DEHYDRATION OP FKX7ITS AND VEGETABLES. 27 



Mr. Faieciiild. I talked with Dr. McCoUum, of the institute of 

 hygiene of the Eockefeller Institute, yesterday afternoon over the 

 telephone. He is now carrying on extensive experiments with 1,500 

 rats, testing all of these different vegetables. I said, " Doctor, what 

 do you think with regard to this whole matter?" He said, "Mr. 

 Fairchild, there has been altogether too much said with regard to the 

 change in food values as the residt of dehydration. In my opinion, 

 gathered from my own experiments and the evidence gathered in 

 Germany, the food values remain the same." 



The Chairman. Thatisthetestimony of therat,isit? [Laughter.] 



Mr. Faiechild. It is the testimony of the rat, and rats are ex- 

 tremely sensitive, and live on the very kinds of food that human 

 beings do,' and they are, as I understand, recognized as standard test 

 animals in these matters of food digestability and nutrition value. 



Another point which I wish to put into the record relates to these 

 substances which Dr. Alsberg knows a great deal more about than 

 I do, of course. Dr. McCollum's attitude, as I understand it, to- 

 ward these so-called vitamines is that the leaf vegetables, such as 

 cabbage, spinach, and cauliflower, contains more of the substance 

 which he calls, for lack of a better name, his " water soluble B " than 

 do the fruits and the root vegetables. Now, he feels that, owing to 

 the high price of certain vegetables in the wintertime — for example, 

 cabbage is selling now for $4 a hundred pounds in our local market 

 here — the consumer, with a limited pockelbook, is going to buy his 

 grain products and his essentials as he considers them and cut out 

 these green-leaf vegetables. According to Dr. McCollum's investi- 

 gations, that is a great mistake; that the children particularly, and 

 even the grown-ups, need this particular substance which occurs in 

 largest amount in these green vegetables, and which will not be 

 bought by the consumers during the high-priced vegetable season. 

 Consequently he is much interested in the possibility of converting 

 these leaf vegetables during the season when they are very cheap 

 into an imperishable commodity which everybody can buy when 

 fresh vegetables are too expense in the winter season. 



Senator Smith of Georgia. The simplest thinker must realize the 

 point of that. 



Mr. Faiechild. It seems so. 



Senator Norris. Right on that point — I do not know whether you 

 intend to bring it up later — ^but if you have not, it seems to me ap- 

 propriate, that it is very desirable, but the practicability of it depends 

 upon its cost. Now, sometime during your talk to us, I would like 

 to have you go into that, if you have made a study of the cost of the 

 machinery, and whether it is practicable for an individual to con- 

 struct the proper outfit to dry his own product, or whether it ought 

 to be done by having one located in the community to dry for all 

 the people, what it would cost to build, to operate it, etc. 



Mr. Fairchild. I can probably answer your question, sir, by giv- 

 ing you a little historical summary of the development of our own 

 investigations which started with the outbreak of the war. Dr. 

 Alonzo Taylor now of the Food Administration, who had been 

 through Germany and who had seen the building of these German 

 factories of which they have now in the neighborhood of 1,000, 

 for the drying of vegetables, pointed out that there were three kinds 



