St. Tammany farmer., 1906-05-05
BEST FAT PRODUCER

ULUl mi UUUUULll
OLIVE OIL THE MOST EFFICIENT
MEDIUM NOW KNOWN.
Great Longevity Of Olive Trees-The
OIL Best Fat Substance Known to
Medical Chemistry-Easily Dieest-
ed-Liking for It Soon Acquired
southwest Would Be Enriched BY
Olive Tree Plantations.
BY F. L. OSWALD, M. D.
tAuthor OF "The Health Laws of Nature, -
iney had an exposition of antioui-
ties in Palermo last month, and the
city did justice to its memories of
three milleniums, but of all the mar
vels and riddles of the past, the most
interesting was an assortment of vege-
table curiosities that had been admit
ted only by courtesy Of the commits
sioners, at the repeated request of an
agricultural association.
1t was an exhibit of olive-tree relics
from Monte Gibello, where two patri-
archs of an ancient grove had recently
been uprooted by a landslide. Cross
sections Of one tree Is feet in diameter,
computed age 700 years; portions from
the hollow trunk of another computed
at $50 years. Branches from both,
proving that the veterans had con-
tributed their share to the last harvest.
Estimates, that, before their death,
both had paid their nursery expenses
10000 times over.
When were olives first brought to
Sicily?" was question that .stumped"
the gray-headed exhibitor of those tree
stumps. Long before San Enero" (the
Palermo patron saint) was all he could
conjecture. "Yes, very much earlier"
decided learned referee, probably by
the first Greciaa colonists, long time
before the foundation of Rome. The
Greeks" he added, considered the OIL
i've tree the most precious present of
the Gods"
But to the mind of a foreigner the
further question arises: BY what freak
of madness or perversity did mankind
como to neglect that supreme gift of
nature? Only third of one per cent.
of our new world population derive
the needed fatty ingredients of their
diet from olive oil; the rest rely upon
less wholesome and enormously much
of a COW will cost its owner yearly
expenditure of 200 hours in labor and
from $50 to $50 in feed values, not to
mention the expense of stable building
and pasture fencing.
A young olive tree will ask its pro-
prietor to help 1t for two hours the
first year and for half an hour the
next, and after that will not only agree
to take care of itself for 1900 years,
but to improve steadily for the first
century and half. Then hold its own
for another 100 years without appreci-
able symptoms of decrepitude.
And, in the meanwhile, yield large
supply of the very best fat-substance
known to medical chemistry. Olive oil |
can be kept sweet and perfectly whole
some for two years, and only by gross
neglect will become stale in manner |
thai is apt to develop digestive disor-
ders. And not very serious ones at
that. Prisoners fed on bead and su-
perannuated tree-oil complain of moth
ing worse than costiveness.
While, in spite of the best possible
precautions, dairy products have been
known to generate some 20 different
diseases, three Of them deadly.
Pork is apt to infest the human or
ganism with q dozen different para
sites, besides some bowel complaints
which medical science has not yet
traced to visible germ. though its ac-
tfvity leaves no doubt about it's exist
ence. Yet pork-products Of some kind
or other furnish the fat Of some $780,
1000 of our fellow men, 10000, 600 of
hem citizens of our model republic In
,ix of our south states, where olive
.rees would prosper quite as well as
n the Mediterranean coast lands, pork
. dietetic staple Of the laboring
classes.
Now it is true that to certain palates
he first taste of olive oil is slightly
'epu]sive. But 1t is equally certain
hat, in q great plurality Of cases, that
gives way to tolerance and
to partiality. Thousands of
Italian gourmands would not exchange
neir vegetable oil for the best table
,utter If they could save money by the
They distinguish dozens
i different olive flavors and prize the
'est as we would creamery delicates-
en-.
It is just the same with animal fats.
,hildren often shudder at the first /
aste of bacon; DR.. w. B. Carpenter
nentions boy who could not keep it {
n his stomach for a moment; Moses
nd Mahommed went SO far as to pro- !
ibit it as an abomination; yet there
no doubt that multitudes of our fel-
Nv men can develop such a thing as
ork habit; they love bacon for its
wn sake, and would buy it at four
ines its present price. ''Tell MIN his
ure isn't worth the cost" said Charlie
lagne In reply to communication
.om a Spanish doctor who offered to
,lfeve his marasmus II he would
gree to abstain from his weekly bar
ecues OF boar steaks.
The Mingrellian ambassadors quailed
Abdul Hassan's ultimatum, but, af-
II a days deliberation, informed him
lat, with all their anxiety to propi-
ate the wrath Of Allah, the national