The Food of the. People. 
121 
saucnpan had not boon onclostMl in a non-conducting substance, 
was retained by the felted coverins;, and complotod the cookiufr 
witliout any I'uitlier application of five. The Norwegian (io- 
verninent, taking a leaf out of the peasants' book, adopted the 
practice in the Norwegian navy, where it has proved successful 
for the last three years ; and, with this prestige in its favour, the 
apparatus was exhibited, and repeatedly tested, in Paris during 
the last summer. At the close of the French Exhibition the 
Society of Arts invited the patentees, Messrs. Sorensen and 
Plahte, of No. 13, Duke Street, Grosvenor Square, to exhibit 
th(;ir apparatus and to allow it to be tested by the Food Com- 
mittee, and the Society's Journal reports that, on the 9th of 
November, 1867, those two gentlemen attended the Committee, 
and submitted their apparatus to trial. " A leg of mutton, with 
vegetables, was placed in the stewpan, boiled for five minutes, 
and then carefully enclosed in the [felted] box, and the lid sealed. 
When opened, at the expiration of hours, the whole was found, 
to be perfectly cooked ; the temperature of the water being then 
about 160° Fahrenheit." Several further trials were subsequently 
had, and the Norwegian principle may be declared to be estab- 
lished. 
In connexion with this plan one further remark will suffice 
here. In every farm, in every cottage, a fire is lighted and .a 
kettle boiled in the early morning. On that fire let a saucepan, 
or saucepans, containing the provision for the midday dinner be 
placed to boil for only five minutes, and then be shut down, all 
hot, in a common deal box well fitted with cheap felt ; and the 
good man of the house, with the good woman and the children, 
need concern themselves no more about the matter until the 
time for dinner shall arrive. At that time the food will be 
found to have cooked itself, as it were, by its own heat, and will 
be piping hot. The labourer may carry his dinner, in a little box, 
to the fields, and while he is working the dinner will be cook- 
ing, and he will have the benefit of a hot dinner, instead of a 
cold meal, when the hour is come. The superior force and 
power of work which the labourer would derive from eating hot 
instead of cold food cannot well be arithmetically stated, though 
it is known by experience to be very great. It is probable that 
the course of events may tend to make it the interest of the 
farmer to concern himself more and more in the actual feeding of 
his labourers. 
At present if a farmer is alarmed at the constantly increasing 
demand for the better education of the agricultural poor, it can 
scarcely be said with justice that he has no reasonable ground 
lor such alarm. He finds by experience that education at 
present tends to withdraw workmen from his land, and he 
