636 MISCELLANEOUS FARM SUBJECTS 



Pure glucose is a good food, but it has not the food or market 

 value of cane syrup, sugar syrup or honey. It is a fraud all along 

 the line to sell it under these names. Manufacturers of high grade 

 catsup are leaving the coal tar dyes out of it, which means that un- 

 colored catsup must be made from whole ripe tomatoes, and with- 

 out starch, in order to present a good color. Antiseptics are used 

 in smaller quantities than formerly. All catsups are labeled now 

 to show their presence. (Ky. Sta. Bui. 119.) 



HOUSEHOLD TESTS. 



Coffee. The difference between the genuine ground coffee 

 and the adulterated article can often be detected by simple inspec- 

 tion with the naked eye, or, better, with a magnifying glass, or a 

 portion of it may be placed in a small bottle half full of water and 

 shaken. The bottle is then placed on the table for a moment. Pure 

 coffee contains a large amount of oil, by reason of which the greater 

 portion of the sample will float. All coffee substitutes and some 

 particles of coffee sink to the bottom of the liquid. A fair idea of 

 the purity of the sample can often be determined by the propor- 

 tion of the sample which floats or sinks. 



Chicory contains a substance which dissolves in water, impart- 

 ing a brownish-red color. When the suspected sample, therefore, is 

 dropped into a glass of water, the grains of chicory which it con- 

 tains may be seen slowly sinking to the bottom, leaving a train of a 

 dark brown colored liquid behind them. This test appears to lead 

 to more errors in the hands of inexperienced operators than any 

 other test here given. Wrong conclusions may be avoided by work- 

 ing first with known samples of coffee and chicory as suggested 

 above. 



Many coffee substitutes are now sold as such and are adver- 

 tised as more wholesome than coffee. A few of them contain con- 

 siderable coffee. This may be determined by shaking a teaspoon- 

 ful in a bottle half full of water, as described above. The bottle 

 must be thoroughly shaken so as to wet every particle of the sample. 

 Very few particles of coffee substitutes will float. 



Butter. The spoon test has been suggested as a household 

 test, and is commonly used by analytical chemists for distinguish- 

 ing fresh butter from renovated butter and oleomargarine. A lump 

 of butter two or three times the size of a pea is placed in a large 

 spoon and held above the chimney of an ordinary kerosene lamp 

 or gas burner. If the sample in question be fresh it will boil quiet- 

 ly, with the evolution of many small bubbles throughout and large 

 amount of foam. Oleomargarine and process butter, renovated 

 butter, on the other hand, sputter and crackle, making a noise 

 similar to that heard when a green stick is placed in a fire. If a 

 small portion of the sample be placed in a small bottle and set in a 

 vessel of water sufficiently warm to melt the butter, and kept 

 melted from half an hour to an hour, the fat will be turbid, unless 

 it is genuine fresh butter. If genuine the fat will be clear. 



Vanilla. Vanilla extract may often be judged with a fair 

 degree of accuracy by means of the odor alone. Artificial extracts 



