not absolutely dependent upon the potato."

"Alas," said the housewife, "this doesn't tell me what to cook for
dinner!" "Patience, Madam, we shall see about that." The fact that starch
is present is what makes the potato seem so substantial. But bread, rice,
hominy, in fact, all cereal foods can supply starch just as well. Pick out
the one you fancy and serve it for your dinner. One good-sized roll or a
two-inch cube of corn bread, or three-fourths of a cup of boiled rice will
sustain you just as well as a medium-sized potato. A banana, baked or
fried, makes an excellent substitute for a potato. An apple is also a very
palatable potato equivalent, if you want something more spicy than hominy
or corn bread. Why mourn over the lost potato?

But how about those mineral salts? Well, the potato has no monopoly on
those, either, though it is ordinarily a very valuable contributor. Milk
has already been mentioned as one of the great safeguarding sources of
so-called ash constituents. Others are vegetables and fruits of different
kinds. These have been a neglected and sometimes a despised part of the
diet: "Why spend money for that which is not meat?" is often taken
literally. Even food specialists have been known to say, "Fruits and
vegetables are mostly water and indigestible fiber; they have little food
value." This is a good deal like saying, "If your coat be long enough you
do not need a pair of shoes." A potato has as much iron as an egg yolk or
a medium-sized chop. This is one more reason why we should be sorry to
take the useful tuber from our tables, but we may feel a certain
independence, even when meat and eggs are prohibitive in price, since by
canning or drying, if in no other way, we can have green vegetables as a
source of iron the whole year through. Some people are afraid that canned
vegetables will prove unwholesome; but if removed from the can as soon as
opened and heated to boiling before they are eaten, we are recently