Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1911-05-12
RAPs VIRGINIA GROWERS

ia State Horticultural Society was that
of E. R. Lake, of Oregon: an apple
grower and shipper.
He told the Virginia fruitgrowers
some things which are said to have
surprised them. He commented on
the fact that he was selling his apples
in his State at $1.65 to $3.50 box, and
on coming East to Washington, he
bought the same goods at from SIS to IS
a box. Therefore, he criticized the
growers of this State for not supplying
the Eastern markets. He bought Vir-
ginia apples at SO cents bushel, and
declared they were not fit to feed to
hogs. The trouble was, in his opinion,
that the Southern people do not mar
ket their best fruit and do not pack it
properly for the fancy trade.
"Put gray matter into your apples, "
said Mr.. Lake. "Now, some one said
one fortunate thing was that you were
right here with the markets at your
door, and you don't have any freight.
That is your burden-that you don't
have any freight" He argued that
Virginians won't send the people of
Washington and Baltimore and New
York what they want to eat, because
it doesn't cost anything. "If you
were 5000 miles away" he said, "you
would ship.only the cream of your Or
chards; the rest of it would have 10 go
to the hogs or rot"
MI. Lake further roasted the Vir-
ginia fruitgrowers for comparing their
fruit with that of Oregon, and thereby
advertising the Western State. Out in
his country they say "Oregon Bald
WINS" and if they had pippins they
would call them "Columbian Pip
pins" They never say, "Our apples
are as good as Virginia's; Grub of all
these furbelows," he advised, "and
say, Virginia Winesaps, as good as
they produce in the world.'"
with a rapidity and thoroughness I'M
equalled in the history of the race. AS
the original settlers came from the old
civilization and modified it to suit
conditions in the new world. the men
of the middle of the nineteeth century
broke out into the unknown west and
carried civilization and organized gov
eminent from the Mississippi to the
Pacific.
In constructive work, in conquering
difficulties, in bringing order out OF
chaos, the American man has shown
the highest degree of efficiency; but
now that the conquest is complete, the
efficiency has diminished until, in a
recent issue of the National Post, the
man of today is said to be about fifty
per cent. efficient. "American nerv-
ousnessu is known all over the world
and "nerve weakness" or a,urasthe-
MIA prevails among the bu mess men
of every grade frol the viiiiise store
keeper to the fin .nei IT On WON rests
the responsibility Oh The coul,ry's well
fare. Sanitoriums and hospitals for
nervous diseases are spread thickly
over the land, and most of them are
crowded to the doors.
Why is this? Why should the
children of robust, healthy, efficient
men and women collapse in compare
tive youth and become derelicts on
the sea of life? There are many an
swers, for no one cause will cover the
whole ground, but there is one cause
that produces many cases and is under
the control of each person if he but
chooses to exercise the necessary will
power.
This cause is Overeating, especially
excessive meat eatlrg, and it has
reached the proportions of a national
menace. Our forefathers had great
physical labor to do; they had forests
10 clear; fences to build, houses to con
struct and fields to till. The country
teemed with game and it was easier
and safer to go out and kill a deer Or
some other animal for food than to
spend the time and toll necessary to
raise crop of wheat or corn with the
added trouble of getting the grain into
edible form while exposed constantly
to attacks of Indians. They ate great
quantities of meat, but the outdoor
life and hard manual labor borne by
men and women, used up the meat;
it was totally consumed and left no
residue in the system.
In our time that is changed; our
people lead sedentary lives to great
extent and the thorough oxygenation
of food no longer goes on in the It's
sues. Despite this change of habit
the excessive meat eating has con
tinued but the strong food is not con,
sumed. A large mass of debris and
by-products of meat digestion is
lodged in the system and fails to- be
eXcreted.
In consequence govt, rheumatism,
kidney and heart disease prevail in
the United States as nowhere else in
the world, and the poisors absorbed
from an overloaded digestive system
affect the brains and the nerve power
of the man more seriously than would
indulgence in morphine or cocaine.
We talk of our high scale of living
and scorn the frugal, rational diet Of
the ordinary European, but we boast
of, what is running our efficiency. The
fireman who puts most coal into his
frebox is not necessarily raising most
steam, and by overlooking our sys-
TENS we are not increasing efficiency
but are lowering it, by getting clogged
up with clinkers. If the "Meat Trust"
really raised the nrice of meat tn a