I70 STORRS AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 
give them strength for work—a larger amount for the father, 
with his active muscular labor; somewhat less for: the mother, 
with her smaller body and lighter work; and quantities for the 
children according to age, growth, and occupation. Of course 
they need other substances, like mineral salts, which are con- 
tained in the food, and the water of both food and drink, and 
they want and will have things like salt and spice and tea and 
coffee, which gratify the palate and are more or less useful for 
nourishment. 
If the family be that of a mechanic or day-laborer in a village 
or city in Connecticut with an annual income of between $800 
and $400 for instance, half of this sum will generally be spent 
for food. Due regard for health, strength, and purse requires 
that food shall supply enough protein to build tissue and 
enough fats and carbohydrates for fuel, and that it shall not 
be needlessly expensive. The protein can be had in the lean 
of meat and fish, in eggs, in the casein (curd) of milk, in the 
gluten of flour, and in substances more or less like gluten .in 
various forms of meal, potatoes, beans, peas, and the like. 
Fats are supplied in the fat of meat and fish, in lard, in the fat 
of milk, or in the butter made from it; it is also furnished, 
though in small amounts, in the oil of wheat, corn, potatoes, 
and other vegetable foods. Carbohydrates occur in great 
abundance in vegetable materials, as in the starch of grains 
and potatoes, and in sugar. The fats, sugars, and starches all 
serve for fuel, and we may measure their quantity by their fuel 
value, expressing this in heat units, or calories. In the food 
this woman buys, then, she has to deal with protein, or tissue 
formers, and with fuel values. 
If her husband is engaged at moderately hard muscular work, 
like that of a carpenter or mason or active day laborer, he 
should have in his day’s food say 0.28 pound of protein and 
enough carbohydrates and fats so that*the fuel value of the 
whole will be about 3,500 calories. The wife, if busy at work 
with her hands about the house or otherwise, will need perhaps 
eight-tenths as much. If the children are two boys of 13 and 
8 and two girls of ro and 5 years of age, they will need enough 
to make the wants of the whole family equivalent, let us say, 
to four men at moderately hard work. This would require 
1.12 pounds of protein, and a fuel value of 14,000 calories. It 


