A RANCHMAN'S RECOLLECTIONS 



use their plant for any experiments that the army 

 wished to make. This was done, an army board 

 appointed and the original army emergency ration 

 was worked out and manufactured in the Kansas 

 City Armour plant. It consisted of dried beef, 

 smoked and ground (moisture eliminated) and 

 mixed with coarse-ground or rather cracked, parched 

 wheat, which could either be eaten without treatment 

 or made into a soup. To this were added three cakes 

 of chocolate, to be eaten uncooked, or made into a 

 drink; salt and pepper were added in individual 

 papers. I was detailed to work with the board. I 

 wanted bacon used for the meat part, and many 

 officers did, but the medical division of the army 

 fought it hard, because of the possibility of trichina, 

 if eaten raw. In vain we argued that United States- 

 inspected meat could be used. We conducted ex- 

 periments, using heavily-infected trichina meat show- 

 ing how the process of curing and smoking destroyed 

 it. This was done by feeding it to sparrows and 

 finding the cists undeveloped in their stomachs. Maj. 

 Weston, however, did not give up his view of canned 

 bacon as an eventual form for army use. He bought 

 a carload, canned in the 5-pound size, using as nearly 

 as possible two pieces to the can, the rind removed ; 

 this was put aboard a navy vessel and sent around 

 the world, to test its keeping qualities in all climates. 

 When the Spanish-American War broke out, 

 Maj. Weston was made acting commissary general. 



[58] 



