WANTED: A FRUIT [MISSIONARY

Evening Star, Issue 16090, 15 April 1916, Page 2

WANTED: A FRUIT [MISSIONARY

How is it that fruit is so dear in Dunedin ? That is a question we often hear asked. But is it really a fact? It surely is. Take, for instance, apples, v/hich are ti-e mast healfcky and the most perfect kiwi <Oi fruit. It is just the beginning of tho prison—the time when they should he plentiful and cheap. Yet you cannot buy good apples in the retail shops here at less than 6d per lb. A little later they -will run up to-Bd. That is from id to 2d for a single apple. In view of the quantity that is grown that eeems preposterous. It was stated the other day that Cox's orange pippin, a most delicious apple, was selling in Wellington at 3d per lb; in Dunedin it was just double tho price. And then tho probabilities are that one-half of the apple will be uneatable. That, at least, was the experience of the present writer, who has a partiality for this fruit. It does not mature well in Otago. But is it impossible to import it from Wellington, where it is being retailed in its best quality at 3d per lb? The dearness of fruit here cannot be duo to lack of supply. Thia year was a marvel in that respect, yet the fact that people have to pay such prices for fruit indicates something wrong somewhere. The demand for it is limited—naturally so—when it is for the most part beyond the resources of the average purse. But there is another reason : the great mass of people are ignorant of the dietetic value of fruit. It is looked upon as the mere frilling of a meal—something that is superfluous or a luxury. They want to be taught that it is just tho opposite of this; that, in fact, it is a necessity of human life. Some time ago we were spending a few days in a fruit district. The wife of the owner of a large fruit farm told us that her husband did not think he had got a satisfactory meal unless he had meat throe times a day! That was an astonishing confession for a fruit farmer. And if it were so for one living in the very centie of the supply, what may wo suppose it is for those who are not engaged in the business?

* * * *•»*•» And so we are led to say that what is needed as much as anything else just now is a Fruit Missionary, or more than one if you like. The Government employ experts to give instruction as to the growing of fruit, the laying out of farms, and the best methods of production. But what is the use of all this if people are ignorant of the dietetic value of fruit? Efforts are being made to find markets for the fruit we are producing, but surely there ought to be some pains taken to exploit our home I markets. The number of fruit eaters might be quadrupled at least if some pains were taken to instruct the people regarding the place of food in a properly-bal-anced dietary, and some effort made to secure it at a reasonable price. At present neither the one nor the other of these I highly-desirable ends is being sought. It was stated the other day that the South American market would be closed to the Dominion's fruitgrowers, because there were no shipping facilities, and so tho apples intended for that country were to be put in cold storage here. Yet thousands of people would like to get such fruit if it could be had at a reasonable price, and thousands more would secure it if only they knew what a boon apples alone would be for themselves and for their children.

An old writer says that if God made a finer fruit than the strawberry he has never heard of it. Yet thej apple might contest the palm of superiority. It has been the theme of sages and poets from time immemorial. According to an ancient tradition it was an apple that tempted our first parents. And the vision of a tree covered with this rose-golden fruit looks paradisiacal enough. It takes strong • virtue in boys, even to this day to obey the Eighth CommaJidment when passing a garden of such trees. High claims are made for the uses as well as the beauty of this fruit. It is said to contain a larger amount of • phosphorus than any other, so that it should have a special value as brain food. The acid of the apple is most beneficial in

cleansing the system of all noxious matters that tend to poison the blood and

the nerves. It acts upon the liver, disinfects the kidneys, mouth, and stomach, and is one of the best preventives of sore throat. For meat eaters it is absolutely essential that thoy should also bo apple consumers on a large scale if they are to escape the evils which a llesh diet begins to produce from midlife onward. Acting as it does upon the liver and nervous system, it accordingly improves the disposi-

tion of temper, and makes life cheerier and brighter. It is also said that it is an

infallible cure for the alcohol habit. Our greatest philosopher connected it with the celestial world. We live by eating sunshine. Empty our food of that, and it becomes mere dirt and poison. And there is no purer 01" more beautiful concoction of sunshine than that which the apple supplies. "While it hangs upon "the stem it is in some kind of magnetic " correspondence with all the powers of "Nature, and it shares the life of the "earth and sky. It is an embodiment of " the air and the sunshine and the dew." In these autumn days, when it hangs golden and ruddy on the trees, it is one of the most beautiful and attractive sights of Nature. John Burroughs tells of a preacher taking his handkerchief out of his coat-tail pocket, pulled out along with it a great rosy-cheeked apple, which tumbled down upon the floor, to the enjoyment of the younger folks of the congregation. Burroughs is not given to church-going, but he says that if he were he would like to go to a minister who earned apples in his pocket, because, ho thought, he would be in such a hurry to get to the apples ho would make his sermons short. It is greatly to be desired that the people as well as the parson should be encouraged to make a similar close acquaintance with the apple.

But, of course, the apple, is only one species of fruit. Nature supplies others in great abundance. Bub the mass of people, as we have said, are ignorant of the true value of a fruit diet. The name vegetarian is a very unhappy one. It has led multitudes .to conclude that vegetarianism consists of merely potatoes and turnips and cabbages, in monotonous permutation. That, of course, is absurd. A vegetarian diet includes fruits. And oven to that name most folks attach a very limited connotation. When they speak of .fruit they think mainly of pears, peaches, apples, oraaiges, and such like. But fruit includes a much wider variety than that. It embraces raisins, dates, prunes, and nuts of every variety. These contain all the elements necessary for the sustenance of man. And they have this advantage over meat: that while they can supply all the elements of food that meat contains, they rapply it in an absolutely pure and fascinating form. We do not want to write down meat. To exalt fruit it is not necessary that we should do that, But it is becoming more and more widely recognised that the great majority of people eat far more meat than Js good for them. There was a time

when man subsisted wholly on plants and fruits, and if wo are to believe ancient history the average age of mankind was far longer then than it is now. To-day man's nearest progenitors, according to the evolutionists—the gorilla and the • chimpanzee —are purely vegetarians, and their physical strength is amazing. The custom of cooking moat came in probably with the discovery of fire. But boiling or roasting it largely destroys the protein element which constitutes it a food. ,: Cooked "food in general is like a burnt granary, " containing a variable quantity of sal- " vage concealed in useless debris." A body fed on cooked meat only is a body more than half-starved. It is worse ; it is a body filled with useless and poisonous matter. And a body filled with such matter is liko an engine filled with caulkers and slag. The way the human machine gets clogged is just the same. The albumen element is necessary when the machine is being built, but everyone knows that less material is needed to keep it in repair than to construct it. And when we go on piling up the "same amount of materials in the machine after it is built we are only hindering or destroying its energy. That is what is done when people continue eating the same amount of meat after, say, 50 years that they did before that age. * ' * * * * * *

And so the human machine is clogged ] with waste matter, and its working power is cut clown. There is only, one cause of disease—impurity. There is only one method of healing it—viz., to get the system cleared of it. The way to do this is to use the forces that Nature has so generously and wonderfully supplied—water and sunshine. All energy on earth is derived from the sun; all life on earth is transmitted sunshine. Empty food of sunlight and it becomes mere dirt. The more solar energy you can get in food tho purer and more powerful it becomes. In meat the energy is mixed up with the poisonous elements generated in a dead body, and is fatal in large quantities. Tho only way to counteract its evil effects is to have the system constantly purged of them by Nature's forces embodied in water and fruit. In plants, fruits, and grains we have the solar energy bottled up for I us in the most compact and fascinating forms. They are perfect foods—clean, luscious, health-giving, natural. They are an economic and social necessity. To increase our fruit diet would kill many diseases and add years to tho working life of the nation, and it would mean not only financial gain, but a healthier and a happier people. And so let us have Fruit Missionaries. Let the Government and the fruitgrowers find the means and the men to educate the nation on this vital subject.