COLIN CLARK 
Table I 
FOOD CONSUMPTION AND BODY-WEIGHTS OF DIFFERENT CASTES IN AN 
INDIAN VILLAGE 
Average 
Average income Food consumption  body-weights 
(Rupees /person| (calories of adults (kg.) 
month) person/day) Male Female 
Fishermen 6°5 1580 48 41 
Harians (low caste) (hea 1940 46 40 
Miscellaneous castes 10 1960 48 41 
Agricultural castes 8 2440 49 42 
Brahmins and Vaisyas 18 2720 51 45 
Africans in Nigeria working at various tasks are used as the 
basis of Table II. Two alternative sets of calculations are made: 
for men averaging four hours’ field work a day, approximately 
the present situation in Africa, and for men doing eight hours’ 
work a day, a rate of work which prevails in China and the 
Caribbean and which may prevail in Africa in the future. 
The apportionment of time for the rest of the day is admittedly 
highly conjectural. | 
For field work, Phillips’s figures?, adjusted by Trowell!9, range 
from 213 calories per hour for carrying a log of 20 kilograms, to 
269 for grass cutting, 274 for hoeing, the principal agricultural 
activity of Africans, 360 for sawing, 372 for bush clearing, and 
504 for tree felling. It is well known, however, that men engaged 
in extremely arduous tasks such as the latter cannot work 
continuously. The FAO calorie report (1957) quotes (p. 59) an 
estimate by Lehmann to the effect that men engaged in such 
work, if they are to preserve their health, must be allowed 
rest pauses, which bring their average for calorie consumption 
down to 300 per hour. Converting to African body weight, and 
reducing slightly, we take a figure of 250 calories per hour for 
working consumption. 
The average body weight, however, had to be fairly arbitrarily 
assumed. The average temperatures also were only approxi- 
mately estimated from an examination of maps of isotherms. 
We must now re-express these calories, with concomitant 
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