Septembek 11, 1885/ 



SCIENCE. 



235 



become a master of any trade which he might after- 

 wards choose. Such is not the case at present. From 

 the census of 1880 it appears that out of every thou- 

 sand persons engaged in gainful occupation, three 

 hundred and twelve were classed as common labor- 

 ers. This proportion was doubtless increased be- 

 tween 1880 and 1882 by immigration, and it is this 

 class which suffered from diminished railroad-build- 

 ing during the last three years. The true remedy can 

 only exist in the development of versatility and man- 

 ual dexterity, and of capacity on the part of the 

 poorest child in the community to take advantage of 

 all opportunities which may offer. 



With respect to the applications of science, crude 

 as they are in respect to agriculture, they assure an 

 abundance for any increased population during the 

 present century. With respect to the mechanism of 

 distribution, the cost has been reduced so that there 

 is little margin for further saving. In the conversion 

 of crude materials into forms ready for consumption, 

 the field for improvement is still a broad one. In 

 wholesale traffic, as well as in retail distribution, of 

 perishable commodities, there is a waste; and in the 

 science of consumption, almost no progress has been 

 made. 



Again recalling, however, that to common laborers 

 their food constitutes sixty per cent of the cost of 

 life, it will be obvious, that, if we can show them how 

 to maintain themselves in full vigor at the cost of 

 thirty or forty per cent of their ordinary income, we 

 shall have done good service. Prof. W. O. Atwater 

 of Middletown, Conn., has prepared a number of 

 tables, in one of which it is shown, that, if we buy 

 protein in a sirloin of beef at twenty-five cents a 

 pound, we pay one dollar a pound for it; whereas, if 

 we seek for protein in oatmeal or cornmeal, we pay 

 twelve to fourteen cents for it. Mr. Atkinson praised 

 for their cheapness the Yankee dishes of fried fish- 

 balls, and pork and beans ; and also the weekly ration 

 of the southern negro, — a peck of meal, and three and 

 a half pounds of bacon ; which, probably, supplies 

 the cheapest subsistence known. The rice of the 

 east may cost less in money, but is deficient in the 

 nutrients necessary for full vigor. 



While the American could live cheaply on oatmeal, 

 or pork and beans, yet he would not willingly do so, 

 but would wish for meat; and it is to the cheapening 

 of the cost of meat, rather tban to the reduction of 

 its consumption, that there is need of attention. Mr. 

 Atkinson referred to the partially abandoned lands 

 of the New-England States, as probably capable of 

 producing, if properly fertilized, beef at a cheaper 

 rate than is now done by cruder methods in Texas, 

 adding the cost of transportation to this market. 



Mr. Atkinson based his scheme upon the claim of 

 Mr. Farrish Furman of Georgia, that he is able to 

 raise two and a half bales of cotton to the acre on 

 abandoned cotton lands when suitably fertilized with 

 Stassfurt potash, and the phosphate rocks of South 

 Carolina. He would bring the cotton-seed meal to 

 Massachusetts, there feeding it, and thus converting 

 the minerals into fertilizing elements to be used on 

 the barren lands of New England to raise Indian corn, 



which should be used as pitted fodder or ensilage for 

 the cattle. If this proposition can be sustained, it 

 may happen that when the population of the United 

 States of 1880 shall have doubled, an area of land no 

 larger than that needed in 1880 will be required to 

 sustain the people of that day. 



At the close of his address, Mr. Atkinson presented 

 a number of statistical tables showing the cost of 

 life of various classes of people, mostly operatives 

 or mechanics, and some tables showing the cost of 

 maintaining inmates of public institutions. The in- 

 vestigation of the statistics does not increase Mr. 

 Atkinson's faith in the law of population propounded 

 by Malthus, or Eicardo's theory of rent, or the so- 

 called law of diminished returns from land. 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE SECTION OF 

 ECONOMIC SCIENCE AND STATISTICS. 



The opening paper in this section was by Mr. Henry 

 E. Alvord of Houghton Farm, New York, upon the 

 relative values of human foods, and had especial inter- 

 est, as forming in a degree a continuation of some of 

 the interesting considerations contained in Mr. Atkin- 

 son's vice-presidential address. The author's com- 

 parisons of different articles of human food were 

 based upon their average chemical composition alone, 

 it being his belief that " we are so much in the dark 

 on the questions of the actual proportions of digesti- 

 bility in difi:erent forms of food, that it is safer to 

 drop this factor than to include it." 



Selecting as his basis of comparison for animal 

 food, average ox-beef (flesh free from bone) at sixteen 

 cents per pound, and for vegetable food, potatoes at 

 one cent per pound, and rating animal fat at twelve 

 cents per pound, and the carbohydrates of vegetables 

 at four cents per pound, he arrived at the following 

 money values, per pound, for the three classes of 

 nutrients : — 



Protein. Fat. Carbohydrates. 



Animal 72 cents 



Vegetable 10 " 



12 cents 7 cents. 

 7 " 4 " 



Based upon these valuations, elaborate tables were 

 presented, showing the nutritive value expressed in 

 money, of all important articles of human food in 

 comparison with their cost. The investigation was 

 undertaken with particular reference to the food 

 value of dairy products, and the results show that 

 skim-milk, butter-milk, and cheese, at usual retail 

 prices, furnish a given amount of nutriment more 

 cheaply than any other articles on the list, being ap- 

 proached in this respect only by fresh mackerel and 

 dried cod-fish. Milk, on this scale, sells for about its 

 nutritive value; while butter costs two or three times 

 its real food value, and often more. "W^hat shall be 

 said," continued the speaker, "of domestic economy 

 in America, where more butter and less cheese are 

 consumed per capita than in any other nation in our 

 zone ? And what of the government of some of our 

 great cities, where boards of health absolutely prohibit 

 the sale of skimmed milk, and actually destroy all 

 that can be found ? " 



