Norwich bulletin., 1909-03-20

(written Specially for The Bulletin-)
'dr. Farmer
i have a husband and three children
90 fill up three times a day. 1 want
to keep EN- good-natured and COM
Portable, and l should be glad to keep
'em healthy. too. / haven't much time
90 study, but would be very willing to
give what / can spare to finding out
what will do this. Couldn't you tell
cent postal card. and who to agk II
tromr "ONE FARMERS WIFE"
Yss'm; dee-liehted, as T. R. might
say Address your postal to The Sec
rotary of Agriculture, Washington, D.
c. Ask him to send you Farmers
Bulletins Nos. % 142. %. and 121. On
the same card ask him to send you
regularly the departments monthly list
of publications. so that you can. here
after, know everything the government
IS putting out along these lines.
No. % is on Foods: NutritiVe Value
and Cost" by Prof. w. 0. Atwater,
and was issued in 1894. No. 142 Is on
''Principles Of Nutrition and Nutritive
Value Of Food" by the same author,
and was issued in 1909. 1t is 8 revised
edition. No. "a is by Charles D. Woods
on Meats: Composition and Cooking"
and came out in 1886. No. 121 is on
Beans, Peas and other Legumes as
Food" by Mary H. Abel, issued IN lsOO.
There are others on cognate topics,
but these will do to start on. 1t may
be that some OF them are "Out of
print There has been q big demand
for them. and you may have to wait
awhile for a reprint to be made. If
you can get either No. % or No. 142,
you'll have enough to keep your head
working FOR some time. Each one OF
these covers much the same ground
as the other; Of course No. 142 is the
later and contains slightly fuller de-
tails. There may have been still
later issue along the same lines which
! have overlooked: But don't try to
bite Off too much, the first time.
One great trouble with the ordinary
meal Is that 1t is prepared chiefly with
reference TO principles which ought to
te held Of second and third and fourth
importance, rather than of first i'm
portance. Itsept to be: What do the
folks like? What have we got? What
can be prepared easiest? don't mean
that ali meals are always prepared
solely along those lines. But too many
are-perhaps have to be. sometimes.
There's no use talking, the pocketbook
has TO be considered. One great help
from the intelligent study Of foods is
the assistance it gives those with lean
pocketbooks in selecting and preparing
cheap materials so as to get Great
value from them.
In the human ration, as In that for
animals, the first consideration should
always be that Of the value Of the
ration in nourishlng the body. The
body, SAYS Professor Atwater, has not
simply organs to build and keep in
repair and supply with energy: It has
q nervous organization; 1t has sensi-
biIlties; and there are. the higher in
tellectunl and spiritual faculties. The
right exercise OF these depends upon
the right nutrition of the body"
clear enough and simple enough.
" hen you come 10 think OF IT, isn't
st? But what is the nutrition Of the
body? Is it just to put something in
To the stomach something which tastes
good going down, and doesn't give you
the stomach ache when down? Not
by long shSt.
The uses of food are two q quote
again) '~To form the material OF the
BODY and repair its wastes, and TO
yield heat to keep the body warm and
Furnish muscular and other power for
the work Il has to do" It is fairly
clear, then, that the first thing to find
out is what foods form body material
and repair body wastes and yield
warmth and strength. Then one needs
to consider their digestibility, which IS
quite another thing. There's a treInen-
doUs amount of nutritive value in corn
ed beef and veal and sardines and
cheese and dried beans and peanuts
but they aren't all Of them as digestibls
as they might be. Having found out
what the body needs what foods win
eupply those needs, what foods 1t will
digest and make use Of, then the ques-
tions Of what food Is liked what Ia at
hand, etc. come IN for secondary con-
sideration. Either one Of the pamphlets
by Prof. Atwater will answer, or en-
able you to answer for yourself the
main questions. The others you already
know more about than anybody can
tell you.
One of the greatest practical uses
OF these pamphlets win be TO tell the
economical housewife something about
the actual cost Of the real food-part
IN the things she buys Snd cooks For
instance, it Is the dlgestfble protein in
a ration which makes the muscles,
ten6ons, cartilages, bones and skin as
we'll as the corpuscles OF the blood.
This protein makes w almost one-half
OF the solid matter Of the body, after