AGRICULTURAL POPULATION. 69 



The following was given me as the wages paid on a farm 

 in Lincolnshire, where the wages are more liberal than in 



pounds are equal in point of nourishment to a pound of the best wheaten bread, 

 besides having the great advantage of better filing the stomach. 



&quot; The liquor in which any meat is boiled should always be saved for the mak 

 ing of soup, and tlie bones even ofjish should also be preserved ;for although quite bare 

 of meat, yet if stewed down for several hours, they will yield a species of broth, 

 which, along with peas or oatmeal, will make good soup. A lot of bones may 

 always be got from the butchers for twopence, and they are never scraped so 

 clean as not to have some scraps of meat adhering to them. 



&quot; This done, the bones are to be again boiled in the same manner, but for a 

 longer time, and the broth may be made the next day into a stew with rice. 



&quot; Nor is this all ; for the bones, if again boiled for a still longer time, will once 

 more yield a nourishing broth, which may be made into pea-soup ; and when 

 thus done with (! )&quot; (for, alas! every thing mortal has an end) &quot;may either be 

 sold to the crusher, or pounded by yourself, and used as manure for your garden.&quot; 



These directions are extracted from a Treatise, of which I do not question the 

 utility, on Cottage Economy, published in the Journal of the Royal Agricultural 

 Society, and which certainly contains many valuable suggestions for the poor 

 cottager. The perfect coolness and calm philosophy, however, with which the 

 writer descants upon a single sheep s head and pluck making four savory din 

 ners for a family ; and a pasty made of any kind of meat or fruit rolled up in 

 flour and lard, with a couple of ounces of bacon, and half a pound of raw pota 

 toes thinly sliced, and slightly seasoned, carried in a man s pocket when he goes 

 to work a good distance from home, being ample for his dinner ; and upon pota 

 toes having the great advantage over bread of better Jilling the stomach ; and the 

 advice respecting the cooking of the same bones again and again, three succes 

 sive days, make one think, to use Burke s expression, &quot; that the Norfolk .Squares 

 must have dined&quot; before they could have attained this high degree of phi 

 losophy. 



The directions for eating the stirabout or oatmeal porridge seem likewise 

 very kindly given to those who appear to have so little use for their mouths as 

 hardly to know the way to them. &quot; The better way is to eat it with cold milk, 

 taking a spoonful of the stirabout with a mouthful of the milk.&quot; 



The contrasts constantly presenting themselves in human life are often strik 

 ing and instructive ; and it may not be without its moral use if, with the labor 

 er s &quot; savory &quot; viands, his sheep s head and pluck, his cold pasty, and his bpnes 

 boiled three times over, together with the wholesome advice, given in the same 

 treatise, &quot; to pinch and screw the family even in the commonest necessaries,&quot; until 

 he get a week s wages beforehand, that he may not run in debt, (query, what in 

 the name of humanity does &quot;pinching and screiving&quot; mean in this case, unless 

 it be to boil the bones again after they are pounded ?) we compare the bill of 

 fare at the dinner given to the council of the Royal Agricultural Society, by the 

 mayor in behalf of the city of Derby, at the late agricultural show, holden in 

 July, 1843, in that hospitable town. This bill, as well it may be, is printed on 

 blue satin paper, in letters of gold, in keeping with the banquet 



