HOKTICULTUKAL SOCIETY. 377 



gestion from any one that cooking is mere drudgery. Here is 

 abundant opportunity for applying all obtainable knowledge and a 

 wide field for experimenting. Hygienic cookery does not mean a 

 skimpy unsavory diet, but embraces all kinds of foods, giving us 

 a pleasing variety from day to day prepared in an appetizing 

 manner. 



Many children are made sick, cross, irritable and very un enjoy- 

 able companions at home, or even in railway coaches, simply by 

 injudicious feeding. Sometimes there is lack of regularity in 

 meal time, the child eating or piecing at any or all times. I am 

 convinced that the food has much more to do with making young 

 children sick than the so much blamed "teething." Not only 

 should the proper food elements be provided for these little ones 

 but in such a form that they can digest them. A child of three 

 months often needs additional food. "Drooling," which has been 

 an unmistakable sign of teething, is an unmistakable sign, not of 

 teething, but of 'starvation." Light bread, so made as to retain 

 all the nutriment of the flour, ani at least one day old, is good for 

 small children when crumbled in milk. A piece of good bread 

 toasted and well moistened with milk, is nice for variety, Cus- 

 tards and creams made of milk and eggs, using care not to make 

 the egg indigestible by over cooking, are also good. Pour the 

 milk boiling hot on the beaten yolks and sugar, return to the stove 

 until you can no longer taste the raw egg; remove from the stove, 

 fold in the beaten whites, add flavoring, and you have something 

 appetizing, pleasing to the eye, easily digested and nutritious. A 

 lady at one of the Farmers' Institutes said: "But is not a cream 

 made of milk and corn, starch more easily digested than one iu 

 which eggs are used?" It may be more easily digested but it is 

 only starch. Some starch is essential, of course, but it cannot 

 supply all the needs of the system. We would soon die of starva- 

 tion on a diet of starch. Perfectly ripe strawberries are good for 

 young children. They should be crashed, reduced to a pulp, for 

 a child under two years old. Apples are excellent but should not 

 be simply pared and cored, and are especially objectionable if giv- 

 en whole to these young children. Scraped ripe apple has a good 

 effect, and a child seven or eight months old will eat a medium 

 sized apple every morning with its breakfast with great benefit. 

 You have not time? There is no way in which you can economize 

 so much in time. With a well, sunny-tempered baby you can do 

 anything; with a sick fretful one you can acomplish but little. 

 With good care, good food, and good government a child is very 

 little trouble, but without these it is indeed a burden, slowly un- 

 dermining the mother's health and depriving the child of health 

 and enjoyment, which are certainly his birthright. 



I believe one reason for farmers' children being healthier, rosier 

 and stronger than city children is the large amount of pure swee 

 milk, fresh eggs and vegetables they consume, thus obtaining a bet 

 ter balanced diet. The family table should be well supplied with 

 vegetables and fruits. It is better to omit meats than vegetables, 

 as the same elements furnished by meats may be supplied in milk, 

 eggs, peas, beans, cereals and perfect bread. 



