398 



The Canadian Horticulturist. 



FRUIT AS FOOD. 



ORTICULTURISTS, it seems to me, are doubly inter- 

 ested in the subject of fruit as food. If it can be shown 

 that the substitution of fruits for bread, cereals, and 

 vegetables results in an increase of health, it is of course 

 a matter of great interest to everyone ; and to the horti- 

 culturist and fruit-dealer this problem becomes important 

 in a business sense. 



Scientists and physicians are in substantial agreement 

 as to the different elements of food needed by the human 

 organism, and also as to the relative amounts of same. 

 It has been deduced from experiments made on soldiers, 

 and with inmates of public institutions, that, for an 

 average adult performing healthful but not excessive 

 labor, about 21 or 22 ounces of dried food in the twenty-four hours are requisite 

 to keep up weight and strength. Of this nearly 17 ounces must be carbonaceous 

 or heat-giving, about 4 ounces nitrogenous, or that which is intended for the 

 support of muscular action, and less than an ounce of the phosphatic to support 

 the brain and nervous system, and a small percentage of salts for the bony 

 structure. 



If bread be analysed, after its water has been evaporated, it is found that 

 nearly 70 per cent, is composed of starch ; and the purpose that this subserves 

 in the system is to keep up the heat of the body. It is well-known to physio- 

 logists that while it remains in the condition of starch it is non-absorbable. and 

 non-assimilable by the system ; it only becomes food when it is converted by 

 the digestive process, first into dextrin, and then into glucose. If fruit be 

 analysed it will be found that a large portion is carbonaceous, like the starch in 

 bread, and is used in sustaining the heat of the body. In the dried figs of com- 

 merce there is about 68 per cent, of glucose, which is nearly the amount of 

 starch contained in wheat flour, and nearly twice as much of glucose is contained 

 in a pound of such figs as bread contains of starch — since bread is about half 

 water. Dates and bananas are similarly rich in this carbonaceous element. 

 Fruits growing in more northern regions are usually much more watery and 

 possess a much smaller proportion of the heat-giving nourishment ; but many 

 readers will be surprised to learn that substantially all the fruits usually grown 

 in more northern latitudes are still — when allowance is made for the great pre- 

 ponderance of water — quite rich in heat-giving food. The following is quoted 

 from " Eating for Strength," a work by M. L. Holbrook, M.D, Professor of 

 Hygiene in the New York Medical College, and Hospital for Women : 



" An important part of the grape is its sugar, which may be as high as 30 

 per cent., or as low as 10 per cent. The warmer and drier the weather at the 



