Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1918-02-01

JITASHINGTON, D. c., Jan. 2S.-How many of
w the children in America get all the milk
they need? What kind of food is eaten by
families who have to meet the high cost of living
with incomes of less than eight hundred dollars
year? To what extent people changing their
eating habits the result of educational propa-
ganda and price pressure?
These of the questions that will be
answered, at least in part by the food survey which
the department of agriculture is now conducting.
In spite of delayed mails the returns are now pour
ing in by the ton, and within the month definite
information will be available to the amount of
of the more important staples on hand. We
will know, then, whether it will be necessary for
to eat war bread made of mixed -four, and
whether we are to go on rations of sugar.
Most persons have the idea that the food sur
vey is intended solely to show how much food there
is in the United States This is its main purpose,
and the sole purpose of the survey of the food in
dustry from farm to retail store. But the survey
of American households will be also a study of the
nations diet.
The food census falls into three divisions In
the first place. schedules being sent to all the
commercial and industrial units engaged in the
distribution of food, from the smallest corner
grocery the largest cold storage plants, includ
ing all of the transportation units that carry food
Each of these concerns will be asked to supply an
inventory of food ON hand at given Date. rms
part the should be accurate and complete.
Schedules have been supplied to about three-quar-
ters of million concerns.
The second division of the deals with
farmers. They have corn in the crib hams in their
smokehouses hay in stack and barn. all of which is
intended for the market. The bureau of crop esti-
mates with it's thirty-fve thousand investigators,
each of whom has enlisted ten assistants, is hand
ling this part of the work with the promptness
and efficiency which their established organization
and experience make possible
This leaves only other class of establish
ments in which any food is kept-namely, the
homes of the people. This, of course, is the most
difficult part of the task 1t will necessarily be the
least factor in estimating the total amount or
food in the country, for it is impossible to go to
every household. About one household in every
five hundred will be asked for information, and
these will be chosen as to be representative But
in one way this household survey is as important
as all the rest of it put together; for it will be
study of the eating habits of the people
The method to be followed in Chicago is
good example of how this study is to be conducted.
The survey there is to be taken under the direction
of Miss Edith Abbott of the School of Civics and
Philanthropy, who will some of her students
in the work About six hundred families will be
chosen. In order to make these representative,
they wilk be, in the first place, families with in
comes of all sizes. The government has estimated
that twenty to thirty per cent of the urban fami-
lies in the United States have incomes of less than
eight hundred dollars, forty to sixty per cent have
incomes from eight hundred to fifteen hundred,
twenty to twenty-five per cent from fifteen hundred