charity which should
supply him with fine white loaves instead, would in effect kill him by a
lingering starvation.

Again, the pork-grower who buys bran from the miller, wonders at the
remarkable feeding and fattening effect which this apparently woody and
useless material has upon his animals. The surprise ceases, however,
and the practice is encouraged, and extended to other creatures, when
the researches of the laboratory explain to him what the food itself
contains, and what his growing animal requires.

Economy as well as comfort follow from an exact acquaintance with the
wants of our bodies in their several conditions, and with the
composition of the various articles of diet which are at our command. In
the present condition of the country, this economy has become a vital
question. It is a kind of Christian duty in every one to practise it as
far as his means and his knowledge enable him.

Perhaps the amount of the economy which would follow the use of whole
meal instead of fine flour, may not strike every one who reads the above
observations. The saving arises from two sources.

First, The amount of husk, separated by the miller from the wheat which
he grinds, and which is not sold for human use, varies very much. I
think we do not over-estimate it, when we consider it as forming
one-eighth of the whole. On this supposition, eight pounds of wheat
yield seven of flour consumed by man, and one of pollard and bran which
are given to animals--chiefly to poultry and pigs. If the whole meal be
used, however, eight pounds of flour will be obtained, or eight people
will be fed by the same weight of grain which only fed seven before.

Again, we have seen that the whole meal is more nutritious--so that this
coarser flour will go farther than an equal weight of the fine. The
numbers at which we arrived, from the results of analysis, show that,
taking all the three sustaining elements of the food into consideration,
the coarse is one-half more nutritive than the fine. Leaving a wide
margin for the influence of circumstances, let us suppose it only
one-eighth more nutritive, and we shall have now nine people nourished
equally by the same weight of grain, which, when eaten as fine flour,
would support only seven. _The wheat of the country_, in other words,
_would in this form go one-fourth farther than at present_.

But some one may remark, if all this good is to come from the mere use
of the bran, why not recommend it