45P 
Cookery, 
cornj will, I think, be greater in Virginia and thence southward? 
Where this kind of grain is grown to more perfection than wheat ; 
which last is grown to more perfection in the middle states, than 
corn; Mackenzie in his travels across the American continent, 
somewhere, I think, says that Indian corn even at lOdi a lb. was 
the cheapest food they could lay in. 
Of the ether kinds of vegetables, cabbage, turnips, carrots, par^ 
snips, beets, Jerusalem artichokes, peas, beans, &c. the cheapness 
depends on the price : and that, from the great imperfection of gar- 
• den agriculture in this country, is so various in various districts and 
at various times, that nothing can be said satisfactorily on the sub- 
ject. The sweeter the vegetable of this description, (as beet, par- 
snip, carrot) the more nutritive : but turnips can be raised and 
sold so as to afford the greatest quantity of this kind of food for 
the least price. The Jerusalem artichoke ( Hdianthus tuberosus ) 
which stands the winters of this country admirably, and is very- 
productive, appears to deserve more attention than has yet been 
bestowed upon it, as food for cattle : and in flavour and consist- 
ence, it bears a very close resemblance to the common garden 
artichoke, Cynara scolymus. 
Potatoes, turnips, cabbages, and even carrots and beets, can bd 
raised in England where land is dear, so as to be afforded as arti- 
cles of food for cattle ; owing to more labour, more capital, more 
skill bestowed upon land there. I know of very few places in 
this country where this can be done, and none where it is done. 
So true is it that cheapness of food does not depend upon 
cheapness of land, but on tlie facility of procuring labour. Pro- 
visions are at this mioment one fourth cheaper in Paris than at 
New York, or even at Philadelphia. 
Of Animal food. Generally speaking, the price of animal food, 
is every where double that of bread. In point of nutriment (ex- 
cept in the form of fat) it is twice as dear. Animal food may be 
considered as consisting of muscular flesh, fat and bone. 
Muscular flesh consists of muscular fibre, (fibrin) sparingly 
soluble in water : of blood vessels, and lymphatic vessels with 
their contents ; and nervous or medullary fibre. The blood con- 
tains gelatin, albumen, and the Watery part of the serum ; I know 
that Dr. Bostock denies the existence of gelatin, but my obser- 
vations are not in accord with this. The gelatin is soluble, tlie 
tilbumefi is coa-gulable. That much gelatin i-' cohtaiae'd in mu:. 
