8() MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



tithe of the money now expended on patent medicines, spent in 

 experiments would determine these qualities. Celery, some 

 physicians say, has an undeserved reputation for relieving rheu- 

 matism ; lettuce is supposed to quiet the nerves ; spinach the 

 French call the broom of the stomach ; but who knows wliether 

 these claims are valid? 



It has been worth while to study fermentation thoroughly 

 because an immense amount of capital is invested in breweries. 

 Cattle foods are investigated because they are a large expense to 

 the farmers. Might not equal profit accrue from a thorough 

 study of changes which take place in vegetable foods between the 

 garden and the table ? 



So far as the nutritive value of the food is concerned, all efforts 

 of horticulturists are useless unless these products are treated 

 properly in the kitchen. 



One of our New England agricultural reports recently con- 

 tained many photographs showing the effect of different fertiliz- 

 ing agents on common crops. Why should not our agricultural 

 experiment stations study different methods of cooking these 

 foods, and tell us when and how to use soda and acids to soften 

 the tough fibres of vegetables ; when cold water is best and the 

 effect of different degrees of temperature ; how to treat the same 

 vegetable at different stages of its growth ; whether anything is 

 gained from the action of diastase by soaking seeds before cook- 

 ing ; and a thousand other questions which perplex the cooks? 



You may say these are questions for the cook to settle, but the 

 farmer has an agricultural experiment station in each State with 

 skilled chemists and biologists, and all the apparatus needed for 

 such experiments. Why should they not do a little for the cook ? 

 The government holds schools and institutes for the teacher and 

 for the farmer, why not for the housekeeper ? Why is there not 

 a chair of domestic science in all our New England agricultural 

 colleges as well as in the West ? Why should not the fairs 

 offer premiums for cooked vegetables, or give lessons in this 

 branch of cookery ? 



■' The present need in this country is not so much of instruc- 

 tion how to earn as how to spend an income, especially a small 

 one."' ' 



1 Edward Atkinson. 



