RESEARCH ON FOOD AND CLOTHING DRYING FOOD is an old, cheap, easy, and popular way to preserve it. But much is still to be learned about factors that affect the quality of foods dried at home. Most foods require partial cooking before drying to destroy enzymes that might cause off-flavors, change colors, and lower the vitamin content. Kay Stein measures the vitamin C in raw, precooked, and dehydrated cauliflower. Elsie H. Dawson uses the Munsell color standards to check the color of dried apples that have been pretreated in different chemicals.

Before making recommendations to American homemakers, research workers test scores of processes and kinds of equipment. To study changes in freezing food at home, Equipment Specialist Dorothy Skinner (right) inserts a thermocouple into a carton of liquid. Below, Physicist Earl C. McCracken connects thermocouples to an automatic recorder of temperature changes and makes notes from it. In an article that begins on page 801, Esther L. Batchelder says: "People want to know what are the most suitable kinds and varieties of foods to freeze; how to select, prepare, and freeze them; how long to store frozen foods; and how to thaw or cook them."

D. Breese Jones, whose article on protein begins on page 761, displays stuffed but valid evidence of the effect of quality of protein on growth. The rats, litter mates, got the same proportions of protein, fat, carbohydrates, minerals,and vitamins, but the big rat had high-quality protein from peanut meal; the small one got poorer protein from ground lentils. Below, Amos Blum runs a test to determine the amount of lysine, an amino acid, in soybean flour.

Field suit with detachable sleeves, fitted ankles.