Norwich bulletin. [volume] (Norwich, Conn.) 1895-2011, 1910-04-02
e. a. ga g.
< 1.-THE FARMERS TALK1 (
y TO FARMERS 4 y
The Connecticut Experiment Station-lts Honest and
Conscientious Work-What Recent Reports Disclose
A Legitimate Work for the State-Somethng that
Should be Appreciated by the People.

written Specially for The Bu1letin.)
1 wonder how many people in Con-
neuticut fairly appreciate the help the
State Experiment station is offering
them, not only in distinctively farm
ing problems, but also in domestic
questions? fvs just received the re-
port on Food and Drug Products.
1909" and I feel myself in common
decency compelled to bear such teSti-
rnony as q common farmer man may
to IT'S value. Its plain, easily under
stood statements, its manifest desire
SO to word things that others than
fear1essness. the general tone of zeal
GUS desire to protect and aid the pub
Hc-all combine to make it exception
ally deserving of approval. =
Judging from the stacked shelves of
various breakfast foods which 1 see
in every store 1 enter. fancy that
simply enormous lot of these Lazy
Wife's Friends are being sold and
consume ed in the country as well as the
city. Judging from the pictured pages
extol1ing them which I see in the very
high priced advertising pages of the
popular magazines I suspect that there
must be pretty fair profit in making
them at existent prices. A good many
Of US, while admitting their conven-
iencs in emergencies and their free
dom from harmful adulterants, have
long known that they were not pos
sessed Of all the properties the adver-
who have looked into their compost
ton and compared the analyses OF
their constituents have long known
that as compared with the staple cereal
products, such. as flour and meal, they
were very far from being economical.
But too many of the professors and
chemists who study these things put
their reports in such technical terms
and accompany them with such 1ncom-
prehensible tables of jaw-breaking
polysyllables and complicated per-
centages that the busy man and
woman find the reading mighty rocky
and the meaning even thicker than q
Sound fog.
But our Connecticut report, while
giving its processes of analysis and
the accurate deductions ~therefrom,
goes q step further and translates it's
chemical yerdicts into common Eng
lish, SO anyone who can read can I'M
derstand Just what they mean. For
illustration, the report quotes the Ia
bells on two popular breakfast foods
One reads: ''The thorough cooking
converts the starch into digestible sub
stances" The Station comments thus:
"Unconverted starch Is a perfectly d.
eestfble substance, and healthy per-
son can digest it for himself quite as
safely and conveniently as a factory.
This article contains GLIB
per cent. of unconverted starch. Only
q small portion of the starch has there
fore been converted" In other words,
has been converted is only fractional
" true, and the implication that, if it
sll had been, It would have been made
more digestible isn't true at ALL
Here's another manufacturers claim,
as per advertisement or label: 1.-THE
wonderful invention of :.
cooks the starch granules so thorough
L that aredeestea tood e On Ye Which LARGE fse
Station comments: 1T is misleading to
claim for partially dextrinized food
that Il is +predigested,' because no di-
gestive process has been employed and
the changes brought about in the food
have little relation to those caused by
digestive fsfn ents." And so on with
a good many other OF these "fad' food
prooucts. AS to one which advertises
nerves. overworked brains,'' etc. the
st atom says "Any real food is for
tired nerves. overworked brains, etc.
There Is rCthing in the description Of
It's preparation or it's chemical COM
position to indicate any very peculiar
adaptation to the wants of the sys-
tenn" AS to another: THE claims as
to Ats nutritive power are likewise ex-
aggerated." As to still another which
b1asts itself as being exceptionally
ri N" IN two important nutritive prop
erties. the Station bluntly report that
said food is mot exceptionally rich
IN either Of the elements specified"
Now, nobody bIanes the man who
hes something to sell for booming his
goods. It is the rule of business. We
all expect him to make them out just
as good as a prejudiced advocate pos
sibiy can. The law forbids him to
make deliberately false statements
about some things. But when a mans
whole business depends on his getting
the public to buy his wares, and when
he has actually made them as good as
ne can-and get that profit he is al
ways looking after-uIfder those cir
cumstances we aren't going to call him
interests and his prejudices lead him
to puff his stuff a little higher than the
facts warrant. We're ali Of us poor,
weak critters when it comes to q bar
gain-hunt, and it doesn't become any
of US to vituperate other men who are
doing about what we'd do in the same
circumstances. We're all tarred with
the same stick We expect the seller