RURAL AMERICA 



partake of fully a score of dishes, some of which are hard to 

 digest, with the result that they are unfitted for work and 

 must force themselves to do their part. Not only do country 

 folk eat too much, but what they eat is sometimes not pre- 

 pared so well as it might be, even though the expression 

 " good country dinner " is often heard in the cities. The 

 impression should not be given that the country is more at 

 fault than the cities in the matter of failure to observe the 

 rules of dietetics, because the country does on the whole 

 better than the cities. But if just as much attention were 

 given to human dietetics as is given to the matter of a "bal- 

 anced ration " for the live stock of the farm, money would 

 be saved, in that less food would be eaten and less money 

 would be spent for patent medicines and doctors' services. 



The Great War, which has forced the so-called Central 

 Powers to depend almost solely upon their own resources in 

 the matter of food, has led Germany to the most extensive 

 experiments in dietetics in the history of the world. The 

 study of the question has been in the hands of sixteen special- 

 ists and their preliminary report is published under the title, 

 "The Food Supply of the German People and the English 

 Starvation Plan." Possibly future historians will conclude 

 that the chief by-product of the War was the progress made 

 in the solution of the greatest problem with which the human 

 race has to deal, the problem of food supply. The findings 

 of this learned committee will be of value to the whole world. 



93 



