The enterprise-recorder., December 17, 1908, Image 4

About The enterprise-recorder. (Madison, Fla.) 1908-1933

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FEEDING UNCLE
I HOT MEALS
Fly IJrlir.-Ceii'I Henry O. Shnrpe, Commlnaary (Jenernl, f.
Tho Commissary Department of the
Army of the United States lma been
brought to perfection and the Ameri
can soldier to-dtiy i3 bettor fed thnn
the man who bears arms under any
other flag on earth.
Veterans of tho Civil War will re
call the doggerel In which the fare
of the boys who wova tho blue was
designated. It was:
Beans for breakfast;
Beans for dinner;
Beans for supper;
Beans, beans beans!
Tho men who followed tho stars
and bars wero not so fortunate as to
have a regular diet c! even beans.
They frequentlv subsisted for weeks
at a time on a few pounds of parched
corn, and they fought well under that
diet, too. But for years now tho best
thought of the commissaries of the
army has been devoted to the Im
provement of the food Conditions,
and Brigadier-General Henry O.
Sharpe, Commissary-General of the
Army, has prepared the following
article for the Illustrated Sunday
Mazazlne on tho food of tho Army, in
which he gives Eor.ie Intcre.-ting data
concerning the method of feeding
Uncle Sam's defender?.
While in garrison t'le erllrted man
In the Unite! States Army is entitled
to draw pech iay twenty ounces of
frfsh beef or mutter, or twelve
ounces of bacon. Should It be found
Impracticable- to obtain fresh meat he
has In lieu thereof sixteen ounces of
canned meat, or canned fish, four
teen ounces of dried fish nr sixteen
ounces of piekb'd fish. !'e may, on
occasion, draw from the commissary
a can of beef and V2-"tnb!'stow eon
talnlng twenty-rlnht and one-half
ounces. He Is entitled each day to
eighteen ounces of Tour or Its eqr.'.va
lent in bread, or in lieu thereof twen
ty ounces of corn meal.
Of vegetable components ho has
Ills choice of beans, peas, rice and
hominy nnd a pound of potatoes, on
ions or canned tomato?3. In addition
thereto he Is supplied each day with
about an ounce nnd a half of prunes
evaporated apples or peaches. An
ounce and a third of roasted cofi'ec or
a third of an ounce of tea Is given to
each man as well as a little more than
three ounces of sugar, and a sufficient
quantity of vinegar, pepper and salt.
This Is the ordinary garrison ration-
vVhen lornted at army posts
convenient to city markets the mess
niav exchange any portion of its ra
tions for fresh vegetables, fruits or
other delicacies which strike the
fancy.
The field ration differs In its essen
tial particulars only slightly from
that issued in carrison. Jam takes
the rlace of dried fruits nnd with
each portion of flour is supplied bak
ing powder or yeast.
It has been the aim of the Depart
ment for some time past to Improve
the method of feeding the troops in
the field. With this end in view a
school of cookery has been estab
lished at Fort Riley, Kansas, with
branches at the Presidio of California
and at the Washington Barrncks, Dis
trict of Columbia. The men at these
schools are Instructed in the art of
baking bread of various kinds and in
general plain cookery, the Idea being
to establish a corp of army cooks who
can take the ordinary rations Issued
to each squad and prepare them in
such manner as to tempt the appetite
of the enlisted men. The result of
this training is that the army cooks
to-day aro able to prepare meals out
of the supplies furnished to each
mess which would do credit to an
ordinary hotel. The receipts used in
these cooking schools embrace a
lozen different soups, five or six
methods of preparing fish and oys
ters, ten or twelve sauces and gra
vies, besides fifty or more ways of
serving the various mats nnd vege
tablei which are furnished as regit'
lar rations, to pay nothing of -the
itnmeroiis methods of making differ-
. nt ltlnds of breads, cakes, mufiins,
puddines and pies. In short the men
of the army to-day, when In jarrison,
are better served than tho men in
civil life in like conditions,
v- The army cooking schools will re-
tun in me umninie cstatmsnmetit o:
a corps of cooks and bakers capable
'f preparing appctirir.g meals nt all
times for the troops of the I'nited
States and will assure to them better
and more varied food than the sol
diers of any other country can hope
to havo. Still, we are, up to the
present time, behind the European
armies in the matter of movable
ovens. At the outbreak of the Span
ish War such contrivances were prac
tically unknown to the Army. Our
soldiers were compelled to depend
largely upon hard tack for their
bread, although the German nnd
French armies had adopted the mov
able oven long before that time. And
even now we have few of these very
necessary adjuncts to the Commissary
Department, although it is likely thpt
SAM'S BIG ARMY
AT ALL HOURS.
under new regulations, recently
adopted, these will soon be supplied.
One of tho longest steps forward In
tho way of providing for men of the
army on the march is now being per
fected by this department. That is
the construction of what is generally
known as "the fircless cooker,"
modification of the Norwegian hay
oven. For two or three years past
we have been experimenting with
various devices submitted by manu
facturers with a view to the adoption
of tho best possible method for sup
plying hot meals to the troops in tho
field in the quickest posslblo time.
The flreless cooker, or hay-oven. Is
no new thing. It has been used in
Europe for a great many years. The
main idea Is to partially cook a meal
and then to place the food in a re
ceptacle which will retain tho heat,
with as little loss as possible, and to
permit tho retained heat to finish the
cooking operation. Everybody knows
that water bolls at two hundred and
twelve degrees Fahrenheit, but very
few people reallr.o that water never
gets any hotter than that and few
seem to know that It 13 unn?c?3sa
to b
ring focd up to even the derree i jniy expanded as the flock expands ! ages were spoken or sent by represen
mperature required to boll water the business can, with scarcely any! tntives from all of the twenty-one re
of temperature
provided the heat can bo retalnsd, to
insure perfect cooking-.
R.periments have shown that par
tially cooked food can be thoroughly
cooked 1' kept at a temperature any
where above 170 for n certain priod
of time and that Is what Is being
done with the flreless coo'ier. which
wo hope to b? ablo to perfect so n3
to make it available for the. army.
There are in the market to-day a
great many such appliances, ranging
from wooden boxes, packed with as
bestos or mineral wool, up to ela'o
orats metallic contrivances, several I
Inches thick in tho rim parked with I
some sort of ror.-conductor of beat,
such as wood fibre or asbestos. What
the army wants is a contrivance of
this character In which partially
cooked foods may be plar
and to this end our experiments are I
being made wbh a fair degree of sue-1
cess thus far. Not long ago a squad
of men started on a march from Fort
Riley, Kansas, followed by a wagon
containing a partially cooked meal,
sufficient for the entiro squad. After
a march or six hours the flreless
cooker in which this meal was con
tained was opened and It was found
that the meat, vegetables and mae
arnnl, contained therein, wa3 per
fectly prepared and ready for dinner.
The theory Is n simple one. It is
that heat retained by a non-conductor
and prevented from escaping will
complete the operation of cooking
food. The hay-box of Norway has
been used for a generation or more
and we want to adopt the idsa into
the army of the United States; when
this is done a squad of troops started
out on a day's march can be followed
h- supply wagons with flreless cook
ers, that have been packed when
camp is broken in the morning, and
which will have a nutritious hot meal
ready to servo to them immediately
when ramp is made again at night.
Heretofore it has been found noces.
sary In order to give our soldiers hot
food on a march to carry a supply of
fuel from camp to camp. And even
then a great deal of time is consumed
in building the fires nnd in cooking
the meals. It will ba readily under
stood that any method which prom
ises the elimination of the necessity
of hauling largo quantities of fuel
and at the same tlws eliminate the
loss of time will be of enormous ad
vantage and that the result will be
highly appreciated by tho men to be
fed.
Manufacturers have in many in
stances preuared devices which are
entirely satisfactory in a small way
and which appear to be excellent for
don.frstlc purpos?s, but ut to the
present time none cf them has de
signed a "fireieEs cooker" satisfactory
for the neecis of such a number of
men as the Subsistence Department
must provide for. We are looking
for lightness in weight, combined
with absolute ciabliity In conr-truc-tion.
We want a cooker which will
stand long travel over all sorts of
roads nnd assure the pcrfec;io:i of
the contenti at tho end of ths jour
ney. Each rec?ptr.rlo ontsinlns
foods must be absolutely air tight,
easily cleaned and readily adjusted.
We have cscured, through our own
officers, several devices which Eeem
to fill the bill, and I am cenfident that
before long It will be possible to start
out a regiment of Eoldlers from camp
in the morning with a wagon contain
ing flreless cookers supplied with a
full ration of partially cooked food
which will be fit to serve in the form
of a palatable well-cooked rieal by
tho time camp 1b reached at the end
of the day. Now Orleans Picayune.
A champagne bottle's toilet em
ploy the bands of forty-five worl
meu.
I Farm Topics
i nsa
COAX THE COW'S APPETITE.
When you get a good cow coat her
to eat all she will. Milk comes from
feed and from milk profit. The more
feed the more milk and the moro
profit. Farmer's Home Journal.
VALUE OF CHARCOAL.
The value of charcoal Is very often
overlooked, and It should be fed to
fowls of all ages as a preventive of
disease. It Bhould be kept before
fowls at all times, as there is no dan
ger of them eating loo much, and it
has a great purifying effect In ab-
sorbina noxious gases and will cor-1
rect many digestive disorders.
Farmer's Homo Journal.
CONVENIENT QUARTERS.
With properly constructed and con
veniently located quarters, the pres
ence of a large flock of poultry on the
average farm need not add materially
to the chorea and these are pleasant
chores, most gladly looked after by
the women and children of tho fam
ily, If. as they should be, the proms
are left with them and the borne. But
one of the strongest things that com-! in the Western world and that mate
mends this business to the man or I rial prosperity promoted by lntcrna
woman of small means is that it takes ! tlonal trade shall tako its place. Dis
so little to b3gin with and If the ! tlngulshed men were present at tho
foart mro nnd mom are correspond- ; laying of the cornerstone and mess-
Investment at nil, be soon developed
into a good one. Coluiau's Rural
World.
SPRAYING POTATOES.
The Vermont Agricultural Experi
ment Station conducted a series of
Instructive potato spraying tests.
Poiatocs grown on sandy land sprayed
with Bordeaux mixture gave an in-
crea.-e over similarly grown un-
sprayed plants of twenty-elgr.t per
cent. In total yield and thirty-one per
cent, in marketable tubers, while po
tatoes grown on clay land gained seventy-four
per cent. In total yield and
sixty-eight per cent, in marketable
tubers as a result of spraying over
similarly grown unsprayed plants.
, , , I The Bordeaux did not appear to In
ci t men .
" th,e 'hef hnD"' " ,seemod , ert
" tonlc f,1 ,on the plan s, aside from
ita iiuibiciuai mm lusecutiuui vuiue,
Indiana Farmer.
HOW TO PET A HORSE. I
"Not many people know how to j
pet a horse, from the horse's stand- I
point, at any rate," said a trainer.
"Every nice looking horse comes in I
for a good deal of pettinj. Hitch a !
fine horse close to the curb nnd you'll I
find that half the men, women nnd I
children who go by will stop for a !
minute, say 'Nice horsey,' and givo I
him an affectionate pat or two. j
"The trouble Is they don't pet him I
in the right place. If you want to j
make a horsa think ho is going
straight to heaven hitched to a New
York cab or delivery wagon, rub his
eyelids. Next to that form of en
dearment a horse likes to be rubbed
light up between the ears. In pet
ting horses most people slight those
nerve centres. They stroke the
horse's nose. While a well behaved
horse will accept the nasal caress
complacently, ho would much prefer
that nice, soothing touch applied to
the eyelids. Once in a while a per
son conies along who really does
know how to pet a horse. Nine times
out of ten that man was brought up
In the country among horses and
learned when a boy their peculiar
ways." Farmer's Home Journal.
SWEET CORN.
Early Cory, Squantum and Country
Gentlemen are among the best vari
eties, writes H. D. Hemenway, in a
bulletin of the Massachusetts State
Board of Agriculture, and will mature
according to the order in which they
are named. It is well to plant a few
rows of the Early ar.d then make
several plantings of the Country Gen
tlemen so as to have sweet corn from
July until frost comes. To get the
most from the land, plant in rows,
three feet apart, putting three ker
nels every six Inches, and pulling out
ail but one as soon as the corn 13
well up. The suckers around tho
roots should be kept removed. Corn
should be planted on the ncrth end
of the garden, or in such a way as to
prevent shading lower plants. It
grows from five to eight feet high.
Squar.ium or Country Gentlemen corn
planted on or before June 1 will be
in condition to eat when school opers
autumn u it has had care during
tho
summer. corn w ill reach tlie
eating Btage in from ten to twentv
weeks after planting. Seeds should
bo covered one inch and the land
should be rich in potash. It is well
to hoe a pint of wood ashes or a half
pint cf sulphate of potash Into every
ten feet of row before planting, it is
not generally wise to plant field and
pop corn in the same garden, as it
will mix, the pollen being carried by
the wind. Corn should not be planted
in school gardens smaller thao twenty
feet long.
bmuhhT
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The Forest Ranger Works Hard,
A TEMPLE OF REPUBLICS
On May ll President Roosevelt, in
the city of Washington, laid tho cor
ncrstont of tho first International
Temple of Peace, Friendship and
Commerce, the tangible evidence of
the desire of the twenty-ono American
republics that war snail do no mom
publics or America, ine new piuiu
Ing Is to bo the Joint property of all
the republics. The site provided by
the American Congress is within a
few hundred yards of tho White
House and is adjacent to the State,
War and Navy buildings and the Cor
coran Art Gallery. .Mr. Andrew Car
negie contributed three-fourths of a
million dollars to the erection of the
i linilillne- nnd each of the remiblic3
. nflflprl nn n,,rnrntlon to the
fund. The building Is to be the homo
of the International Bureau, main
tained by the American republics,
nnd Is to bo made the centre of a
continuous campaign of education,
whore one country may obtain accur
ate and up-to-data information of
any other. A library on all subjects
THE NEW
BUREAU OF
PEAR
American Is to bo secured, and by
every possible means the American
governments aro to be brought to
gether with intimate acquaintance
ship. The imposing building will
stand on a five-acre reservation. It
will be 169 feet Bquare, the main por
tion Btanding two stories above a
huge studded basement and being in
turn surmounted by dignified balus
trades. The rear portion, in order to
cover a capacious assembly hall, will
rise still higher. The general archi
tecture will suggest Latin-American
treatment, out of respect to the fact
that twenty out of the twenty-one re
publics are of Latin origin. A largo
reading room will be a feature, where
can he seen all the South as well as
North American publications, besides
Important historical data. A beauti
ful assembly chamber that, for pres
ent purposes, may be called the "Hall
of the American Ambassadors,
will
provide the only room of Hi kind in
DH. ROBERT KOCH.
patriotic service:
Endures Privations and Receives Small
Pay.
tho United States tspuciuiiy ucoaaj
for International conventions, recep.
tions to distinguished foreigners and
for diplomatic and social events of t
kindred nature. The bureau Is strict
ly nn international nnd independent
organization maintained by the Joint
contributions, based on population, o(
the twenty-ono American govern
ments. We have not been without
our difficult problems cf solution In
tho United States, but the repnblici
of South America have had a very
troublesome and disastrous time In
their national and International
struggles and revolutions. The me
cccs of the United States Government
has been a splendid example and in
spiration to the sister republics of the
South, nnd the foundation of thlj
Fan-American Palace of Peace,
Friendship and Commerco i3 aa im
portant epoch.
Poverty of the i?lch, .
Tho butler to the mlllionajy occa
pant of a Newport villa has 6ued one
of Ills host's guests to recover $300
money loaned. Aftar the notices br
Newport grocers that they will no
longer give millionaires unlimited
credit this butler's suit is another to
ken of the comparative poverty of
some of the newly rich. In maaj
households the butler, tho chef, the
footmen and the maids have more
AMERICAN REPUBLICS AS IT WILL AP
WHEN COMPLETED.
real money at the end of the nionti
than tho occupants of tha villa. They
get their board and lodging besldei
wages. The master has an uneertalJ
income, without regular salary or
food and shelter provided by some
one else. Now York World.
One Grout IJore.
Gontran has a neat way oi opeuin?
oysters without a knife he has onl'
I to begin telling them a story and the
Immediately yawn. Le R,lre.
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