196 STORRS AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 
deep into the purse, for half the earnings of the wage workers of 
Connecticut, as of the rest of Christendom, are spent and must be 
spent for food. | 
The results of examinations of dietaries which are cited in de- 
tail in this article, represent a part of a series of observations 
which are being carried on year after year. Some of the practical 
applications were given in the two previous Annual Reports 
of the Station, namely those for 1891 and 1892. In an article in 
the latter on The Economy of Food, considerable space was 
given to the practical aspect of the subject in its bearing upon 
personal and household economy. It is hoped that future pub- 
lications will contain still more information of practical as well as 
theoretical interest. 
IMMEDIATE PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS. AGRICULTURAL BEARINGS 
OF THE SUBJECT. 
In closing, I may recapitulate in a few words some of “the: 
practical bearings of the subject. Scientific research, interpreting 
the observations of practical life, indicates that we make a four- 
fold mistake in our food economy. 
First, we purchase needléssly expensive kinds of food. Wedo 
this under the false impression that there is some peculiar virtue 
in the costlier food materials, and that economy in our diet is 
somehow detrimental to our dignity or our welfare. And, unfor- 
tunately, those who are most extravagant in this respect are often 
the ones who can least afford it. 
Secondly, the food which we eat does not always contain the 
proper proportions of the different kinds of nutritive ingredients. 
We consume relatively too much of the fuel ingredients of food, 
such as the fats of meat and butter, the starch which makes up 
the larger part of the nutritive material of flour and potatoes, and 
sugar and sweetmeats. Conversely, we have relatively too little 
of the protein or flesh-forming substances, like the lean of meat 
and fish, and’the gluten of wheat, which make muscle and sinew 
and which are the basis of blood, bone, and brain. 
Thirdly, many people, not only the well-to-do, but those in 
moderate circumstances, use needless quantities of food. Part 
of the excess, however, is simply thrown away with the wastes of 
the table and kitchen; so that the injury to health, great as it 
may be, is doubtless much less than if all were eaten. Probably 


