No. 4.] NUTRITION. 73 



outer shell should take fire, it may do no harm. This 

 danger is very remote. 



I have attempted but one combination which was a purely 

 theoretic one, but it has proved to be excellent in practice. 

 It occurred to me that if 1 combined a certain proportion of 

 the meanest kind of chaff from the corn mill, the little nubs 

 which are called smuttings, — sold, I believe, at five dollars a 

 ton when sold at all, — with skimmed milk, a little crushed 

 oyster shell and a little suet, I might make a food for hens 

 corresponding in its chief elements of nutrition to the best 

 wheat bread with a little fat and lime added. I made this com- 

 bination, and cooked it slowly all night. I sent my receipt 

 to my friend Mr. J. Montgomery Sears, who is a very suc- 

 cessful supervisor of his own farms, and he adopted it, 

 finding it a most excellent food for hens, which could be 

 provided at a very low cost. 



I trust that this summary of my observations may not be 

 without interest to you, and perhaps be of some service in 

 the progress of agriculture. 



After the lecture ended, the contents of three types of 

 Mr. Atkinson's apparatus were distributed. In the standard 

 Aladdin oven a combination of food had been prepared 

 corresponding to a four-course dinner for an ordinary house- 

 hold of ten persons, rather more than ample. Soup, having 

 been prepared beforehand and warmed, made the fifth course. 

 Seven ditt'erent combinations of food material were dis- 

 tributed, which had been cooked under a box made of pine 

 wood lined with tin, hinged on one end so as to be readily 

 turned upward for service. These examples had been cooked 

 in various types of earthen jars. Other different examples 

 of roasting, baking and broiling were distributed from an 

 inverted box made of seaweed and brown paper, quilted, 

 and protected on the inside by binder's board. 



The food served as an example of the Aladdin methods of 

 cooking was as follows : — 



