THE FOOD QUESTION. 89 



300 pounds of muriate of potash and 150 pounds of phosphate of 

 lime at a cost of S7.50 per acre, — then the best speculation of the 

 day may be to bu}^ up the deserted hill farms Ij'iug each side of the 

 Connecticut River, within a range of thirt}- or forty miles, in order 

 to convert them into beef factories for the supply of Boston. We 

 will sa}^ nothing of milk, butter, and cheese. 



"What then is needed in the application of science to the produc- 

 tion, distribution, and consumption of food? Each acre of land 

 may require a little different proportion of the nutrients, as each 

 man may call for a little more or less nitrogen, a little more or less 

 fat, or a little more or less starch ; or as different plants may vary 

 in the same way. But has notj, the time arrived when, by means of 

 close observation, and b}" the application of science, the ration due 

 to the soil, the ration due to the plant, and the ration due to man 

 can be measured and defined, and its cost ascertained, with exact- 

 ness and certainty? — No one has, however, jet been able to 

 answer the conundrum which I put about a year ago : "What is 

 the cost of making a pound of beef?" 



The nutrients which are contained in the several standard 

 rations of Voit, Playfair, and others vary somewhat in the relative 

 proportions of the several ingredients ; but Prof. Atwater has re- 

 duced them to "calories" or equivalents of heat, and by this 

 standard they are all very nearly identical. The standard of each 

 and all for one day's ration of an adult working man is a little 

 more ihs{,n three thousand equivalents of heat. The waste of some 

 New England families is made apparent by the fact that Prof. At- 



country. A steer is simply a machine for making beef and fat; and you 

 might as well undertake to run a large steam engine with little or no fuel as 

 to make beef without plenty of food, and feeding it as carefully as you would 

 feed an engine ; and it will pay for attention as well as an engine. I estimate 

 that I can make beef here of the best quality at four cents per pound, live 

 weight, and that it can be made in New England at five cents per pound, 

 and that the steer should weigh from fourteen to fifteen hundred pounds 

 at twenty to twenty-four months old. 



The making of beef is in its infancy in the United States, and in my opinion 

 the Eastern States will hold their own with the West — and as soon as more 

 capital and brains take hold of the matter, as they have of other manu- 

 facturing interests, that large sums could be made, and a better return on the 

 capital secured than in any other manufacturing business. 



Yours very truly, 



G^0. W. PALMER. 



