Belding banner. (Belding, Mich.) 1889-1918, 1917-01-24
Hos0 The World IL Fed


CiaIiou. IL was UuSt&S 10 0WtAS wiz
first. conceived the idea of doing the
butchering near the center OF animal
production and shipping the meats to
the centers of consumption. One
step in the progress OF catering to
the worlds food commands, made
others possible and John Gorrie of
Florida invented the ice-making ma
chine, and cold storage in destined to
play an increasingly important part
in the handling of the worlds food
supply as the years go by and the de-
mands for foods increase, and today
the tunnels of refrigerator ships trace
their lines of smoke upon every hori-
zon.
AS the world fills up with people,
we are looking more and more to the
sea for food. 1t is estimated the
worlds fish supply exceeds twenty
billion pounds. The Chinese are the
greatest fish eaters in the world.
They have accepted so many varieties
of edible fish that they have diff
ferent kind for breakfast every morn
ing of the year.
Oysters are the most popular and
most extensively eaten of all she'll
fish. On the shores of all temperate
and tropical oceans and seas, oysters
occur in great abundance, but the
supply in the North Atlantic exceeds
that of all the other waters combin-
ed, and Chesapeake Bay produces
more than any other body of water
in the world. France is the only
rival of the United States in the oy-
ster industry.
By comparing the vegetable and
animal products of the world, we find
the vegetable kingdom has more for
the worlds market-basket than the
animal world. One-fourth of our
country's diet consists of vegetables.
1t would take four million of the
largest freight cars, making a train
reaching more than one and one-half
times around the earth to move the
annual yield of wheat We who have
spent all our lives in the United
States do not realize the important
part barley and rye have in the mar
ket baskets of many countries, for
we seldom need these cereals at meal
time. In Japan where the people get
too poor to eat rice they resort to
barley, and there is a social distinc-
ton drawn between the relocating
and the barley-eating natives. In
bulk oats is the greatest Of all the
cereal crops and though they figure
mainly as breakfast food the worlds
diet, the total amount used is very
large.
Although the United States pro-
duces more than seven million pounds
of rice, Asia has monopoly on the
production and they eat nine-tenths
unnumbered millions it is both bread
nd kn
two-thirds of the worlds supply of
corn.
The Importance of dairy products
cannot be overlooked in discussing
the worlds market-basket. In the
United States alone they are worth
enough to build Panama Canal and
pay for the keeping of the American
navy every year. Milk is used ev-
erywhere that man lives and is secur-
ed from many different kinds of ami
mails. Little Denmark leads all the
countries of the world in the exporta-
ton of dairy products. I
Sugar occupies a very important
part in the worlds market-basket.
Humanity has always had a sweet
tooth and the American people have
increased their per capita consump-
tipn Of sugar in forty years from
eighteen to seighty-nine pounds. We
eat more than half of the worlds
total production of candy. The pro-
duction Of sugar is evenly divided be-
tween sugar cane and sugar beets.
Three-fourths Of all the coffee
grown comes from Brazil. Holland
is the greatest coffee-drinking nation.
The growing of tea is largely an
Asiastic industry. In China every
farmer raises enough tea for his own
and a little for market.
The products Of the orchards and
vineyards also play an important
part in the worlds diet. Before the
fruit Jar came in use the only way
of keeping fruits and vegetables was
to salt or to dry them. The art of
is now one Of the important
industries Of modern times.
The first bananas ever imported
came in 1869. The people who handle
bananas on the big plantations of
Central America and the West In
dies so loose their taste for the fruit |
that it is never kept on their tables. |
Hawaii leads the world in the pro-
duction of pineapples. Travelling
through our busy little island of
Porto Rico we see orange and lemon
groves alternate with sugar planta-
tions and pineapple fields.
Although the olive is said to come
from Asia Minor, Italy grows more
of them than any other country. Here
the oil is not only used on salads
but has taken the place of butter in
many ways.
The growing of nuts is compar-
atively new industry in the United
States, yet it is one that promises
to develop into an important source
of food in the future. English wal
nuts take the lead, then pecans. Cali
fornia also produces large crops of
oranges, lemons, figs, apricots,
grapes, nectarines, plums and prunes.
The date is largely an around-the-
Mediterranean-crop. The American
people are the largest users of pep
per. The black variety is prepared
from the dried unripe berry of vine
which was first grown in Southern
India, the East Indies, Siam and
China. While the pepper is the same
fruit prepared in a different way,
cinnamon, cloves. nutmeg and mace