The Minneapolis journal., 1905-11-18
FEEDING UNCLE
SAINTS SOLDIERS
Visitors to Fort Smelling Fail to Consider One of
Most Important Departments of Great Army
System American Soldiers Best Fed--The
sennbles a Wholesale Grocery House.


American people, rather than with the
scanty dole Of rations fed to soldiers
in some foreign armies. Milk and butt
ter are the very commonest necessities
to. the American citizen. If he goes to
the poorest restaurant or boarding.
house, and orders 15-cent steak, he ex-
poets bread and butter free Of cost.
What the soldier misses more than any
other thing is butter and milk, which
his company fund will no longer per-
NIT him to buy Company funds were
revenue when the beer sales in the post
exchange were abolished. These articles
we're common in those days, but are now
seldom seen on company mess table.
The operations Of the subsistence de-
partment are large and important. The
rewards it offers to the permanent Of
fcers of the department are corresponds
ingly great. With rewards for faith
full service, it is not to be wondered at
that the work of this department Is
very nearly perfect.
It would have required two freight
trains Of twenty cars each to carry to
Fort Smelling the supplies which have
been received there since the first of
last January. The issue to single or
ganizations gets down to figures that
can be understood. Issues are made on
the 10th, Goth and last day Of each
month. Each issue therefore repre-
sents one-third of a month g supplies.
The method Of making an issue is as
follows: =
System Is Close.
Each company commander forwards
to the adjutant on issue day state
ment of the number of men in his COM
pany, number who have joined since
10 CT Iccn ,1nn,. yrvl 1nf% a
last issue, and dates. The adjutant
consolidates these returns, making tht
necessary additions and subtractions
after verifying the accuracy of the re
ports. The commanding officer az
proves this combined return, and order
| the commissary to issue the number OF
rations called for. At the commissary
this number Of rations is converted into
pounds of sugar, beans, meat, etc.
As an illustration, take the Thirtieth
battery of field artillery at Smelling for
the issue of Nov. 10, 1905. It had
eighty-two men, and drew ten days
rations. for each man. It actually drew
S67 pounds Of beef, 140 pounds Of ba-
con, 80 pounds of salmon, Ills pounds
of -four, 148 pounds of beans, 793
pounds of potatoes, 90 pounds of
onions, A cans of tomatoes, 80 pounds
of dried fruit, 25 pounds Of coffee, 100
| pounds of sugar, and 21a pounds of
pepper. It did not take all the articles
to which it was entitled, but returned
the following as undrawn, receiving
of coffee, SO pounds of su gar. This
netted the company $1S.75. In addition
to this saving they turned over their
-four to the post bakery which makes
handsome dividends payable quarterly
by baking the -four into bread and sell
ing the surplus. This battery usually
4 receives about $50 every three months
from the profits of the bakery. n -
+ In addition to the articles issued, the
commissary keeps line of other sup.
plies fCe sale. As noted above, the cash
to over $4,000. Some of the items are
as follows: A half ton of breakfast
bacon. a ton and one-half of assorted
crackers, a carload of the best family J
, flour, $500 pounds of ham, five tons OF
granulated sugar, 2,7O0 cans of evap
Grated milk, 576 bottles of favoring ex
r tract. There were many other thing!
in proportion. By the sale Of these
articles the companies derive means fol
. special spreads.
) The actual conversion of these ratio,
articles into food is done by the com
el pany cooks, under direction of the com
ei pany quartermaster sergeants, whc &C
s as stewards, and under the persona
5 supervision of the captain. On issu,
1 day the quartermaster sergeant with {
e detail of men goes to the commissar,
' with a cart or wagon and receives th'
supplies due to his company. Tn
articles are checked from the prepared
list, a duplicate of which is handed Il
the quartermaster sergeant for the cap
J., tain.
| Salmon Are ''Gold Fish,
! The eommissary sergeant calls out tn
{ number of articles, a laborer count
; them out under his eye and announce
: the issue when completed. For eS
ample, canned salmon are always re
: ferred to by soldiers as "gold fish;
/ when = the laborer counted out. tn
t ninety.nine cans of salmon to tn
:. Thirtieth battery he called out .'gol
S fish gone,' upon which both the com
Y missary sergeant and the quartermaste
i sergeant checked that item. The quar-
o termaster sergeant carries all of thes
9 supplies to the company storeroom an
d locks them up.
r :. At, O'Clock each morning each frs
sergeant reports to his captain, an
/ hands him a proposed bill of fare fo
f the next day. This bill of fare is pre-
! pared by the company cook. The car
+ tain looks it over, makes such change
i as he sees fit, and then signs the col
S rected bill Of fare. It then goes to tn
+. quartermaster sergeant who sees tha
9 all the articles on it are duly served
o after which he returns it with his sig
IS nature to the captain. The captai
= always inspects at least one meal daily
8 and the quartermaster sergeant sample
:: every meal. By judicious use of tn
J. ration and skilful handling of the say
); ings a very palatable, nutritious an
); varied diet can be served and the say
I, ings permit many extras on holidays 9
:s special occasions. .t
4, ~.