The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1874-08-27
FRUIT AND ITS USES.


Fruit has a spiritual as well as a physical
mission. IL is good for the flesh, but it is
refreShment also 10 the spirit. 1t Gains
irritation, reduces fever, soothes and allays
Inflammation, equalizes temperatures and
restores the equilibrium as no medicine
ever could or can. 1t is also preventive
of nearly all the ills that flesh is heir to If it
were put to its proper use.
Fruit has two great enemies in this coun-
try which nearly destroy its usefulness.
They are sugar and pastry. We do a good
thing in making fruit part of our regular
meals, but we neutralize its best properties
by drowning them in sugar. We make
fruit pies and fruit tarts for dessert, but the
rule seems TO be maximum of crust TO a
minimum of fruit, and between the paste
and the sugar the fruit has no chance at
all-its saving poweris lost.
The canned and bottled fruit of modern
times possesses this great advantage over
the fruit prepared for winter use in former
years, that il is preserved with less than
quarter the amount of sugar. 1t is not
cheaper to use for that reason; it is. If any
thing dearer people can eat so much
more of it than of the Old-1ashiOned sweet
meats but it gives them the immeasura-
BILE comfort and advantage of choice
fruit almost equal to fresh all the year
| round.
ApDies used to be our only sOlace, and
they are still the main dependence of many
| families during the winter season.; but
even they are deprived of their usefulness
| by want of knowledge respecting their
| functions, carelessness and irregularity in
| the ways and times at which they are eaten,
and improper modes of preparation.
Oranges are invaluable in the early
| spring, as are also cranberries stewed with
enough brown sugar to make them palata-
BILE. The acid of Messina oranges corrects
| tendency to bile; cranberries stimulate
the liver to action, and together with Oat-
meal. eaten in the morning for breakfast,
will, as a distinguished medical authority
once remarked. "make a new liver"
THE TIME TO EAT FRUIT.
| All the authorities and the combined eX-
periences of mankind go to show that the
morning is the proper time to eat trult.
/ The old adage says that fruit Is gold In the
morning, silver at noon, and lead at night !;
| but though this statement is to be taken,
/ like all general statements, with limita-
| tions and qualifications, yet there is pro-
badly sufficient truth in it to warrant a
more liberal use in the fore than in the at-
ter part of the day, and particularly its
Z
the breakfast bill offare.
At present the general custom is to use
it as part of the meal at night and lrregu-
larlv through the day; but though there
is no objection TO its use under proper con-
ditiOnS at the dinner or tea which
serves rs the final meal in this country for
the dav and leaves to adults several hours
between the time at which it is taken and
the period for retiring, yet this is less inn
pOrtant and should not be allowed to in
! tcrferc with or take the place of fruit at
| breakfast.
The habit of eating fruit irregularly at
all hours of the day, between hearty meals,
! is us injurious as 1t can well be. 1t inter-
feres with the functions OF digestion. and
creates disturbance which is as likely
as any other wrong to the stomach
TO end in the gnawing Indebtedness of
dyspepsia. 1t is true that it can be done
with impunitv for long time by persons
possessed of a strong vital apparatus but
il will tell sooner or later, and the results
will perhaps be charged to causeenurely
innocent of them.
1t was customary formerly, and may be
vet i'm country districts, to offer are lection
to evening callers of apples and nuts and
cider. The hardy workers and simple
livers of New England could stand this
draft upon their resources, assisted by the
modifying influence of mug OF cider.
But few city-bred men and women would
dare to 90 TO bed, presumably to sleep, up
on such meal. Ghosts Ofall former BAN
quets would be expected to haunt them.
HOW TO PREPARE FRUIT FOR EATING.
1t is a mistake. considering how difficult
! comparatively raw apples are to digest,
| TO eat them so largely as we do uncooked.
/ We are too apt to vibrate between the eX-
tremes of too much cooking or too little.
| Apples. to be as good and digestible as
thev can be, should be peeled very thin
and thrown whole into light sirup made
of a little sugar and lemon and water.
! When clear they are taken out with skim
mer, the strip boiled, skinned, and
poured over them.
A quick method is TO peel apples very
| thin. cut them in quarters, put them III
brown pipkin with cup of water, hall a
llemon, couple of tablespoOnfuls of brown
sugar, and cover close. When the whole
comes TO a boil, the apples, particularly ii
they are Rhode Island greetings, are done
and should be turned out. To keep APP
pies stewing away until they are dark
cOlored wastes them and deteriorates the
quality.
Baked apples are good if they are baked
enough and not too much, and they make
an excellent dish with oatmeal and cream
for breakfast.
The best way of preparing oranges for
the table-that is Messinas and the Seville
fruits to peel them. slice them thin, and
sprinkle them lightly with sugar; Some
use more sugar and cover them with clar-
ct, but this is matter of taste and eX-
pense. Usually they are preferred pure
and simple. For breakfast or tea they may
be prepared in this way, but their action
upon the blood is still more direct If eaten
fasting and without sugar. \ well-known
physician remarked that there would be
little demand for his services in bilious at
tacks if people would eat two sour orange;
every morning before breakfast during
the latter part of the winter and spring
months.
Grapes require no preparation, and are
an undoubted specific for several forms OF
disease. They are useful in paralysis and
all rheumatic affections, but the patient
should make one meal, and that in the
morning, exclusively, of them and avoid
sugar and fat and starchy articles OF food
at other parts of the day.
Canned fruit is too expensive TO be used
freely for breakfast in alienation with
apples and the like, but dried fruit fur
nishes an admirable resource, and an in
expensive one if purchased in large guam
titles at the proper time. Well-corked
bottles or sclf-sealing fruit jars furnish the
best methods of keeping dried fruit free
from dust and insects. Twenty-Five or
thirty pounds of the kinds preferred, laid
in as stock in the fall, will serve, with the
changes afforded by apples and oranges
for the entire winter and until late in the
spring.
Among the valuable alternatives to this
course must be mentioned, in addition to
stewed cranberries, French pruneS.
a French physician once highly recon-
mended these as diet in measles and all
cases of eruptive disease, and their use,
undisturbed by medicine, has been fol-
lowed by remarkable results. A diet OF
prunes, grapes or cranberries and oatmeal
Cruel, with strong lemon and lime water
for drink, is all that is necessary for the
cure of scarlet fever, daily bathing in
cluded.
There are already houses where fruit
stands perpetually in baskets upon the
sidebOard, and where every one who comes
is invited 10 eat of it to his hearts content,
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