Lewisburg chronicle. [volume] (Lewisburg, Pa.) 1850-1859, 1855-11-23
From the New York Tribune-Nov. l6.
Economy In Food What shall we
Eat ?

Our mii!louS VI pusucis VI coIi, duu Wucati
and rye, and oats, and barley, and buck.
wheat, and beans, and peas, and rice, fol
breadstuffs, and daily ship-loads of pota.
toes of both kinds, and untold piles Of
other edible roots and vegetables, and
great store houses full of -four, butter,
cheese, fish, fruit, eggs, poultry and salted
meats, and thousand unnamed articles
of food, yet the mass are not full fed; and
why? Because they do not know how to
eat Not that they lack the animal func-
ton of consuming, but in providing, both
in the purchase Of kind and quality, and
in the preparation, there is lamentable
want of judgment and utter want of econ
omy. The want of food among the poor
is a great evil 1t breeds discomfort, dis,
sipation, crime and ruin to any civilized
society.
There is remedy.
1t would be greater charity to teach
that remedy than to establish soup houses.
The first step would be to change our
fashion of food; to abandon such articles
as are excessively dear in the raw state,
for others equally good and more nutri-
tious, and to adopt different and more
rational plan of cooking. This would not
only promote economy, but health ; both
of which would add vastly to our stock of
enjoyment.
Without exception, both rich and poor
in America eat extravagantly of animal
food, cooked ia the most extravagant and
wasteful manner, by frying, baking, roast
ing or boiling, aud throwing away half of
the nutritious matter in burnt gravy, or
celatine dissolved in the pot liquor.
Again, we consume vast quantities Of
the meanest and most innutritious vegeta-
bles, costly at first, and cooked in the most
foolishly wasteful manner. The fashion
of extravaganza in living is set by the
rich, and they are aped in their folly by
the poor. The consequence is, that they
are want and suffering whenever work and
wages fail.
There is a remedy. The only question
is, how it shall be applied? Better than
...-..'y "o-.,. ~ ~.o-..."-'.""s, "0' 81"
provide food for the poor, but to teach
them what to buy and how to use it; how
to economic their money.
The first step toward this blessed state
Of things, should be taken by our City
government, if indeed we have such a
thing lef, to US, by removing all restric-
tions upon the producer, by which he is
kept away from the consumer. We pay
now an average of thirty three per cent.
advance upon everything that is eaten in
New York, over and above what we should
pay if these restrictions were removed.
. But this is foreign to our main subjec,
economy in kind and quality Of food for
the industrious poor.
They do not study economy in their
purchases. All kinds of fresh meat cost
from ten to twenty cents a pound, and
very few Americans are wiling to take
low price meats, and generally those who
can least afford it call for rib roast or a
loin steak of beef, or a leg of lamb or NUT
ton, or a loin of veal or pork; and rarely
for the most economical pieces. A rib
roast of six pounds for dollar in poor
mans family is slightly extravagant; the
cooking more so. The Jews religion in
eating meat is founded on cue economy.
They eat only the fore quarters and sell
the more expensive and less valuable hind
quarters to the Gentiles. The fore quar-
Ter will not cut steaks and roasts equal to
the hind quarter, but it is more economi-
cal for soups, stews, potpies, or cooking IN
any form with vegetables and gravy. The
man or woman with scanty means, to fill
the market basket, not only buys dear
meats, but crude, innuiritious vegetables,
such as cabbage, turnips and potatoes; for
notwithstanding SO many persons think
potatoes necessary article of food, they
are not an economical one; and all the
cruder substance Of vegetable food though
necessary and healthful, should not be
sought after because cheap, to save money.
The most economical mode Of preparing
food is due mixture of meat and vegeta-
bic substance in the form Of soups but
no man should live upon soup alone any
more than he should upon meat or fine
-four bread. Health as we'll as appetite
requires variety. Il happens, now, that
breadstufs, notwithstanding the high price
of bread and -four, are the cheapest of all
human food /; and it also happens that by
our slavery of fashion We do not use the
cheapest kinds of this kind of cheap food.
The following are the retail prices Of
some of the principal articles of food in
New York:
Flour, per barrel, $1,000. per lb Ct cts.
Rye do 4to4l
Sage stoS
Farina IL to 10
Bread st
Il q