WAR BREAD 



and its Constituents 



Bread as a food-stuff is of supreme economic im- 

 portance, because it supplies the essentials of human 

 nutrition in a form which is especially cheap and 

 convenient. In the cultivation of corn crops man- 

 kind finds its best investment, and the nations that 

 convert their corn into bread attain to an ideal of 

 nutritional simplicity and convenience. 



When appraising the relative cost of nutriment as 

 obtained in different foods, we must not, of course, be 

 content to compare the prices per pound of various 

 articles of consumption. We have to reckon the 

 amount of real nutriment obtained for a given sum, 

 which is by no means the same thing. If we apply 

 this test, we discover the real cheapness of bread. 



At the present time prices are disturbed and arti- 

 ficially regulated, so that it is more instructive to 

 take our data from a period before the war. The 

 following figures, which give the most practical form 

 of comparison the relative amounts, namely, of food 

 energy obtained for a given sum apply to purchases 

 all made in one and the same district during the year 

 1913: 



Food. 



Bread 



Potatoes ... 

 Quaker oats 

 Rice 



Loin of pork 

 Rump steak 

 Cod-fish ... 

 Lobster 



Calories bought 

 for One Shilling. 



10,800 

 8,700 



6,520 



2,OIO 



1,000 



670 



IOO 



19 



