642 Reading-Course for Farmers' Wives. 



oven, the sauce from the kettle, or just before we lay the table for a 

 meal. We cannot sweep a floor with a stiff, dry broom without stirring 

 up some of these invisible kinds of molds and bacteria, and a number of 

 them, few or many, will certainly be caught by the food. Some of them 

 may be distinctly injurious to health. It is dust-plants in the air which 

 seed plentifully our food supplies. 



Of course the dishes and tables, the hands and all utensils have 

 germs on them; and so, when canning we must be careful to have the 

 work done in a room as dust- free air as possible; thoroughly to scald or 

 boil the fruit, the jars and the covers ; to keep the fingers from touching 

 the inside of cover or edge of the jar's mouth. Even the sugar, if not 

 cooked with the fruit, may carry the yeast cell, the mold spore or the 

 bacterium which will later spoil the contents. That rhubarb and cran- 

 berries may be canned raw and not spoil is because they have so much 

 acid that the dust-plants do not like them. If sugar is added, there comes 

 danger. The yeast plants may then ferment the fruit to alcohol, and a 

 bacterium be able to make the alcohol into vinegar. 



Given food, moisture and warmth, these little plants multiply with 

 almost infinite rapidity. If food is scarce, if drought or cold come, many 

 ' of them can accommodate themselves to the hard times by contracting 

 their already minute bodies into still smaller space and thus they can 

 survive for long periods. Life is present, and as soon as fortune smiles 

 on them in the shape of warmth, moisture and food, they return to their 

 former condition, feed, grow and multiply as before. The active forms 

 are often easily killed, wdiile these resting-spores may resist even boiling 

 or freezing. Thus nature, the kind mother, protects and preserves her 

 children, for each has an important work to do in the world. These 

 innumerable, invisible plants form her army of scavengers which feed 

 upon animal and vegetable matter that is either dead or has lost its normal 

 vigor and therefore tend to threaten the welfare of man. 



We can, however, put obstacles in the way of nature's operations. 

 W'hen forewarned, it is, indeed, a careless housewife who will let the 

 enemy gain the advantage. Knowledge is certainly power here. As the 

 plants that work the most harm love darkness, we will flood the house 

 with light; as they must have moisture in order to grow, we will keep 

 everything dry, especially the corners, cupboards, closets, storerooms and 

 boxes that are dark. As they grow best in a warm place, we will keep 

 perishable material as cold as possible. If we let light into such places, 

 they will not only be drier, but we can see their condition. The first point 

 of inoculation may be a damp dishcloth, towel, floor-mop or other damp 

 fabric put under the sink to be " out of sight," in the clothes hamper, or 

 in the "cellarway." It may be a few drops of milk, a little gravy or 



