this friendly magician.




CHAPTER II

CEREALS WE OUGHT TO EAT

(Reprinted from _The Farmer's Wife_, by permission of the Webb
Publishing Company.)


"Save wheat!" This great slogan of our national food campaign has been
echoed and reëchoed for six months, but do we yet realize that it means
US? We have had, hitherto, a great deal of wheat in our diet. Fully
one-third of our calories have come from wheat flour. To ask us to do
without wheat is to shake the very foundation of our daily living. How
shall we be able to do without it? What shall we substitute for it? These
are questions which every housewife must ask and answer before she can
take her place in the Amazon Army of Food Conservers.

Is it not strange that out of half a dozen different grains cultivated for
human consumption, the demand should concentrate upon wheat? One might
almost say that the progress of civilization is marked by raised bread.
And wheat has, beyond all other grains, the unique properties that make
possible a light, porous yet somewhat tenacious loaf. We like the taste of
it, mild but sweet; the feel of it, soft yet firm; the comfort of it,
almost perfect digestion of every particle. We have been brought up on it
and it is a hardship to change our food habits. It takes courage and