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New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22211, 11 September 1935, Page 6

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QUERIES AND ANSWERS BY FRMINA To Renders.—lt is advisable that questions and answers for this column should be sont in addressed to " Femina." Old Scotch Puddings Genuine Scotch recipes for black and white puddings are asked for by Miss E.M. (To Aroha). Doughnuts and Seed Cake Directions for making doughnuts with yeast and for making a good seed cake are requested by B.H. Home-made Baking Powder A recipe for home-made baking powder is asked for by Ruth C. (Opotiki). She states that a recipo that was given her is of no use as everything cooked with it becomes hard and sodden. Being a farmer's wife she is by no means an amateur cook and thinks that the recipe must be wrong. To Preserve Duck Eggs To preserve duck eggs, as inquired for by a correspondent last week, M.H. advises her to use soda silicate or water glass. First boil some water for a little while, let it cool and mix in one part of soda silicate to five parts of water. Set the eggs in the liquid and they will keep safely six months with a good flavour. This is another good and simple way:—See that the eggs are quite fresh and immerse them, a dozen or so at a time, laid in a wire rack oxbasket, in boiling water in which 51b. brown sugar have been dissolved to each gallon of water, for five seconds each batch. Set them out after this immersion to dry, and when dry pack in boxes in a good mixture of dry bran and charcoal (one part charcoal to two

of bran). Bran alone or salt is nearly as good. Space the eggs when packing, setting the small ends down. They should last six months by this method in good flavour and unchanged. The secret of preserving duck eggs is to leave undisturbed the invisible film that covers the eggshell. Keeping Lemons Mrs. M.J.S., who asked last week how lemons might bo kept for some time, is advised to gather the fruit when fully formed but not quite ripened, and if the weather is good to leave the fruit for a few days piled under the trees and covered well from the sun with some sacking or straw. If, instead, the lemons should be taken indoors, they should be laid out on trays or sacks in a well-ventilated but not draughty room or shed, which should bo kept quite dark and sheltered from all sunlight. Vary the ventilation with the weather, giving more in wet or moist weather than in hot, dry weather. After this the lemons should keep well for about six months or more. Another way is to gather, as beforo, unripened lemons and pack in boxes or crates with alternate layers of dry sand, keeping in a well-ventilated room or shed. In this case the ventilation need not be so carefully attended to. The Fly Pest E.B. (Sandringham) has written to tell " Anti-Fly " that there is no more certain remedy for dealing with blowflies than to place a long narrow tin vessel on each window sill half filled with kerosene. They fly to the light and the fatal fumes overpower them. These kerosene-filled tins are used by butchers a great deal. Perched on the upper bar of the lower window-pane, they do great execution. They should touch the glass. Any tinsmith can make these tins. Another correspondent suggests the use of an infusion made by pouring some boiling water on bay laurel leaves and keeping that about, window sashes and other entrances. Another remedy is to dissolve a spoonful of formalin in a saucer of milk and set it about the rooms. This is a poison. Carbolic acid sprayed around the windows helps to keep the flies out. The odour of mignonette and geraniums is also disliked by flies, and if a pot of either is kept standing in tho windows the flies are repelled. Silverflsh and Moths "Carpets" (Matakohe). —To dispose of silverflsh, after subjecting any infested rooms to a thorough cleaning, lightly dust fresh insect powder or sodium fluoride in places where the insects have been seen. Sodium fluoride retains its killing powers indefinitely, but should be used with caution owing to its poisonous qualities. Salts or powdered borax sprinkled along the shelves are among tho most potent methods of keeping away silverflsh. Syringe benzine, or any of the prepared liquid sprays, into their haunts.* A poison bait may be used to control the insects, but this is not suitable for places to which children have access. Tho bait is made from thick boiled starch, liberally poisoned with arsenic, which is spread on bits of cardboad and allowed to dry. Slip pieces of the baited cardboard into all crevices: To deal with moths in furniture a correspondent recommends putting all the furniture into ono room and fumigating with formaldehyde and sulphur. The fumigation treatment is carried out as follows: —Place in the centre of the room a dish containing about 4oz. of brimstone within a large vessel, so that the possible overflow of' the burning mass may not set fire to the floor. The formaldehyde and sulphur preparation sold b.v chemists for fumigation purposes may bo used in place of the brimstone, and will be found easy to manage. After removing from tho room all such metallic surfaces as might be affected by the fumes, close the window and chimney tightly, stuff up the keyhole, sot fire to the sulphur and shut the room up After four or five hours the room may be entered and the windows opened for airing. Kerosene and petrol forced into the crevices with a fine-pointed oilcan have also been recommended.