It is not difficult to understand why vegetables and fruits are so important. Only a few are especially valuable as fuel or as a source of protein, but almost all are high in mineral salts and can supply the "roughage" desirable in the diet. Some also contain the vitamines, the leafy vegetables being especially valuable because, like milk, they contain the two kinds. The "greens," leafy vegetables like spinach, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, asparagus, and lettuce, are the ones that help most in these last ways--"protective foods," they have been called. They are rich in the iron, calcium, and other minerals that some of the other foods lack. The use of plenty of these vegetables should go far toward keeping up health. CANNING AND DRYING VEGETABLES AND FRUITS The value of these foods both for the nation's health and for saving staples applies just as much in winter as in summer. In war-time, a winter supply, either stored, dried, or canned, takes on special significance because of their substitute value if the supply of staples runs critically low. The canning industry, because it makes vegetables obtainable at all times and places, has been of great importance in the health and development of the country. Smith, in his "Commercial Geography," says that "canning, more than any other invention since the introduction of steam, has made possible the building up of towns and communities beyond the bounds of varied production." A century or two ago, sailors after a voyage of a year or two, almost always came home with scurvy. Recently Nansen and his men drifted in the Arctic ice for years and remained in good health, because of their supply of canned vegetables, fruits, and meats. The Government has not been slow in appreciating the need of canned vegetables for the Army and Navy. It has commandeered about 25 per cent of the canned beans, 12 per cent of the corn, and 18 per cent of the tomatoes of the 1917 pack. Large amounts will be needed this year also. Much of the 1918-19 supply for our troops in France is to be canned in France, by arrangement with the French Government, thus saving valuable shipping space. Drying, or dehydrating, has long been known for beans, peas, and corn, and for dates, prunes, figs, and raisins. But dried potatoes, beets, carrots, and "soup mixtures" are more or less new. The drying, of course, merely removes most of the water from the vegetable, and if the process is properly carried out, soaking the vegetable in water restores its original freshness.