Semi-weekly Windham County reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1897-1901, 1901-08-30
Food as IA Measure ofDifierent Peoples
Progress.

Economical Food Bureau,
who has made nextensive study OF the
subject of cheap food for wage ca rneis
EXPRESSES the opinion that rlce' the
starle food Of Asia and now feeaine
about half the human race, will more
and more become leading article
Of diet in this country. 1T is no"
consumed here chiefly as an article OF
Injury, and our production is already
considerable, about 60, 600 tons year.
and capable of indefinite extension II
the demand warrants it.
But it may well be doubted, in spite
Of so competent an opinion as MI
St.sart,e. il there will be any great
growth of the use Of rice as food or II IL
is desirable that here should be wneh
wbeat is so much better and mora
nutritious. There has been great
change in the last quarter OF century
10 opinion RI garding food values as the
result of Investigations like those OF
Prof Atwater at Wesleyan, and many
French experinenters along similar
lines. It is marvellous how exactly
the capacity of men or peoples
mental, physical and even moral IS
measured by what goes into them ss
food. Provided the digestive and
assimilative apparatus be healthy, 1t
can be told off in advance as figures
of tissue building and OF energy or
coloric. Practically the only difer'
epce in men is found to be in their
assimiilative power, and the question
OF human progress or achievement IS
very nearly question of nutrition.
Prof Crookes, the distinguished
British chemist ard scientist, de-
clared some years ago that ii was the
Wheat eaters that rule the world, y
and the experiments OF recent years
have explained the reason why, IN
showing the nutritiee value of wheat,
in comparison with other foods, and
it's exceptionally superior balance oil
the elements required for the congo
sutton of the hardy, hard working and
energetic man. The irstinct which
has made the Americans large and
increasing wheat eaters, when int
scientific theories were all the othel
wsv and held corn, rye and most
any other cereal to be better food
has this been justified. All over th'
aorld the position Of the peoples cor
responds closely to their consumption
Iof wheat. Asia, which has chung Il
its rice as its leading article CT die
has been STEPPED in centuries o
letharsy and stagnatiop, while Europe
out of barbarism when Asia wa
; civilization center, has forged ahead
and the further west we - the NOR
this has been true, in the lanes "her
I wheat consumption has been greatest
, until on this side OF 'he water appear
the greatest, most productive, mos
inventive, most progressive people o
all. Mulhall, the statistician, taklni
] the total production of the ditieren
countries, has figured out upon 1t
,, ponulation the foot power as h
| calls il of each. Where in America
! is 100, in England it is about 50,
France 10, 10 Germany GO, 10 land
a further South or East steadily les
D until it becomes very small fraction
r These figures, quoted from memor!
I are not exact, but illustrate the ger
4 eral fact OF course the mixture c
o races. greater the further West To
5 tide of population has flowed, Is
. LARGE factor in these differences; bt
!. back of that mixture Is cause,
the energy and enterprise that ht
moved peoples to rev fields and opro
d tunitiez.
d Naturally, as component of tn
g theory, We find the intense compel
70 ton, industrially aud commerHisll,
n of this age, rapidly enlsrgirg the pr
IS portion of wheat consumption In IS
II the wheat eaters Of the world We
IF estimated to number 3Il, ZOO, W
a Three years ago attainable da'
J., seemed to show that wheat was II
IL bread staple of 5l6, 900, 600 souls,
of France 40 years ago rye was the slap
IS food of the peasantry, with whe
le confined mainly to the wealthl'
le classes, but wheat has since bee
= steadily supplantiug rye until no
} France is the third largest whea
at producing country in the world, b.
a. still has to import 10000, 600 bushe
to year to supply the demand. 1t is
le fact that nowhere that wheat has &
rs hold has it been supplanted aud
ly the southern part of this country,
~ Latin America aud in Southern EuIop
ly where maize is large article of fn'
t. there is marked tendency to u
IN more wheat
Mt Among all the other theories ana e.
10 perimeuts in the medical world, son
n. promising work has been done wi