1863.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
149 
better soil, ancl with more favorable weather, 
turned out nearly all double flowers. 
Ipomcca, limbata .— This is a great improvement 
on the old Morning Glory, with flowers twice 
as large, of a deep blue color with a white bor¬ 
der. I. coccinea has bright scarlet, and I. grandi- 
flora white flowers. The seeds germinate freely 
if soaked in luke-warm water. The seeds of 
the above may be obtained at the principal seed 
stores. A number of them have been given out 
in our seed distribution. We have no seed store, 
and only keep on sale a few appropriate books, 
Tig. 4. — liHODANTHE MACULATA. (see preceding page.) 
it being our aim to keep clear of all pecuniary 
interest in any article, that we may always 
speak and write with the utmost independence. 
Variety in Food Necessary. 
We have from a subscriber, a very long commu¬ 
nication, which he insists upon having published in 
the Agriculturist. He argues with more words than 
wisdom, that a plain, simple vegetable diet confined 
to one or two varieties of food, is the best, and the 
only natural one; and among other things, he says 
in illustration, that disease is far less prevalent in 
those parts of Ireland where potatoes are the chief 
food, and in India, where rice is the staple diet. 
First, let us say, that we can not accede to his de¬ 
mand, that his peculiar and personal views shall 
occupy half a dozen columns; the editors alone are 
responsible for the matter used, and their judgment 
must direct what articles will best meet the wants 
of the readers taken as a whole. The threat in this 
and other cases, that a subscription or two will be 
stopped, if their individual wants can not be attend¬ 
ed to, is a small matter, and not involving the loss 
of four-pence ha’penny of profits any way. 
On the subject of variety of food, a few thoughts 
may be useful. The human body is made up of 
different elements; its parts are continually wearing 
out, and food is required to replace the worn out 
portions. For example, we have the muscles or 
lean flesh, and upon the size and vigor of these 
muscles depends our ability to exert force. It is 
the contraction of the muscles which draws up the 
arm in lifting, or moves the legs in walking. The 
muscles are largely composed of what are called 
nitrogenous elements. There is a close resem¬ 
blance in the composition of the muscles, and that 
of cheese, the whites of eggs, or the gluten of 
wheat, etc. The lean flesh of animals, like beef 
steak for example, is of the same composition. It 
is certain therefore, that these and similar sub¬ 
stances furnish the best nutriment or food material 
for supplying a man with muscles—making him 
strong. Without such food, he would soon become 
weaker than the rice eating natives of India, for 
they get some muscle making nutriment in the rice. 
The human body is kept warm by a process very 
similar to heating a stove. In the stove we place 
wood, or other fuel containing a good deal of car¬ 
bon (coal), and the condensation of the oxygen of 
the air in uniting with it, gives out heat that was 
before latent. We eat food, containing- carbon; 
after being dissolved in the stomach a part of it 
goes into the blood; the blood goes to the lungs 
and there receives oxygen from the air which acts 
upon the food or carbon in the blood and produces 
the heat that keeps our bodies warm. If we did not 
eat carbonaceous food, the body would soon be¬ 
come cold and dead. But as a safeguard against a 
cessation of the internal fire, through lack of fuel, 
as when food chances to be lacking for a time, or 
when sickness prevents the digestion of food, some 
extra fuel is always kept on hand in the form of 
fat which is stored up in cells, in larger or smaller 
masses throughout the body. When long deprived 
of food, this fat is all consumed, literally burned 
away to keep the body warm. Fat meats, butter, 
oils, starchy substances, like potatoes, tine flour, 
etc., are mainly composed of carbon or coal, and 
these constitute the best materials for supplying 
this kind of food, that is for keeping the body warm. 
The bones, or frame work, of the body are composed 
largely of mineral substances, mainly phosphate of 
lime, and as the bones are constantly diminished 
by absorption, bone-making food must be con¬ 
sumed, or the structure will tumble down for want 
of a frame. The phosphate of lime abounds in 
wheat, in milk, and is found more or less abun¬ 
dant in nearly ail of the substances used as food. 
It is estimated that, on the average, the human 
system requires about seven times as much carbon¬ 
aceous food to keep up its heat as of nitrogenous 
food to restore the wear of the muscles and tissues. 
The best food is that admixture which supplies the 
different elements in about the proportion requir¬ 
ed by the body. In colder weather, or when lit¬ 
tle physical exertion is made, the proportion of 
carbonaceous food required is relatively greater. 
The combination required can be supplied whol¬ 
ly from vegetable substances. Wheat contains the 
different elements required by the muscles (in its 
gluten,) by the heating apparatus (in its starch and 
oil), and by the bones (in its phosphates). Rice and 
potatoes are mainly carbonaceous, heat producing, 
and require cabbage, milk, or other nitrogenous 
material for the muscles. The rice eaters of India 
are deficient in strength and activity. Children fed 
on rice, sago, tapioca, etc., require milk or meat. 
Eggs are mainly nitrogenous, and go well with fried 
pork (ham and eggs for example), which supplies 
the carbonaceous or heat producing elements. 
Beans and peas in like manner are appropriately 
eaten with fat pork, if not in such quantities as to 
overtax the digestion. Milk from fresh or nearly 
fresh cows, contains the different elements in about 
the required proportions ; its casein (cheese) sup¬ 
plies nitrogen ; its oil or butter supplies carbon ; 
and its phosphates supply the bone elements. 
A mixed diet, one containing all the elements 
needed for the different purposes required in the 
system, is the most natural, and most healthful. 
The best food is that containing the different ele¬ 
ments in the needed proportions. The intelligent 
provider for the household, or rather for the table, 
will study the requirements of those who are to eat 
there, and adapt the food to their necessities by a 
proper variety, if she have a choice of materials. 
As to whether it is desirable to confine ourselves 
wholly to a vegetable diet, there is this to be said: 
Vegetables are, as a rule, coarse compounds, re¬ 
quiring a considerable tax upon the digestive or¬ 
gans to reduce them to nutritious chyle in the 
stomach. A man living upon rice or potatoes with 
plenty of cabbage would get the needed elements, 
but he must digest a large bulk of them. Another 
may get an equal amount of real nourishment by 
eating a small quantity of beef, eggs, or cheese, and 
a little oil, butter, or fat meat. The vegetable diet 
may do well for those having little to do but eat, 
digest, and sleep; active, energetic people, require 
concentrated animal food which supplies a great 
amount of nourishmant at a little tax upon the di¬ 
gestive organs. Herbivorous animals have larger 
stomachs, and longer intestines, which extract a 
greater amount of nutriment from the coarser veg¬ 
etable substances in passing through the body than 
can be done by the human organism. 
A subscriber, Dennis J. Bardwell, Winnebago Co., 
Wis., sends to the Agriculturist , the sketch of achurn 
dash, shown above, which he pronounces a cure for 
cream that will not give up its butter. It is simply 
two plates of wood, cut to the form shown, and 
fastened upon the upright handle, one at the bot¬ 
tom, the other three inches above it. The pro¬ 
jections of one are opposite the indentations of the 
other. The dash is worked up and down in the 
old-fashioned way. This form is well calculated to 
cause a great commotion in the cream, which is 
continually forced against the edges of the project¬ 
ing parts, and thus the butter globules are quickly 
broken. Mr. B. says from 6 to 10 minutes will now 
usually suffice to churn, where 20 to 60 minutes 
were formerly required with the dash in common 
use. The apparatus looks effective, and is easily tried. 
The Employments of Women. 
This subject is becoming increasingly important, 
as the continuance of the war on so vast a scale is 
tending to the further inequality of the sexes. 
Tens of thousands of females will be deprived of 
the aid of those to whom in ordinary times they 
would look for support, and they will necessarily 
be thrown upon their own resources. There are 
many kinds of labor and business now performed 
by men which might be equally well if not better 
done by women. In the American Agriculturist for 
March, we referred to a new Work by Miss Virgin¬ 
ia Penny, in which is given the results of extensive 
recent research and inquiry upon the subject of 
female employment. The information is not quite 
so definite as would be desirable, yet there are 
thousands of items regarding the different kinds of 
labor, the prices paid, the success of females in 
some kinds of labor, etc., which are interesting, 
and we think the circulation of the work will tend 
to awaken further inquiry. It will doubtless indi¬ 
cate to many females some new employment to 
which they may turn their attention. (Those de¬ 
siring the book may obtain it through our book list, 
when not otherwise more conveniently accessible. 
See the advertised list on a subsequent page.) 
From this book we learn that, according to the 
last census report (1860), there were only 285,000 
females employed in the various branches of man¬ 
ufacture throughout the United States. This is a 
much smaller number than we should have expect¬ 
ed to find. Miss Penny enumerates and gives some 
details concerning over 500 different employments 
