: SC - Another Inconsistency {Long}

[RANDALL DIAMOND]

John le Burguillun wrote:

>Even if a peasant spent 12 hours per day performing any of these
>they'd have the energy left to use up another 2,000 calories before
>curling up in the straw with their farm animals and fleas.  As anyone
>who's done this type of labor can tell you, you can't physically
>maintain this pace for more than a few days without exhaustion setting
>in.  Since she was refering to their everyday existence, not special
>circumstances, I would question the 6,000 figure {especially since she
>makes this generalization for peasants as a class, not just those who
>worked the fields all day}.

Have you factored in that Europes' day from Germany on north is longer
than a similar US climate due to its being at a higher lattitude?   They 
worked not 12 but often 15-16 hours days in getting enough food grown.
The proportionality of harvest to seed was grossly different from today 
also, about 3 to 1 vs. 30-50 to 1 now.  They had much more acreage to
tend to produce moderate yields.  Also, the mean temperature was 
also much cooler and growing seasons shorter.  That necessitated
more intense, concentrated labor growing and burned off far more 
calories than we do in our temperature controlled environments 
just keeping warm.  This could easily account for 2,000 to 3,000
extra calories.  You can not apply modern measuring sticks to period
life easily because it is difficult to conceive all the hardships and other
factors for a thorough analysis.  Good shot at it though and good 
information.

Akim Yaroslavich
"No glory comes without pain"