826 
The next subject connected vritli the employment of 
hard water, are its prejudicial effects in cookery. Upon 
this point M. Soyer made the following statements to 
the Sanitary Commissioners in answer to their queries: 
“ What was the effect of the hardness in cooking ?—That 
we were in many processes obliged to use potass or soda foi 
the water, to soften it. . . 
What were the processes ?—First, in honing cabbage, 
greens, spinach, asparagus, hard water gives them a yellow 
tinge, especially in French beans: hard water shrivels 
greens and peas, and will be more particularly noticed in 
French beans; the process of boiling is also longer. 
That requires more fuel ?—Certainly. 
What would be the difference in time ?—With dry vege¬ 
tables certainly one-fourth more. 
Flow is it with potatoes ?—I do not think it acts so much 
upon potatoes, but still it lias an influence upon all sorts of 
vegetables. I do not see the same effects however upon 
roots generally as upon leaves generally; the effects aieveiy 
powerful. 
What do you find to be the effect of hard water upon the 
animal foods?—Upon salt beef the hard water is not so 
good, it does not open the pores of the moat so freely as soft 
water. On fresh meat it likewise has a prejudicial effect, 
but not equal to that on vegetables. It has tlie effect of 
making very white meat whiter than tlie soft water; upon 
all delicate things it lias however a more marked eft'ect—for 
example, in making beef tea, chicken or veal broth, or upon 
lamb ; and the more delicate a substance is the greater is 
the influence of a hard water upon it. A hard water as it 
were compresses the pores, whilst a soft water dilates them 
and the succulent matter which they contain. It makes 
them more nutritious. Tlie evil of hard water is more visible 
in small quantities, such as broth or beef-tea. 
Then it wall be the more prejudicial or expensive in 
domestic cookery, which must be in small quantities? - 
Exactly so ; in the larger operations, where there is much 
boiling, the boiling itself, and for a long time, reduces tlie 
hardness. In the small quantities requisite for invalids and 
delicate persons the disadvantages are the most experienced. 
When I used Thames water at Gwydyr House, I have had 
quantities boiled in order to soften it, and have then let it 
get cool and kept it ready for use for the smaller operations. 
What is tlie effect of hard water upon bread?—1 have not 
liad practical experience in bread-making ; but there is not 
the least doubt that soft water is of the greatest importance 
in making the best bread. This is exemplified in Paris, 
where the water is hard, and where that bread which is 
made in imitation of Gonness bread, though made with the 
same flour and by tlie same bakers, never equals that made 
at the place itself, where the water is soft. I am informed 
that part of the water at Glasgow is very soft, and that the 
Scotch bakers from thence, when they first come to London, 
cannot understand why tlie bread does not rise so well as in 
Glasgow, even though they make use of tlie same yeast and 
flour? It is well known that the addition of a small quan¬ 
tity of bi-carbonate of magnesia in the water renders bread 
lighter and whiter.” 
The chemistry of all this is very apparent. The rea¬ 
son that hard water changes the green colour of vege¬ 
tables from green to yellowish brown is, that vegetable 
greens are always altered to the latter colour when 
boiled in a solution of the salts of the alkaline earths, 
such as lime, which is the common cause of a water’s 
hardness. Soda and potash, on the contrary, have the 
property of increasing the intensity of vegetable greens, 
taking from the leaves boiled all the acid matter tending 
I to turn them brown, and changing all their blue tints 
to a decided green. The calcareous or limy salts act 
upon the flesh-meat boiled in water containing them, 
by combining with its albumen and extractive matter, 
so as to render a portion of these insoluble; and if 
much lime is added these components are rendered 
[August 29. 
entirely insoluble. The importance of this is at once 
seen, when we know that on the albumen and extrac¬ 
tive matters nearly all the nutriment and flavour of the 
meat depend. 
There is much more philosophy in the boiling of meat 
than most persons, for want of thought, may recognise. 
In a black iron saucepan water boils much sooner than 
in a polished tin saucepan, of similar size and thickness 
of metal, simply because black surfaces absorb heat 
more rapidly than polished surfaces. Water in a tin or 
other metal saucepan will boil at 212°, under the ordi¬ 
nary pressure of the air, but under the same pressure in 
an earthen or glass vessel it requires for boiling 2U°, 
because at the lower temperature earthenware does not 
conduct the heat fast enough to keep up the ebullition 
or boiling. Hard water requires a higher temperature 
to boil it than soft water, and the more of any salt that 
is added the higher the temperature required to boil the 
water. Soups and other thick liquids require a higher 
temperature than water for boiling for the same reason; 
namely, that whatever hinders the rapid rise of the bub¬ 
bles from the part of the vessel admitting the heat, 
requires them to he so much more heated before they 
acquire the requisite elasticity enabling them to rise to 
the surface, which rapid rise and conversion into steam 
constitutes boiling. 
Common sense usually succeeds in whatever it under¬ 
takes ; and this was never better exemplified than in a 
letter on cow-keeping we publish to-day from the pen of 
the widely, and as well as widely, known Miss Mar- 
tineau. This letter, we happen to know, was written at 
the request of the Poor Law Commissioners, and how it 
has reached the newspapers, from one of which we copy 
it, is one of the mysteries of journalism. We also hap¬ 
pen to know that Miss Martineau continues so well 
satisfied with her success, that she either has taken or 
intends to take on lease another hall acre, foi the pui- 
pose of growing the potatoes required for her household 
and all the keep for her cows and pigs. The average 
produce of milk stated in her letter may seem small, hut 
we must remember that it includes the three months 
during which each cow was allowed to he dry heioie 
calving. This is an unnecessarily long time; and we 
shall take an early opportunity of stating in detail an¬ 
other instance of successful cow-management with still 
greater produce. 
THE FRUIT-GARDEN. 
Fresh Soils, Composts, &c.—There are two reasons 
why no better period during the whole year can be 
chosen for collecting and preparing soils for the ensuing 
winter operations in the fruit-garden, than the early pai t. 
of September, provided the weather is dry. In the first 
place, soils should never he handled when in a close oi 
stagnant state ; and in the second, there can be no doubt 
that loams and other adhesive soils are then much Ruler 
of the gaseous matter of the atmosphere than at any 
other period. Soils handled in a damp state become 
I what country folks term “ livered, ’ or, as some have it, 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
