F42 .sx VG HEALTH FROM OUR HEDGEROWS .sx BY DUGALD SEMPLE .sx THE growing interest in camping and other open-air methods of holidaying is one of the most welcome signs of the times .sx It has revealed to many the hidden beauties of the green countryside , and often stimulated a desire to know more about the great wild life of nature .sx This new movement towards health and freedom will be welcomed by food reformers , because it is already tending towards not only a simpler but a more natural form of diet .sx Fruits and salads were never more in demand than at present , and what indeed could be more ideal for picnicking or holidaying where cooking must be reduced to a minimum .sx Occasionally whilst camping in remote country districts , I have experienced great difficult in obtaining green salad foods such lettuce , cabbage , or even kail .sx Being a naturalist I have found an excellent solution of the problem is to make better use of some of our common wayside plants .sx These as a rule are not so palatable I admit , but still that they serve as cleansing and building elements of the body can scarcely be denied .sx Everybody knows the common dandelion of the roadside , but how few realize that this wayfarer may be used as an agreeable salad .sx Its leaves when young and tender need no preparation for the table , but older leaves are better blanched or soaked in water to reduce their bitterness .sx This herb is rich in alkaline elements , especially sodium , lime and potash .sx The roots of dandelions are largely employed to make a substitute for coffee , and when well prepared form not only a pleasant food drink but a much more wholesome one than ordinary coffee .sx The roots should be dug up in the autumn , well washed and dried , and then carefully roasted in the oven .sx They can be pounded then with an ordinary flat iron , and the powder stored in tines for future use .sx Other wayside plants which can be used as salads are the wood sorrell , lamb's lettuce , scurvy grass , watercress and chickweed .sx The latter is a good substitute for spinach , and much better than nettle tops .sx Garlic is esteemed for its medicinal qualities , and it is much better to use the fresh green leaves or bulbs than to risk the contents of any secret or patent remedy .sx Like onions , leeks and chives , garlic is rich in lime and iron , hence it is excellent for those suffering from anaemia .sx An umbelliferous plant which deserves particular notice is the common earthnut or pignut , which most youths have dug up with a penknife and eaten raw .sx Pigs are certainly very fond of the little tubers which are produced at the roots of the plants , and will grub them up in the woods or pastures .sx The plant is distinguished by its slender stem about a foot high , at the apex of which is an umbel of white flowers .sx The solitary root tuber resembles a potato in shape , and it is quite possible that before the potato was introduced into this country it was used as food by mankind as well as by pigs .sx It has even been suggested that people called Arnot got their names from being eaters of arnuts or earthnuts .sx Another name for it is the earth chestnut , which it resembles both in size and taste .sx Roasted they are quite delicious , and in some countries they are preferred even to chestnuts .sx In Sweden they form an article of trade , which shows the possibilities of their cultivation in this country .sx Personally , I am hoping to improve the tubers both in size and flavour by cultivation in my own garden , and would welcome news of other experiments .sx The following analysis of the earthnut has been made for me by a chemist friend .sx Water Protein Fat Carbohydrates Ash .sx 79.2 1.09 0.4 18.36 0.95 .sx Of truly edible nuts , the hazel is our only native which in a wild state produces fruit .sx The walnut and almost are both of Eastern origin , and are rarely cultivated with success except in the South of England .sx Along the shores of Kintyre I saw recently a fine crop of hazelnuts , and there and in other places they ripen remarkably well .sx The hazel is mostly grown as a hedge or shrub , and in its wild state rarely assumes the dimensions of a tree .sx At one time it must have covered large areas in Britain , judging by the huge quantities of hazelnuts discovered in the 25ft .sx raised-beach period , at Paisley Abbey , and in various parts of the Clyde area .sx Primitive man , indeed , appears to have lived solely on nuts , wild fruits and roots long before he learned how to grow grains or use fire for cooking purposes .sx The reason probably why he took to cultivating cereals was because , being annuals , they gave quicker returns .sx Professor Smith , an American , sees great possibilities in applying the methods of modern science to agriculture , and has the greatest hopes for hickorynut and acorn cultivation .sx " Analysis , " he says , " shows that the efforts of unaided nature have produced richer foods in the nuts of trees than in the kernels of " .sx By scientific plant-breeding , therefore , who knows what we may yet accomplish in producing home-grown hazels which will compare at least favourably with Kentish cobs , filberts , or Spanish Barcelonas , all of which are simply varieties of our common hazel .sx The agriculture return of tree crops is simply enormous , especially when we remember that a single acre in applies has been known t yield 44,000 pounds of marketable fruit in one year .sx The little wood mice and pigeons know well the virtues of acorns as food , and may be seen filling themselves to repletion with this nutritious fare .sx Cattle and pigs are fattened with it in some countries , and from the fact that the name acorn means oak corn we are justified in believing that it was used as a substitute for cereals by our early ancestors .sx The Indians of the Pacific Coast have a method af removing the excess tannin in acorns , and their hard dry acorn bread is reckoned a real strength producing food .sx The analysis of the acorn shows that it is richer in fat than are cereals , hence it might be used to advantage in combination with wheat flour .sx The fact is there is no end to the possibilities of our nut and fruit-bearing trees , if they were given a much larger area for their cultivation and less space and time devoted to the less productive grains and grasses .sx HEALTHY MEALS FOR SEPTERMBER .sx IMPORTANT POINTS .sx The weekly menus are illustrations of the variety so easily possible in Attractive Food Reform .sx They do not constitute a rigid system of dieting ; neither should anyone suppose that every meal need be different from every other throughout the year .sx These menus are indented to show how seasonable foods should be utilized , how the two main meals every day can be balanced , and how to put sensible but through Food Reform attractively into practice all through the year .sx The meals given in these weekly lists differ from the conventional diet of to-day , not only in the omission of flesh-foods and their products , but also ( and this differentiates them from many vegetarian meals ) in ( a ) the better combining of foods to avoid acid fermentation , especially keeping the more acid kinds of fruit out of meals containing starch-foods , ( b ) the total avoidance of impoverished foods such as cornflour , white flour , tapioca and refined sugar , and of common salt , pepper , vinegar , baking power , etc. , ( c ) the small total of starchy food generally , even of the whole cereal foods , ( d ) the prominence given to vegetable salads and the conservative cooking of vegetables , and ( e ) the frequency of all-fruit breakfasts , specially during the warmer months .sx Except for a few specially choice items in the Sunday meals , no drinks are included in these meals , because it is much better to drink apart from meals .sx A fourth meal of tea , bread and butter , jam , cake , etc. , is one of the commonest mistakes .sx It comes in between the second and third meals , starts digesting going before the second meal has been dealt with , spoils the natural hunger that should precede the third meal , and is itself a starchy , sugary and acid-producing combination .sx The order in which the three daily meals are taken is not of importance , but to take the three kinds of meals each day is important - except in cases where all acid fruit has to be temporarily withheld in the treatment of some forms of ill-health .sx Readers who for reasons of temperament , circumstances or economy prefer to do less cooking can easily substitute salad meals for cooked meals ; but we do not recommend that anyone should substitute cooked meals for the salad meals .sx The daily vegetable salad , however simple , is one of the most valuable items in Food Reform .sx These meals are not necessarily the best for everyone - in many forms of ill-health and disease skilful individual dieting is essential to cure - but they do indicate the best way to go about Food Reform , and they do show how one can have attractive , varied and well balanced meals , while avoiding the shoddy and impoverished food-products , the irritating condiments and the over-stimulating and unnecessary slaughter-house products which characterize the ill-considered , devitalized and often monotonous diet of the present day .sx All cooked vegetables in these meals should be conservatively cooked .sx A special section of recipes in Attractive Food Reform deals with this essential point .sx EDGAR J. SAXON .sx FOREIGN NOTES .sx By D. HAMILTON .sx Schopenhauer and Animal Rights .sx It is not generally know that Schopenhauer was a strenuous upholder of the rights of animals at a time when such an idea was treated with scorn and derision .sx For the benefit of those who may not be aware of this fact we append one or two extracts from Schopenhauer's " Prize Essay on the Foundation of Morality , " published in the June issue of the Vegetarische Warte .sx He opens thus :sx - " The moral system which commends itself to me as genuine is that which takes the animals , who have been so badly neglected in the other European systems of morality , under its protection .sx The erroneous view that animals have no rights , or in the language of that system , that we owe no duties towards them , is a crudity and barbarity of the West , originally Judaic , that stirs one with indignation .sx In philosophy it rests on the generally assumed difference , although contrary to all evidence , between man and the animals , which , as is well-known , was given expression to in the most decisive and boldest form by Descartes .sx " To such sophistications of the philosophers correspond the peculiarity of many languages , especially German , which have quite peculiar words for eating , drinking , pregnancy , birth , death , and dead body , of the animals , which must not be used to distinguish the same thing in man , and thus under the diversity of words is concealed the complete identity of the things .sx " " One must indeed be blind or very stupid not to perceive that the essential and principal part in man and in the animals is the same .sx The distinction lies not in the primary , principal , or inner essence which is the individual will in the one as in the other ; but in the secondary qualities , in intellect , in degree of knowledge , which in man through the added ability of abstract knowledge called reason , is incomparably higher .sx So the western , Judaized animal hater and reason-idolater must be taught to remember that as he was suckled by his mother so also the dog was suckled by his .sx " Finally he gives credit to England for being the first to take animals under protection against cruel treatment , even when one's own property .sx Vegetarians and Prayer .sx In somewhat similar strain to the foregoing in its spirited defence of the rights of animals in an article by Dynkens , entitled " Can a vegetarian still pray .sx " After remarking that prayer , a peculiarly human phenomenon , implies belief in a Personal God ( if the great World-Spirit can be defined in terms of personality ) he affirms , what few will deny , that the great majority of private prayers are petitions and largely for mere personal trifles .sx The Christianity of the Churches and the spiritual life of Christ turn upon man and his earthly and heavenly welfare .sx 5 .sx