138 NEBRASKA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



entire population never lived long enough to go to school. Just think 

 of that if you will, one-fifth of the population never lived to be old 

 enough to attend school. 



Did you gentlemen ever think of it in this way, that if one-fifth of 

 all your orchards were dying out, that you would sit idly by and let that 

 work of devastation go on. You certainly would not. What would you 

 do? Why the first thing you would do would be to send to the experi- 

 ment station or the federal department, or to the famous vineyards pf 

 France if necessary, for experts to come here and solve the problem of 

 why you were not realizing the profits from your orchard. If one-tenth 

 of all the young pigs died every spring, what would happen? Why, the 

 farmers would send to some place for experts to come and see what was 

 the matter with the pigs, and why it was that they could not raise their 

 pigs. But when it comes to the fact that one-fifth of all the population 

 does not live long enough to go to school, then that is a different 

 thing. That is part of another question altogether. It is not part of 

 the running expense of the house, and it does not eifect our pocket- 

 books. 



That is right, but that is not the way to look at it. It U on the other 

 hand due time that something be learned about foods, and that we should 

 realize that the women should understand something about food values, 

 and the particulars of combining the proper amounts of the right kind^ 

 of food and placing it before the family at the right time. To do this, 

 the woman requires just as good a knowledge of her work as the young 

 man does to know how much fertilizer to put about the base of a tree, 

 or to know about the feeding of your live stock, or the handling of your 

 orchard, or the raising of your corn. You would not think of feeding 

 a fine dairy cow anything you happen to have on hand any time you want 

 to do so. You do not want frozen corn stalks hauled in every other 

 morning or a wagon load now and then to feed that cow. No, indeed, you 

 are feeding that cow and others if you have them, a certain amount of 

 other things such as oil cake and alfalfa, that you know will be good for 

 her, and you are feeding it constantly and consistently, so that you know 

 you will get a return on your investment, and that the return will be 

 great, for you can not afford to keep that cow on the place and have her 

 for a boarder. 



If it is necessary for man and the men who are interested in this 

 business to put the subject of feeding stock on a scientific basis; if it 

 is necessary for them to put the subject of raising crops, fruit, and caring 

 for their vineyards and orchards and all those things on a scientific 

 basis, is it not just as necessary to carry that a step further, and follow 

 the fruits up to the house where they are to be prepared for home con- 

 sumption? 



People are apt to consider that fruits are an extravagance, and that 

 although there is a certain value in them, and that secondly they contain 

 a certain amount of minerals and acids and salts, but they are positive 

 that there is no more real value to them. Have you ever thought of this, 

 that pound for pound, the good old Irish potatoes that we eat every day 



