358 DOMESTIC ECONOMY. [Chap. IV. 



" Bkeakfast. — Three quarters of a pint of coffee, four ounces of bread, oue 

 ounce of butter, two eggs, or four ounces of meat, or four ounces of fish. 



"' Luxcn.— ^wo ounces of broad, two ounces of meat, or poultry, or game, 

 two ounces of vegetables, and a half pint of l)eer, or a glass of wine. 



" DiNNEK. — Half a pint of soup, a quarter of a pound of fish, half a pound 

 of meat, a quarter of a pound of poultry, a quarter of a pound of savory 

 dishes or game, two ounces of vegetables, two ounces of bread, two ounces 

 of pastry or roasts, half an ounce of cheese, a quarter of a pound of fruit, one 

 pint of wine, one glass of liqueur, one cup of coffee or tea ; at night one glass 

 of spirits and water." 



To this we have added the following calculation of the clothing the same 

 man may have used. AVc estimate that a full-dr.essed man carries about 

 lifty yards of cloth upon his body, or at least it has taken so many square 

 yai'ds of cloth to make the following garments : one under and one over 

 shirt and drawers, eight yards ; vest, with all its inside and out, four yards ; 

 coat, overcoat, and cloak, 32 yards ; the handkerchiefs in the coat and cloak 

 pockets, tM'O yards ; pants, lined, four yards. Then we may add a night- 

 shirt, four yards, and morning wrapper, lU yards, and we have Gi yards for 

 a single suit. Allow six of rtiese suits a year — of some garments he will 

 want more, and some less than six, but take that as an average, and we have 

 3S-i yards lor the gentleman's wardrobe one year. Multiply that l)y sixty 

 years, and we have 23,040 yards of cloth, which appears a fair allowance, as 

 we throw out the ten years of childhood. With these garments ho will Avant 

 each year two pair of boots, two pair of shoes, two pair of slippers, two pair 

 of rubbers or overshoes — 480 pairs. "With these he will wear sixty dozen 

 pairs of stockings and (four hats a year) 2-iO hats. I will say nothing about 

 the yards of cloth that he will want about his toilet and table, his carpets 

 and curtains, and his bed, with its daily change of bedding; but you can 

 imagine it would make a large spread. The great question for considera- 

 tion, in an agricultural point of view, is this : Could such a consumer of 

 earth's products produce as much as he consumed, with all industry applied 

 during life, or would he be dependent upon the labor of others? 



370. How Cookiug Changes Food. — We are not going to make a cook-book, 

 but simply to attract attention to some of the leading scientific principles of 

 the effect of fire upon articles of food. 



Meat, for instance, often loses more than half its substance, which is 

 wasted and lost in the process of cooking, because the cook did not under- 

 stand some of the simple elements of the chemistry of cooking, and the 

 efi'ect of water and heat upon flesh. 



K meat is to be boiled for eating, particularly fresh lean beef or mutton, 

 never soak it in cold water. Have your water boiling over a brisk fire, and 

 plunge the meat into it, and see that the heat is kept up. If soup is to be 

 made, then the meat should soak a long time in cold water, because it 

 extracts the substance that is wanted in the soup, leaving the fibrous portion 

 of the meat almost worthless. If the meat is to be boiled for eating, plung- 



