Edible Products. 



402 



[November, 1910. 



tity produced has increased even more 

 rapidly and the value of corn has 

 advanced proportionately. 



Frost kills the plant in all its stages 

 and all its varieties, spoiling not only 

 the grain, but the fodder as well. It 

 does not flourish well when the nights 

 are cool, no matter how favourable 

 other conditions may be. It is during 

 the disagreeably hot nights that the 

 crop is maturing the best. Because of 

 this habit it is one of the first plants 

 to disappear as one ascends into the 

 mountains, and comparatively little is 

 now grown west of the great plains of 

 North America. Formerly the circle in 

 which it was the principal crop was 

 about 60 miles in diameter, with Spring- 

 field, 111., as the centre, but that has 

 been greatly enlarged during recent 

 years and it includes a larger proportion 

 of the American Territory and some in 

 Canada. 



Formerly the East produced sufficient 

 for their own requirements but it can 

 be grown in so much larger quantities 

 and so much cheaply upon the great 

 plains of the West that only a small 

 quantity is produced in the East now 

 and that quantity is decreasing each 

 year. But it is, neverthless, the most 

 important cultivated crop in the United 

 States and its production is the princi- 

 pal occupation of a considerable propor- 

 tion of the agricultural population. — 

 Grocer's Criterion. 



THE DIETETIC VALUE OF FRUIT. 



By Prop. W. R. Lazenby. 



(From the Mass : Horticultural Society 

 Report, Pt. I, 1910.) 



In order to support life and growth 

 and to maintain the strength and 

 efficiency of the human body, some 

 things are absolutely necessary. Among 

 these, named perhaps in order of im- 

 portance, are pure air ; wholesome, 

 nutritious food ; prompt and regular- 

 removal of the excreta ; unbroken sleep.; 

 and some form of muscular exercise. 



No one can long enjoy a full measxire 

 of health and strength without due 

 regard to each and every one of these. 



Pure air is placed first, for if this is 

 lacking, however great the attention to 

 the others, health is soon undermined. 



Ordinarily we supply the body with 

 food in three daily meals, with intervals 

 ranging from four to twelve hours, and 

 this fully meets the demands of the 

 body through the stomach. The de- 

 mands of the body through the lungs 



are more imperious. They require at 

 least, 20,000 meals a day, with intervals 

 of only a few seconds. But if pure air 

 is absolutely essential to good health, 

 food is no less so. It is necessary to 

 form the material of the body and repair 

 its wastes ; it is also necessary to keep 

 up the proper temperature and furnish 

 the muscular and other power that the 

 body exerts. In other words, it serves 

 only for building and repair, but for 

 fuel as well. 



Science teaches us the energy of the 

 sun which lights and heats this restless 

 planet we inhabit, is stored in wood 

 and coal, petroleum and gas, and is 

 constantly being transformed into the 

 heat of the furnace, the light of the 

 lamp, the power of the steam engine, 

 or into electricity and then into light 

 and heat, or mechauical power again. 

 The same energy from the sun is stored 

 in the protein, the fats the carbo- 

 hydrates of the various foods we U9e, 

 and the physiologists and chemists are 

 to-day telling us how they are trans- 

 mitted iuto the heat that warms our 

 bodies, and into the power exerted by 

 muscle, nerve and brain. 



If the propositions just started are 

 correct, food may be defined as anything 

 which, taken iuto the body, aids in the 

 building of tissues, keeping up the body 

 heat or in the production of energy. 



From this it logically follows that the 

 most healthful foods are those which 

 are best fitted to the wants of the user, 

 and that the best foods are those 

 which are most wholesome and most 

 economical. 



There is much talk about the relation 

 of diet to health that is equally foolish 

 because it subserves no good purpose 

 and hurtful because it tends to fortily 

 the pernicious idea that our bodies are 

 in such wretched condition as to need 

 constant tinkering, and that some sort 

 of self-medication is a positive duty. 

 In the place of this wide-spread delusion 

 there should be an inbuilt conviction 

 that there are various products known as 

 foods in the choice of which, and in the 

 quantity used, each one has daily 

 opportunity to exercise the virtues of 

 common sense and moderation. 



One of the most pitiable errors with 

 respect to certan food products is that 

 which somehow confounds them with 

 medicine. For example, when one eats 

 freely of fruits he does not feel justified 

 in simply saying he does so because he 

 finds them agreeable, he like9 and enjoys 

 them, but is constrained to look wise, 

 and solemnly observes that "fruits are 

 healthy." Some even go so far as to 



