DIETARY STUDIES.- 1 39 



tional milk replaced other animal foods, while in the fall term it 

 replaced vegetable foods. It is reasonable to regard this as to 

 some extent a case of involuntary selection of foods, as with the 

 advent of warm weather the tendency would be to reject animal 

 foods, while the effect of cold weather would be the reverse. 



The financial outcome is favorable to the free use of milk. 

 Notwithstanding the largely increased waste, the cost per man 

 per day in the third dietary is 8 cents less than in the second. 



The total decrease in the cost of food during dietary No. 150 

 as compared with dietary No. 149 was about $4.50 per day. 

 The saving should not be credited wholly 10 the increased sup- 

 ply of milk, because the other animal foods were in part of a 

 less expensive kind. 



The saving in dietary No. 152 was less, amounting to only 2 

 cents per day per man, or a total of $1.57- daily. This smaller 

 saving is equal, however, to $416 for a school year of thirty-six 

 weeks with the number of persons included in third dietary 

 study. It should be noted that this saving was made in spite of 

 the increased proportion of animal foods, an increase which, 

 other conditions remaining unchanged, raises the cost of living. 



If, as we have reason to believe, it be true that the average 

 American dietary contains too large a proportion of non-nitrog- 

 enous compounds, then the free use of milk, besides cheapen- 

 ing the cost of living, accomplished another desirable result, 

 viz., it raised the proportion of protein in the dietary, thereby 

 making it more rational. The nutritive ratios of the dietaries 

 with a limited supply of milk were 1:7.9 an d i'-7-5, and of the 

 dietaries where milk was freely used 1 :6.y and 1 :6.8. 



SUMMARY. 



The main results of these dietary studies are briefly summari- 

 zed with especial reference to their important practical relations 

 to the economical purchase of human foods. 



(1) The cost of the animal foods bought for the commons of 

 the Maine State College during 309 days was 69 per cent, of the 

 total food cost, varying in the different periods from 63:7 to 73.1 

 per cent. This shows very clearly the direction in which econ- 

 omy can most effectively be exercised in purchasing a food 

 supply. 



