202 EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 



excellent feeders. They are at that time of life, from seventeen 

 to twenty years, when they require most food ; and at an 

 employment of all others most likely to create an appetite.&quot; 



&quot; The dietary is as follows : Every morning, except Sunday, 

 each boy gets one pound of the best bread, and a pint of new 

 milk, cold or hot according to choice ; and on Sunday morning 

 they get coffee or tea, with bread and butter. For dinner, four 

 days in the week, viz., Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Sat 

 urday, they get meat ; two days beef, and two days pork or 

 bacon, three fourths of a pound, each, of good meat, not bone, 

 with soup, and vegetables, and potatoes unlimited. Two days, 

 viz., Mondays and Wednesdays, for dinner, one quarter pound 

 of butter, with plenty of buttermilk and potatoes, and sometimes 

 other vegetables, such as cabbages, &c. One day, Friday, they 

 get fish, with melted butter and potatoes unlimited. For supper, 

 every day, oatmeal stirabout, well made, thick, and of the best 

 meal, with a pint of new milk each; sometimes they choose 

 potatoes for supper, instead of stirabout. By this you will 

 perceive that they are good feeders. I have always been 

 an advocate for good feeding and good working. The one 

 promotes the other. It will perhaps be in your recollection 

 that the boys, during your visit, were the very picture of a 

 sufficient dietary. I had almost forgotten to mention that, on 

 stated occasions, such as Easter, Christmas, Halloween, harvest- 

 home, &c. &c., we give them an extra blow-out ; roast beef, 

 plum pudding, &c. &c., with porter and punch for those who 

 are not tee-totallers. The school was formerly under a different 

 regimen; and the doctrine then maintained was, Feed them 

 too well here, and they will be discontented with inferior food 

 when they get home. My answer was this : l Give them a 

 taste for good feeding while here. Treat them as human beings, 

 and as respectable members of society, and they will not relapse 

 into their former wretched condition, but will work and exert 

 themselves to obtain the comforts of life.&quot; 



I have laid these details before my readers under the persua 

 sion that they will be deemed both interesting and useful. It 

 is not to be inferred, in any case, because I quote the opinions 

 of another man, that therefore I make them my own. I do not 

 know that it is necessary here, in giving this account, to add a 

 dissertation upon the value of total abstinence ; though what my 



