The morning call., 1894-12-26
CHEAPEST FOOD.

The decline in the wholesale price of
Eastern hams to II cents is one of the
signs of the times. Something over 49,
600, ZOO hogs are slaughtered every year in
the United States and converted into hu-
man food. The quantity has not been in
creasing of late years. partly because the
Governments of France and Germany have
been trying to exclude the American
product. Great Britain consumes $40, 900
tons of our hog products annually, and all
the rest of the world together about 1885,,
600 tons; the rest is eaten at home. 1t
seems that production is fully up to con-
sumption, and that there is nothing in the
situation which is calculated to resist the
prevailing tendency toward shrinkage In
value. before the war hams rarely sold
in New York as high as IL cents, and in
the foIties the average price was nearer 5
cents than 10 cents. 1t would thus not be
unprecedented it pork products followed
cotton and fell to prices which not long ago
seemed preposterous. In the States of the
central valleys it does not cost much to
raise hogs; there is 30 saying a what fig
ure the farmers would abandon the bust
ness because it did not pay.
1t Is with pork as it is with bread. Time
was. not long ago, when it was an axiom
In farming science that there was no
money in wheat unless the grower got
cent a pound on the farm. For two or
three years growers nave been getting half
cent or less. but the price of wheat land
has not materially declined. 1t seems that
the farmers did not know what they could
do till they tried. So with the pork-pack-
ers. When pork began to decline, they
announced that they could not afford to go
on with the business. But now the
Armours are Offering first quality fine
hams at IL cents, and it has not been in
timated anywhere that their credit or their
profits are being impaired.
In the fifteen years boom through
which the country passed from 1878 to
1893 the prices Of all classes of goods
were gradually showed up, and consumers
paid the enhanced price without murmur-
ing. Now that setback has come there is
a disposition to restore equilibrium.
though producers naturally resist dimi-
mutton of profits. Yet they will yield 10
the inevitable. Take the case of bread A
an example. One hundred pounds of -four
will make 1856 pounds of bread, and the
price of LOAF of bread at the bakers is
based on the old quotation for -four. Now
bakers -four Is selling at So so a barrel.
The cost of the pound of bread to the
baker is about cents, to which must be
added the cost of labor, rent and interest
on investment; the cost to the con sumner
is about S cents, which leaves cents for
the cost of distribution and profit. This
is certainly handsome prof and will not
always be maintained, unless there should
be material ncreasein the price Of -four.
When times are not flush the proper ion
of bread TO meat consumed In the work
mans family always increases. Bread is
the best of al foods. 1t contains about 6S
per cent of nutritive elements TO 80 per
cent Of water. OF the nutritive elements
about sc per cent are carbohydrate IS, which
supply the body with such essentials as
starch aud sugar. A certain proportion
of animal food is necessary for the maih-
tenance of strength, but there Is no ali
ment on which children thrive so we'll as
bread. At present prices for bakers
bread it is no doubt among the cheapest of
foods, for the families who know how to
make good bread for themselves can uti-
lie the cheap -four of he period to save at
least One-half the expense of providing
themselves with the staff of life.