202 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Leaving the kitchen and looking into the pantry cupboard, we find some 

 inviting looking rows of canned peaches, pears, plums, etc. ; they were put up- 

 hot from the kettle, well sealed, and so far show no signs of the presence of 

 those miserable little spores, whose growth and development into active living 

 plants cause tlie fruit and the housekeeper both to "work." 



The whole question of preserving food is to keep ic away from those aggres- 

 sive, sly, pertinacious little atoms known as bacteria; they are little, but 

 mighty in numbers and influence. 



Any substance which will destroy tiiese bacteria, and protect food from their 

 attacks, will preserve the food. As an experiment, a piece of fresh beefsteak 

 was exposed to the fumes of burning sulphur for about fifteen minutes and 

 then hung up in a room, near which another piece of steak was placed without 

 being subjected to any treatment. The weather was moderately warm, and 

 the piece of steak which was unprotected spoiled in a few days, while the piece 

 that was treated with sulphur did not show signs of decay until nearly two 

 weeks had elapsed. The "Ozone Preservation Powder," advertised so exten- 

 sively three years ago, was composed of sulphur and a little lampblack, and was 

 successful so far as sulphur can be in the preservation of animal substances. 

 Within the last year attention has been freely called to a new compound 

 called "Rex Magnus" — a substance manufactured by the Humiston Food 

 Preserving Co., of Boston, which shows, by a very handsomely engraved 

 picture, that Time is conquered, and you may put up preserves by this process 

 for your great-grcat-great-grandchildren with perfect propriety, and with full 

 faitii that when eaten by the aforesaid relatives will be found to be ^xirfectly 

 fresh in flavor, not to be distinguishable from the freshly plucked fruit. This 

 substance, which has placed old Father Time at such a disadvantage and 

 mixed him up so that he has had to fix his hour-glass over, make it smaller in 

 the neck, and otherwise adjust it to the new standard time, is a compound of 

 boracic acid and glycerine, both well-known substances; the former, boracic 

 acid, having been in use in Sweden for years as a preservative of milk, meat, 

 etc. Boracic acid has long been used as an antiseptic, but the feasibility of 

 its general use as a preservative for food must be judged by the light of experi- 

 ence, and not entirely by the result of a few experiments. Everything that 

 will preserve food and not destroy its flavor may not be wise nor safe to 

 introduce into the digestive apparatus day after day as food, we have enough 

 sources of dyspepsia already, and it will perhaps be well to be a little slow to 

 adopt new preservatives of this nature until more thorough investigation and 

 trial in regard to their final effects make it appear safe to enter upon their 

 general use. 



Away up on the top shelf of the cupboard I see some tumblers of something 

 that looks like jelly. "Now what makes those queer, hard lumps in my old 

 currant jelly?" What is it? It's what has been spoken of lately, it is glu^ 

 cose. Yes, you made it yourself without any expensive machinery. You just 

 added white sugar to some currant juice, boiled it, set it away up here and it 

 was done. These little lumps removed and carefully washed would be found 

 to be exactly the form of the sugar found on the exterior of good raisins, and 

 hence called grape sugar, or glucose. This material is made by all house- 

 keepers when they cook acid fruit with sugar. Being only two-fifths as sweet 

 as the original sugar there is a waste in this respect, and it can be avoided 

 by adding the sugar after the cooking process is about finished and the material 

 ready to bo remove from the fire. On the top of the jelly tumblers I notice 

 there is a piece of thin, wliite paper to prevent mould. It doesn't do it, how^ 



