May, I911 
place should be selected. As showing the possibilities which 
exist in any house in this direction, it may be mentioned that 
excellent crops of mustard and cress have been raised on 
the hot water cistern which supplies the bath. All the while, 
careful attention must be paid to 
watering, and if the seeds are in a 
very warm place it will be necessary 
to supply moisture three or four 
times a day. 
At the end of the fourth day, if 
all has gone well the cress seeds 
should have burst through their 
protecting cases. The time has 
now come to sow the round, yellow 
seeds of the mustard. It will not be 
necessary to scatter these quite so 
thickly as was done in the case of 
the cress. As the little cress seed- 
lings will now be coming on apace 
it will hardly be possible to keep the 
frame in a completely dark place 
during the germination of the mus- 
tard seeds. Some other plan must 
be devised to keep the strong light 
away, and perhaps one of the best 
is to get a piece of stoutish card- 
board and place this over the mus- 
tard seeds. It is wise to keep the 
covering-in material saturated with 
water. In about two days the 
seedlings will have burst through 
their cases and we may then take 
away the shelter. It is not well to keep the growing 
salad in a place where the illumination is very strong, 
although we must allow sufficient light to ensure that 
the leaves shall take on a nice, fresh green color. 
AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 
Adjusting the flannel to the growing frame 
167 
If the frame is put in front of a window, or any 
place where the light all comes from one direction, the 
seedlings should be turned around daily so as to make 
certain that the growth of’ the stems is fairly upright. 
In about a week or ten days, the 
actual time varying with the de- 
gree of warmth which is available, 
the crop will be ready for cutting. 
It is hardly necessary to say that 
the mustard and cress should not 
be gathered until just before it is 
required for use. 
A good, keen knife is the best 
implement to cut the material 
with, the upper part of the little 
plants being grasped with the 
thumb and finger, and the sever- 
ance being made close to the 
roots. 
The salad not being in the least 
soil stained, will not require wash- 
ing in the ordinary way; all that 
is necessary being a rinse ina 
bowl of clean, cold water. The 
greenstuff is then ready for use. 
Of course, the pieces of flan- 
nel may, be used again and again, 
but after the growing of a crop 
it is desirable to free the ma- 
terial from the remains of the 
roots before making a further sow- 
ing. 
This is not quite so easy as it may appear to be at first 
sight, and perhaps the best way of cleansing the cloth is 
to let it get quite dry and then to spread it on a hard board 
and brush it quite clean. 
Ice Cream as a Health Food 
(AaiamaQax, HE State experiment station at Ames, Iowa, 
VesaRh Son has invented a new frozen dairy product 
WSS @i called lacto, which contains large numbers 
FS of lactic acid bacteria in a dormant condi- 
tion. Metchnikoff, the famous Russian 
scientist, who is at the head of the Pas- 
teur Institute at Paris, says that in a con- 
siderable measure old age is caused by the putrefactive 
bacteria in the intestines. These bacteria produce toxic 
poisons which cause ill health, old age, and finally death. 
He recommends as a remedy the taking into the body of 
lactic acid bacteria. These are entirely harmless, and they 
produce an acid condition in the intestines which is fatal to 
the putrefactive microbes. 
In certain districts of Bulgaria, where sour milk forms 
the principal article of diet, the people live to an old age not 
approached elsewhere. People in America do not take 
kindly to sour milk, and it was with the thought of furnish- 
ing lactic acid bateria in a more palatable form that lacto 
was introduced. 
The palatability of lacto is shown by an experiment 
carried on at Ames. Out of 179 persons who sampled lacto, 
128 pronounced it very good, 37 good, 6 fair, and 8 poor. 
Comparing it with vanilla ice cream, 111 reported that 
they preferred lacto, 9 considered it equal to ice cream, 
and 59 preferred the ice cream. Comparing lacto to 
sherbet, 123 preferred lacto, 30 preferred sherbet, and 
6 considered lacto equal to sherbet. At the college 
creamery both lacto and ice cream were made and sold at the 
same price last summer. An average of eight days’ sales 
showed that 46.8 per cent. of the sales were of lacto. This 
is a very remarkable showing for a new product. 
Lacto is made of loppered whole or skim milk, with the 
addition of sugar, eggs, lemons and flavoring material. It 
contains less fat than ice cream, but more protein. It has a 
much higher food value than sherbets and ices. Lacto can 
be made at a lower cost than ice cream. It cannot be so 
easily adulterated with gelatin, gum or corn starch. It is 
more digestible than ice cream, and can be eaten in almost 
any quantity without ill results. : 
Freezing does not hurt the lactic acid germs, and they 
retain their vitality even after the product has been stored 
for some time in the frozen condition. Bacteriological 
analyses of lacto show that it does not contain any other 
forms of bacteria than the lactic acid produces. This is 
notwithstanding the fact that no especial pains were taken 
to keep other bacteria out of the product, and goes to prove 
that lactic acid is fatal to putrefactive bacteria. 
