Vermont farmer. [volume] (Newport, Orleans County, Vt.) 1870-1877, 1875-08-13

VuTo DetbtT uealtn anu save ourselves from
the big bills Of physicians, which cut so
largely into the small profits Of farming
With the coming of warm weather We change
our clothing and If we should make cor.
responding change Of diet we should be
wiser.
We have already intimated that fat food is
not good for the steady diet Of summer.
Farmers can cat ''pot-lock" at this season Of
the year with less inconvenience than almost
any other class, as their work is mostly in
the open air aud Of severe kind. As Sol
omon expresses it, "The sleep of laboring
man is sweet whether he eat little or much, |"
but It is not worth while 10 tax the stomach
Of laboring men beyond reasonable limits.
The occupation Of the farmer tends to health
and longevity, but we find many dyspeptics
among them, and not a few, as the warm
weather comes on, complain OF headaches
and debility, and are compelled to resort to
physicians to cure what little care would
have prevented, The trouble is that they
keep on eating the same kind and quantity
OF food 10 the spring and summer to which
they have been accustomed in the winter,
and against this nature rebels
"But laboring men can't live on fruit, pies,
cake, and such like-'pison things : we
must have some substantial food to furnish
muscular power" All right Certainly
you must have food that will furnish muscle,
but the quantity Of muscle 10 fat pork and
beef is infnitesimal. All fat food is mainly
carbon, designed to lubrieate the body and
furnish heart. There is no objection to a
small quantity Of fat even in hot weather,
but we find carbon in bread, milk, and
almost every kind of food, and supearbun
dantly in cream and butter. As for the
musole-forming food, there is an abundance
in bread and milk, and there can be no bet.
ter diet for the farmer in the summer than
his wheat field and dairy will furnish. he
Ends that he needs something a little more
hearty than milk, let him take lunch of
bread aud cheese into the field. Cheese
is concentrated muscular food, far more nu-
tritious to muscular power than even lean
beef The English laborer makes great use
Of cheese, and at the price it bears in this
country it is the most economical food for
the laboring man. A pound Of cheese, cost
ing two thirds as much as pound Of beef
But cheese is too concentrated food for
many stomaohs, and no one should eat it
alone or uustintingy. 1t should be taken
in small quantities and always in connection
with bread, pudding or some less nitrogenous
food. Cheese is excellent with apples and
other fruit, but is seldom used in this way in
this country.
We are so habituated to meat in America
that it is almost useless to recommend any
other than a meat diet for summer, or any
other season. All that we can expect is that
meat will not be eaten three times day,
aud that some other kind of meat than pork
will be adopted as the staple by farmers
| II the hnymaker must have meat tor break.
fast aud dinner, let it be lean beef or mutton,
OF, better still, lamb. The latter is the best
meat for summer, and what is great recon
mendation of it to farmers is that each car
raise and butcher 1t tor himself. With an
ce-house--which every farmer ought to have
IA lamb can be kept a number Of days
certainly rs long AS an ordinary family
would require for its consumption, and lamb
meat is delicate, easily digested--just the
kind Of meat for farmers to use. The only
objection to it is that when lambs bring ten
to fifteen cents per pound, live weight, the
meat has too much taste Of silver IN il but
this objection can be obvIated by raising
more LAMBS, and thus reducing the price.
Spring chickens are also light food for sum.
mer, but are liable to the same objection as
lambs.
Fish, especially salt fish, make good sum.
mer food. They are very nutritious, furnish
plenty Of muscle and if not too oily are
easily digested. Salmon, mackerel, aud eels
are better for winter than sumner, but the
good old Yankee dish of salt cod is good at
all seasons, aud is as cheap as it is good.
If any one thinks it is too dry muscle, cook
it in cream or butter, but be not to generous
with these articles in the summer. Farmers
are sometimes ashamed to put Goldfish before
their guests, but properly cooked it is a dish
fit for king, and we hope to see it become
more fashionable in all parts Of our country
than it now is even in New England
We wish also to recommend to farmers q
more liberal use Of the small fruits of sum,
mer. Since Providence furnishes en- abun'
dance Of these fruits at this season, we may
reasonably conclude that they we're designed
to be eaten. Said mountain farmer to US
once, al have a thousand bushels Of fruit on
my farm every year over aud above the wants
Of my family, and we partake Of it freely
His children looked as though they were
brought up on the fat of the land. and they
were, for milk and berries constituted theil
principal summer diet. We hope that moi
every farmer has such a surplus of berries
growing wild on his lands, for this implies
too much waste land but every one can and
should raise enough for bountilul home sup
| ply. Strawberries and milk What feast
Our mouth fairly waters at the remembrance
Of the gusto with which we ate this dish il
our childhood Still we find many children,
and even some children of farmers, who never
ate strawberries and milk from a quar-
bowl. The fashion nowadays is to take the
Strawberries from a sauce-plate aud drink TIC
milk from a goblet. Well, this is bettel
than not to have any, but it is not equal tC
miDgling the two in big bowl. The little
scarlet fellows swan around 10 the milk
more tempting than were the big pumpkins
in the field of Van Tassel to Ichabod Crane
Right here let US suggest that most kinds
Of fruit are better to be eaten without being
cooked, or even without being mixed with
much cream and sugar. In the summer thu
stomach specially Graves vegetable acid, aud
strawberries are never more palatable thar
when picked fresh from the vines. If fully
ripe they contain sufficient sugar to suit mos
palates certainly enough for health, anC
are more easily digcsted without the cream
This is also true of raspberries, cherries, X Q
and as for making these fruits into pies, short
cakes, &c, it is perversiOn Of Gods gifts
A pie is peculiarly an American institution
1t is seldom found on French or GermaI
table, and when American farmers learn Il
discard it they will 6Od their stomachs il
better condition.
The peculiar aroma of most fruits, tina
which gives them such an exquisite taste, j
more than half wasted by cooking. Thil