The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-11-12
SOME FITTING ABOUT
 BEANS IN BOSTON Gross Receipts in 1904 Were
 68,o0O Barrels THE PEOPLE WANT MORE The Demand Is Increasing and Bean Business of the Hub Has Att
 tained to Astonishing
 Proportions.
THE PEOPLE WANT MORE

From the Boston Herald.
 If any one should tell you that more
 money was spent each year in Boston Ill
 buying beans, baked beans, beans WHICH have made Boston known from one eho of the world to the other, than Wouio buy the largest batt1eship in the united States navy, you would be surpriseo' wouldn't you? And yet such is the case.
 In the year 1904 the gross receipts or
 beans in Boston were more than 6S,0Oo
 barrels. and to each barrel there are five
 bushels The average price at which
 these were sold by the wholesalers was S.85 A. bushel, and when these same beans
 were sold again by the retailers 10 'heir customers they brought at least an aver age of 12 cents a pound. or a. grand total
 of s6,598.272.
 With these remarkable figures Is it any
 wonder that people from far and wide
 have become accustomed to associate bos-
 ton with beans, and beans with Boston!
 Of course there are other places where
 beans are used, but they are not Boston
 beans, and can never be. unless perchance
 the man who superintends their baking happens to have served an apprenticeship in some of the Boston bakeries, but even in that event, unless all his helpers are Bostonians, there will be something, that indefinable something which makes Bos- tonf144s in foreign lands long for the beans baked in Boston, lacking.
 But seriously, tremendous has the demand for baked beans become in Bos- ton that two companies have been formed whose sole business Is to bake beans for the use of restaurants and quick lunch establishments One of these bean com panies used on an average 4OOO quarts
 week, and the other 10000, and yet the beans that these two companies bake and use are but a drop In the bucket com
 pared with the total consumption of the city.
 Demand Is Increasing.
 And the most remarkable feature of this remarkable consumption of. beans is
 that the demand Is steadily increasing,
 and that +, 900 more barrels of beans were
 sold in Boston in the year 1904 than in the
 year 1903. Naturally there are seasons in which there are a greater demand for this staple. than in others, notably the months from Thanksgiving to April. ,, Taking the receipts in Boston for 1904 of 6S 732 barrels, that would give the total number of bushels 34366O, or 10,997 ,120
 quarts. weighing 21,994240 pounds. Accepting as the population of Boston approximately 553,0OO, this would give each inhabitant, men and women, boys, girls and babies, an average of 37 quarts. Now the average pot in which beans | are baked Is a two-quart earthen affair, standing about 10 inches high. Taking the average height of the people of Boston 1 at 5 feet inches, 1t would require seven of these pots, placed one on top of the other, to equal this average height. Now
 we found that by the number of pounds | of beans consumed in this city last year there were enough for each person to have 37 quarts, and if it takes seven bean | pots to equal the height of the average | citizen, then the 37 quarts placed In the pots would reach the height of two and , five-sevenths times the average consum- | CTS stature. Further, these 37 quarts of | beans in themselves. without the addition | of the ingredients used in baking. would weigh 14S pounds, probably more than the l weight of the average citizen of Boston. | Truly this Is most remarkable condi- ] ton of affairs, when, allowing that every | living humon in Boston eats 37 quarts apiece, he eats more than his own weight and two and five-sevenths times his own | height. Obviously all people do not care | for beans, and consequently do not eat | them, that this average consumption,
 average weight and height are greater | than the figures above given. but, un- i fortunately. there are no statistics by which the latter amount may be com l puted.
 1 As a quart of beans put In the pot and ] baked takes up the bulk of two quarts
 when ready to be served, the basis of 21
 994240 must stand for the amount of
 beans after they have been baked Cost of Beans.
 | In the bakeshop which makes a business ] of providing restaurants and other eat l ing places with beans, the price is fixed | at 30 cents per gallon. This would give | in round figures 5.49S56O gallons, and at
 the rate of 30 cents gallon would give the amount In dollars $1,649.56S. But from | each gallon of beans the restaurants and 1 other eating establishments serve 12 DOT 1 tons. Figuring that these are sold at | 10 cents a portion, they give the amount | of $6,59S,272. Adding the cost of the beans | to the restaurants and the amount paid | by the customer gives the total of $S, PAT,
 S40 very tidy little sum. and greater by