158 AGRICULTURIC OF MAINE. 



The nourishment in such a bill of fare, which has been se- 

 lected not because it is any more desirable than a thousand 

 others which might have been chosen, but merely to give some- 

 thing to discuss, would of course depend on the size of the 

 portions served. For the purpose of giving some idea of how 

 large the portions should be, let us imagine that the family 

 being served consists of a man, a woman, a boy of 15, and a 

 girl of 12. It is quite generally agreed that this family would 

 usually eat and would, in fact, need about 3.3 as much food 

 as one man would need. Without going into all the figures, it 

 may be considered that such a family would get enough nour- 

 ishment from the above bill of fare, if the amounts of foods 

 used per day were 2 pounds of meat, i 1-2 pounds of flour, 3-4 

 pound of butter (or of butter and other fats, oil, or drippings), 

 I pint of cream, 6 eggs, 3-4 pound of sugar, 4 oranges, 2 pounds 

 of potatoes, i bunch of asparagus, i box of berries and i pint of 

 canned fruit. These materials would supply the required fuel 

 and would give ii 1-2 ounces of proteids, the amount usually 

 considered to be needed each day by the family of the size 

 given above. The cost of food materials, in case meat is 20 

 cents a pound, butter 40 cents, eggs 24 cents a dozen, coffee 35 

 cents a pound, cream 20 cents a pint, oranges 30 cents a dozen, 

 potatoes $1 a bushel, asparagus 15 cents a bunch, and straw- 

 berries 15 cents a box, would be not far from $1.60. 



If milk were taken as a beverage in addition to the other 

 materials in this bill of fare, every quart so used would increase 

 the proteids unnecessarily by more than an ounce. When it is 

 considered that the entire allowance for the 4 people per day 

 is only 11 1-2 ounces, it will be seen that this addition is quite 

 significant. The addition of a quart of milk would raise the 

 cost of the food by 8 or 9 cents. A glass of milk taken as a 

 beverage at each meal by every person, amounting to 3 quarts 

 per day, would add 3 1-2 ounces of proteids to the daily diet 

 and 27 cents to the cost of the food materials for the entire 

 family. 



But if, instead of adding the milk to the other foods, it were 

 substituted for some of them, and 3 quarts of milk were pur- 

 chased instead of half a pint of cream, it could either be used 

 as a beverage or it would supply one-half pint of cream for 



