174 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Beets are very cooling and nourishing because of the large 

 amount of sugar they contain. 



If rheumatic avoid free use of tomatoes, asparagus and rhubarb. 



Spinach is very good for the anaemic, rheumatic, gouty, also for 

 kidney diseases. 



Lettuce in large quantities is a sleep producing substance. 



Of fruit values very much may be said, because they encourage 

 the natural processes of the body. A diet entirely of fruit for a few 

 days, if it agrees, cleanses a bilious tongue and starts the action of a 

 sluggish liver. 



Dr. J. Warren Achorn states that it is difficult to eat too many 

 dead ripe blackberries, pears, peaches, sweet apples and grapes. 



The ancients called apples the food of the gods. Apples, in- 

 stead of fish are an excellent nerve food, as they have more phos- 

 phoric acid in an easily digested form than other fruits and contain 

 as much nutriment as the potato. They excite the action of the 

 liver, bowels and kidneys, prevent the formation of gravel, are use- 

 ful in sea sickness and all other forms of nausea. 



Grapes have so much medicinal quality that in Europe "cures," 

 or sanatoriums, have been established for the treatment of consump- 

 tion, diseases of the liver, dyspepsia, chronic diarrhea, dyspepsia, 

 especially when accompanied with constipation and gout. With 

 the grapes nothing is allowed but a little bread and water. 



Tossot tells a story of a regiment of soldiers decimated by 

 chronic diarrhea, which vanished in a marvelous manner, on en- 

 camping among a vineyard of grapes. Chronic inflammation of the 

 bladder is relieved by eating freely of very ripe grapes, as they 

 are a diuretic. 



Raisins are very nourishing. 



Linnaeus, the great naturalist, cured a severe attack of sciatica 

 by eating freely of strazvberries, as they are very rich in elements 

 that are cooling, laxative and diuretic. They are of value to the 

 plethoric and bilious, and inpsoriasis, a form of skin disease. 



The pure, fresh juice of raw cranberries given freely, unadulter- 

 ated or with equal parts of water, is an excellent means of reliev- 

 ing the thirst of fever. A Russian physician had fifty cases of 

 cholera which resisted all treatment but were rapidly restored by 

 small, but repeated doses, of cranberries. In thirst and vomiting of 

 cholera, it is even more effective. A cranberry poultice is said to 

 be of value in erysipelas. 



Plums are reported to be a preventative of rheumatism and gout. 



"Food is the only source of human power to work or to think." 

 When people learn the therapeutic value of food more fully, they 

 will be more willing to authorize the expense necessary to pro- 

 vide it. 



"There is no wealth but life." Financially the United States is 

 the richest country in the world. We trust that the time is not far 

 distant when she may merit the words of Ruskin: "That country 

 is the richest which nourishes the greatest number of noble and 

 happy human beings." 



