money they get for it, buy the best wheaten bread that is to be had; and many of them never taste brown bread but in their soup.

The ammunition bread is delivered to the soldiers every fourth day, in loaves, each loaf being equal to two rations; and it is a rule generally established in the messes, for each soldier to furnish one loaf for the use of the mess every twelfth day, so that he has five-sixths of his allowance of bread, which remains at his disposal.

The foregoing account of the manner in which the Bavarian soldiers are fed, will, I think, show most clearly the great importance of making soldiers live together in messes.--It may likewise furnish some useful hints to those who may be engaged in feeding the Poor, or in providing Food for ships's companies, or other bodies of men who are fed in common.

With regard to the expense of fuel in these experiments, as the victuals were cooked in earthen pots, over an open fire, the consumption of fire-wood was very great.

On the 10th of June, when 9 lb. 30½ loths of soup, 1 lb. 28 loths of meat, and 5 lb. 24 loths of bread dumplins, in all 17 lb. 18½ of Food were prepared, and the process of cooking, from the time the fire was lighted till the victuals were done, lasted two hours and forty-five minutes, and twenty-nine pounds, Bavarian weight, of fire-wood were consumed.

On the 11th of June, when 11 lb. 26 loths of bread soup, and 8 lb. 8 loths of bread dumplins, in all 20 lb. 2 loths of Food were prepared, the process of cooking lasted one hour and thirty minutes;--and seventeen pounds of wood were consumed.

On the 20th of June, in Serjeant Kein's mess, 15 lb. of soup; 1 lb. 22 loths of meat, and 8 lb. of liver dumplins, in all 24 lb. 22 loths of Food were prepared, and through the process of cooking lasted two hours and forty-five minutes, only 27½ lb. of fire-wood were consumed.

On the 21st of June, the same quantity of soup and meat, and 7 lb. of bread dumplins, in all 23 lb. 22 loths of Food were prepared in two hours and thirty minutes, with the consumption of 18½ lb. of wood.

On the 22nd of June, 15 lb. of soup, and 10 lb. of meat dumplins, in all 25 lb. of Food, were cooked in two hours and forty-five minutes, and the wood consumed was 18 lb. 10 loths.

The following table will show, in a striking and satisfactory manner, the expense of fuel in these experiments:

Date of the Time employed Quantity Quantity Quantity
Experiments. in cooking. of Food of Wood of
Wood to
prepared. consumed. 1 lb. of Food.
June 1795. Hours. min. lb. loths. lb.
10th 2 45 17 18½ 29
11th 1 30 20 2 17
20th 2 45 24 22 17½
21st 2 30 23 22 18½
22d 2 45 25 0 18¼
-------- ----------- -------
Sums
5 12 15 111 0½ 100¼
-------- ----------- -------
Means 2 23 22 0 1/5 20 1/20 10/11 lb.

But it has been found by actual experiment, made with the utmost care, in the new kitchen of the House of Industry at Munich, and often repeated, that 600 lb. of Food, (of the Soup No. I. given to the Poor,) may be cooked with the consumption of only 44 lb. of pine-wood. And hence it appears how very great the waste of fuel must be in all culinary processes, as they are commonly performed; for though the time taken up in cooking the soup for the Poor is, at a medium, more than four hours and a half, while that employed by the soldiers in their cooking is less than two hours and a half; yet the quantity of fuel consumed by the latter is near thirteen times greater than that employed in the public kitchen of the House of Industry.

But I must not here anticipate here a matter which is to be the subject of a separate Essay; and which, from its great importance, certainly deserves to be carefully and thoroughly investigated.