Tkc Supply of Milk to Labourers. 
109 
In the case of the farm labourer in the south of England the 
meat is eliminated from his dietary, and cheese and bacon are 
substituted. There can be no doubt that experience is the 
labourer's best guide, and, guided by experience, he will not be 
likely, I think, to become a consumer of milk costing more 
than about Id. per pint. 
It is the loss of milk which has led to the disuse of porridge, 
which consists of two cheap and excellent raw materials blended 
together, and the substitution of the various manufactured articles, 
from bread to bacon. The gain to the labourer from using food 
in its simpler forms is evident. The cost of flour at the Co- 
operative Stores now is rather less than 2rZ. per pound, and that 
of oatmeal is 2d. Bread, on the contrary, a manufactured 
article, which may be adulterated, contains 25 per cent, of water 
at the best (one sack of flour, 280 lbs. = 95 four-pound loaves), 
and its price now is nearly 2d. per pound, or about the same as 
that of oatmeal or of flour. 
Dr. Parkes has some remarks on the value of meal, which are 
by no means irrelevant to my subject, if I am correct in the 
opinion that the recovery of a cheap supply of milk would lead 
to the restoration of " meal " as an article of diet. He says : 
" It is indeed surprising to see how oatmeal, the most nutritive 
of the cereal grains, and formerly the staple food of our finest 
men, is now neglected." 
One and a quarter pound of oatmeal, says Dr. Parkes, will 
supply as much nitrogen, and almost as much fat to the body, 
as 1 lb. of uncooked meat of ordinary quality. A man gets quite 
three times as much nourishment at the same cost in oatmeal as 
in meat, and'the oatmeal is more cheaply cooked. Indian corn 
(maize) is even cheaper, and 1^ lb. of maize is equal to 
1 lb. of uncooked meat in nitrogen, and surpasses it in fat. 
Bean- and pea-meal are still richer in nitrogen, and, as Dr. 
Parkes remarks, are far less used by our labouring classes 
than they should be ; but even the schools of cookery and better 
teaching on the subject of diet will fail in restoring or origi- 
nating the use of the various kinds of meal, unless the milk 
which seems naturally to go with them in cooking is forth- 
coming. 
Dr. Parkes might have mentioned that hominy porridge- 
Indian corn ground roughly, boiled, and eaten with milk and 
sugar — is the staple breakfast of the United States, and that the 
labouring classes highly appreciate that kind of " spoon-meat." 
He concludes his observations on the meal of cereals with an 
account of an experiment on the value of oatmeal and milk. 
" I kept a strong soldier, thirty years of age, and weighing 
lOi stone, and doing hard work, on oatmeal and milk alone, 
