased culture of fruit is a peculiar blessing. Unless the housewife be hopelessly wedded to the old custom of providing heavy meats, rich puddings and dyspepsic pastry, there is no reason why she may not, by the use of fruits, furnish a large and practically endless variety of dishes, one day after another, all through the year".

It is little less than a wonder to the uninitiated to know that so many tempting dishes can be made from common fruits. Mrs. Poole treats her subject thoroughly, yet concisely, and we wish that every cook in the land had her book and had gumption enough to use it. The nation would improve in condition. The book not only treats of the common fruits of the north, but discuses many sub-tropical fruits as well. Full directions are given for the preparation of jellies, preserves, pickles, ices, etc. It is the best book of its kind.