The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-12-09
IRoN RAr1oNs FOR TROOPS.

Emergency Diet for United States Soldiers
 --Independcnt of supply Trains-Carrys
 ing His Own "Grub' Foods Condo ' 9d
 by Eyaporation-Buttons of Coffee and
 Tea-Concentratad Loaves of Bread, and
 Soups in Cigarette Packages-The Kola
 Nut for Military Purposes.
 [''Rene Bache" in the Hartford Times.l Within a few weeks from now United States soldiers will be provided for the first time with an iron ration" The boards appointed to consider the ques- tion of emergency foods, representing the various departments of the army, are sending in their reports, upon which final conclusions will be based. Problem: To make up food package of small bulk, which shall render the fighting man independent of supply trains for short period, in case of an exigency such as might arise from his being wounded or cut off with de- tachment from the main command.
 Experiments in this line are being made by all the great war powers said Major Woodruff at the War Depart ment yesterday. "They are trying eve rything imaginable for the purpose. Here, for example, is an element of the British emergency ration. It looks like $ dog biscuit doesn't it? Three ounces | it weighs, and it is four inches square. 1 It is composed simply of whole wheat solidly compressed. A condensed loaf of bread you might call it. The French have a new war bread which is to re- place hard tack for the use of their army. Its ingredients and the process es for making it are a secret When 9 piece of it is put into hot water or soup l it swells up like sponge, and is said to l be virtually the same as fresh bread.
 "In future wars the utmost efforts will be made to furnish the troops with fresh articles of diet in the field. Dried foods are only suitable for emergency foods. Germany and France, by the help of cold storage, have perfected ar engagements for shipping fresh beef to | the front by rail- When practicable, l fresh. bread will be forwarded daily to the fighting line. This was done from Washington to the Army of the Poto- mac during the civil war. The French government has constructed a number of bakeries on wheels for use in cam paigns-wagons that is to say, con- taining ovens and all necessary appIi- ances, so that bread may be made on | the march.
 | For emergency rations, evaporated
 vegetables have been tried, but not with great success. They are not nu- 1 tritious enough, and they do not keep we'll Here is a one-pound can of evap- orated onions. Smells strong, doesn' t l it? It ought to, inasmuch as it repre-
 sents ten pounds of fresh onions. In
 the same way potatoes carrots, turnips and cabbages are put up. Desiccated
 foods are now being produced on an 1 enormous scale by many firms in this
 country and abroad. A good thing which we may adopt is this desiccated beef. One ounce of it is equal to five
 ounces of ordinary meat, because it is | absolutely water-free. It is too hard to
 cut with q knife without trouble, and
 so the soldier chops off a small hunk of i it. He puts the piece into little ma chine like a coffee mill and grinds it up. It comes out in fine shavings, ready to
 be eaten on bread or to be used for soup-stock.
 .'Beef-tea, used as 8 sdmulant, is a
 good thing for soldiers. For an emer- gency ration, it is put up in capsules,