Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 216, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 September 1917 — Page 3

Cleanly Food Is Essential to Family Health

By Dr. Samuel G. Dixon, U. S. Commissioner

4;hey had more than one kind of foodstuff. As relics of a still later, age, we find in the mounds various little implements that were evidently used for handling and serving the food. This begins to approach conditions in the present state of civilization that we now find in the large centers pf population. Thousands of people make their sole livelihood preparing food for the table and taking eare of the dishes and the serving of the food, from the small boarding houses to the enormous hotels. In these places the health of those thus employed has not had any police supervision and yet we have known that communicable diseases have been on the rapid increase and horrible diseases have been passed from one person to another until they have become a great menace to the health, happiness and efficiency of our people. The state of Pennsylvania, fortunately, in 1915 succeeded in passing a law that requires those in charge of restaurants, boarding houses, hotels, etc., to look after the health of their people. The law handles it in this way, that it holds the proprietor of those places responsible for employing people who have these dangerous diseases that can be communicated to their customers through the foodstuff itself, or through the dishes', forks, knives, spoons, etc. Cooks and waiters cannot, under this new law, pursue their occupations without satisfying those they propose to serve that they aTe clean from these diseases the law is trying to prevent being thus spread. The moment this new law was signed by the governor, a large number of waiters left their places in the Pullman coaches on the railroads and from the great railroad restaurants, as well as from the large and active hotels. This became well known and the newspapers and journals endeav-*>red-tn spread 4his-newa-±hat the people might wake up to what had existed and what the new law proposed to protect them from. When the bill asking for this law was introduced in the general assembly some of the great railroad companies that have large restaurants at their termini appreciated that it was a great sanitary measure and before the bill became a law they adopted its good points in the management of their great eating centers throughout the United States. , This law, like all other new laws that mean to bring about a great -change in public policies, has to be sanely enforced,'and the old system of preparing-food and. washing of dishes in hotels and restaurants must not be too suddenly destroyed. The time, fortunately, is here when the public has become educated and the people are demanding that the spirit of this good law be carried out. Some hotels advertise on their letterhead paper that the law is enforced in their establishments. As the great cities grow the ways of living change. There become iewer private homes and more places where people live collectively and depend upon central places for eating. Therefore this law is becoming more and more important in regard to these centers, that they may not spread dangerous disease through a community.

People of United States Should Not Waste Nut Harvest

The time of year is fast approaching when the forests will begin to put on their autumn robes and nowhere in the world are these robes so royally splendid as they are in the United States. But this year, now that the war has made us a feeder of’ nations on a scale Heretofore 'undreamt of, there is another attraction in the autumn woods besides their beauty of foliage which ought to command universal interest and draw everybody who can reach them into their fragrant aisles. It isi ithe call of the nut harvest. If you want to find nuts follow a squirrel. But the best lesson he teaches is that of the food value of nuts. Every nut-bearing tree is a fruit tree. The nut trees of this country, alone, could go far in presenting a food famine. -Personally, I regard the butternut as the best nut that grows, not excepting its great cousin, the walnut. Besides, the butternut is a native American. But, go and see if you can find any butternuts in the markets! Go and ask the farmers about their butternut trees, and hear them tell you that there used to be some “in father’s time,” but nou they’ve been “cut off” or “let die out.” I venture to say that no butternui tree was ever cut down, while still in the bearing age, without loss, no I matter what was put in its place. It is the same with the hickory—another native of America. Ona of the saddest bits of news I have heard in many a day is that the hickories are threatened with extermination by a new insect enemy. But regardless of new.enemies, the hickory has been shamefully neglected. Some of those trees supplied successive generations with nourishment —a dessert worth a thousand concoctions of the kitchen, end that cost the farmer simply the easy and delightful labor of picking up the 'nuts that the frosts released and the coal autumn winds brought down, 'The consequence of our neglect of the nut trees is that theii product has become a rare luxury instead of an unfailing staple on our food lists. As the squirrel teaches the value of nuts, a more unpoetical animal, ithe hog, teaches that of acorns. Nothing, perhaps, will fatten a hog so 'Well and so quickly, or give it market quality of so high a value, as a diet of acorns. But I suppose that relatively few persons are aware that acorns are an excellent and palatable food for man. “Acorns,” says Doctor Hornaday, “are one of the most valuable and abundant crops of our* forests* and no use whatever is being made of it The acorn is going to waste in the United States while it is being eaten in bread in Germany.” What more need be said ? 1 ' ' ■ • ■ i , ft. *

, Wild animals eat their food raw, either while fresh or after it has become tender with age. This latter habit is one of the weasel's. They kill quite lib--erally of their prey when the opportunity offers and then allow it almost’to decay before they feed upon it. Primitive man hunted and devoured his food much like the lower animals. Later in the history of man he learned to make fireand eook his food, and-itis now quite evident from what we find in the Indian mounds that it became the custom, for instance, of the American Indians to have great clam bakes on the Atlantic coast. Sqmetimes in these mounds we find bones of deer, showing that

By Garrett P. Serviss, Scientist

of Health

THE EVENING REPUBLICAN. RENSSELAER. IND.

NAPOLEON'S WAR MAXIMS

Show character and courage. Infuse some energy Into your organization. Love of country Is the first virtue of civilized man. Political factions are compounded of dupes and rogues. - Anything can be remedied with courage and patience. I see a host of talkative officials who never take any measures. For every man with a heart the hour has come to conquer or to die. I will not be caught in the toils of any party. lam for the nation. Days are passing with little done, and yet days are precious at this season. The big man looks at things from a lofty standpoint far above that of parties. A national army alone can secure for the state peace ut home and respect abroad. If too strong a government has' some disadvantages, a weak government has yet greater evils. Compulsory service is the fairest, kindest and most democratic means of raising soldiers. A commander In chief ought never to allow either the victors or the vanquished to rest quietly. The art of war is like everythingelse that I§ noble and simple. The simplest movements are the best.

BROWNIES

The Greek demon is a regular Sparta cuss. Moses was given two tables, and he didn’t have dyspepsia either. Nowadays women sow as well as sew and are doing so all along the line. J —Horses- are so-scarce on-the streets that the buzz wagons are beginning to shy at them. It seems like a waste of life and leather for a man to walk past six or seven churches In order to find the one that fits his soul. After all there are a lot of things that a man without an income doesn’t have to worry about. No prying official Is going so come and take his excess profits away from him. Heard of a man the other dhy who had spent eleven months Inventing a pretzel-bending machine only to find that the pretzel had become undesirable because of its accent. Some guy is writing a brochure on the literature of college yells. None of the yells we ever heard could be suspected of being literature unless a boiler explosion can be called a poem, i —Met frniM -the other- day-who- wanter to start a school of correspondence with a course in kaiser killing. Killing kings by mail is a new one. He must have been thinking of the mailed fist.

NOTES OF PROGRESS

American made Iron bands and hoops for kegs and barrels should find a ready market In the Seville district, Spain. That he can build up diamonds from chips with ordinary illuminating gas and a mercury amalgam Is the claim of a European scientist. To give him absolute quiet a Dutch scientist has had three rooms built, one inside the next, and has created vacuums hetween the walls. Tbe Inventor of a new electric brake for automobiles claims it will stop a car moving at a speed of 50 fnlles an hour within 45 feet without skidding. Steam issuing from cracks Iti the earth is used in an Italian plant to produce from pure water other steam to drive engines which operate generators to produce electricity. With a pneumatic tool for roughing concrete sidewalks that an Illinois inventor has pntented one man can do as much work in an hour as six men can In a day with hand tools.

AROUND THE WORLD

China buys American chocolates. Ecuador has compulsory education. * Mexico Is expelling L W. W. agitators. Nice, France, has a United States street. r - India has 38 life Insurance companies. ; -|V • Japan makes all bicycles used In Korea. Italy is using volcanic heat to warm houses.

SOME REMARKS

Where Is the old-fashioned glr! who pushed her sklrta floor-ward when she sat down? You will never lose anything by keeping an engagement punctually — except your time waiting for the other fellow. The only news We have from the spring training camps is that eight teams will be tied for the first place In each league. Among the things the men regretfully give up In Lent is the pleasure of making those long formal calls with their wives. Anyway, all these bonds the European governments are issuing will give the holders the right to attend a meeting of the creditors. The old automobile is Just as ef--feetlve in giving you the ©pen airland health stimulus, but it doesn’t impress the neighbors so much. On getting a package of garden seeds from Washington, one almost feels as if his congressman had come around and asked his opin|oi\ on all pending measures. In the theater of war, Caroline, they do not use opera glasses but periscopes. The program Includes plenty of scenes and the actors are many. Instead of asbestos, they have a smokecurtain. The young lady across the way says so many people are beginning to cook by electricity that she supposes It won’t be many years before gastronomies go the way of the old-fash-ioned coal ranges.

BOYS ON BABIES

A schoolmaster sends us the following : Average age of boys, ten and onehalf years. Extracts from composition of “Babies.” “Some babies cari be pnt in a Jug.” “Babies should not be taught bad habits.” “Some women have not the patience to have a baby.” “When they are first born they are blind until they are twelve months old.” “Then it begins to eat soft food such as cherries, plums, gooseberries, and soft peas.” “They christen babies not only to give them names, but to teach them the gospel of God.” “If you want your baby to speak proper when it grows up, the mother tqkes It to have Its tongue cut.” “As it grows older it begins to have teeth. By this time the mother will know whether it Is a boy or a girl.” “Babies are very innocent-looking, but most of them are little demons. I have to mind our babies.” —Manches-

IN-SHOOTS

The man who tells the right kind of lies is always an agreeable cuss. * The figures on the other fellow’s speedometer are always plainer than those upon our own, The man who is full of war talk is not necessarily dangerous. But nope will dispute that he is something of a bore.

POINTED PARAGRAPHS

There’s nothing quite up to snuff as a sneeze producer. It’s the heartfelt welcome of the dog that tells the tall. Noah was not a promoter, but he managed to float a lot of stock. ' Some men are bad drinkers, but many others find it absurdly easy. ■ 7 r Some people kick because their daily bread doesn’t come already buttered. If you plant your money while young you may harvest a fortune In after years.

WHAT PEOPLE SAY

To a healthy mind the world is a constant challenge of opportunity.— Lowell. Tls much to_wound a foe; ’tis more to save him* and to win a friend.— Eric Mackay. Looks kill love, and love by looks reviveth; a smile recures the wounding of a frown.—^Shakespeare. To™ make good use of life, one should have in youth the experience of, advanced years, and in old age the vigor of youth.—Stanislus.

PLAN FOR TESTING MILK FOR BUTTERFAT

TEST BOTTLES IN MACHINE READY FOR WHIRLING.

(Prepared by the Urtted States Department of Agriculture.) The milk should be tested for butterfat at least once * month. In taking the sample the entire milking of the cow should be poured three times from one pail to another to Insure an even mixing of the butterfat. Immediately after this, a sample Is taken by means of a small dipper, or preferably a long metal tube called a “milk thief.” The tube Is lowered Into the milk, the forefinger placed tightly over the upper end, and a portion of the milk withdrawn. The milk is allowed to flow Into the sample bottle by releasing the pressure on the upper end of the tube. When the milking Is very small, it will be necessary to Insert the tube several times in order to get a sample large enough for testing. A second sample of the following milking containing the same-number of dips of milk is added to the first and mixed to form a composite sample of the day’s milk. Sample bottles of about one-half pint capacity are used and they should be kept always tightly stoppered to prevent evaporation and should be marked plainly for the purpose of identification. The Babcock Teat. Previous to 1890 creameries and cheese factories paid each patron in proportion to the weight of the milk delivered, regardless of its butterfat content, because no satisfactory method of determining the.fat was avail-

EQUIPMENT NECESSARY FOR THE BABCOCK TEST.

able. The Babcock test, Invented In 1890, by Dr. S. M. Babcock of Wlseon*. sin, Is now the most satisfactory and practical method by which the dairyman can determine the quality of butterfat produced by his cows. The equipment necessary for the Babcock test will depend somewhat on the size of the herd. For a small herd the following is satisfactory: A Babcock tester—four or eight-bot-tle capacity. One dozen whole-milk test bottles, 8 per cent. Two pipettes, graduated at 17.6 cubic centimeters. An acid measure, graduated at 17.5 cubic centimeters. A pair of dividers. One dozen sample bottles, or halfpint glass Jars. One hot-water bath, or a gallon pall. One bottle sulphuric add, spedfic gravity 1-82- - Making the Testa. If the samples are cold, they should be warmed to 60 degrees or 70 degrees Fahrenheit. The milk Is then mired by pouring it several times from one sample bottle to another so as .to get a uniform mixture and to dissolve all the cream particles. The pipette Is put into the milk Immediately and sacked nearly full of milk. The fore finger, which should be dry, Is placed qnlckly on the npper end of the pipette before the milk runs down to the 17.6 cubic centimeter mark. A slight release ,in the pressure of the finger allows the milk to flow from the pipette until the milk stands at the graduation mark. Next, place \ the point of the pipette in the mouth of the test bottle, holding both pipette and bottle at an angle so as to allow the milk to run down the side of the neck, thus * allowing att exit for the air in the bottle. Write the number of the sample with a common black lead pencil on the roughened spot on the side of the test bottle. Adding the Acid. Commercial sulphuric add, specific

gravity 1J32, is added to digest or dissolve the milk curd and thus set free the fat. Since this acid win eat holes quickly In clothing and will bum the skin, the greatest care should be taken not to spill 1L The acid should be about the same temperature as the milk. The acid measure is filled to the graduation mark, 17.5 cubic centimeters, and the acid added carefully to the test bottle containing the mea*< ured sample of milk, with the bottle held at an angle. The add, being heavier than the milk, goes to the bottom at once, forming a clear layer which turns to chocolate color at tile junction of the add and the milk, owing to the charring of the milk sugar. The test bottle then is shaken with a rotary motion, the mouth held away from the body, until the whole mass Is a- uniform dark-brown or chocolate color; ~ s ——cWhirling the Bottles. Place the bottles In the Babcock tester opposite each other, so as to balance the machine properly. Whirl for five minutes at the speed Indicated in the directions furnished with the machine; the number of revolutions per minute depending on the diameter of the machine. Hot, soft water Is then added to the bottles with a pipette, until the fat is brought up to the base of the neck. The test bottles are again whirled for a couple of minutes, after which more hot water is added to bring the fat column up ln-

to the neck between 0 and the 8 per .cent graduation mark on the scale and to wash any Impurities from the butterfat. The bottles are whirled again for a minute and then removed and jilaced in a hoi-water bath at 130 degrees to 140 degrees Fahrenheit, for a period of five minutes. This insures the fat being at the proper temperature for reading. In cold weather it may be necessary to remove the bottles from the machine between runs and place them In hot water to warm the fat. Reading ths Test. The readings are made from the extreme bottom of the lower meniscus of the fat column to the extreme top of the upper meniscus, reading from the point D to the point A at the top of the meniscus, as indicated in the illustration. When care is taken to read to the extreme top of the meniscus the readings agree with those obtained by gravimetric analysis. If 2.5 per cent were the lower reading and 7.9 per cent the top reading, the correct reading of the test would be 5.4 per cent butterfat. better way is to use a pair of dividers, placing at the top and bottom of the fat, and then, placing one point on the zero mark on the scale, read off the percentage indicated on the scale by the upper point. The percentage of butterfat then is written on the record sheet. The butterfat column should be yellowish or amber color. ~ Blackened fat Indicates that too much, too strong, or too warm add ■was used, while light, curdy material indicates that a part of the curd was not dissolved by the acid, owing to too little, too wefil, or too cold milk or , ncld, or to insuffident mixing. Empty the test bottles while still hot, shaking the bottles so that the hot add will rinse out the whitish Pediment or ash at the bottom of the bottles. First rinse out the bottles with warm water, then Wash with hot water and washing powder, and rinse again with hot *wgter.