
STUDIES OF DIETARIES. 197 
the worst sufferers from this evil are well-to-do people of seden- 
tary occupations—brain-workers as distinguished from hand- 
workers. 
Finally, we are guilty of serious errors in our cooking. We 
waste a great deal of fuel in the preparation of our food, and 
even then a great deal of the food is very badly cooked. A 
reform in the methods of cooking is one of the economic demands 
of our time. 
To the farmer the subject is of vital interest. The agricultural 
production of the United States is out of balance. Our food 
supply for man and beast contains an excess of the materials 
which serve the body for fuel, and are relatively deficient in the 
nitrogenous compounds which make blood, muscle, and bone. In 
other words, the farmer produces relatively too much starch, 
sugar, and other carbohydrates; too much fat and too little pro- 
tein. The crops he grows are, taken together, deficient in protein, 
and the meat he makes is excessively fat. The one-sidedness 
of our food consumption is the natural result of the one-sided- 
ness of our food production. 
The remedy for the evil is in growing crops with more pro- 
tein. The needed increase of protein may be obtained by use of 
nitrogenous manures, by breeding and importing varieties of grains 
and grasses richer in nitrogen than those we now cultivate, and 
by growinganore legumes, such as clovers, alfafa, vetch, seradella, 
Cow peas, peas, and beans. 
The legumes do not require nitrogen in manure, but do well 
with the less expensive mineral fertilizers. They obtain nitrogen 
directly from the air and convert it into protein. The farmer 
needs this protein for fodder; by mixing the leguminous pro- 
ducts with poor hay, straw, and cornstalks, which lack protein, 
the latter can be most profitably utilized. The food thus pro- 
duced for stock is what is needed to make more meat and at the 
same time meat which will be tender and juicy without excess of 
fat, and to make more milk at less cost. The nitrogen not trans- 
formed into meat or milk makes rich manure for grasses, grains, 
and other crops. And finally, the richer manure helps to bring 
larger crops and crops richer in protein. 
The error which causes the one-sidedness of our agricultural — 
production brings cumulative ill; the means for amending it will 
bring cumulative good. 
