IN THE TRENCHES 



"For breakfast, about seven o'clock, we have tea or cocoa, bacon and bread- Our 

 dinners consist of a pound of good fresh beef, potatoes, and bread, or steak, potatoes 

 and bread and onions. For tea again we don't fare at all badly. We usually get bread 

 and jam, biscuits and tea or cocoa, and on top of all that we get as many smokes as we 

 can very well manage. Generally, we do our own cooking on our trench fires, but when 

 there is a shortage of cooks, our rations are brought to us already prepared. In addition 

 to the four packets of cigarettes that are included in our regular rations each week, we 

 receive quite a lot from private sources." — A Canadian Soldier. 



Tommy Atkins in the trenches well fed is a great fighter; well fed he will stand to the 

 last. John Bull at home over-fed might become overconfident. The Canadian who 

 does not deny himself in some way does not know that he is in the war. The Canadian 

 farmer is pushing production not for the epicure and gourmand, but for the boys at the 

 front. Beef, bacon, flour, cheese and eggs from Canadian farms are for the Front, not 

 for overloading our home tables. Let us economise and keep the supply waggons 

 moving. Remember what the "Distressed Pessimist" said in Punch (Dec. 8, 1915) 

 after a too hearty meal. 



"It's odd — very odd! But somehow, fresh after dinner, I never can get myself to 

 feel as though the Germans would win." 



Jam replaces Butter 



The value of jam as a food lies in its richness in sugar, in the minerals which are 

 present in the skins of the fruit, in its laxative character and its mechanical aid to 

 digestion, writes Prof. James Long in The London Evening News. Its "toothsomeness," 

 too, is not to be despised, for it appeals to that relish and appetite which go so far in the 

 maintenance of health. 



Five pounds of jam cost no more than one pound of butter, but what of its relative 

 value as food? One pound of butter provides 3,600 calories, whereas five pounds of 

 jam provide 5,250. Practically the energy value of three and a half pounds of jam is 

 equal to that of one pound of butter, and at a good deal less cost. 



Sugar present in fruit has a remarkable effect on nutrition. 



Jam contains a large proportion of "invert" sugar, which is more freely digested 

 than raw sugar and can be eaten with greater impunity. 



Honey is an excellent example of invert sugar, of which it contains nearly twelve 

 ounces to the pound, and is well known as a delightful, nutritious and easily digestible 

 dainty, although as with everything else, too much can be eaten at once. 



An officer of the Royal Field Artillery sings the praises of jam: "Money is not much 

 use here where there's little to buy, and when a rich country feeds its soldiers so well. 

 When I say well fed, I mean bacon, steak, bread, and jam every day, varied by bully 

 and 'Maconochie.' I think jam will never have to bow to wheat while there's an army to 

 be fed in the field. It is the staple out here; many a muddy loaf, or a loaf that has had a 

 brush of the oil barrel, is made eatable by jam. Goodness knows where all the plums 

 and apples come from. Then jam comes in tins, and tins are useful for making paths. 

 Bread comes in nothing — that's where jam scores; also jam is equivalent to vegetables." 



218 



