The  RURAL  NEW-YORKER 
591 
the  surface  of  the  rural  school  problem. 
It  will  get  us  nowhere  except  in  an  up¬ 
heaval.  So  long  as  the  farmer  receives 
remuneration  for  his  labor  at  rates  so 
far  below  other  lines  of  industry,  there 
is  little  use  in  talking  legislation  over 
the  farmer  for  the  benefit  of  the  farmer’s 
child.  It  is  an  old  and  trite  saying  that 
Evaporating  Sap  in  Closed  Pan 
Has  anyone  tried  making  maple  syrup 
in  a  closed  pan?  A  common  steam  en¬ 
gine  evaporates  much  more  water  with 
the  same  weight  of  fuel.  b.  b.  j. 
Bangor,  Mich. 
The  engine  is  designed  to  evaporate 
water  cheaply,  and  does  it,  but  if  you 
tried  the  same  device  on  maple  sap,  you 
would  surely  have  burnt  sap  in  one  spot 
and  raw  sap  in  another.  But  pan  evap¬ 
oration  has  been  tried  on  maple  syrup, 
and  it  is  usually  believed  that  the  flavor 
is  poor.  The  slow  evaporation  in  open 
pans  seems  to  have  something  to  do  with 
the  growth  of  the  flavor.  And  a  few 
stray  bits  of  bark,  etc.,  appear  to  help  it 
along.  This  is  no  excuse,  however,  for 
dirt. 
Lining  for  Firebox 
What  can  I  line  the  firebox  of  a  stove 
with  where  it  is  broken  ?  A.  j. 
New  York. 
There  seems  to  be  nothing  which  can 
be  made  at  home  for  this  purpose,  and 
the  reports  we  have  from  those  who  use 
the  prepared  material  are  that  it  is  ex¬ 
pensive  and  not  satisfactory.  There  are 
furnace  cements  which  give  good  results 
on  the  large  scale,  but  in  those  cases  the 
temperature  is  constant  and  the  mechan¬ 
ical  wear  and  tear  is  taken  by  fire  brick. 
To  prepare  a  cement  which  will  stand 
the  irregular  heat  and  also  have  some 
strength  after  heating  seems  out  of  the 
question. 
you  can’t  get  blood  out  of  a  turnip.  Get 
to  the  bottom  of  the  trouble  and  give  the 
farmer  fair  prices,  so  he  won’t  have  to 
hustle  to  get  in  an  eight-hour  night,  and 
he  will  then  have  time  to  work  out  his 
own  problem,  and  he’ll  do  it  in  a  lot  more 
satisfactory  way  than  you  can  do  it  for 
him.  MBS.  WARNER  J.  MOORE. 
Pictures  of  Embryos 
Reading  the  books  by  Darwin,  Haeckel, 
Wallace  and  others,  I  am  puzzled  to 
understand  how  the  pictures  or  illustra¬ 
tions  of  the  living  things,  the  different 
stages  of  live  embryos  in  hatching  eggs, 
etc.,  were  obtained.  If  you  can  consist¬ 
ently,  in  a  few  words,  explain,  I  shall  be 
truly  grateful.  H.  b.  o. 
Philadelphia,  Pa. 
If  the  embryo  is  large  enough  to  be 
seen  clearly,  it  is  photographed,  or  a  good 
drawing  made  and  the  drawing  photo¬ 
graphed  for  reproduction  just  as  any 
other  small  object  is  handled.  You  prob¬ 
ably  refer  to  the  pictures  of  sections 
through  the  embryos  in  various  directions, 
showing  the  growth  of  the  brain,  for  in¬ 
stance.  To  obtain  these,  the  embryo,  or 
a  suitable  portion  of  it,  is  placed  in  a 
weak  solution  of  formaldehyde  in  water 
and  allowed  to  soak  a  day  or  so,  or  per¬ 
haps  only  a  few  hours,  for  small  objects. 
Then  it  is  transferred  to  weak  alcohol, 
then  to  stronger  alcohol,  then  to  stronger, 
and  so  on  till  it  reaches  practically  pure 
alcohol.  The  object  of  this  is  to  harden 
the  tissue  slowly  and  without  distorting 
or  shrinking  it.  Sometimes  a  little  chromic 
acid  is  used  at- first;  this  hardens  nicely, 
but  stains  yellow,  which  may  be  a  disad¬ 
vantage  later.  Now  there  is  a  choice  of 
“embedding”  methods.  If  “celloidin”  is 
chosen,  which  is  a  sort  of  soluble  cellu¬ 
loid,  the  object  is  transferred  to  a  thick 
paste  of  the  stuff  and  that  is  allowed  to 
soak  in,  then  the  celloidin  is  hardened 
and  the  mass  is  ready  to  cut.  If  paraf¬ 
fin  is  preferred,  the  object  goes  from  the 
alcohol  to  xylol,  which  is  very  like  ben¬ 
zine,  and  is  found  in  coal  tar.  and  then 
to  a  soft  paraffin,  which  is  held  just  at 
its  melting  point  till  the  object  is  in- 
filtered  with  it.  It  is  then  placed  in  a 
little  paper  box  and  more  paraffin  poured 
around  it  and  allowed  to  cool. 
In  either  case  the  mass  containing  the 
object  is  fixed  in  a  “microtome,”  which  is 
a  mechanical  device  which  either  passes 
a  sharp  knife  through  the  mass  or  presses 
the  mass  against  a  knife,  advancing  either 
the  object  or  the  knife  a  very  small  frac¬ 
tion  of  an  inch  at  each  cut.  The  series 
of  slices,  called  sections,  are  fixed  on  a 
microscope  slide  and  the  embedding  ma¬ 
terial  removed  by  reversing  whatever 
process  was  used  to  place  it  about  and 
in  the  object.  Usually  a  stain  is  now 
used  to  bring  out  structural  details,  since 
the  different  sorts  of  tissue  have  definite 
staining  reactions,  the  excess  stain  washed 
away,  and  the  sections  again  dehydrated 
in  alcohol  of  increasing  strength  and 
mounted  in  balsam  for  preservation. 
Temporary  preparations  can  be  made  in 
which  several  of  these  details  are  omitted, 
but  permanent  slides,  especially  those 
which  are  to  be  mierophotographed,  follow 
about  the  above  route. 
There  are,  of  course,  many  more  ma¬ 
nipulative  details.  The  above  is  a  mere 
outline,  but  it  is  not  as  bad  as  it  seems, 
as  the  operator  usually  has  a  lot  of  ma¬ 
terial  going  along  at  the  same  time,  and 
except  for  the  actual  cutting  very  little 
time  is  spent  on  any  one  sample. 
What  Is  Calcium  Caseinate 
In  several  article  in  The  R.  N.-Y.  dur¬ 
ing  the  last  few  months  I  have  seen  ref¬ 
erence  to  calcium  caseinate.  I  would  lfke 
to  know  just  what  it  is,  and  where  it 
could  be  obtained.  I  am  interested  in 
the  new'  dry  mix  sulphur-lime  spray  for 
peaches.  J.  G. 
Acushnet,  Mass. 
You  can  obtain  it  in  solution  by  prop¬ 
erly  manipulating  the  teats  of  a  cow  after 
calving  and  for  some  months  subse¬ 
quently  ;  it  will  be  present  in  the  result¬ 
ing  fluid  to  from  3  to  3^  per  cent.  Casein 
is  not  understood  ;  we  know  it  is  one  of 
the  general  class  called  “proteids,”  and 
that  it  is  insoluble  in  water.  But  it  has 
weak  acid  properties,  and  its  salts  are 
soluble,  and  the  calcium  (lime)  salt  is 
the  form  in  which  it  is  found  in  milk. 
Even  a  trace  of  as  weak  an  acid  as  acetic, 
which  is  the  acid  of  vinegar,  will  take 
away  the  lime,  and  the  freed  casein  will 
form  a  “curd”  which  is  merely  a  mass 
of  wet  casein.  This  curd  will  again  dis¬ 
solve  in  lime  water,  and  can  now  be  made 
much  more  concentrated.  Such  solutions 
of  casein  are  used  as  glue,  and  have  been 
advocated  as  a  sort  of  “gum-stiekum”  to 
make  orchard  sprays  spread  and  stick. 
Dried  skim-milk  is  rather  less  than  half 
calcium  caseinate,  the  best  being  mostly 
milk  sugar.  Just  how  the  stuff  will  work 
with  any  particular  sort  of  spray  will 
have  to  be  told  by  a  trial. 
Addled  Eggs  in  Incubator 
What  is  the  cause  of  an  addled  egg? 
We  set  an  incubator  with  250  eggs.  Ar 
the  sixth  day  we  tested  them,  and  found 
about  12  that  were  infertile  (perfectly 
clear).  All  the  rest  were  clouded,  the 
spot  being  about  the  size  of  a  quarter. 
Our  fowls  have  had  quite  a  quantity  of 
green  stuff  this  Winter,  such  as  sprouted 
oats,  lawn  clippings,  soaked  mash,  etc. 
Could  there  be  a  possible  chance  of  the 
eggs  being  chilled  before  bringing  them 
from  the  nest?  The  third  day  of  incuba 
tion  the  thermometer  raised  to  107  de¬ 
grees.  Do  you  think  that  could  have 
killed  the  germ?  MRS.  R.  H. 
Greene  Co.,  N.  Y. 
If  you  are  not  familiar  with  the  ap 
pearance  of  the  eggs  at  different  stages 
of  incubation,  it  may  be  that  you  mistook 
the  normal  development  of  the  embryo 
at  the  sixth  day  as  evidence  of  rotting. 
Eggs  at  this  time  show  the  germ  and 
blood  vessels  radiating  from  it  very 
clearly  and  shading  of  the  area  about  the 
germ.  If,  however,  these  eggs  were  really 
addled,  the  cause  may  have  been  from 
chilling  before  the  eggs  were  gathered, 
overheating,  too  long  keeping,  etc.  It  is 
easy  for  eggs  to  become  chilled  in  the 
nest  in  cold  weather,  and  eggs  to  be  used 
for  hatching  during  the  early  Spring 
months  should  be  gathered  often. 
A  temporary  rise  of  the  thermometer  to 
107  should  not  kill  strong  germs,  but  it 
would  injure  them  an'd  probably  kill  weak 
ones.  Eggs  are  more  susceptible  to  in¬ 
jury  during  the  early  stages  of  incubation 
than  later.  M.  b.  d. 
Supp  ose  This  Jury  Had  Given  a  Verdict 
IWlErt.  HBB  WWW  , 
city,  captain  OC  Bryant 
of  $15,000  Against  You! 
track  tea.nl,  had 
cut  short  by  a  broke 
I  jury  in  Supreme  Cou 
|  well’ a  part  b4» 
diet  for' 
hlettc  career  | 
t  les.  *1 
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SO 
THAT’S  a  chance  you  take 
every  time  your  automobile 
goes  out  on  the  road. 
You  would  have  to  pay — or 
go  bankrupt  —  $15,000  in  cold 
cash. 
Could  you  do  it?  And  if  you 
could,  what  would  it  mean  to 
you  and  your  family? 
Such  a  verdict  means  a  judg¬ 
ment  against  you.  Unless  the 
judgment  is  satisfied  they  can 
seize  and  sell  any  property  you 
own.  House  —  barns  —  land  — 
machinery  —  cattle  —  anything 
youVe  got. 
The  danger  is  very  real.  There 
is  only  one  way  to  protect  your¬ 
self.  That’s  Insurance. 
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Name . 
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My  car  is  a . Number  of  Cylinders. . . 
Year  Manufactured. 
