How We are Fed Part 6

Long, long ago sugar was used only as a medicine. Don't you wish that all medicine to-day was as good as sugar? About seven hundred years ago an Italian n.o.bleman died and left to his relatives, among other things, _six pounds of sugar_. His will caused considerable comment among the people, who said that no one family should be allowed to have so much sugar in its possession.

WHERE SALT COMES FROM

The Arab, journeying over the yellow sands, riding upon the back of his faithful "ship of the desert," often looks longingly for some sign of water to cool his parched lips. The sailor may ride upon the beautiful blue waters of the ocean in his white-winged ship; but although there is nothing but water to greet his eyes, he cannot drink it, for it is bitter to the taste.

If you were to place a quant.i.ty of ocean water over a fire and evaporate it, there would remain a white substance. This is common salt. You see that it is as necessary to provide fresh water when one wishes to cross the ocean, as it is if one is going to cross the desert.

Most streams and lakes contain _fresh_ water, so you will wonder why the waters of the ocean are briny. The rocks and soil of the earth contain salt, and the streams wash it from the land. Each one carries so little that we do not notice it, but they have worked so steadily and so long, that they have carried a great amount to the sea. None of it can escape, so the ocean gets more and more briny.

No healthy person would ever think of eating salt alone as a food, and yet our food would taste very unsatisfactory without it. Farmers supply their cattle and horses with salt, and wild animals search for it in the forests, and lick it from the soil with their tongues.

Salt is so important to us that I want to tell you about some of the ways in which men obtain it.

Sometimes sea water is placed in great vats and evaporated. This leaves the salt, which is then refined. You know that the sun's heat causes the waters of a shallow pond to evaporate during warm weather. Shallow basins are often scooped out along the coast, and the waters which fill them are then shut off from the larger body. In time the water evaporates, and the salt, which has formed in thin layers, is collected.

I said that most lakes are fresh-water bodies. There are some, however, that are _very_ salty. Great Salt Lake is one of these. Streams flow into it, but none flows out. If you were to bathe in the waters of this lake, you would find that your body would not sink.

I have seen great piles of glistening salt along the sh.o.r.e of Great Salt Lake which had been obtained by evaporation. A railroad runs beside the lake, and the salt is loaded upon the cars to be hauled away. When the people first settled in Utah, they used to drive to the lake in wagons to get a supply of salt.

Although the ocean and a few lakes contain immense quant.i.ties of this useful article, we get most of our supply from other sources.

In the western part of New York State, at some distance below the surface of the earth, there is a thick layer of salt. Wells are drilled down to this; water is pumped into them, and then pumped out again as brine. This brine is evaporated in large pans made of iron, two quarts of brine yielding about a pound of salt.

In China salt has been obtained in this way for hundreds and even thousands of years. Though they had little machinery to work with in those days, yet by patient, steady effort, they drilled wells two thousand and even three thousand feet in depth. From twenty-five to forty years were required to drill some of these wells. Those who commenced them knew that they were not likely to enjoy the fruits of their labor and that others must get the benefit of what they did. What does this show about these people? What benefits are you receiving from what others have done?

Salt is also mined as coal and iron are. This is called _rock salt_. It is obtained in Germany, Poland, Austria, India, the United States, and in many other countries.

One of the most interesting salt fields of the world is in the southeastern part of California. It is on the Colorado Desert, near the Colorado River. This was once a part of the ocean floor and the rocks contain much salt. Water seeping through the earth dissolves the salt and brings it to the surface at this place. What happens to the water?

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 31.--Harvesting Salt, Salton, California. Is there any Water in this Field?]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 32.--Loading Cars with Salt. Salton, California.]

This salt field covers an area of about one thousand acres, to a depth of from one to eight inches. You can see by the picture that it looks more like a field of snow and ice than one of salt. The bright sunlight is reflected from its surface with such power that it hurts one's eyes.

A great plow drawn by a steam engine moves over this dazzling field, and throws the salt up in furrows. It is then piled up, loaded on to cars, and taken to sheds, where it is purified. Indians and j.a.panese do most of the work.

In order to purify the brines they are boiled in iron pans and treated in various ways to make them fit for table use. When evaporation is rapid, the salt crystals are quite small, but slower evaporation produces larger ones. Rock salt is dissolved in water and then evaporated. To get the finest of salt, the crystals must be ground. When salt is to be used for other purposes than to season food, not so much pains are taken. Name other uses of salt.

In olden times, when salt was not so easily obtained as it is to-day, it was regarded in some countries as a luxury. This seems strange, does it not? At one time the Chinese made it into little cakes, stamped the image of the emperor upon it, and used it as money. In Arabia those who together ate food which had been salted, believed that this established a special bond of friendship between them. This led to the old saying, "There is salt between us."

MACARONI AND VERMICELLI

Have you ever wondered as you have looked at the hollow sticks of macaroni in the stores or as you have eaten them at the table, how they were made in that way, and what they were made of?

In Italy macaroni is a very important article of food, and its use is rapidly increasing in our own country. For a long time it was not made outside of Italy, where the city of Genoa was the center of the industry. Locate this city. Do you know what great man was born there?

Now macaroni and vermicelli are made in other countries. There are a few factories in the United States, but most of what we use still comes from Italy.

In making these foods only the best hard wheat is used.

After grinding the wheat, the bran is taken out and the flour is placed in a large wooden tub. Water is added, and the two are mixed by hand for a few minutes. In this tub a marble wheel about five feet in diameter and eighteen inches in thickness is fastened in an upright position. This wheel weighs about a ton.

After the flour and water have been mixed, the wheel is set in motion by machinery, and it slowly circles around in the tub, pressing the dough under it.

A man keeps walking in front of the wheel, moving the dough from the edges of the tub and placing it directly in the path of it. This work of pressing the flour into a paste continues for a little more than half an hour.

The wheel is then stopped and the paste, which is quite stiff, is cut into cakes about a foot square and from one to three inches in thickness.

These are put into an iron cylinder heated by steam. In the bottom of the cylinder is a copper plate filled with holes having the centers filled. A cover fitted to a great screw which turns by machinery is placed on top. This slowly, but steadily, presses the paste downward.

It is thus forced through these openings, and of course comes out in the form of round, hollow pipes.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 33.--Drying Macaroni in Italy.]

As these pipes issue from the cylinder, they are straightened out on a wooden tray or platform, and with a large, sharp knife cut into lengths of about three feet. They are then taken to a drying room and spread on wire frames covered with oiled paper. Here they are left for about five days, after which they are placed in boxes and are ready to ship.

The only difference between macaroni and vermicelli is that the pipes of vermicelli are very small and are not hollow.

When vermicelli is wanted, two plates are placed on the bottom of the press. The under one is of iron and contains holes about one inch in diameter. The upper one is of copper and contains _groups_ of very small openings. There are sometimes eighty of these openings in a group. When the plates are screwed together, the groups of small holes are directly above the larger openings.

As the paste is pressed, it pa.s.ses through the little holes and then issues from the larger ones; this keeps each little group of pipes somewhat apart from the others.

Saffron is added to the paste to color it, and the great golden ma.s.s is quite a pretty sight as it steadily lengthens.

The workman cuts off six or seven feet of it at a time; and holding it above his head with one hand, he shakes it out with the other, as one might shake the folds of a piece of silk. The pipes tangle up very little. They are cut into lengths of about eighteen inches.

It is then taken to the drying room and spread out on the trays just as the macaroni is. A handful of the vermicelli is taken at a time, and by a peculiar twist of the arm it is placed on the paper in a form something like that of the letter _n_. After drying for five days it is packed and shipped.

ON A COFFEE PLANTATION

Juan and Lupe live in a beautiful valley where palm and banana trees wave their broad leaves in the breeze. It is never cold there, so that many kinds of plants and flowers grow out of doors which we do not see in our country except in greenhouses. On clear days they can see lofty mountains far to the westward, which sometimes wear caps of white.

Juan is fourteen years old and Lupe is twelve. Their skin is much darker than yours, and they have bright black eyes and black hair. Their father owns a great coffee plantation in Brazil, not far from the city of Rio Janeiro.

There are many men, women, and children employed on the plantation, and Juan and Lupe enjoy roaming about from place to place and watching them at their work.

In the nursery they see men planting the coffee seeds in the rich soil.