USES FOR BUTTER

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 768, 14 September 1929, Page 31

USES FOR BUTTER

WORLD’S OLDEST FOOD VALUABLE AS A COSMETIC “Butter-making dates back more than 2,000 years 8.C., says L. C. Thomsen, of the Dairy Department, Wisconsin College of Agriculture. “Solomon mentioned it in Proverbs, chapter xxx., verse 33. Records indicate that it was used as a food long before the Christian era by East Indians and Arabians. “Butter has not always been used for nourishment. Galen in the second century, in describing the making of butter, seems to feel that it is more satisfactorily used externally. “As late as the seventeenth century, butter was sold by apothecaries in Spain for use as an ointment. It is often rumoured that the good looks of many Spanish beauties -was due to the use of butter as a cosmetic, just as Cleopatra is said to have used the oil of palms and olives. “At present, butter is still recognised as an excellent remedy for burns. In England and Scotland it is used for smearing sheep to eliminate skin diseases, destroy vermin, protect from dampness and cold, and improve the quality of the wool. “Statistics seem to indicate that the per capita consumption of butter has increased but little during the last forty of fifty years. Were we thoroughly awake to the great food value of butter and its many applications in preparing a meal, I am convinced that the average consumption would be greatly increased. “We are at present consuming about 17.81 b of butter a person a year, or about three-quarters of an ounce daily. This amounts to just a trifle more than one serving in the average restaurant.

"Ordinarily we could consume at least five times this amount, for though butter is at least 97 per cent, digestible it does not seem to have the fattening properties which characterise other similar foods. I have known many persons who use more than onefourth of a pound of butter daily and are never obliged to diet.“It might he well to consider in this connection that our Canadian neighbours and their Australian and New Zealand cousins eat almost GO per cent, more butter than we do. Since butter serves as one of our best sources of vitamins, it certainly deserves a very important position in our daily diet. “Back in 1869 all butter was made on the farm, and up till 1917 farmmade butter still exceeded that made in creameries. Since then the change has been so rapid that almost 75 per cent, of all butter is now made in factories. Butter, as it is produced in our modern creameries, is one of the most sanitary food products obtainable."

Research workers have shown that the nutritive value of grass lies in the leaf and not in the stem. They have further shown that nitrogen reacts on the leaf and sheath much more than on the stem. The best returns from the use of nitrogen will be obtained from leafy swards, and the most valuable grasses are those which produce the most leaf and continue doing so for the longest period. The best system of management is that which will assist these grasses.