fruits, and vegetables. We could easily show that less than one fourth of the toil of the laboring classes, which is now expended in the pork, beef, and dairy business, were it intelligently directed to legitimate and normal agriculture, would provide ample nutrition for all the millions that exist on the globe." R. T. Trall, M. D.
PROPORTIONATE COST IN LAND AND IN DOLLARS OF TYPICAL ARTICLES OF DIET:
| 100 Parts. | Muscle Making. | Heat and Fat Making. | Total. | Lbs a Year For a Man. | Acres Requ'd. | Cost. |
| Wheat | 14.6 | 69.4 | 84 | 560 | 13 | $11 |
| Oats | 17 | 66.4 | 83.4 | 560 | 12 | 10 |
| Beans | 23 | 58.7 | 81.7 | 577 | 1 | 26 |
| Peas | 23 | 60 | 84 | 560 | 1 | 25 |
| Potatoes | 2.4 | 22 | 24.4 | 2012 | 14 | 50 |
| Apples | 5 | 10 | 15 | 3136 | 14 | 40 |
| Figs | 5 | 58 | 63 | 775 | 12 | 60 |
| Prunes | 3.9 | 78 | 570 | 560 | 13 | 50 |
| Beef | 15 | 14 | 29 | 1650 | 4 | 200 |
This table shows that a person living on beef alone (if such a thing were possible) would require for his support twelve times as much land as if he lived on wheat or prunes alone, or sixteen times as much as if on potatoes or apples; the cost in money being eighteen times as much as for wheat, twenty as for oats, four times as for potatoes or prunes, five times as for apples, eight times as for peas or beans, etc. (Combining the inequalities, it might be said that beef represents 12 x 18, or 216 times as many items of cost—including land and money—as does wheat!)
Phosphorus is left out of the calculation, the per cent, being too small to materially alter the result as to the purpose intended. If the list were extended, still more striking contrasts would appear.
If we based our estimates and comparisons upon the use of only such food as is attractive, palatable, wholesome and nutritious in its natural state, uncooked, plant food would be still more overwhelmingly superior, both in point of economy and labor, and in every phase of lofty and noble sentiment.
