“Bhe: RURAL. NEW-YORKER 
1443 
Simple Science 
By Dr. F. D. Crane 
Test for Kerosene Oil 
Is there any way for me to test the 
kerosene oil I use for hatching:, other than 
the gravity test, which I know about? 
Midland Park, N. J. e. h. s. 
You can purchase, for a few dollars, a 
flash point tester, directions coming with 
the machine, and this, with the gravity, 
will tell about all an amateur can find out 
about an oil. Flash points, to be any 
good, must be taken in the same wmy each 
time, and on the same tester’. But how’ 
are you ahead after you have tested the 
oil? What you want is the most heat 
from the oil, and that is a matter" of ad¬ 
justing your flame to the oil you are burn¬ 
ing, and no machine will tell you how to 
do that. The heat value of all kerosene 
oils is about the same, the point is to 
get all the heat out by perfect burning, 
and that is a matter of adjusting a clean 
burner and a good, clean w’ick, properly 
trimmed. Some try to save on wicks. 
This is a mistake, wicking costs so little 
that a new one can well be used each, 
hatch. 
lowed for in the gingerbread. That is, 
you cannot depend on the soda to raise 
it, but must reduce or omit the soda and 
use baking powder. If you are willing to 
trouble with it you can make something 
fully as cheap and probably more nourish¬ 
ing than the acid-treated cornstarch, 
which is merely starch glucose, with a 
little cane sugar to sweeten it and vanilla 
to cover its peculiar taste, sold in tins 
under a fancy name. But, so far as we 
know, the true old-fashioned molasses* is 
gone forever; it pays better not to 
make it. 
fined sugar crystals which are now on the 
market are really pure cane sugar. But 
they do' not give the sweet effect which 
the old brown sugar used to do. This is 
partly because they do not dissolve so 
quickly in the mouth, but there is another 
sw’eetness in the brown sugar, a sweet¬ 
ness which can also be smelled, but just 
w'hat this is w'hich is refined out of the 
■white sugar we do not know. 
Tests for “ Hard ” Cider 
I notice on page 1257 an article on 
hard cider, and the question was asked at 
what stage of fermentation cider became 
an intoxicant. Those who are accustomed 
to its iise for distilling purposes can tell 
by tasting w’hen it is ripe enough to dis¬ 
till, but the test used by the distillers of 
BO years ago was to take blue litmus pa¬ 
per, dip it in hard cider, and if the proper 
amount of alcohol was there the paper 
Would turn red. I. c. E. 
Toms River, N, J. 
The trouble -with this test is that it de¬ 
pends on the litmus paper and the judg¬ 
ment of the user, and there are several 
grades of both. Perfectly fresh apple juice 
will show I’ed, from the natural acids, on 
a good litmus paper; of course, if the 
, paper has been strongly blued, it will take 
; more acid to turn it. This acid that de- 
tvelops is mostly acetic; that is, some 
[vinegar forms while the cider is getting 
hard; in fact, the flavor of really hard 
[cider is largely amyl and ethyl acetate, 
lithe more delicate flavors of the fresh ap- 
[ples having long since departed. 
Making Corn Sugar 
How can we get the sugar from corn? 
Westfield, N. Y. o. n. s. 
There are many sugars, but sucrose, 
BO frequently from the sugar cane that it 
is called cane sugar, is only present in the 
cornstalk to a very small amount at best, 
and only in the grain of sweet corn. 
Neither of these sources is worth the 
trouble of working, but there is a sort of 
sorghum which carries quite a little sugar 
in the juice of the stalks. This is grown, 
and the sugar extracted as a molasses, in 
some of the Middle South States, but 
those who -were not raised on it seldom 
care for the peculiar flavor of sorghum 
syrup. The same plant does not seem to 
develop the sugar in the juice in the 
WEGllAR F€L\E«5 
“Old-fashioned” Molasses Wanted 
Where can I get old-fa.shioned New Or¬ 
leans mola.sses? The product put out now 
is no more like ■what we used to get than 
day is like night, and the good wife says 
that it is not possible to make good gin¬ 
gerbread from the modern product. 
North Collins, N. Y. w. p, b. 
When I wa.s a girl, some .®>0 years ago, 
the country stores used to have a thick, 
heavy syrup, better tasting and not flat, 
like the corn syrup we get in cans today. 
What was it made of and why do we not 
get any of it today? At any price I pre¬ 
fer it to maple syrup. a. M. il. 
Fremont, N. H. 
Right from a maple syrup country, too! 
But then, how we used to take the h-ying- 
pan and some butter and a little soda and 
a lot of that syrup or molasses and boil 
it, and stir down the foam, and boil it 
some more (a little always foaming over 
on the stove), and then some more, till 
some from the spoon, dripped on a bowl 
of snow or into cold water, was sort of 
waxy, and then cool it down some and 
butter mir hands and pull it white; not' 
really quite white, but about to the color 
of INIinnie Smith’s hair! 
Reproduced from the N. Y. Evening Telegram 
North to a sufficient amount to make it 
worth while to bother with it, at least 
those who have tried it have not continued 
its culture. 
. sugar which is sold as corn syrup 
IS one of the glucoses, and is made from the 
starch of the corn by heating it with di¬ 
luted acid under pressure. After the 
starch is split to^glucose and other similar 
bodies, the acid is removed and the liquid 
concentrated to a desirable thickness. It 
is available as a food product, but is so 
lacking in sweetness that cane sugar is 
usually added to make it salable. There 
are many avIio think that it should be 
labeled “Cornstarch syrup, sweetened with 
cane sugar,” but it is made by a very 
large and wealthy concern, and so far 
they have labeled it so that it would ap¬ 
pear to be derived from the corn in the 
same sense that cane sugar comes from 
the cane or maple syrup from the maple; 
that is, from the juice of the living plant, 
which is not the case. At the present 
prices it would pay to buy cane sugar 
and make your own syrup from that. 
Making syrup from cornstarch is not 
practical on a small scale. 
“Dear, oh dear! How the years go flying! 
And there isn’t a thing that we can do! 
Wrinkles will come, and it’s no use trying 
To dodge Old Charon and all his crew,” 
was the way Horace put it, one day 
when the last lot of honey from Hymettus 
didn’t taste a bit like the kind he used 
to get when he was a boy. But why rub 
it in that we are growing old? We have 
learned a lot, and so have the sugar 
makers. They used to handle the juice 
so that a part of the cane sugar was split, 
“inverted” is the technical word, into two 
sugars, which ar^ rather sweet but will 
neither crystallize themselves nor let the 
cane sugar do so. Thus there was a some¬ 
what large output of very sweet mola-sses 
or syrup, which could be sold at a very 
moderate price. But now they add just 
the right amount of cleanin'^ materials, 
and hustle the juice along, so that nearly 
all cane sugar comes out as such, and they 
also get more out by better ways of boil¬ 
ing and decolorizing. 
What molasses they get now is much 
darker and not as sweet and is not flavor¬ 
ed as the old, since the flavors developed 
in the old process much more than in the 
modern one. The American Sugar Refin¬ 
ing Co. is putting out an “Old-Fashioned 
Brown Sugar” which is really very like 
the kind that used to come in bulk, and 
some of this, made into a thick syrup, 
with just a bit of the modern molasses, 
will give a very fair reproduction of the 
old stuff, only it will not have the acids 
which used to form while they took things 
easy in the old clays, so this must be al- 
What’s the Matter with Sugar ? 
Sugar is not nearly as sweet as it was 
years ago, and cream of tartar and soda 
are weaker, so we have to use more of 
them, and corn is higher than wheat in 
spite of the large crop. Why is this? 
Belgrade, Me. mbs. b. d. 
Those who are watching the food crops 
say that the prices of corn and wheat will 
soon adjust themselves, but if they do nob 
we can at least be sure that the farmers 
are getting more than they have for some 
time. We do not know what qualities of 
soda and cream of tartar you are getting, 
but they are standard chemicals and have 
not changed, though the prices of both 
have risen. They are now sold at whole¬ 
sale in New York at 3 cents and 60 
cents per pound in fairly large lots, and 
you ought to get them for twice this, or 
less in five-pound lots. Better not measure 
by bulk, but weigh out ounces bicar¬ 
bonate of soda and 19 ounces cream of 
tartar and mix each with a half pound of 
flour, or, better, cornstarch, with several 
siftings for each, and then mix the two 
mixtures. Keep the result in good, tight 
cans till used. Just how much of this, is 
to be used at a time will have to be fou’nd 
by trial, but one trial will do for all lots 
if you always weigh the parts. If you 
get these from a reliable wholesaler or 
drugstore you wall get pure salts, which 
will react perfectly in the proportions 
given, but beware of the small packages, 
which are mostly wrapper. 
Your sugar question is another matter, 
and the fact is that the pure white, re¬ 
Home Chemical Mixing 
The article on “Chloride of Lime,” by 
M. B. D., page 1258. omits to state the 
greatest use we have for this valuable 
compound. We take of chloride of lime 
16 ounces and of soda ash 10 ounces. 
Place in a stone crock and add five quarts 
clean, cold water. Stir thoroughly and 
cover well and let stand for a couple of 
hours, but stir thoroughly four or five 
times. After it has settled dip out the 
clear liquid, pour into a stone jug and 
keep tightly corked in a cool place. The 
residue may be used as privy or cesspool 
deodorant. The clear solution, hypochlo¬ 
rite of soda, is the most powerful germi¬ 
cide known, being eight to ten times as 
powerful as carbolic acid, and yet it not 
only is not poisonous, but it is absolutely 
harmless used either internally or exter¬ 
nally. A couple of tablespoons of hypo¬ 
chlorite of soda added to half a bucket of 
water will practically sterilize every milk 
can and milking utensil on the farm— 
even including the milking machine and 
separator. This compound, by the way, is 
the solution being used in the disinfection 
and treatment of war wounds abroad, and 
has revolutionized methods of treatment. 
It has reduced amputation to one in 200, 
and deaths to one in 20. It can be used 
full strength for disinfecting and washing 
cuts, sores, wounds of all kinds, etc. In 
fact, it has a thousand different uses on 
the farm and in the household. 
Without dipping the teat cups of the 
milking machine into a solution after 
milking each cow, and before milking the 
next one, the use of the machine in any 
herd where garget or inflamed or affected 
udders are more or less prevalent would 
be barred. The strength of solution for 
this purpose should be in proportion of 
one tablespoonful hypochlorite of soda 
to one quart water. 
This same compound has been sold to 
daii’y farmers for many years at an out¬ 
rageous price, but under a Avidely adver¬ 
tised trade name. The present price of 
the advertised stuff is ,$2.50 per gallon, 
but as I hai'e shown, it may be made at 
home at a total cost of from 30 to 40 
cents. I have introduced its manufacture 
to a number of my neighbors who have 
dairies and who formerly purchased the 
advertised article. s. ir. ii. 
This is the good old .Tavelle water, but 
soda ash is not to be had everywhere, while 
washing soda is. But there is so much 
v-ater in washing soda, more than half 
the weight, that a pound and a half ia 
needed usually for a pound of chloride of 
lime. Many prefer to dissolve the wash¬ 
ing soda in three quarts of water and 
cream the lime with the other two, and 
then mix Avith stirring, since then the re¬ 
action is immediate, the chalk goes out 
at once and the liquid soon clears. The 
resulting solution is good as it stands, but, 
even diluted, it doe.s have a taste and a 
smell, and this must be kept in mind when 
using it. It can be made much more 
active by a little acid, a fcAV drops on a 
spot in a tablecloth, for instance, folloAved 
by a few drops of vinegar, will usually 
take the spot. But it will take the color 
also from nearly all colored goods. In 
any case, plenty of rinsing water should 
follow its use. especially around milk or 
cooking utensils, not that it is poisonous, 
for it is not, Avhen diluted, but because of 
the peculiar taste Avhic»is apt to remain. 
Peroxide of Hydrogen 
Can I purchase peroxide of hydrogen 
in poAvder form, so as to add the water 
myself? g. c. c. 
Halstead, Pa. 
No, it is a liquid even when pure, 
but the pure liquid is unstable and ex¬ 
plosive, and has only been produced as 
an experiment. The dilute solution is 
the only practical form. It can be 
made by treating peroxide of barium 
Avith dilute sulphuric acid, but unless 
you know some chemistry, you are likely 
to^ go Avrong. Sodium perborate in water 
will give peroxide of hydrogen with very 
dilute acids, but this method is rather 
expensive. If you really want to try 
making peroxide of hydrogen on a manu¬ 
facturing scale, we will give you full 
directions, but cannot promise you suc¬ 
cess unless you have some chemical 
training. y. d. c. 
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I need large quantities of all 
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r.O. Box M.2, East Liberty, O. 
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