The Opelousas courier., 1883-07-28
The Cracker Industry.

ABOUT are LlFeSteu III IHo
manufacture of bread, cracker and
other bakery products in this country,
representing some 1000 establishments,
$40, 1000, 1000 in materials, giving an an
nual production of $70,000,u00. It
has almost passed into a proverb that
few bakers die rich. However that
may be, we know that there are many
men who have become wealthy in the
cracker business. The manufacture of
the cracker has become an important
specially in bakery products.
The origin of the cracker, and a dis
tinct article of bread food, is enveloped
in mystery. Shakespeare may have
had some reference to it when he sag
gested the conundrum, "What craker
IS this same that deafs our ears?" hay
ing received, perhaps a violent blow on
the ear with a piece of "hard tack"
The ~unearthing of debris III subter-
ranean Pompeii and Herculaneum has
brought to light specimens of petrified
circular and fiat substances very much
resembling the cracker of the present
day, which once might have been en-
sale in the bread-shops Of those I'M
fortunate cities. But as al article en-
tering into the domentic ecsnomy the
cracker is of modern use, and in some
respects is a necessity.
The food preparation of Massachusetts
represent a total product of about $70,-
100000 annually, and included in this is
the manufacture of the cracker, in it's
various forms, conditions and qualities,
from the large pilot-bread cracker to q
cracker no larger than a ten-cent piece.
A leading cracker manufacturer has on
his private scale of prices no less than
seventy-fve different kinds of the edi-
bl@, combining all sorts and sizes, en-
b. sing commons and sweets, plains
and fantasies, hard and softs, regular
and irregulars, rounds and squares
in fact, varieties sufficient to satisfy the
demand and the appetite of the most
exaetiag plebeian or otherwise.
In the city of Boston some $5,000,000
are invested in the production of food
products, no small part of which is in
the manufacture of the cracker. The
business here is practically confined to
o dozen establishments, several of
whose ovens are heated in Cambridge.
The Boston cracker" is an article of
bread food as familiar as d household
word. It is eaten in all climes, ever
under the seorching rays Of the torrid
zone. It stands for civilization and
peaceful conquest. It represents the
acme of understanding.
The demand for the cracker grows
with the growth of the country, and as
an article of foreign exportit is assum-
ing considerable Importance. One
leading manufacture-whese establish
ment is the largest and best appointed
in this section of the country employing
a large number of hands and consuma
ing hundreds of barrels of -four week
ly-now exports his products not only
to Chicago and the West, but to for
eign points, ven so far away as Aus
tralia and New Zealand. The larg-
est cracker-makers purchase their -four
by special contract with Western mill
ers and secure especial rates of freight,
thus obtaining their chief material at
bottom prices. One OF the marked
features of the cracker business is it's
peddler trade, by which not only stores
throughout the country towns are
supplied, but also families regularly
at stated prices. No well-regulated
family is now without its box of crack
ers in the house. The greatest care
is taken in boxing crackers. The name
of the packer is written on a slip of
paper, which is inclosed with each box,
and in case the box Is returned for
good reasons the packer, as a penalty
of his or her carelessness, is obliged to
forfeit the price of the box. We do
not know that this rule prevails among
all the eracker-makers, but it certainly
does with one large concern whose
goods have become famous.
Cracker-making has become quiet an
art and, coupled with the machinery