ARMY RATIONS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIX, Issue 82, 6 April 1918, Page 15

ARMY RATIONS.

WHAT BATTLES AUB FOUGHT ON.

The four food essentials of armies are meat, -read, sugar, and tea. These rank In | importance in the order given, especially if It be understood that the fats are included in the general caption of meat. Breadstuffs, of course, comprise all cereals, legumes, etc. The sugar item includes all sugar-containing frulte. Under tea are counted coffee, chocolate, cocoa, and the national beverages of the various fighting , races; but tea Is the most sustaining of all. In that it partially stops th e wasting away of tissue. In fact, with the single exception of milk, no other drink posesses to such a marked degree this peculiar faculty of staying tissue waste. All armies possess emergency rations. None of them Is entirely up to the mark; and the problem Is still to find an emergency ration which .shall be passably satisfactory. For Instance <sayg a writer In the "Scientific -American"), the American article is lacking in proteins and fats; and the chocolate tablets which accompany it are an indifferent substitute. GERMANY'S PEANUT SAUSAGE! There are three different parched malzemeal packets and three chocolates. The former article is 'bat a revival of the parched maize-meal of the American Indians on which they could exist for days when bunting or on the warpath. But even this hardy race finally abandoned It for the better known pemmlcan— dried chopped meat with grains mixed In, to which no straight cereal product can compare as a sustoining food. The German army pea-sausage, or erbs-wurst, has been much over-pTalsed by those whose familiarity with it Is scant. It is about as unsatisfactory a concentrated ration as any extant, and is actually inedible when uncooked, being of a nauseating, bitterish, and raw flavour. It would seem that an emergency-ration should above all things be edible as It is, to provide for the not remote contingency in which cooking facilities are lacking. The curious boulet rime {chain shot) of the Belgian, French, an. Teutonic commissaries (but not the Austrian) )s the finest combination of sustaining and heating qualities known among meat foods. It Is essentially a winter food, and is In fact never issued for summer campaigning. The ftt content is so high that even In cool weather the oil may gradually ooze through the membrane container. The name Is in allusion to the rather marked resemblance • to the old chain shot of the naval warfare of a century back, which has been partly revived of late to clear away barbed wire entanglements. In practice, the string is so formed that each ball constitutes a single substantial ration. There are more than a dozen varieties of compressed teas used by the Russian commissary, appearing in various' formsbar, slab, tablet, disc, ball, etc. Compressed tea occupies very little space and preserves well. A three-pound slab snugly fits the coat pocket. The meaning of this will be amply demonstrated *y an attempt to stow three pounds of loose tea into the coat pocket without bulging. The compressed rlce-macaront of Oriental forces is an instant rice—place it In water, bring It to a boll, and It Is ready to serve without further formalities. OATMEAL PUDDING. The oat-bread In sausage-link form (continues the American writer whom we quote) Is still made and used by some of the North British troops, and __ Indeed a most sustaining breadstuff, it contains some fat seasoning, and the links resemble those of pork sausage. Another remnrkable army food is the compressed fig coffee of the Central Powers, In use over a century, and with the peculiar advantage that it may either be utilised for food as It is or converted by Infusion Into a coffee-like drink, with the Inevitable _ggy flavour. The muchwrinkled smoke-dried pears found in the same armies are another product made by the ton. These are used by the troops as a combined nutriment and corrective. The Swiss army which now and then figures in the dally news as fighting hard to maintain Its neutrality, has but one notable food product—the white chocolate. This is made entirely of cocoa butter and sugar, the brown residue of the bean, after removal of the stearin, being excluded. The moulded chocolate cake has the smooth, glossy, Ivory-white appearance of a billiard ball. A less sweet form of the white chocolate has a dried cream Incorporated in lieu of sugar. 'Both types ar e recognised as of food valne superior to that of the ordinary brown chocolate; the brown part is much overrated, in this respect being comparable to beef extract, calves' foot jelly, and other supposed dainties, popularly Imagined to be highly nutritious. An Italian army chocolate is in sausagelength form, put up In ordinary casing; while the plum-duff goes Into a beef membrane. This Is a more sustaining plumpudding than th. more familiar one of •British tradition. The Italian "spotted dog" is made.with one of the heavy and dark Italian wines in lieu of water, and fat nut meats In place of ordinary shortening. SIMPLEST AND BEST. There is, to repeat, no entirely satisfactory emergency ration in use by any army, and perhaps there never will be. The nearest approach thereto is the simplest —just the uns.lted, sun-dried, paper-thin meat sheets of some of the Latin-American forces. This is always" dry and cleanly to handle, can be eaten as It is, and folds up compactly like brown paper. The thick article of the shipping supply trades Is a very different and very Inferior one. The Asiatic soldiery have a similar sundried and unsalted meat sheeting, in smaller sizes, shaved from the round of goat, sheep, and pig; while certain African tribes depend upon a similar product of the deer and the buffalo. In every case the food value is high.