762 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD, 



samples, which were placed in cold storage, another lot of wrapped prints 

 in cartons were stored in a room kept at ordinary living temperature. The 

 samples were under observation from the end of December until the begin- 

 ning of the following July. The wooden case containing butter prints remained 

 unaltered in weight. The tub. which originally contained 64.5 lbs., lost 3.5 lbs. 

 in weight, and the individual prints in cold storage lost on an average 12.4 gm. 

 each. The prints stored in a room at ordinary living temperature lost on an 

 average 25 gm. each. 



Butter prints wrapped in double parclimeut paper and encased in paraffined 

 cartons covered with an outside wrapping paper were also tested, being stored 

 in an open refrigerator in a room heated to some extent, and in cold storage, 

 a part of the samples being packed in a parafiiued fiber-board carrying case. 

 In 3 months the butter stored in the open refrigerator lost on an average 15.8 

 gm. per print. The wrapped prints lost on an average 5.4 gm. each when in 

 storage for 4.5 months, while the wrapped prints in the paralHned pasteboard 

 carrier remained unchanged in weight. 



" The results with butter show that prints wrapped in parchment paper and 

 pai'aflined carton and packed in cases remain constant in weight, but that such 

 prints on prolonged exposure out of the case will lose slightly. It is evident 

 that loss during the time that the retailer would have them out of the case 

 would be unappreciable. Butter packed in wooden tubs will lose somewhat in 

 weight, the water evidently being carried through by the fiber of the wood and 

 evaporating." 



The leavening agent in salt-rising bread, Winona Woodward {Jour. Home 

 Econ., 3 {1911), No. 1, pp. 100, 101). — The conclusion was reached that the 

 fermentation occurring in salt-rising bread may be due to the presence of one 

 or more organisms accidentally in the corn meal from which the batter used 

 in starting the bread is made, or introduced in some similar way. 



The organism isolated was not a yeast but belonged to some other group. 

 "Additional study of the matter should be undertaken and it would be interest- 

 ing to compare the flavor and quality of the bread when different micro- 

 organisms are present. . . . 



"A practical deduction from the work reported is that sterilizing the milk 

 before mixing the batter is desirable, since more uniform results may then be 

 expected and a product secured which does not have the unpleasant odor often 

 associated with salt-rising bread." 



Bedouin desert bread, J. D. Whiting {Daily Cons, and Trade Rpts. \U. S.], 

 IJf {1911), No. 89, pp. 630, 631).— An account is given of the manufacture of 

 bread from the seed of samh {Jlesembri/antheinum forskahlii) , a small plant 

 which grows wild over desert areas where nothing is cultivated, since the rain 

 is insuflicient for growing grain. 



According to the information which the author could gather, the plant 

 "grows in a clayey, sandy, saline soil, and where very little rain falls; it 

 ripens about the same time as barley, but, contrary to most other plants, the 

 seed pods do not open when ripe. They are affected by dampness but not by 

 heat, which enables the Bedouin to collect them all summer. 



" Possibly this plant might thrive in some arid region in the United States, 

 and while it never might be used for human food, examination might show it 

 to have an economic value." 



Toxic material in vegetable butter and vegetable fat, J. Hertkoen ( Chem. 

 Ztg., 3J, {1910), No. 155, pp. 1381, 1382).— Since crude vegetable fats may con- 

 tain harmful substances, the author insists that such materials should be 

 thoroughly rectified before they are used in the manufacture of vegetable 



