We have some further experiments on a local Kansas flour, using dry yeast and the long process, showing that a 22 oz. loaf of bread made with milk and potato cost $0.044 (24 oz., $0.048), with potato and water $0.038 (24 oz., $0.0425) and with water alone $0.037 (24 oz., $0.0403). We were comparing this with the 22 ounce 10 cent baker's loaf. We are also comparing the relative volume of the two types of bread but this work is not finished.

THE QUESTION BOX

Conducted by a committee of the Science Section of the American Home Economics Association. Chairman, Prof. Amy Louise Daniels, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wis. Questions may be sent directly to Miss Daniels.

Question: Will you please tell me about the relative keeping capacity of baking powders: 1. alum, 2. phosphate, 3. tartrate? It seems to me that baking powder should be judged not only on its original price, purity, carbon dioxide capacity when fresh, and physiological effect, but also by its capacity to be stored well covered in a dry place.

Answer: "The keeping qualities of a baking powder must certainly be considered in determining its total value. The bi-carbonate of soda as component of a baking powder is easily obtained in a dry condition. This is true also of the starch used as a filler; and, of course, particular care should be used by the manufacturer to have these constituents as dry as possible. The difficulty of obtaining the acid component in a dry condition varies with the acid component selected, and, when this is cream of tartar, there is no difficulty whatever; and a well made cream of tartar powder has excellent keeping qualities, if properly packaged.

"Dried or burnt alum is not particularly hydroscopic, although the different alums vary in this regard; soda alum is the most hydroscopic.

"Acid phosphates are very liable to absorb moisture; and it is sometimes difficult to dry them thoroughly without, to some extent, reducing their values. This is particularly the case where phosphates and alum are mixed.

"Tartaric acid in the free state keeps very well, if properly protected. It must be recognized that there is no mixture of ingredients in a baking powder which will keep indefinitely without deterioration, under commercial conditions."-A. MCGILL, Chief Analyst of the Inland Revenue Dept., Ottawa.

Question: "Have you a recipe for making jelly from cactus fruit?" Answer: Exhaustive studies of the uses of the prickly pear and other cacti for food purposes as well as for feed for live stock have been made by the New Mexico Agricultural Experiment Station and the United States Department of Agriculture, the results being reported in New Mexico Station Bulletin 64, and United States Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Plant Industry Bulletin 74 and 116. These publications can be consulted in most large libraries.

Generally speaking, the cactus fruits, which have many food uses, yield thick sirups or pastes rather than jellies. Whether this is due to a lack of pectin or of acid, or of both, seems not to have been determined. A lack of acid would naturally suggest the use of lemon juice and a lack of pectin the use of an extract of the white portion of the orange peel with the cactus-fruit juice. Red cactus-fruit juice, evaporated to a thin paste, has been used, at least experimentally, to color apple jelly. If one wishes recipes for drying cactus fruits and for making various pastes and sweets from these fruits, they can be found in Bureau of Plant Industry Bulletin 116, mentioned above.

It is possible that further information may be secured from the director of the New Mexico Agricultural Experiment Station, Mr. Fabian Garcia, at State College, New Mexico.

Question: Does the water in which cabbage is cooked, if consumed by some people, act as a poison in the system. If so, why?__

Answer: We know of no reason why the water in which cabbage is cooked should produce any ill effects. On the contrary it has been found by McCollum and Kennedy (Journal of Biological Chemistry, 24, (1916) p. 499) to contain a substance which, when fed to pigeons suffering from polyneuritis, caused by an exclusive diet of polished rice, effects

a cure.

Question: What determines the age at which the average baby can digest hydrated starch, such as is found in barley gruel (Robinson's patent barley flour) which has been boiled in water for twenty minutes? Answer: The following is taken from Diseases of Nutrition and Infant Feeding, by Morse and Talbot, 1915.

"It has been proved beyond question that amylolytic ferments are present in the saliva and pancreatic secretions of the new-born infant, even if it is born prematurely. The amylase of the pancreatic secretion is more abundant after the first month than earlier. These ferments. are present and active in the breast-fed as well as in the artificially fed infant. There are, therefore, no physiological contra-indications to the use of starch in the feeding of infants, even in the new born. This fact does not prove, however, that infants ought always to be given starch or that they should be fed on foods composed largely, or almost exclusively, of starch. It merely shows that there is no reason why starch should not be given to babies if there is any good

reason for doing so. Clinical experience shows that in general it is not advisable to give starch under two months old, although there are many exceptions to this general rule. Clinical experience also shows that it is inadvisable to give large amounts of starch to babies before they are ten months old.

In this connection it is interesting to consider the variations in the amylolytic power of saliva with reference to the age of the infant. According to experiments reported by G. Finizio (Rev. Hyg. et Med. Infant., 8 (1909), No. 3, pp. 224–249), the amylolytic power on an average increases progressively from birth to twelve months, the rate of increase being slower at first than later. Towards the eighth or tenth month the amylolytic power is double that observed during the first eight or fifteen days of life. At the age of one year the amylolytic power is little inferior to that of a child two or three years old and perhaps even to that of an adult. In infants of the same age the amylolytic power of the saliva is not always identical.

Question: If the barley gruel were cooked long enough to change part of the starch to dextrin would it be more easily digested?

Answer: The amount of starch, if any, changed to dextrin even after many hours of boiling (at temperatures above 100°C.) would be too small to have any appreciable effect on the digestibility of the substance in question; furthermore to change the starch to dextrin would defeat the purpose of the starch gruel, namely, to form a colloidal solution which will make the clot formed by the casein more friable. (Southworth: The Influence of Starch on Infant Digestion, Journal of the American Medical Association, 63 (1914), p. 1375.

BOOKS AND LITERATURE

Any book or periodical mentioned in this department may be obtained through the JOURNAL OF HOME ECONOMICS if the Journal price is listed.