The Chemistry of Cookery

only does this, but, to some extent, converts it into dextrin and sugar. I hereby recommend those gentlemen who have ensilage-pits and are sufficiently enterprising to try bold experiments, to water the fodder, as it is being packed down, with dilute hydrochloric acid or acetic acid, which, if I am not deluded by plausible theory, will materially increase the sugar-forming action of the ensilage. The acid, if not over-supplied, will find ammonia and other bases with which to neutralise itself. Such ensilage will correspond to that which occurs when we gather Jersey or other superlatively fine pears in autumn as soon as they are full grown. They are then hard, woody, and acid, quite unfit for food, but by simply storing them for a month, or two, or three, they become lusciously tender and sweet; the woody fibres are converted into sugar, the acid neutralised, and all this by simply fulfilling the conditions of ensilage, viz. close packing of the fibre, exclusion of air by the thick rind of the fruit, _plus_ the other condition which I have just suggested, viz. the diffusion of acid among the well-packed fibres of the ensilage material. In my experiments on the ensilage of human food I have encountered the same difficulty as that which has troubled graziers in their experiments, viz. that small-scale results do not fairly represent those obtained with large quantities. There is besides this another element of imperfection in my experiments respecting which I am bound to be candid to my readers, viz. that the idea of thus extending the principle was suggested in the course of writing this series, and, therefore, a sufficient time has not yet elapsed to enable me (with much other occupation) to do practical justice to the investigation. I find that oatmeal-porridge is greatly improved by being made some days before it is required, then stored in a closed jar, brought forth and heated for use. The change effected is just that which theoretically may be expected, viz. a softening of the fibrous material, and a sweetening due to the formation of sugar. This sweetening