VEGETARIANISM 



6044 



VEGREVILLE 



Planting Time for Vegetables. Thr table on 

 the preceding page is recommended to those in- 

 terested in growing vegetables in the home 

 garden. 



Consult Bulletins of the United States Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, as follows: Bulletin 28, 

 "Composition of American Food Materials," Bul- 

 letin 121, "Beans, Peas and Other I.c^unit s MS 

 Food." 



SiihjoctN. The voffi-t;ilil-s listed in 

 the planting table above are all describe, 1 in 

 these volumes, as are also the following addi- 

 tional ones: 



Chard Solanum 



Lentil Sweet Potato 



Melon Yam 



Rhubarb 



VEGETARIANISM , vej e ta ' ri an iz'm, the 

 theory and practice of living upon a vegetable 

 diet, excluding fish, flesh and fowl. The term 

 came into use about the year 1847, but the doc- 

 trine is centuries old, having been advocated 

 by Pythagoras, Plato and Plutarch, and in later 

 times by Rousseau, Shelley and Svvedenborg. 

 The records of these men, apart from the above 

 phase, appear in their order in these volumes. 



At the present time vegetarian societies in 

 considerable numbers are maintained in the 

 United States, Canada, Great Britain, Ger- 

 many, France, Austria, Holland and Australia, 

 while the principles are further emphasized by 

 means of lectures, cooking demonstrations, lit- 

 erature and "pure-food" restaurants. The Vege- 

 tarian Federal Union, founded in America in 

 1889, has branches throughout the world. 



There are various schools within the general 

 vegetarian group. For instance, some would 

 exclude not only meat of every kind, but such 

 animal products as milk, eggs and cheese. Oth- 

 ers maintain that cooked foods have no place 

 in the ideal diet, and that only fruits, nuts and 

 grains in their natural state should be eaten. 

 Others use only fruits and vegetables grown 

 above ground, and some exclude all grain and 

 pulse foods. The majority of vegetarians, how- 

 ever, simply reject the use of flesh, fowl and 

 fish. 



Basis for Belief in a Vegetable Diet. The 

 chief arguments on which the vegetarians base 

 their practice are as follows : 



(DA vegetable diet is more healthful than a 

 meat diet because animals suffer from diseases 

 and parasites which they may communicate to 

 any person eating their flesh. 



(2) Animal flesh is expensive. A given amount 

 of nutriment can be obtained from eating fruit, 

 grain and nuts at a less cost than the same nutri- 

 ment obtained from meat. 



(3) Vegetarianism favors social as well as in- 

 dividual economy. becauM a giv-n area of land 

 devoted to the cultivation of fruits and vegetables 

 will produce much more food than if used for 

 feeding cattle. 



(1) The general adoption of a vegetable diet 

 would result in race improvement, because it 

 would necessitate in each community a larger 

 proportion of people devoted to agriculture and 

 horticulture. 



(5) Vegetarianism tends to develop the higher 

 nature of man. The flesh eater indirectly sanc- 

 tions the cruel and systematic slaughter of help- 

 less animals, the psychological effect of this brin.u 

 the development of a callous and fierce nature, 

 at the expense of gentleness and sympathy. 



(6) Man is not a flesh eater, from the stand- 

 point of physiology. His teeth are not adapted to 

 chewing meat, and his intestine is longer than 

 that of the flesh-eating animals 



(7) Finally, all the nutriment necessary for 

 the upkeep of bodily and mental health is found 

 in fruits and vegetables. 



The Other Side. The opponents of vegeta- 

 rianism argue that the structure of the diges- 

 tive system of man and the variety of intes- 

 tinal juices show that nature intended him to 

 live on a mixed diet, deriving nutriment from 

 all kinds of food. Further, that experience has 

 proven that a prolonged period of living on 

 vegetable foods results in a weakening of the 

 power to resist diseases. Animal food has the 

 advantage of satisfying hunger sooner than 

 vegetable food because it remains longer in 

 the stomach, vegetable food being digested 

 chiefly in the intestine. Animal food is also 

 the more stimulating. 



The Middle Ground. The weight of scientific 

 opinion at the present time appears to favor 

 a mixed diet, but the tendency is to reduce 

 the amount of meat eaten. It is generally 

 agreed that in the past meat has had too 

 prominerit a place in the diet of the average 

 person. The vegetarians have helped to throw 

 light on the important subject of what a man 

 shall eat, and the saner views now held in re- 

 gard to the food subject may to some extent 

 be credited to them. B.M.W. 



Those interested in the theory of the vege- 

 table diet will find the following books helpful: 

 Kingford's The Perfect Way in Diet; Williams' 

 The Ethics of Diet; Newman's Essays on Diet: 

 Salt's A Plea for Vegetarianism; Hill's /;**</.)/ 

 on Vegetarianism. 



VEGREVILLE, ve'gurvil,a, town in the east- 

 central part of Alberta, on the main line of the 

 Canadian Northern Railway, seventy-three 

 miles east of Edmonton. It is also the termi- 

 nus of the Calgary-Vegreville branch of the 

 Canadian Northern, a line 259 miles long. The 

 character of the surrounding district is reflected 





