Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-10-29
TWO CENTS A LOAF
Actual Cost of Manufacturing Bread Out
side Of Labor.
The Agricultural Department Issues
an Interesting Bulletin About
the Stan Of Life.

The waiter roared II through the hall:
I'VE don't give bread with one fish ball"
That was a good many years ago. There
are developments regarding the actual cost
of manufacturing the staff of life being
made with each recurring day which show
that 1t would be easy for even the most
clcse-fisted of retaurauteurs to give bread
with single fried oyster, much less fish
ball. The daily papers, and, casually, The
Star, have so fully proven that the former
price Of cents loaf was extortionate
when the prevailing prices for breadstuffs
were taken into consideration that the
bakers, after much backing and filling and
representations about milk and butter and
high-priced labor and other things entering
into the making Of bread. finally decided
to meet the public demand, that loaf
OF bread may now be purchased for cents,
or 70 per cent cheaper than before the
crusade began.
Agricultural Department Aroused.
The Agricultural Department has been
aroused to practical interest by the dis
cussion over the question, and with it's
usual commendable promptness to add to
the public knowledge on domestic questions
1t has issued a bulletin on the cost of
bread. The subject matter 1t contains Is
taken from a forthcoming report on the
relative value of foods prepared by Prof
w. o. Atwater.
In practice" says the bulletin 100
pounds of flour will make from 133 to 1877
pounds OF bread, an average being 1856
pounds.
Flour. such as is used by bakers, is now
purchased In the eastern states at not over
81 per barrel. This would make the cost
or the flour in a pound of bread about one
and half cents. Allowing one-half cent
Tor the shortening and salt, which is GER
V0r fIA s.I-
pound of bread would cost not more than
two cents. OF course. there should be
added to this the cost of labor, rent, IN
terest on investment, expense of selling
etc., to make the actual cost to the baker
Scarcity of Analyses.
VERY few accurate weighings and an
alyses of bakers bread have been made in
this country, so far as 1 am aware" con-
tinues Prof Atwater, but the above state
ment represents the facts as nearly as /
have been able to obtain them.
1.-THE average weight Of a number of ten
cent loaves purchased in Middletown, Conn.,
was one and one-fourth pounds. This
makes the price to the consumer eight cents
per pound. The price of bread and the size
of the loaf are practically the same now as
when -four cost twice as much.
THE cost of bakers bread is a COMPARE
lively small matter to the person who buys
only loaf now and then, but in the east
ern states and in the larger towns through
out the country many people, and especially
those with moderate incomes and the poor
buy their bread of the baker. Six cents
pound, or even half that amount, for the
manufacture and distribution seems a very
large amount.
Cheapness From Competition.
I'm the large cities competition has made
bread much cheaper, but even there the
difference between the cost of bread to the
well-to-do family, who make it themselves,
and to the family of the poor man, who
buys 1t of the baker, is unfortunately
large"
The report also goes into the chemistry
and scientific features of bread making.
The nutrients in bakers bread are protein,
per cent; fats, 2 per cent; carbohydrates,
90 per cent; mineral matter, l per cent.
Total, 6S per cent nutrients, and 81 per
cent water. In wheat flour the total
nutrients are So per cent, and water II per
cent, showing that the nutrients are largely
reduced by baking. The potential energy in
a pound of flour is 1000 per cent; in q
pound of bakers bread, 1850 per cent
With the increase in the proportion of
water in the bread, compared with the
flour, the proportion of nutrients is dimin-
ished, but the addition of shortening and
salts brings up the fat and minerals In
the bread, so that the proportions are larger
than in the flour.