166 BULLETIN" 414, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
effects of food were concerned. While it was impossible, in the time 
available, to obtain records of the loss or gain in weight of convicts 
assigned to road camps, it was asserted very generally and emphat- 
ically by camp physicians and superintendents, prison officials, and 
others having an intimate knowledge of convict camps, that there 
was, as a rule, a distinct gain in weight and a general betterment in 
the physical condition of the men after entering the camp. Of this 
there is scarcely a doubt, for although camp conditions may be far 
from what they ought to be, they are in many cases better than those 
to which the prisoners have been accustomed before their arrest, and 
they are most assuredly far superior to those of many of the jails in 
which men are oftentimes confined for several months before sentence 
to the road camps. In writing of the food in the jails of one of the 
Southern States, the State prison inspector says: 
Prisoners in trie jail of are fed by the sheriffs without supervision of any kind 
•whatsoever. The food usually consists of a small piece of salt side meat, about three 
tablespoons full of beans or peas, and a "hunk" of poorly made corn bread, said bread 
usually being made of meal and water without grease. The sheriffs are recompensed 
by the State for feeding the prisoners as follows: From 1 to 10 prisoners, for each 
prisoner, 60 cents per day; for more than 10 and not exceeding 20 prisoners, 50 cents 
per day; for more than 20 and not exceeding 40 prisoners. 40 cents per day; for more 
than 40 prisoners, 30 cents per day. In most of the jails only two meals are served 
daily. 
I estimate (and base my figures on frequent inspections and close observations of 
the meals served, and from reports received) that in one jail in our State the profit to 
the sheriff is no less than §1,000 a month on his feed bill alone. This is a woeful 
waste of the State's funds, and should be remedied by some legislative enactment. 
Surely the road camps are an improvement over this, and a gain 
in weight after a period in jail is to be expected. 
Diseases such as scurvy, beriberi, and pellagra, which might 
result from a one-sided or eccentric diet, were diligently sought for, 
but were conspicuous by their absence, with the single exception of a 
camp in South Carolina, where, in 1910, 17 cases of beriberi had oc- 
curred, and in 1914 five cases of pellagra had developed, resulting in 
two deaths. It was impossible to obtain from the records of this 
camp accurate detailed information in regard to the kinds of food 
which had been used and the amounts consumed, but it may be 
said safely that such information, could it be accurately obtained, 
would reveal the fact that the food actually consumed by the stricken 
men was in some way faulty. It was said that in 1910, when beriberi 
broke out at the camp, the diet consisted of hominy, salt pork, some 
kind of fresh vegetable every day, corn bread and molasses, and 
occasionally potatoes. Fresh meat usually was provided about twice 
a week. Rice never was served. After the occurrence of the 17 
cases of beriberi the location of the camp was changed, and the diet 
received additions in the form of peas, beans, salt herring, canned 
