ii70 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



June, 1918 



of milk right by my plate to take a sip of 

 at intervals I take "real coml'ort;" and I 

 can do more work, or certainly just as 

 much, as on a diet of the best beefsteak. 

 Occasionally I have an egg with my mush 

 and honey and milk. For the last meal 

 of the day, at 5 o'clock, I have baked ap- 

 ples and milk. During- the last winter I 

 have changed from raw apples to baked 

 apples because they seem to be more di- 

 gestible, and I am saved the trouble of 

 paring the raw apples as I used to do ; and 

 when it comes supper time I can, from the 

 bottom of my heart, thank the Lord for 

 such a delicious evening meal as baked 

 apples and milk, with a little bit of cheese 

 for an appetizer. Of course I have other 

 fruit according to the season, to take the 

 places of apples more or less; but baked 

 apples are the great standby. 



Once more, why should I worry? Well, 

 to get right down to the point I feel wor- 

 ried because it seems every man, woman, 

 and child must admit that Dr. Kellogg is 

 right or largely so. A pound of steak just 

 now would cost, say, 30 cents ; but a pound 

 of corn, even at the present inflated prices, 

 would cost only about three cents, and yet 

 we are told the beefsteak has only about 

 half the nutritive value of a pound of corn. 

 Therefore feedi^g the corn to a steer, 

 costs us 20 times as much as to eat the corn 

 ourselves instead of feeding it to the steer. 

 Perhaps there is some exaggeration in this. 

 But there is a large bit of truth that we 

 cannot get around. 



Then there is another thing that troubles 

 me. I have all my life been qiti,te a 

 " chicken man." Would the same kind of 

 reasoning apply to feeding corn to chick- 

 ens in order to get eggs, instead of eating 

 the corn in the first place? Some of you 

 folks can figure it out. Let me digress a 

 little. 



My vegetarian-diet experience was when 

 i was in my teens. I was keeping chick- 

 ens. My chickens were my pets. They 

 would run to me and eat out of my hand, 

 and sing their songs of praise and thanks- 

 giving with trusting confidence close to my 

 side. During the last winter I have had 

 aboutSO Eglantine pullets. I have seen many 

 of these Eglantines come from the nest 

 where they have laid about their first egg; 

 and I have stopped and listened to their 

 juvenile cackle; and I have said to my- 

 self, " If there is any music from any -fea- 

 thered songster eciual to a pullet's first 

 cackle, in the way of sending a thrill of joy 

 and thanksgiving, I have never found it." 

 Now, bow much money would it require to 

 induce me to take that beautiful, innocent 



cackling pullet and chop Iter head off, that 

 I might have a "chicken dinner""? Well, 

 away back when I was a boy I decided in 

 my own mind that I was going to get along 

 without depriving any animal of its preci- 

 ous life, given by the great Creator, in 

 order to satisfy my appetite. I have heard 

 it argued pro and con for more than 60 

 ^ai-s in regard to vegetarian and meat 

 diet, so we need not take time or space to 

 go over it here. 



The dear Savior, when he made a little 

 repast for his followers, gave them fish and 

 honey in the comb. It has been argued 

 from this incident that he set the pace for 

 at least a mixed diet. Well, it has just 

 occurred to me that we do not feed our 

 corn to the fishes in the sea. Years ago, 

 when German carp were my hobby, I did 

 talk about (and practice) not "corn-fed" 

 heef but "corn-fed" f,sh. But as a rule, 

 where we use corn to produce beef, 

 mutton, or pork, we do not waste the 

 corn in producing fish food. This ter- 

 rible war is teaching us many lessc)iis. 

 If it should happen that the whole wide 

 world will be forced to eat less meat, I think 

 it will certainly be a profitable lesson for 

 the world. Our great doctors are almost 

 unanimous, if I am correct, in saying the 

 health of humanity would be better with 

 less animal food, especially the diet that 

 necessitates taking life to get meat. Of 

 course we have got to have milk — that is, 

 I take it for granted that milk is a necessi- 

 ty for babies; but, if I am not mistaken, 

 everybody agrees that mothers' mdlk is 

 away ahead (for the health of the little 

 strangers entrusted to our care) of milk 

 from any other source. Possibly goats' 

 milk might sometimes be an exception. I 

 feel satisfied just now that it would be bet- 

 ter for us to use much less animal food, 

 on account of high prices at the present 

 time, and the waste of grain, as Dr. Kellogg 

 puts it. If he is not exactly right about 

 it, he is largely right, and there is no use 

 in trying to dispute it. 



Mr. CoUingwood, of the Rural New- 

 Yorker, thru that same Rural has been a 

 long-time friend of mine. I met him and 

 had a chat with him just once. Well, he 

 talks so much about baked apples that I 

 owe him a vote of thanks for having large- 

 ly influenced me to get on tlie baked-ap- 

 ple diet — at least for the last meal of the 

 day. Right here I wish to make a clip- 

 ping from the Hope Farm Notes in a re- 

 cent issue. He writes: 



Milk. — The average working man will say that 

 he must have meat in order to keep up hody and 

 strength. Do you know that from experienc(>, or arc 

 vou c'ues.siMS at it? After trying all soiis of food 



