rley,
or rye, or wheat. Or, if he prefer it, let him plant the one half of the
piece with beans, peas, potatoes, beets, onions, etc. The one half of
the space devoted to the production of some sort of grain would still
half support his family; and it would require more than ordinary
gluttony in a family of five persons to consume the produce of the other
half, if the crops were but moderately abundant. A quarter of an acre of
it ought to produce, at least, sixty bushels of potatoes; but this
alone, would give such a family about ten pounds of potatoes, or one
sixth of a bushel a day, for every day in the year, which is a tolerable
allowance of food, without the grain and other vegetables.

But suppose a whole family were to live wholly on grain, as corn, or
even wheat, for the year; the whole expenditure would hardly, exceed
fifty dollars, in dear places and in the dearest times. Of course, I am
speaking now of expenses for food and drink merely, the latter of which
usually costs nothing, or need not. How small a sum is this to expend in
New York, or Boston, or Philadelphia, in the maintenance of a family!
And yet, it is amply sufficient for the vegetable-eater, unless his
family live exclusively on wheat bread, or milk, when it might fall a
little short. Of corn, at a dollar a bushel, it would give him eight
pounds a day--far more than a family ought to consume, if they ate
nothing else; and of potatoes, at forty cents a bushel, above twenty
pounds, or one third of a bushel--more than sufficient for the family of
an Hibernian.

Now, let me ask how much beef, or lamb, or pork, or sausages, or eggs,
or cheese, this would buy? At ten cents a pound for each, which is
comparatively low, it would buy five hundred pounds; about one pound and
six ounces for the whole family, or four or five ounces each a day. This
would be an average amount of nutriment equal to that of about two
ounces of grain, or bread of grain, a day, to each individual. In so far
as laid out in butter, or chicken, or turkey, at twenty cents a pound,
it would give also about two or three ounces a day!

Further remarks under this head can hardly be necessary. He who
considers the subject in its various aspects, will be likely to see the
weight of the argument. There is a wide difference between a system
which will give to each member of a family, upon the average, only about
four or five ounces of food a day, and one which will give each of them
more tha