AGRICULTURAL DINNER AT SIR ROBERT PEEL S. 



433 



qualities of that produce when obtained. There 

 were two purposes to be accomplished by all 

 food, one of them being the increase and repair 

 of the bodies of our animals — the other the sup- 

 port of animal heat. The body wa.s an engine 

 destined to perform particular work, and re- 

 quired various materials to keep it in constant 

 action. Coal, which did admirably to generate 

 steam, would be a most inadequate substance 

 to repair the pistons and cranks of the steam- 

 engine when it became damaged by use. So 

 was it in the animal body, for that which built 

 up its fabric was not suited to sustain its warmth, 

 without which the exercise of its functions must 

 cea.se. Food contained these substances in dif 

 ferent proportions, some varieties of produce 

 being well suited for fuel, while others were for 

 true nutrition. Thus the potato formed a cheap 

 and excellent fuel for the body, but was most 

 expensive and inefficient as a means of repair- 

 ing its damaged parts, while beans answered 

 well the latter purpose, and were comparatively 

 valueless for the former. The manner of ma- 

 nuring crops depended upon which of the two 

 classes they belonged to ; the flesh-forming prin- 

 ciples were always associated with phosphorus 

 and sulphur, which must be supplied with bone- 

 earth, and sulphates, while the warmth-giving 

 foods principally depend for their growth on a 

 free supply of alkalies. Besides this, as farm- 

 ers are the cultivators of food for the nation, it 

 was important for them to know, especially in 

 times of scarcity, such as we have had. with 

 what crops they could grow the largest amount 

 of food on the same space. In this respect the 

 produce is most variable. Thus, while turnips, 

 mangel-wurzel, &c., will grow nearly 700 lbs. 

 of liesh-forming principles per acre, beans 600, 

 and Italian rye-grass considerably more, you 

 cannot obtain, in ordinary crops, more than 350 

 lbs. of potatoes and peas and barley, not more 

 than 200 lbs. from a fair crop of wheat or hay, 

 or 150 lbs. from an average crop of oats. The 

 variation of produce is, therefore, very consid- 

 erable. But as profit is naturally and most 

 properly the great object of the farmer, it was 

 equally important to know at what remunera- 

 tive cost tlie public became supplied with the 

 equivalent amount of various kinds of food. At 

 London prices, a man can lay a pound of flesh 

 on his body, with milk at 3s. ; with tiiniips at 

 2s. 6d. ; with potatoes, carrots, and butcher's 

 meat, free from bone and fat, at 2s. ; with oat- 

 meal at Is. lOd. ; with bread, flour, and barley- 

 meal at Is. 2d. ; and with beans and peas at less 

 than 6d. These considerations are far from 

 trivial, because when we consider that an equal 

 amount of nutritious matter can be obtained 

 from one food at less than one-fourth the cost of 

 another, this is only saying that in times of dis- 

 tress, with an intelligent application of money, 

 we can feed four people where formerly we 

 could only feed one. True it is that in this coun- 

 try tlie art of cookery is far behind that of our 

 Continental neighbors, and that we have not 

 acquired the important art of rendering cheap 

 varieties of food palatable. Count Rumford, 

 when administering the affairs of Bavaria, and 

 in introducing his important ameliorations into 

 the habits of the poor, used to say that the inter- 

 nal resources of a country for food were as much 

 dependent upon its cooks as upon its farmers, 

 and in this he was perhaps not very far wrong. 

 He meant by so saying to imply that a skillful 

 adjustment of food and its skillful treatment 

 might 80 render the cheapest food palatable that 

 you could adequately sustain a larger popula- 

 (833) -is 



tion upon a limited area by attention to the pro- 

 duce cultivated. It is only lately that philo.so- 

 phers have attended to the art of cookery, and 

 most important results have already been ob- 

 tained. It is now known that the flavoring 

 principles are dissolved in the juices, so much 

 ■so. indeed, that if you macerate the fle.sh of a 

 fox in the expressed juice of venison, and after- 

 ward cook it, the former cannot be distinguished 

 in flavor from the latter, or the flesh of a fowl 

 may be made to taste like that of a pike by such 

 maceration. In our ordinary way of cooking, 

 however, a large portion of the flavoring sub- 

 stance is dissolved in the water, and is thrown 

 away, unless it be, as is most proper, converted 

 into soups. But far greater results follow from 

 our ignorance of cooking. There is a substance 

 called phosphate of soda contained in food, and 

 it is by this salt that respiration is supported ; 

 without it we should die by asphyxia, as no 

 means exist except this for carrying oflP carbonic 

 acid from the system. This salt being soluble 

 is very generally carried off from food during 

 cooking, and the most distressing physiological 

 results follow from the neglect. In salting meat, 

 such phosphates are abundantly carried off with 

 the brine, and scurvy naturally follows from the 

 consequent want of adjustment between the or- 

 ganic and mineral portions of the food. Liebig, 

 and others, have opened the way to study these 

 important considerations in cookery, end he 

 (Dr. Playfair) hoped to have an opportunity at 

 some future time of explaining this subject more 

 in detail to farmers. He now directed their at- 

 tention to it, with the especial object of improv- 

 ing their cottage cookerj', and the comfort of 

 the workmen under their charge. If we could 

 improve the cottage cookery of this country, if 

 we could render palatable a greater variety of 

 viands, the most important ends would be ob- 

 tained. Wants would be created, and labor 

 given for their gratiflcatiou. A greater variety 

 of produce would be cultivated in this coimtry, 

 labor would be better distributed and equalized, 

 and the country would be freed from those 

 dreaded visitations of famine which now un- 

 happily arise from the failure of one of our few 

 kinds of food. 



Mr. Parkes said that he could mention a fact 

 or two connected with the use of salt, which 

 might be interesting to the farmers present, and, 

 although not a farmer himself, he had, perhaps, 

 more opportunities, from his extensive opera- 

 tions in drainage, of observing and learning the 

 practice of farmers than the generality of agri- 

 culturists. It had been the habit for many years 

 of tho.se well-known and excellent farmers, the 

 Messrs. Onthwaite, of Bainessee, near Catterick, 

 in Yorkshire, to apply a very large quantity of 

 salt as a dressing to the soil in preparing for 

 wheat, he believed more than a ton per acre, but 

 he did not recollect the exact weight or meas- 

 ure. They found it expedient on their soil to 

 work the land well during the autumn and win- 

 ter, and so%v spring wheat. They were of opin- 

 ion that the salt tended directly to the destruc- 

 tion of grubs, &c., and indirectly to the improve- 

 ment of the plant itself. The land was well 

 drained. The account of Messrs. Outhwaite's 

 mode of farming was to be found in the Reports 

 of the Yorkshire Agricultural Society, which 

 body had not unfrequently conferred on these 

 gentlemen their prize for the best farmed land 

 within their district An instance of the pres- 

 ence of enormous quantities of salt in land not 

 a<'companied by infertility migiit perhaps tend 

 to disabuse the farmer's mind of a prevailing 



