The influence of food upon the welfare of the household must be first considered in apportioning the share of income rightly devoted to it. In referring to the budgets we find that as the income decreases the percentage devoted to food increases. Why is this, or why should it be so? It is because the life of the individual depends upon his nourishment. His shelter may be poor, his clothing inadequate for his needs, but food he must have and upon proper food depends his capacity for doing work and doing it well.

The child must be properly nourished that it may be a strong little animal, growing into healthy happy youth. The adult must be well nourished to be an efficient member of the community, whether as a wage-earner or as a household spender. The food supply must be right for errors and wrong doing here show their effects in a weakened power to perform work or resist disease. In this lies the justificatoin of the poor man who possibly spends two-thirds of his income for food.

Proper Food

The wide variation, however, as shown in the budgets, does not indicate proper nourishment in one case, improper food in another. Over-nutrition is often as dangerous as under-nutrition and the cost of food does not determine its nutritive value. It by no means follows that because a family has large butcher's and grocer's bills it is therefore better nourished. The same causes affect the cost of foods as influence the price of other commodities. The demand for and scarcity of any article; being in or out of season; cost of transportation; loss through waste in foods that deteriorate quickly; fancy price asked for certain rare flavors, all these determine price outside of any consideration of nutritive value.

Bullock gives five ways in which he estimates that one-fifth of the money expended for food is actually wasted.

1. Needlessly expensive material, providing little nutrition.

2. A great deal thrown away.

3. Bad preparation.

4. Failure to select rightly according to season, 6. Badly constructed ovens.

In 1900 when Mrs. Richard's book on The Cost of Living was published experiments in dietaries were made and the cost of the raw material required for so many persons a day estimated. The conclusions reached at that time were that twenty-five or thirty cents per person a day is ample to supply all the physical demands of one whose tastes have not been perverted by wrong habits of eating. Good, substantial living, meeting all the needs of people of simple habits, can be secured at less than that. When the expense exceeds that sum it is due to one or more of the following reasons: 1. Waste.

2. Buying out of season.

3. Choice of food of which there is a limited supply therefore price is high.

4. Perishable food stuffs.

5. Fads or fashions in dishes.

6. High priced products because of choice flavors as "Gilt Edged Butter," or food which is "in season" but a short time, as venison.

Since the year in which the experiments and investigations were carried on certain staple food stuffs have increased nearly twenty per cent in price, so that the margin for the same bill of fare now should be wider, or from twenty-five to thirty-five cents per person a day.

The housewife should carefully consider these estimates and the causes most fruitful of waste in the household. Far too lavish provision is often made in ordering. Study and observation must be given to the necessary quantity of meats, vegetables, etc., to be provided and served. Large portions are left to be improperly warmed over, wasted in the kitchen, or thrown away altogether. Waste in the household arises mainly from lack of thought, planning, or carefulness in detail, just as in any other business. A study of foods and food values is necessary in order to know what less expensive material may be provided to supply the same need, but above all else must the housewife who desires to make a study of these things, and reduce the waste in the household realize that no waste is greater than poor material, illy prepared. The more knowledge, the more science used in the selection and preparation of food for the table should mean more, not less appetizing results.

It is of course easier to provide a good table for eight people on $2.40 per day than for four people at $1.20. It must be remembered that many people live well on less; many more are well nourished on much less.

The pecuniary economy of food is seen in the accompanying charts, and those articles which would be classed under unnecessary expense may be easily separated from the more legitimate.

Of course the price paid for food cannot be regulated entirely by a consideration of nutriment alone. It must satisfy aesthetic demands as well. Food must be enjoyed in order to be thoroughly well digested. This is a strong argument in favor of a moderate use of animal foods. Although vastly more expensive than vegetable foods, they do gratify the palate of most people in ways which vegetable foods do not. This fact together with their superiority in being more easily and completely digested are valid reasons for paying somewhat more for the sake of securing them.

Numbers

Aesthetic Demands

Household Management Chart of Composition of Foods Without bone.

Chart of Pecuniary Economy of Food

From Farmers' Bulletin, No. 142.