NUTRITION AND FARMING

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22657, 19 February 1937, Page 13

NUTRITION AND FARMING

Sir, —The figures given by "Cygnet" in the Herald of February 10, which 10for to physical defects in children quite justify his saying that "It is no use for the League of Nations to say: 'Give the children more milk, fruits or greens, 5 so long as those products are the outcome of forced and artificial growth " Professor Sampson Morgan, one of the greatest authorities of "clean culture," states that "The world has ret to learn that nervous disorders and much of the physical degenereney which prevails are the result, in many instances, of malnutrition, arising from a deficiency of the necessary minerals in soils devoted to foodstuffs production." He also refers to the 10,000,000 acres of unclean pastures in Britain as being a continuous menace to the population in the cities and towns, and adds, "So long as stock is fed under soil souring manure methods (and may I add unbalanced fertilisers), the tissue of fruit, root, or grain, becomes disorganised in the same way as the tissue of tho llesh of stock fed on such pastures, and through the consumption of these weak tissued foods, the stamina of human beings has been lowered in the most alarming manner." The high price of land makes it necessary to force and force growth to obtain tho returns. We deplete in somo cases and give excess in others in this blind effort to obtain maximum results, the logical maxim, "that no superabundance of one plant food, will make up for the deficiency of another," is disregarded. We obtain food of a kind with little stamina, taking larger quantities than the digestion of animals can stand, producing somo unseen weakness which in turn is transmitted to the human being. After all, without the products of the soil there would he no material existence; naturally we should first look in that direction to see if there is not a very grave possibility of its maltreatment being the cause of many ills. A. J. G. Schmitt.