1858. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER 



81 



than any others, being long, full and well fleshed! cup," or it may be eaten in the pulp wTief e Na'tiire 

 in the breast ; have short legs and beautiful formed it. I prefer the latter. It may be eaten 



alone, or with bread — and it may be uncooR^dpr 



plumage, and with five instead of four toes." 

 The feathers on many of them extend down the 

 legs to the crown of the toes. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 FRUITS AND FBI7IT JUICES. 

 Fruit juices, it has been said, are the milk of 

 age ; thus contradicting, as some may at first 

 think, the views in my late article in this paper, 

 on the use of the milk of animals. .. 



But is there, after all, any contradiction? I 

 think otherwise. My main olycct, in that article. 



cooked. Bread and fruit form one of the best 

 meals for laboring men and Avomen which can be 

 found. If bread is the staff of life at cvery-age, 

 fruit-juices are its wine, especially in its middle 

 and at the end. 



Many say they cannot eat fruit, fhe teacher 

 of one of our most popular female seminaries, one 

 day not long since, told me this story. "My 

 father," said he, "could eat fruit all daylong, as it 

 were ; but I can hardly eat so much as an apple, 

 without suff'ering from it." "Perhaps," said I, 

 "your father ate too much fruit, and thereby- so 

 deranged his system that he has transmitted to 



was to show the folly — aye, and the wickedness, you a" greatly enfeebled vitality. But tell me 

 too, if you please — of requiring woman to spend '5f/<eji you eat your fruit." "Why, usually after 

 so much of her vital energy in changing milk, 

 which, when new from the cow, is comparatively 

 good food, into butter, which is worse, and cheese, 



which is 7mich worse ; and all without any com- 

 pensation. When you boil a farinaceous article, 

 as the potato, or chestnut, or the wheat kernel, 

 there is at least an apparent gain ; and so there 

 is in cooking several of the other roots besides 

 the potato ; as well as the Avinter pear, the quince, 

 and some of the other fruits. But in cooking 

 milk, so to call it, there is no compensation ; but 

 at every step, a loss. Even in boiling it, I sup- 

 pose its usefulness, unless a« a medicinal agent, 

 is somewhat impaired. 



It will hence, as I trust, be clearly seen that it 

 was no part of my object, in the article alluded 

 to, by commending milk, to throw anything else 

 into the shade ; above all, such an important item 

 of human aliment, as I conceive fruits to be ; but 

 simply to persuade people to substitute milk for 

 its products, and thus at once save themselves 

 and their housekeepers, and practice good sound 

 roundabout economy. 



But all this does not militate at all against the 

 ancient adage, "Milk for babes, stronger food for 

 adults," or the more modern one above alluded to, 

 that fruits contain the milk of adult life. On the 

 contrary I have taught the latter doctrine, both 

 by precept and example, now about a quarter of 

 a century. 



Some have supposed not only that fruits and 

 fruit-juices were preferable, for all but children, 

 to milk ; but that there was an incompatibility 

 betMcen them. Thus Dr. Dewecs, of Philadel- 

 phia, in his great work for mothers, says that 

 children under two years of age should never use 

 any fruit. It is true he does not tell us why ; but 

 it is quite natural to suppose it is because milk 

 and fruit are not apt to go well together. 



My purpose, at the present time — in addition 

 to making the above explanation, — is to com- 

 mend to all my countrymen who have passed be- 

 yond the merest threshold of infancy, the use of 

 fruits, as a part of their daily food. Fruits are 

 said to be "gold in the morning, silver at noon, 

 and lead at night ;" and I always prefer to have 

 them used in the early part of the day. Never- 

 theless, when the supper is taken early, and is 

 not a bad one in quality or quantity, a small pro- 

 portion of fruit is occasionally allowable, such as 

 a baked apple or two, or a few strawberries or 

 huckleberries. 

 The fruit juice may be expressed into "Pharaoh's 



dinner, or sometimes before a meal." "Did-you 

 never eat a good mellow apple along with your 

 dinner, just as you would a potato P" "Xo, nev- 



!" "Try one then, tomorrow." "I will." 



I have heard no more from the Professor; but 

 have no doubt that by making fruit a part of his 

 meal, instead of eating it when he had already 

 eaten enough of something else, he has- been 

 able to use it not only without unfavorabh re- 

 ports, but even with great advantage. 



Is it needful that I should say it ought to be 

 well masticated ? The stomach has no grinding 

 apparatus or gizzard ; and it 's no wonder if-they 

 who swallow large pieces of crude and even hard 

 apple, without chewing it, have trouble. Every 

 particle needs to come in contact with the saliva, 

 as much as every particle of a crust of bread. 



A lady in West Dedham — a pillar in one of the 

 churches there — is so much attached to a bread 

 and fruit diet, that she seldom if ever goes abroad 

 to a meeting or a concert for females -VN'h'ere re- 

 freshments are taken, without carrying with-'-'her 

 some apples and a piece of bread. She is now 

 about threescore and ten, and has pursued this 

 course for twenty years or more ; and is likely to 

 do so for many years to come. 



Here, as your readers will see, is another indi- 

 cation of good to come, on behalf of our house- 

 keepers. They who can make a meal of bread 

 and apples once or twice a d^y, require no boil- 

 ing water to cleanse their dishes ; nor any long 

 array of culinary apparatus in cooking. They have 

 a sort of independence of which the world that 

 has not yet attained to it has no conception. Be- 

 sides, they acquire a renovated appetite,- and their 

 gustatory enjoyment is increased from tweuty to 

 fifty per cent. W. At A. 



Auhurndale, Jan., 1858. 



Diary for 1858, — Those persons who mean 

 to keep up with their aff'airs, and be prompt at 

 their appointments, cannot Avith safety trust to 

 memory for all the demands upon them. They 

 must "make a note" to refer to. And what can 

 they find for this, equal to a neat, compact and 

 convenient Diary, for 1858, sold by T. GrooM & 

 Co., 82 State St., Boston. 



"D. S. G n," Derry, N. II., will please 



accept our thanks for his kind invitation. We 

 shall improve the first opportunity to accept it. 



