■Che RURAI. NEW-YORKER 
983 
Simple Science 
By Dr. F. D. Crane 
Lye for Peeling Peaches 
Is the method of peeling fruit with lye 
as described in the enclosed circular <a 
good one? Is the fruit so peeled good for 
food V MRS. H. w. C. 
New York. 
The circular you send is merely a 
clever advertisement of a particular 
brand of lye. The process will work 
with any good .soda lye, and was tried 
with a standard brand of 94% soda hy¬ 
drate. A gallon of water containing two 
ounces, four tablespoonfuls, lye, and one- 
fourth teaspoonful powdered alum was 
brought to a boil and Summer apples, 
peaches, plums and a pear were dipped 
in it from one to two minutes, and then 
rinsed in tw'o changes of cold water. The 
apples were slightly cooked on the out¬ 
side after two minutes’ dip, and skin and 
pulp came away together. Perhaps an¬ 
other sort of apple would work better. 
The peaches needed only a one-minute 
dip, then peeled perfectly; the plums 
also were peeled in a minute or less, but 
the pear needed two minutes and then did 
not peel very well. It was a scarcely 
ripe California specimen, and had likely 
been picked green. So that with a boiling 
2% solution of soda lye you can peel 
some fruits completely in a very short 
time, and, with proper rinsing, the pro¬ 
duct is harmles.s Avhen eaten. 
AVhether it is advisable to use this 
process is another matter, for. as the cir¬ 
cular says and as .all observant canners 
know, the greater part of the flavor of all 
our native fruits is just under or in the 
.skin, and hot soda solution kills all fruit 
flavors. This effect was very marked on 
the peaches, the treated ones were like the 
poorest brand of tinned peaches, so it 
looks as if this method were used by 
some manufacturers. The plum flavor 
was also pretty well killed, the apelp and 
pear taste was not so much affected, but 
still there was little left. The speed and 
cheapness of the process is its great at¬ 
traction ; perhaps with a quantity of 
fruit ready to spoil in a day or so and 
with other work pressing, it would be bet¬ 
ter to save the bulk of the fruit at the 
expense of the flavor. If you can use a 
little “gumption” you can shorten the 
dip to just the bare time required for any 
particular lot or variety of fruit, and so 
decrea.se the lo.ss of flavor. At any rate, 
it costs little to try it and see what you 
think of the results, so h<*re is the process 
for tho.se who have not seen the circular: 
Have an Won kettle one-third larger 
than the contents to allow for the dipped 
fruit and for spla.sh. Do not use enamel 
or tinned ware unless you do not care 
how they Iwk when you are done, and in. 
no case use aluminum, as boiling soda lye 
dissolves it swiftly. 
Make uj) a solution of four table¬ 
spoons, or two ounces, soda lye (at least 
9()% soda hydrate) and one-fourth tea¬ 
spoon pow’dered alum in each gallon of 
water used and bring to a brisk boil in 
the kettle. Have ready a tinned wire 
basket, or some loose, rather stout cloth, 
which will stand several dips. Dip the 
fruit a few at a time, so as not to cool 
the lye too much, and keep it in from 
less than one to as miicli as two minutes 
as exiierience shows Is needed, but no 
longer than to act on the skin. Rin.se 
in two or more changes of cold water, 
rubbing off the bits of skin that remain. 
Make up new lye when it fails to work, 
and keep changing the rinse waters. Take 
all precautions in handling the caustic 
lye and the lye solution, that it does not 
touch the skin or clothes, and throw 
away the dipping solution when done with 
it where it ca!u do no harm, making a 
fre.sh lot each time. F. P. c. 
Storing Hay 
What is the best way to care for hay? 
It used to be the rule to have everything 
open as much as possible around the 
mow, to air the hay; now some say to 
clo.se everything up tight. I. A, S. 
New .Tensey. 
The best way to handle such hay is to 
shut the barn up tight after getting the 
hay into the mow. It is not always pos¬ 
sible to do this, but it is a better plan to 
shut the doors as far as possible. The 
hay going into the mows contains more 
or less water, which must be sweated or 
driven off in the mow or stack. It passes 
off in the form of vapor. If the barn is 
left open with a free circulation of air, 
much of the air that comes in is cooler 
than the hay. This condenses the steam 
.so that it will gather on top of the mow, 
and jiot all pass off as it should. When 
the barn is closed, there is no entrance of 
this cooler air. In that case the steam 
rises out of the hay, and without con¬ 
densing rises and passes off at the top of 
the barn. Thus there is a quicker and 
larger evaporation of water when the 
barn is closed. Many farmers do not 
agree with this, and say that if the barn 
is kept open the hay is cooled more 
rapidly. That is true, but as we have 
stated, the object is not to cool the steam 
and condense it, but to help it in its pas¬ 
sage out of the hay and awmy from the 
barn. 
Chemicals in Bath 
I am advised by various people to use 
salt, alcohol or ammonia in water for 
bathing. What is the good of using any 
such stuff, and which is best and why? 
New Jersey. c. w. ii. 
One of the most curious things about 
the human body is that if you really think 
that something you are doing is “good 
for what ails you” it is very apt to be 
really good for you, but, apart from this 
mind-body effect—^this psychophysiologi- 
cal effect if it looks better in Greek, there 
seems to be real value in adding a little 
salt to the first water of a bath, though 
whj" it helps to bring the water to the 
same solution pressure, that i.s, to have in 
Reproduced from N. Y, Evening Telegram 
in it the same amount of salt as in the 
blood, is more than anyone has yet ex¬ 
plained. The effect seems more marked 
when the water is “hard” and with those 
who are rather bloodless at best. Am¬ 
monia, and especially ammonia and a 
little ammonia carbonate, will help a lot 
with hard waters, for they will soften 
them, that is, will keep the lime from 
acting on the soap, so that you get its 
full value. It is not very certain that 
alcohol does any good, and at the i)resent 
price it will not be widely used, though 
the denatured variety, diluted with water, 
would be harmless, but rather smelly. All 
this is for the well; the ill should not ex¬ 
periment with medicated baths except as 
a physician may direct. F. D. C. 
Foot Powders 
What is the stuff sold as “foot powder” 
to dust in the shoes? What does it do? 
New York. n. w. 
Although feet have been used for some 
time it is only within the last few hun¬ 
dred years that they have been Avrapped 
up pretty tight in the skin of another 
animal while in u.se, and in many cases 
all the time except during sleep. Thek 
natural covering is provided with little 
oil cans and little watering pots to keep 
it moist and flexible, and has the power 
to replace itself rather rajiidly when it 
is worn aivay, and it thinks it is be¬ 
ing worn away whenever it is rubb('d or 
pre.ssed in any one spot. The humr.ii 
body does not adapt itself to the passing 
fashioms in clothes, so the foot skin keeps 
on wetting and oiling itself and growing 
thick in the spots it is pressed, though 
the oil and water are not needed, and the 
spots press th^ harder the thicker they 
grow. Rut there are plenty of germs that 
can live happily in warm, wet darkness, 
turning the wet skin and the oil into 
more germs and various waste products, 
some of which are odorous, so that the 
physician loks wise and says “bromi- 
driosis.” which is Greek for “stink- 
sweat.” And to make the little glands 
stop oiling and watering, and to kill 
the little germs that like to live there, 
people take tale, which is a sort of 
soapstone powdered fine, and mix in 
a little alum, which tans the skin 
and closes the glands, and a little sali¬ 
cylic acid, which both tans skin and kills 
germs, or a little benzoic acid, or borax 
or boric acid, all of which kill germs, and 
put the product on their feet in the 
morning. Sometimes zinc oxide is lused, 
which acts on any acids which the germs 
form, or which may come out of the 
sweat glands. Then, at night, let us at 
at least hope, they wash off the. mess, 
and, after all. the chief value of a foot 
Ijowder is that it is a g(H)d excu.se for do- 
(Continued on page 907) 
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