The preparation of milk substitutes from vegetable sources is not a new
idea. When in Russia a few years ago, I found on sale in delicatessen
shops a paste prepared from honey and almonds which with the addition of
water made a very palatable emulsion much resembling milk in appearance
as well as in flavor. I have been informed that the natives of the
Philippines prepare from the litchi nut a vegetable milk for feeding
infants deprived of their natural nourishment. These natural products
have the advantage over the infant foods of commerce most of which are
better fitted to destroy than to preserve life. They are complete foods,
supplying the essential vitamines as well as other necessary elements.

The nut is not only the most concentrated form of nourishment known,
but, contrary to the general view, is one of the most easily digestible.
The supposed indigestibility of the nut is due to two things, eating
when already satiated with food; that is, taking the nut as a surplus
food, and second, neglecting to masticate the nuts thoroughly. Watch a
monkey eating nuts and see how thoroughly he masticates each particle.
Any particle not well crushed and emulsified is passed through the
intestinal canal undigested and of course unabsorbed. But when crushed
and converted into a smooth cream, the nut is one of the most easily
digestible of all foods. Most nuts consist almost exclusively of two
food principles, proteins and fats. The protein is one of the finest
sort and more easily digestible in the raw state than is cooked protein
of any kind. The fat is finely emulsified, and thus prepared for prompt
digestion and absorption.

Experiments on human subjects conducted at the Battle Creek Sanitarius
by an expert from the laboratory of Yale University, showed that the
proteins of nuts are as easily digested and as fully utilized as the
proteins of other foodstuffs.

The peanut produces an average crop of at least 40 bushels, or 900
pounds of shelled nuts to the acre, equivalent to 8,280 pounds of cow's
milk, to produce which would require 4.6 acres. A grove of black
walnuts, 40 trees to the acre, producing one hundred pounds of nuts to
the tree, or one thousand to the acre, would afford as much protein as
8,500 pounds of milk, to produce which would require 5.3 acres. It is to
be noted, also, that one pound of peanuts has a nutritive value nearly
one-third greater than that of the 9.2 pints of milk containing an
equivalent a