FARMERS' MONTHLY OF HAMPSHIRE COUNTY 



TAKE YOUR VITAMINS IN 



FOODS-NOT DRUGS 



Summary of Present Knowledge of 

 Essential Food Factors 



"Vitamins should be sought in the gar- 

 den, or in the market, and not in the drug- 

 store," says Dr. D. Bresse Jones, chemist 

 in charge of Protein Investigations of the 

 Bureau of Chemistry, of the department, 

 in a recent report giving a summary of 

 our present knowledge of vitamins. "In 

 cases of suspected vitamin deficiency in 

 the diet," according to the report, "cor- 

 rective measure should be taken through 

 the use of suitable natural foodstuffs, and 

 ;*not through commercial vitamin prepara- 

 tions, many, if not most of which are 

 worthless." 



Vitamins Likened to Spark Plug 



Vitamins pay a very different role in 

 nutrition from the other food constit- 

 uents. They are essential to growth, 

 health and life, but they contribute neith- 

 er energy nor tissue building material. 

 Their function has been likened to that of 

 the spark plug in a gas engine. They 

 are often referred to as the accessory 

 food factors. 



People and animals are unable to pro- 

 vide vitamins within their bodies. Lack 

 of sufficient vitamins in the diet is soon 

 followed by serious consequences. Young 

 animals will fail to grow normally, and 

 adults will lapidly decline in weight and 

 develope certain characteristic affections 

 known as deficiency distastes. 



It is now known that there are at least 

 five vitamins, designated as A, B, C, D, 

 and E, and it is probable that others will 

 be discovered. The absence from the 

 diet of any one of the five will produce 

 certain characteristic effects. 



Vitamin A, for instance, is essential to 

 growth and health. Young animals on 

 a diet devoid of it soon stop growing and 

 lose weight. Their vitality becomes 

 lowered and they are less able to resist 

 disease and infection, particularly of the 

 respiratory tract. In many animals, as 

 rats, dogs, rabbits and poultry, and also 

 in man, a characteristic affliction of the 

 eyes results. The administration of 

 Vitamin A prevents or promptly cures 

 this affliction. Growing animals require 

 moi-e of it than do adults. It is abun- 

 dant in butter, cream, cheese, whole milk, 

 egg yolk, the liver, heart and kidneys of 

 animals, in spinach, lettuce, cabbage, 

 tomatoes, carrots, sweet potatoes, pars- 

 nips, and green peas, and is present in 

 varying quantities in many other foods. 

 Cod liver oil is rich in this vitamin and 

 the liver oils of some other varieties of 

 fish contain it. 



Vitamin B is also necessary for the 

 maintenance of life and health at all ages. 

 Lack of it promptly results in loss of ap- 

 petite and arrest of growth, followed by 

 various functional disorders and, finally, 



death. This is the most widely distri- 

 buted of all the vitamins. It is abun- 

 dant in green plant tissues. Cereals and 

 seeds contain it, the germ of the seed be- 

 ing an exceptionally good source. Yeast 

 and wheat germ are standard sources of 

 this vitamin in experimental work. Roots 

 and tubers as a class are good .sources of 

 it, and it is especially abundant in to- 

 matoes. Most fruits and nuts are well 

 supplied with it. Meat is reported to 

 contain Vitamin B. The heart appears 

 to be the richest in this vitamin, and the 

 liver and kidney have only slightly lower 

 values. The flesh of the chicken, turkey, 

 duck and guinea fowl, howevei', are de- 

 ficient in it. 



Diseases Produced by Lack of 

 Vitamin B 



Notwith.standing the wide distribution 

 of Vitamin B in foodstuffs, certain classes 

 of people, as soldiers, sailors, travelers, 

 infants, and others, living on restricted or 

 artificial diets, have suffered serious con- 

 sequences because of a lack of it. Beri- 

 beri, one of the diseases produced by the 

 absence of this vitamin, is most commonly 

 found among those living chiefly on 

 polished rice. Removal of the germ and 

 seed coats or bran of cereals takes away 

 practically all the vitamins. Consequent- 

 ly, polished rice, patent white flour, and 

 degerminated corn meal are practically 

 devoid of vitamins. 



Vitamin C is sometimes known as the 

 "anti-scurvy vitamin," because a lack of 

 it in the diet causes scurvy, a disease 

 which has been prevalent among sailors, 

 soldiers, explorers, and others compelled 

 to live for long periods on dried and pre- 

 served foods. 



Even in the late World War, Wilcox 

 states, there were more than 11,000 cases 

 of scurvy in the British colonial troops 

 in Mesopotamia during the last half of 

 1916. Farm animals are not very sus- 

 ceptible to scurvy and it is considered 

 that chickens and pigs are not harmed by 

 a lack of Vitamin C in their diet. The 

 best sources of Vitamin C are lemons, 

 oranges, tomatoes, cabbage, lettuce, spin- 

 ach, green beans and peas, and turnips. 

 Most green vegetables, fruits, roots, and 

 tubers contain Vitamin C in varying 

 quantities. Meat, excepting the internal 

 organs, is a poor source. It has been re- 

 ported that oysters contain it in abun- 

 dance. Milk contains it to some extent, 

 but is an uncertain source. This vitamin 

 is easily destroyed by the processes used 

 in the preparation of many food products. 

 Orange juice or tomato juice is sometimes 

 given to babies reared on artificially pre- 

 pared food as a precaution against 

 scurvy. 



Rickets Follows Lack of Vitamin D 



Vitamin D seems to control to a large 

 extent the utilization of lime and phors- 

 phorus in the formation of bone by the 

 animal organism. Its absence in the diet 



will cause rickets, a disease characterized 

 by enlargement of the points, softening of 

 the bones and subsequent bending. Hess 

 states that "Rickets is the most common 

 nutritional di.sea.se occurring among 

 children of the temperate zone, fully 

 three-fourths of the infants in the great 

 cities, such as New York, show rachitic 

 signs in some degree." This di.sea.se can 

 be prevented by a proper diet. It can al- 

 so be prevented or cured by administering 

 cod liver oil, which contains Vitamin D in 

 abundance, or by exposure to the ultra- 

 violet rays of sunlight or the mercury 

 lamp, if the diet contains the other neces- 

 sary food elements in adequate quanity. 

 This vitamin has been found in egg yolk 

 and to some extent in milk. Cocoanut oil 

 contains it in slight amount. As yet but 

 little has been learned of the general 

 distribution of Vitamin D in the plant 

 world. 



Vitamin E Essential to Reproduction 



Vitamin E, the anti-sterility vitamin, 

 was originally referred to as Vitamin X, 

 because of the uncertainty as to whether 

 or not it should be classed as a vitamin. 

 Most of the knowledge concerning it has 

 been obtained within the last two years. 

 It has been shown that rats reared on 

 synthetic food mixtures containing fat, 

 carbohydrate, piotein, salts, and Vita- 

 mins A and B, grow well and have every 

 appearance of health, but exhibit com- 

 plete sterility, affecting both males and 

 females. When small quantities of nat- 

 ural food stuff were added to the ration 

 of these same rats, there resulted in many 

 cases normal sized litters of vigorous 

 young. An excess of Vitamin E can not 

 increase fertility beyond normal limits. 



POTATO CROP 75.9 PER CENT 



OF LAST YEAR 



On a condition figure July 1, of 84.1% 

 of normal and an acreage 94.3% of last 

 year's acreage and 89.1 of the 5-year 

 average the country's potato crop fore- 

 cast is for .349,.566,000 bushels. This 

 compai-es with 4.54,784,000 harvested last 

 year and the .5-year average of 417,848,- 

 000 bushels. 



The total area is 3,45.3,000 acres, the 

 lowest since 1907; and the July 1 condi- 

 tion is 84.1% as against 86.3 last year 

 and 87.4 the 5-year average. The fore- 

 cast of production is the lowest since the 

 crop of 322,867,000 bushels in 1919. 

 Drought at planting time in much of the 

 late crop territory explains the low con- 

 dition. 



July 1 forecast for New England is 

 45,394,000 bushels as against 56,170,000 

 harvested last year and 44,921,000 the 

 average of 1920 to 1924. Growth here 

 has been rapid and conditions above last 

 year and average. 



The 8 major late crop states (Me., N. 

 Y., N. J., Pa., Mich., Wise, Minn, and 

 Continued on page 10, column 3 



