1855. 



NEW ENGLAND FAKMER. 



7ir 



would make it more certain, though not bad as it cheap, healthy, nutritious food. It costs only half 

 is. But there are many locations, where a per-! the price per pound of flour, and contains no 

 son happens to have a garden, in which this, moisture, while the best of flour holds from twelve 

 grape would not ripen more than half the seasons, ! to sixteen pounds of water in a barrel. Cracked 

 and some where it would never fully mature. [wheat is excellent for sedentary persons. Tiiat 

 If i\Ir. Bull has introduced a grape that is as ^ and Graham flour should be used in preference, 

 good and as handsome as the Isabella, and surer .at the same price per pound, to white flour, be- 

 to ripen, he merits the thanks of lovers of this cause more healthy and more nutritious. One 

 fruit, and should have a good profit on his vines. ; hundred pounds of Graham flour is worth twice 

 At present I have not one of them ; but to see; as much irt a family as one hundred and thirty- 

 one <n-ovving in a place already prepared in my , three pounds of superfine white flour. Corn meal 

 garden, is *i "consummation devoutly to be costs less than haH' the price of flour. It is worth 

 wished." D. w. l ' " 



W. Mcdford. 



WHAT SHALL WE EAT? 



twice as much. It is not so economical in sum- 

 mer, because it makes so much fire to cook it. 

 Tlie first great error in corn-meal is in grinding it 

 too much, and next in not cooking it enough. 

 Corn-meal mush should boil two liours ; it is bet- 



With one of the hardest winters for the poorjter if boiled four, and not fit to cut if boiled less 

 that has stared them in the fixce for many years,: than one hour. Buckwheat flour should never 

 and now with tliis cold month of December upon! be purchased by a family who are obliged to econ- 

 them in all its rigor, it behooves them to look |omize food. It is dear at any price. It must be 

 about for something to eat less costly than roast j floated in dear butter to be eaten, and tlien it is 

 beef and plum puddings; for the two dollars a not healthy. Oat-meat is as good in cakes as 

 day, that some of them seem to think would en- j buckwheat, and far more nutritious. But it is 

 dure forever, has been cut ofl" suddenly. It iscs-jUiore nutritious, and is particularly healthy for 

 timated that fifty thousand persons have been .children, in the Ibrm of porridge, 

 thrown out of employment, since the cold weath-j The cheapest food is white beans. They are 

 er commenced, by that cause alone. An equal jworth from $1,50 to ^2 a bushel, and retail for 

 number have been thrown out by fiiilures and 18 cents a quart. Prof. Liebig has stated that pork 

 general stagnation of business. It is to be a win- 1 and beans form a compound of su})stanees pecu- 

 ter of sufll°-iug to those who are dependers uponiliarly adapted to furnish all that is necessary to 

 the laljor of their hands for daily bread for them- J support life and give bone, muscle and fat, in pro- 

 selves and families. Whatever will tend, not to; per proportions, to a man. This food will enable 

 cheapen food, for that we cannot hope for, but to j one to perform more labor, at less cost, than any 

 show them what to eat, less expensive than their i other substance. A quart of beans, 8 cents, half 

 accustomed diet, should be at once adopted. For a pound of pork, 6 cents, will feed a large family 



this purpose we offer a few suggestions 



Fresh meat of all kintls, at the prices at which 

 butchers retail it, is not economical food. Meats 

 will average over a shilling a pound. Salted 

 meats are cheaper than fresh. In economizing 

 food, meat should be fried or boiled. If you 

 would get the most substance out of fresh meat, 

 make it into soup, or stew, or pot-pie. In mak- 



for a day, with good strengthening food. And 

 who that can raise a reminiscence of old times 

 in New England, but will remember that glorious 

 old-fashioned dish called "bean porridge?"' We 

 should call it bean soup now. Four quarts of 

 beans and two pounds of corned beef would give 

 a good meal to fifty men — one cent a meal. 



Potatoes should be utterly abandoned by the 



ing soup, soak your meat some hours in cold wa- poor this winter. They cannot aflbrd to eat them . 



ter,and boil it in the same. Thicken with beans 

 peas, rice, Ijarley, hominy, or broken bread. The 

 best meat is tlie most economical for soup. Do 

 not buy bones. 



If you boil meat to eat, never put it in cold wa- 

 ter. Let it be boiling when you put the meat in 

 the pot. Do not buy fresh meat a pound or two 

 at a time. Buy a quarter or a half a sheep. You 

 get it at half price. Beef or pork by the quarter 

 is a quarter cheaper. 



Do not buy your bread ready baked. It is six- 

 pence a pound. Dry flour is the same. Home- 

 made bread is far more nutritious. Make use of 

 corn meal, oat meal, (iraham flour, hominy, 

 and cracked wheat for bread, in preference to 

 fine wheat flour, both for health and economy. 

 Here are the relative rtitail ])rices per pound of 

 these articles : Wheat flour, Gc ; Graham flour, 

 Gc ; cracked wheat, Oc ; corn meal, 2(1 c ; homi- 

 ny, 3c ; oat meal, 4iic. The latter is the most 

 n\itritious breadstufl' known. Look at the Seoteh 

 with tiieir oat meal porridge — as robust a set of 

 men as ever lived. 



Hominy we have before given our opinion upon. 

 It is an article that no family, desirous of prac- 

 ticing economy, can do without. It is a very 



Potatoes are selling at four dollars a barrel. That 

 is $1,87 a bushel. At retail the poor pay $2,50 

 a bushel, or about five cents a pound, twice the 

 price of corn meal ; five-sixths as much as fine 

 flour ; one-fifth more a bushel than beans, while 

 one bushel of the latter are worth for food as 

 much as a cartload of potatoes. All other vege- 

 tables are still more uneconomical than potatoes. 

 Carrots are the cheapest of all roots. But they 

 are but little used as human food, though very nu- 

 tritious. They are partially used in soup. They 

 are good simple boiled and eaten with a little Ijut- 

 tor, or meat gravy. They should always form an 

 ingredient of soup. They are sold h}" the quantity 

 at 50 cents a bushel. Turnips ari; dear at any 

 price. There is more nutriment in a quart of car- 

 rots than in a liushcl of turuijiS. Tiiey are 82 

 per cent, water. Cabbage is nutritious, but very 

 expensive. Buy very little of it if j'our money is 

 short. Dried sweet corn is an article that all 

 persons arc fond of. It sells for $4 to $5 a bushel, 

 wliieh weighs 42 lbs., and would retail at about 

 lOe a pound. ^N'^e don't know about the economy 

 of eating it, as compared with otluir breadstuffs, 

 b.it as compared with cotirse vegetables, it is im- 

 measuralily cheaper. A pound of sweet corn 



