118 MASS. EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETIN 241 



From this it will be seen that but 16 per cent of the Carver children of 

 native and mixed parentage had a quart or nearly a quart of milk daily, while 

 67 per cent of those of Southwick had that much; that 51 per cent of the 

 Carver children and 26 per cent of those in Southwick had at least potatoes 

 and one other vegetable daily; 34 per cent of Carver children and 18 per cent 

 of Southwick's generally had fruit of some sort, cooked or raw, twice a day; 

 3 per cent of Carver's children and 8 per cent of Southwick's ate whole grain 

 cereal or bread at least ten times during the week; and, finally, that 58 per 

 cent of the Carver children and 89 per cent of those in Southwick had meat 

 or eggs a minimum of nine times every week. 



A similar table has not been prepared for the total of all children, as the 

 two groups of children with foreign-born parents are not at all similar in 

 racial composition. That of Carver is preponderantly Finnish, while that of 

 Southwick is quite heterogeneous. These groups are not, therefore, sufficiently 

 com,parable to warrant the drawing of conclusions regarding dietary differ- 

 ences. 



Menus 



To get still another picture of the food habits of the children, at every home 

 visit the investigator inquired what the family menus were, either for the 

 day of the interview or for the previous day. There was no apparent hesit- 

 ation on the part of the women in telling what items had been served at the 

 meals. In addition to the list of foods appearing on the family table, in- 

 formation was sought as to whether the children shared the food of the adults 

 or special provision was made for their needs. Almost no homes were found 

 where any attempt was made to provide food particularly suited to growing- 

 boys and girls. In general, the menus were selected on the basis of the likes 

 and the dislikes of the parents, and the children were given free choice of all 

 dishes upon the family table. 



In order that the menus collected should be representative of the usual 

 week-day practice, no questions were asked about meals served on Saturdays 

 and Sundays, when the family cooking is apt to be somewhat more elaborate 

 than during the rest of the week. 



The main items appearing on the menus for breakfasts, the noon meals 

 eaten at home, the lunches at school, and the evening meals are given for all 

 children in Tables 12, 13, 14, and 15; and also shown for the children of native 

 and mixed parentage in Charts 6, 7, 8, and 9. 



Breakfasts 



The composite picture of 167 Carver and 165 Southwick breakfa.sts shows 

 that some form of cereal and either milk or cocoa were the two foods most 

 frequently eaten by the children of native stock in both towns; a little over 

 one-third usually had eggs for breakfast, but less than one-third ordinarily 

 had fruit; 23 per cent of these Carver children and 15 per cent of tliose in 

 Southwick had coifee or tea (usually coflfee). Cake, cookies, or doughnuts — 

 most frequently doughnuts^ — appeared on the breakfast menus of 17 per cent 

 of the Carver children of native stock; 19 per cent in Southwick. 



The breakfasts of the children of foreign-born parentage have been tabu- 

 lated and the results appear in Table 12. 



