salad, and the spoon salad-server is then filled once or twice with the best salad-oil, and this is now sprinkled on the salad, carefully turning the leaves over the while so as to obtain the thinnest possible film of oil equally distributed over the whole surface of each leaf.  The salad spoon is next half-filled with the best vinegar, and the latter liquid is now most carefully added, only a drop or so at a time, so as to diffuse it uniformly throughout the whole.  The thorough incorporation of the oil, but more particularly of the vinegar, with the salad requires to be done with a light hand to avoid bruising the leaves, and consists in stirring it and dexterously bringing up the under leaves.

This comparison, however, between the methods of preparing salads according to the English and the French fashion is not quite complete, and consequently it will be advisable to refer to one or two other matters, of which it is necessary to be apprised in order to produce a perfect salad.  In the first place, the form of the salad bowl itself is very important, for it will readily be apparent that it must be of such a shape as to facilitate the complete blending of the oil and vinegar with the materials used.  That which is nearest to half a perfect sphere is by far the best; and another essential is that it should be of sufficient size to afford room for free manipulation.  On looking in the windows orle is fairly astonished at the diversity of shapes that are exposed for sale.  In most of them the floor of the bowl is flat, with a sort of recess all round its margin.  This, of course, is most ill-adapted for the purpose for which it is intended.  Nearly all of them, again, are by far too small; it is impossible to mix a salad properly in a vessel very little larger than a soup plate.  So that in the selection of a salad bowl see that it is the nearest approach to half a perfect sphere in shape, and take care that it is roomy enough for freely working the salad.  Lastly, do not waste money on the meretricious ornamental world which besets so many of the bowls exposed for sale.  A very good substitute can be made in the ordinary large earthenware basin used in the kitchen, the deeper the better, which will be found to answer every purpose, and its cost brings it within the reach of every purse.  Next, with regard to the servers, these are usually supplied with the bowl, but wooden servers are considered by many to be the best, and price is certainly no drawback.  The oil, too, must be the purest you can buy, and Crosse and Blackwell’s is as good as any; at least, I do not know of a better oil at present, as it is sweet and without the slightest suspicion of rankness.  So, too, with regard to vinegar:  pay a little more for a good article, and you will have no cause to regret it.  The best French, or Crosse and Blackwell’s white wine vinegar, is good enough for anybody.  You will find that the oil and the vinegar will last a long time, and that the cost of making a salad is