Food

Fish. A new method has been developed whereby Norwegian herrings, Siberian sturgeon, faraway fish of every kind may be served in inland U. S. cities in the same luscious, savory, juicy state that they enjoyed when caught. The method consists of freezing so quickly and at so low a temperature that the flesh cells are not injured by ice crystals. The chemical composition remains the same; there is no opportunity for bacterial development or decomposition.

Strictly fresh fish are cleaned, cut, packed. The packages are then placed in containers immersed in freezing solution, generally calcium chloride. An even later development is glazing the fish by spraying with cold brine and water before freezing.

Seeds. Recently Prof. William Frederick Gericke, associate plant physiologist at the University of California, announced that he could fertilize seeds with phosphate salts making fertilization of the soil unnecessary. For three years he has worked on the problem; finally he developed a method of seed treatment on a large scale at low cost. Barley so treated yielded a 15-fold increase in phosphorus-poor ground. Untreated barley seed in the same soil yielded no crop at all.

The phosphorus treatment is only one phase of the larger question of plant requirements. Plant Physiologist Gericke suspects that plants, like people, take more food than they need for growth. He has therefore, experimented with balanced rations, which led to a method of growing floral plants in water solutions containing only the essential growth elements. He has also developed a method of growing young tomato plants in cold frames; feeding them special fertilizers; producing a greater crop than the untreated controls.