The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1907-05-18
BALANCED RAT1oNs.

AT farmers institutes good deal
of time is devoted to discussing bal
anced rations for stock.
Farmers are rightfully interested in
their live stock and want to do the very
best they can to promote the stocks
health and usefulness. ct is some
times whispered that they take better
care of their stock than they do of
their wives no woman will call
/ that square dealP') If farmer
has colt or calf or, a lamb, he'll do
his very best to make things comfort
able for the little one; but it is moth
ing unusual to find the mother of ba-
byttwo or three weeks old cooking
and cleaning and doing the entire work
OF the family, and growing haggard
and careworn in appearance, with
none of the content and comfort that
is manifeted by the COW standing laz-
lily chewing her cud by the side of
| her calf.
The farmers wife is often so push
ed in her manifold duties, that she
cannot do her very best by her chill
dren or her household. Now that
capable women can scarcely be hired
for love or money to work in the farm
house, and public roads are so full of
automobiles, steam threshers, we'll bor-
ing apparatus or other frightful things,
that she dare not drive out for little
change and recreation, her isolation
and burdens grow more grievous to
bear.
The farmer of to day must do some
vigorous hustling, among all the high
prices he has to pay, to provide liv-
ing for his family. Before we had so
much labor-saving machinery, it was
comparatively easy to live on farm
and keep the farm work well in hand
but much of it is left undone in these
latter days. From riding through the
country one is tempted to believe that
the oldtime garden is being neglected.
Folks feel, suppose, that they
have no time to bother with it; but
the farmer who neglects his garden
cuts off the balanced rations of his fam
lily and consigns it to the stale vege-
tables of an occasional huckster, or to
none. We. cannot. live and thrive on
''hog and hominy" diet, and 1t is
just as important, or more so, that the
farmer and his family be fed on we'll
balanced ration of fruits and vegeta-
bles along with their meat, that will
makethem able to cope with the streD-
Iuous labors that beset them, as it is
for horses and cattle to be we'll pro-
avided for.
Those skilled in dietetics have said
that half of diseases are caused by
improper diet, and 1 believe large
fraction of the other half might be in
cluded. In truth we do not know how
to live, or what is good for US to eat.
We have not studied the subject, but
have gone on eating and drinking such
things as please the taste, without re-
gard to consequences. There has
been great multiplication of food
stuffs, but not much increase of knowl-
edge of how to safely use them. A
4 plain diet of few we'll chosen things
is the only reliable method know
of that will be likely to insure good
digestion. 1t is for the housekeeper
to study her resources, and from them
try to fit together at each meal some
thing appetizing and healthful, bear
ing in mind that too many varieties at
one time must be avoided, yet eat for
getting that frequent changes of the
bill Of fare are necessary to keep up
the appetite, and keep the family in
| good going order.
l shall not venture to lay down any
fixed rule by which we shall be fed,
for believe every housekeeper must
work out this problem for herself.
| She knows her family, their habits and
tastes, and she must learn their re-
quirements.
If she can keep them going through
summers heat and winter S cold with
out bilious attacks, without headaches
or nausea or such evidences of Grip
pied digestion, she may feel that her
care and forethought are being re-
warded. But even with the most
carefully prepared diet, people will
injure themselves by eating too much /;
but she cannot be held responsible for
this.
| 1t is so hard to stop eating when
things are good and one is hungry.
The digestive system is long suffering
and bears more abuse than would seem
possible; but sometime, suddenly,
/ perhaps, it will rebel, and the remain
der of life have to lie spent in trying
to make amends for early indiscre-
tions.
| Look to your gardens, good women,
for in them are the means by which
good health may be maintained. This
month you should be having rhubarb,
lettuce, radishes, spinach and aspara-
gus; the latter is one of the most i'm
portant of spring vegetables. Straw
berries will soon be swelling into lus.
ciousness, and other fruits are COM
ing on. Eat some uncooked food each
day. Nature has porvided bountiful-
| ly for us in this line. Small fruits
all summer, with early apples, pears,
peaches, grapes, sc. All winter long
apples can be kept in store, eat one
or two every day, or an orange or a
grape fruit, and stop off some of the
sugar business. Drink your coffee
without sugar, if need be, and man
age to do with half the amount OF su-
gar you have been using, and so be
the better for it.
Don't sit down until dinner time ar
rives and then hastily dash together
a few ill-assorted things, but plan
ahead-use your gumption-for that is
what counts in good housekeeping.
You cannot fly to cook books or mag
azines for menus, for they deal in
things you are not likely to have on
8 \ L. lrlkk