2 JUNE 1917, Page 3

Assuredly one of the curiosities of the Food Shortage and

Drink problem is to be found in the protean character of Beer. At the very beginn ing beer was discovered to be a kind of milk, and piteous appeals were made for the poor cow who must go hungry if there was to be no beer. " No beer, no brewers' offal ; no brewers' offal, no milk from Blossom or Meadowsweet "—so ran the idyllic formula ! Next., beer appeared as a necessary way of getting rid of that somewhat dangerous an heating substance, malt. The controversy " What shall we do with our malt ? " appeared, indeed, at one moment as likely to outrival the famous correspondence : " Why do our children's ears stick out ? "