The value of these foods has already been pointed out. In this country we derive about 15 per cent of our total calorific value of the food from fruit and vegetables. This could safely be higher. In comparison with other countries, we consume large quantities of beans and green peas, but rather small quantities of potatoes, cabbage, beets and turnips. The potato particularly is not used nearly to the extent it should. Professors Kellog and Taylor, at one time connected with the United States Food Administration, inform us that in Germany before the war the annual yield of potatoes amounted to 45 million tons, whereas in the United States it was 9 millions. And think of the smaller population of Germany, and think of how much smaller their country is.

Our professors have calculated that in a mixed diet, five parts of the potato correspond to one part of grain. The potato is fairly rich in vitamines B and C, in mineral matter, in starch, - an easily digestible carbohydrate - and though less rich in proteins, these are fairly well balanced.

Our consumption of leaf vegetables, such as cabbage, spinach, Brussels sprouts, and root vegetables, such as beets, turnips and carrots, may well be increased. "The green vegetables supply an important addition to the diet of man because the staples, such as cereals, meat, potatoes, fats and sugar, probably furnish too small an amount of vitamines to meet fully the requirements of an adequate diet. Therefore care should be taken not to reduce greatly the quantity of green vegetables customarily eaten until more is learnt about the actual requirements for these food factors and their relative abundance in the commonly used vegetables and green foods. Only then will it be safe to apply the results obtained in the laboratory to attempts to effect economies in the use of these relatively expensive food products."

In the Allied armies the following vegetable ration was found to be satisfactory: potato 40 parts; carrots 20 parts; turnips 20 parts; cabbage 10 parts; onions 10 parts.