38 



few in which the statistics were in some respects inadequate. In every 

 case the nutrients and energy of the dietaries have been estimated 

 according- to the large amount of analytical and other data accumulated 

 since the studies were made. It is believed that the tinal results, as 

 here given, are more satisfactory than the earlier estimates, from which 

 the}" differ somewhat. 



Since these investigations were carried out lumierous others of a 

 similar nature have been made and reported. Previous bulletins of 

 this Office have given accounts of dietary studies made with families 

 living in the thickly congested districts of New York," Pittsburg,* and 

 Chicago;'' studies of the diet of negroes living in straitened circum- 

 stances in Virginia and Alabama/' and of Spanish-American families 

 of very limited means living in New Mexico." Studies of the diet of 

 poor families were also made in Hartford, under the auspices of the 

 School of Sociology.-^" A number of foreign investigations have been 

 conducted with families of small incomes or living under conditions 

 common to such families. The recent important woi'k of this charac- 

 ter by Paton and his associates f/ in Edinburgh, and that by B. S. 

 Rowntree''' in York, England, are all the more interesting in this con- 

 nection because the studies were made by the methods folloAved at the 

 present time in the United States. AH these investigations, like that 

 reported in this bulletin, were actuated by a desire to ascertain the 

 conditions under which such families live, in order to find ways to 

 help them to make a wiser use of their resources in securing ade((uate 

 nourishment. As a whole, the results obtained have, at least in part, 

 justified the hopes of the investigators, and the experience gained has 

 proved of very great value to many housekeepers. 



METHOD OF INQUIRY. 



In both Philadelphia and Chicago the families among whom the 

 studies were made were selected at random from the neighborhood of 

 the college settlements, but they were believed to be typical of the 

 region in which the settlement work was being carried on. The 

 attempt was made to include in both places as many different nation- 

 alities as possible, in order that the results of the studies might have 

 a wider practical application and be more useful. 



The data sought in these studies included the nationality, age, sex, 



aU. S. Dept. Agr., Office of Experiment Stations Buls. 46 and 116. 



^U. S. Dept. Agr., Office of Experiment Stations Bui. 52. 



cU, S. Dept. Agr., Office of Experiment Stations Bui. .5.5. 



'IV. S. Dept. Agr., Office of Experiment Stations Bui. 71. 



«U. S. Dept. Agr., Office of Experiment Stations Bnls. 40 and 54. 



.^Storrs's Experiment Station Keport, 1896. 



f/The Diet of Laboring Classes in Edinburgh. 



/'Poverty: A Study of Town Life, p. 222. 



