680 BOARD OF AGRICULTUKE. 



that cuts the important figure in liis food supply, as it relates to the health 

 and streng>th of himself and family. We have often heard that the 

 costliest of all roadbeds to a traveler is what is Ivnown as a rut. After 

 an observation of many years, wherein I believe I can truthfully assert 

 that I have taken pleasure in what pertains to the home, I find that the 

 rut along the public higlnvay is probably not as disastrous as that which 

 may take place in our domestic economy. Tliey are so easy to get into 

 and so hard to get out of. Monotonous sameness in our food supply is 

 disastrous both from a physical and artistic standpoint and is no longer 

 excusable in those of even modest means. More often where such con- 

 ditions exist it is a lack of energy ratlier than a lack of supplies. 1 

 wonder how many of us alternate the use of the ever handy potato, with 

 beans, peas, cabbage, carrots, turnips, tomatoes, spinach, onions, beets, 

 parsnips, cauliflower, hominy, dried coi-n, fruits and other things equally 

 as important in dietary coml)ination. All these things judicially added 

 to the diet in their best season would beat patent medicines every time 

 and cost much less. Every one of them contains some property useful 

 in healthy food supply. We buy celery compound by the liottle. Why 

 not grow celery in our gardens. We go to our drug stores for powders 

 and pills, containing the same ingredients found in moderate quantities 

 in that part of our food supply which is most frequently neglected. If 

 is not because these things are hard to prepare, for they are not. It is 

 either habit— that rut you Ivuow — or indifference that makes us overlook 

 them. 



Some years ago I made this statement— that one of the most powerful 

 aids in solving the drink habit must come from oiu- kitchens. I still think 

 that a Avell fed, properly nourished man or boy Avill have little appetite 

 for drink. I have since talked with those who from actual observation 

 among miners and workmen of that class, have found that many of the 

 workmen who spend about half their earnings on drink is because the 

 otlier half is so poorly managed in the preparation of food. Poorly 

 cooked and no change, bread, meat and potatoes and meat, potatoes and 

 bread, always in the same way. 



The stomach was filled, but the appetite was unsatisfied wliich ended 

 in a longing for something which he tried to satisfy with beer, the thing 

 most accessible. From the beer bucket he goes to the whisky l)ottle and 

 from that to ruin. The original cause not always the hard conditions of 

 his life or because he meant to go all wrong, but an unsatisfied appetite, 

 a thing he did not understand, opened the way, his bread, meat and 

 potatoes and meat, potatoes and bread, three hundred and sixty-five days 

 in the year was too much for him. The saddest part of it all is that he 

 did not know why nor did his friends, but rather attributed it all to the 

 depravity of his nature. This is no over-drawn picture. The thing might 

 be brought home where we little expect it. We have much to learn all 



