CEREALS v. MEAT.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1444, 31 January 1885, Page 2

CEREALS v. MEAT.

M. Ferdinand de Leaseps, the great Frenchman who made the Suez canal, and who is now cutting a canal across the Isthmus of Panama, has a high opinion of I cereals for food. In a recent interview ha I expressed hia ideas strongly, and the fapt I that he has worked thousands of men gf I almost all nationalities give weight to bis I opinion. I “Do you really think the oereala are I stronger than meat ?” was asked. I “ Certainly,” he replied. “ One pound I of dry wheat or flour is worth as much las three pounds of wet beef. Scald the I pound of flour and see. Ton have a gal* I lon of mush- You could not eat it in I three days. If yon feed ths cereals to I cattle as they do in England, it takes j eight pounds of grain to make a pound lof meat. So, why feed the grain to anl* Im 1 tramps ? Why not eat it ourselves and do away with a surplus population j of 50,000,000 cattle, hogs and sheep— I animal tramps ? England is support* I ing, perhaps, 82,000,000 cattle, sheep and j hogs, and 40,000,000 people ; or, rather, I she supports her cattle and buys bread I from America to feed her people. I France supports 45,000,000 people, and I about 20,000,000 cattle, hogs and sheep. I One acre of cereals in France will sup* I port five men, while it would take two I acres to support one steer, ani In the end I one man would eat the steer. The ad van? > tage of cereals over meat is as five to one. * I So you see the steer is an unsuccessful tramp. The Englishman insists on rout beef, every pound of which costs eight pounds of cereals. The Frenchman eats I the cereals himself. He buys, millions of gallons of cotton-seed oil in America at 3 cents per pound. This he eats in hie salad, in his soup, and in his bread and pie crust. The Frenchman refines mil* lions of gallops of cotton seed oil, sends it back to America and sell; i£ for 2dols or Sdols a gallon. Gotton*oeed oil is superseding peanut oil, and olive oil is almost a thing of the past. For yean the peanut crop of Tennessee and North Carolina has been sent to Marseilles and made into olive oil. Ootton-seed oil has been found by the French to be better and cheaper than peanut oiL To-day all Spain, southern France, Italy, Turkey, aud Austria are living on American cotton-seed oil All an Italian gentleman

or laborer wants is oil, macaroni, bread, sugar, wine or coffee. Cotton seed oil takes the place of meat. It ia strange

;hat your southern slates have been

for years throwing away millions o£ barrels of beautiful cotton-seed oil, and buying unhealthful pork and lard in its place. Corn meal cooked like macaroni, with oil and cheese, is delicious.”—American Miller.