370 ANNUAL REPOETS OP DEPAETMENT OF AGEICULTURE. 



tion into palatable meals. The plan for the food leaflets was drawn 

 np at a conference of agricultural extension workers. They have 

 been very generally welcomed and have proved very useful in exten- 

 sion work of the department and other similar movements and have 

 been used in homes and in nearly all lines of food conservation work. 

 A million copies of each of these leaflets Avere distributed by the de- 

 partment. They are as follows: Nos. 1, Start the Day Right with a 

 Good Breakfast; 2, Do You Know Corn Meal? 3, A Whole Dinner in 

 One Dish ; 4, Choose Your Food Wisely ; 5, Make a Little Meat Go a 

 Long Way ; 6, Do You Know Oatmeal ? 7, Food for Your Children ; 

 8, Instead of Meat ; 9, Vegetables for Winter ; 10, Plenty of Potatoes ; 

 11, Save Sugar; 12, Dried Peas and Beans; 13, Let the Fireless 

 Cooker Help You Cook; 14, Save Fuel; 15, Milk— The Best Food 

 We Have; 16, Fresh Vegetables — Good to Eat and Good for Your 

 Health; 17, Use More Fish; 18, Rice; 19, Hominy; and 20, Wheatless 

 Breads and Cakes. 



The emergency publications of this office further include four 

 special circulars urging the use of peanut flour, barley, soy-bean 

 flour, and potatoes, besides a bread card giving general directions 

 for using wheat substitutes in baking. Though the editions have been 

 large, the demand for this popular literature has exceeded the sup- 

 ply. Much attention was given to the preparation of articles for the 

 department's information service, mOre than 150 such articles having 

 been prepared or edited during the year. 



Studies on the utilization of foods continued to supply data rela- 

 tive to their digestibility and nutritive value. Exi^Deriments were 

 made to determine the digestibility of dasheens; oils of the almond, 

 black walnut, Brazil nut, butternut, English walnut, and pecan; 

 various animal fats and oils, some of which are at present little used 

 as separated fats, such as goat's butter, hard-palate fat, kid fat, oleo 

 oil, oleo stearin, ox-marrow fat, oxtail fat, and turtle fat; corn, 

 soy-bean, sunflower, Japanese-mustard, rapeseed, and charlock oils; 

 soy-bean and peanut flours (ground press cake remaining after the 

 extraction of oil from soy beans and peanuts) ; wheat bran, water- 

 ground buckwheat, and black-hull kafir ; and Boston mackerel, butter- 

 fish, grayfish, salmon (the studies of marine food materials having 

 been made at the request of and in cooperation with the Bureau of 

 Fisheries). Bulletins reporting the results of these experiments were 

 published or manuscripts prepared. A special study on the digesti- 

 bility of whole- wheat and graham breads in comparison with w^ar 

 emergency standard flour was made in addition to a study on the 

 digestibility and nutritive value of bread, etc. In connection w4th 

 the study of bread made from different sorts of cereal grains, coopera- 

 tive work on barle}^ was arranged with the Iowa Agricultural Experi- 

 ment Station. 



The work with the respiration calorimeter included a series of 

 experiments on the energy expended in carrying on different house- 

 hold tasks, including sewing, washing, ironing, scrubbing, etc., the 

 results showing a considerable range in energy expenditure and 

 giving much-needed data for discussing problems of household work, 

 particularly in connection with time studies which have been made 

 previously in rural homes to ascertain the time which housekeepers 

 devote to different household tasks. Attention was also given in the 

 respiration calorimeter laboratory to studies of problems concerned 



