Editing Oregon Trail (section)

===Food===
In 1855, the typical cost of food for four people for six months was about $150 which would cost almost $5,000 today.<ref>{{cite book |author = Dary, David |title = The Oregon Trail an American Saga |publisher = Alfred P. Knopf |location = New York |date = 2004 |page = [https://archive.org/details/oregontrailameri00dary/page/274 274] |isbn = 978-0-375-41399-5 |url = https://archive.org/details/oregontrailameri00dary/page/274 }}</ref>

Food and water were key concerns for migrants. Wagons typically carried at least one large water keg,<ref name="McLynn">{{cite book |author = McLynn, Frank |title = Wagons West: The Epic Story of America's Overland Trails |publisher = Random House |date = 2002 |pages = 103–104 }}</ref><ref name="Horsman">Reginald Horsman, ''Feast or Famine: Food and Drink in American Westward Expansion'' (University of Missouri Press, 2008), pp. 128–131.</ref> and guidebooks available from the 1840s and later gave similar advice to migrants on what food to take. T. H. Jefferson, in his ''Brief Practice Advice'' guidebook for migrants, recommended that each adult take 200 pounds of [[flour]]: "Take plenty of breadstuffs; this is the staff of life when everything else runs short."<ref name="McLynn"/><ref name="Horsman"/>

Food often took the form of [[Cracker (food)|crackers]] or [[hardtack]]; Southerners sometimes chose [[cornmeal]] or [[pinole]] rather than [[wheat]] flour.<ref name="McLynn"/>  Emigrants typically ate [[rice]] and [[bean]]s only at forts stopped at along the way, because boiling water was difficult on the trail, and fuel was not abundant.<ref name="McLynn"/> [[Lansford Hastings]] recommended that each emigrant take 200 pounds of flour, 150 pounds of "[[bacon]]" (a word which, at the time, referred broadly to all forms of [[salt pork]]), 20 pounds of [[sugar]], and 10 pounds of [[salt]].<ref name="McLynn"/><ref name="Horsman"/> [[Chipped beef]], rice, [[tea]], dried beans, [[dried fruit]], [[Sodium bicarbonate|saleratus]] (for raising [[bread]]), [[vinegar]], [[Pickled cucumber|pickles]], [[Mustard (condiment)|mustard]], and [[tallow]] might also be taken.<ref name="McLynn"/><ref name="Horsman"/>  Joseph Ware's 1849 guide recommends that travelers take for each individual a barrel of flour or 180 pounds of ship's biscuit (i.e., hardtack), 150–180 pounds of bacon, 60 pounds of beans or [[pea]]s, 25 pounds of rice, 25 pounds of [[coffee]], 40 pounds of sugar, a keg of [[lard]], 30 or 40 pounds of dried fruit ([[peach]]es or [[apple]]s), a keg of clear, [[Rendering (animal products)|rendered]] beef [[suet]] (to substitute for butter), as well as some vinegar, salt, and [[Black pepper|pepper]].<ref name="Horsman"/> Many emigrant families also carried a small amount of tea and [[maple sugar]].<ref name="McLynn"/>

[[Randolph B. Marcy]], an army officer who wrote an 1859 guide, advised taking less bacon than the earlier guides had recommended. He advised emigrants to drive cattle instead as a source of fresh beef.<ref name="McLynn"/> Marcy also instructed emigrants to store sides of bacon in canvas bags or in boxes surrounded by [[bran]] to protect against extreme heat, which could make bacon [[Rancidification|go rancid]].<ref name="Horsman"/> Marcy instructed emigrants to put salt pork on the bottom of wagons to avoid exposure to extreme heat.<ref name="Horsman"/> Marcy also recommended the use of [[pemmican]], as well as the storage of sugar in [[Natural rubber|India rubber]] or [[gutta-percha]] sacks, to prevent it from becoming wet.<ref name="Horsman"/>

[[Canning]] technology had just begun to be developed, and it gained in popularity through the period of westward expansion. Initially, only upper-class migrants typically used canned goods.<ref name="McLynn"/> There are references in sources to canned [[cheese]], fruit, meat, [[oyster]]s, and [[sardine]]s.<ref name="McLynn"/> By the time Marcy wrote his 1859 guide, canned foods were increasingly available but remained expensive. Canning also added weight to a wagon. Rather than canned [[vegetable]]s, Marcy suggested that travelers take dried vegetables, which had been used in the [[Crimean War]] and by the U.S. Army.<ref name="Horsman"/>

Some pioneers took [[Egg as food|eggs]] and [[butter]] packed in barrels of flour, and some took [[Dairy cattle|dairy cows]] along the trail.<ref name="McLynn"/> [[Hunting]] provided another source of food along the trail; pioneers hunted [[American bison]] as well as [[pronghorn antelope]], [[Odocoileus|deer]], [[bighorn sheep]], and wildfowl.<ref name="McLynn"/> From rivers and lakes, emigrants also fished for [[catfish]] and [[trout]].<ref name="McLynn"/> When emigrants faced starvation, they would sometimes slaughter their animals ([[horse]]s, [[mule]]s, and [[ox]]en).<ref name="McLynn"/>  In desperate times, migrants would search for less-popular sources of food, including [[coyote]], [[fox]], [[jackrabbit]], [[marmot]], [[prairie dog]], and [[rattlesnake]] (nicknamed "bush fish" in the later period).<ref name="McLynn"/>

At the time, [[scurvy]] was well-recognized, but there was a lack of clear understanding of how to prevent the disease.<ref name="Horsman"/> Nevertheless, pioneers' consumption of the wild [[berry|berries]] (including [[chokeberry]], [[gooseberry]], and [[serviceberry]]) and [[Ribes|currants]] that grew along the trail (particularly along the [[Platte River]]) helped make scurvy infrequent.<ref name="McLynn"/><ref name="Horsman"/> Marcy's guide correctly suggested that the consumption of wild [[grape]]s, [[Leaf vegetable|greens]], and [[onion]]s could help prevent the disease and that if vegetables were not available, [[citric acid]] could be drunk with sugar and water.<ref name="Horsman"/>

Mostly middle-class emigrant families prided themselves on preparing a good table. Although operating [[Dutch oven]]s and kneading dough was difficult on the trail, many baked good bread and even [[pie]]s.<ref name="McLynn"/>

For fuel to heat food, travelers would collect [[cedar wood]], [[Populus sect. Aigeiros|cottonwood]], or [[willow]] wood, when available, and sometimes dry prairie grass.<ref name="McLynn"/> More frequently, however, travelers relied on "[[cow dung|buffalo chips]]"—dried bison dung—to fuel fires.<ref name="McLynn"/> Buffalo chips resembled rotten wood and would make clear and hot fires.<ref name="McLynn"/> Chips burned quickly, however, and it took up to three [[bushel]]s of chips to heat a single meal.<ref name="McLynn"/>  Collecting buffalo chips was a common task for children and was one chore that even very young children could carry out.<ref name="McLynn"/> As a result, "memoirs written by those who were very young when they made the journey west invariably refer to this aspect of life on the trail."<ref name="McLynn"/>