26 DEHYDRATION OF FETJITS AND VEGETABLES. 



because it is involved in this question of dried vegetables. The diffi- 

 culty has always been in the introduction of a new food plant, that 

 the growers of the plant could not advertise it ; that is, it did not pay 

 them to advertise it. The advertising which had been done by farm- 

 ers, which has paid largely, as I understand it, is after an industry 

 through various vicissitudes and many years has become established, 

 and the farmers can form a large organization and control in some 

 measure the output. 



When it comes to a new plant like the dasheen, the Government 

 has had to do the advertising, and we have now, after these years 

 of experimenting, a crop of 30,000 bushels, which is nothing, of 

 course, compared to what it could be, but it has been entirely done 

 without any advertising on the part of the growers of this vegetable. 

 That factor, it seems t(> me, enters into this whole question of what 

 the Government should do with regard to dried vegetables, for, with 

 all due respect to the testimony with regard to these things, they 

 ha\'e thf character to the popular mind of something that is novel, 

 something that is new, and they are going to meet with that same 

 difficulty, perhaps in a minor degree, that every new food has met. 

 The study which I have made during these months has convinced 

 me, however, that the reflection which we get from Europe with 

 regard to the resistance of the people to the changing of their food 

 habits does not apply wholly to this country. I have traveled in 

 all of these countries that are now at war. I have considered for 

 years whether it would be worth while to try to introduce new 

 vegetables into those countries, and I have long ago made up my 

 mind that no money inducement would persuade me to try the 

 experiment in those countries, because of the conservatism of taste. 

 So when the matter first came up and I discussed it very extensively 

 with men who had been on the Belgian Commission, particularly 

 with relation to the difficulties in introducing Indian corn and rice, 

 I realized that we were in a diiferent position from that which they 

 were in on the other side. We have introduced new foods. We have 

 introduced more new foods into our meim in the last 25 years, I be- 

 lieve, than they have in Europe in the last two centuries, and I think 

 that these foods have been introduced largely without much adver- 

 tising — under the normal conditions of the public mind, skeptical, 

 as it always is, toward the introduction of a new food. When 

 you think of the successful introduction of such a fruit as the grape- 

 fruit, so sour that it made the lemon look like 30 cents — as the old 

 grapefruit certainly did — when you realize that that fruit has not 

 yet found its way into the European markets, you get some idea of 

 what we Americans can do in this changing of our food habits. 



The introduction of these dehydrated vegetables, as I said before, 

 appears to offer less difficulty because of their cheapness. 



The Chair Ji AN. Another thing, Doctor, it is a different form to 

 what they have been used to. It is not like a new and untried vege- 

 table. 



Mr. Fairchild. Exactly; it does not even have to have a new 

 name, which apparently makes a great difference. 



The work which I have done, consequently, has been largely along 

 the line of testing these on the public taste. 



Senator Smith of Georgia. Doctor, before you go to that will vou 

 tell us what you consider the relative food value ? 



