Omaha daily bee., 1906-10-14
WHAT NEW YORK FEEDS ON
A Mountain Of Food Required Daily to
Keep the Population on the Go.
COSTS FOUR MILLION DOLLARS A DAY
Figures showing the Enormous Guam
titles of EatabIes and Drinkables
Consumed-COmpara Cost
of Necessaries.

1t has probably occurred to everybody in
New York City, at one meal time or an
other, that the 100000 inhabitants OF the
city must consume a mountain of food
every day.
They do. They eat whole battleship
Not actually one of Uncle Sans frst-class
sea fighters, but it's value in bread and
butter and other food.
A few days before Christmas the Rev.
Madison c. Peters of Epiphany Baptist
church announced to his congregation that
New York City's annual bill for beer. wines
and spirits amounted to $S65oOO,OOo.
Just one million dollars for every day in
! the year!
The minister's figures were founded on
the latest available statistics Of what New
York drinks, and they may be regarded as
| fairly accurate, no matter how startling
they seem.
New York, however. drinks other things
besides beer and wine. According to the
Year Book of the United States Depart
ment Of Agriculture, each New Yorker
drinks on an average nine and one-Quarter
gallons of coffee every year. This means
| that about 1888 pounds of coffee are
ground. boiled and consumed every day by
residents Of the city. The actual quantity
used up in New York daily is really much
greater than that, because allowance must
be made for the consumption in hotels,
where thousands Of transient visitors are
| fed
High Figures.
We eat in one form on another about
| 100000 strictly fresh eggs, fresh eggs and
| just eggs, every day. The United States
produces 10000, 900, 100000 eggs yearly, but
Greater New York does not get enough
of these to supply the local demand, so
Canada, Spain. Italy and even China have
to help us out. The imported eggs amount
| to 100000 dozen yearly.
Notwithstanding the 14O7s,2sS pints of beer
consumed daily in the city, New Workers
also manage to use up 1850 10000 gallons of
water, although, of course, not one-tenth
part of this is used for drinking purposes.
With the advent of cooler weather house.
holders are gradually cutting down their ice
orders and reducing the consumption. But
the total average daily consumption Of ice
| in New York is 24O00 tons. OF this, the ice
| trust provides one-half and independent
dealers the other half OF the independent
| ice, rather less than half is artificial, while
| thousands of tons to meet daily demand are
| brought from up the Husdon and even
| from Maine
The supply of wheat required to sustain
| the inhabitants Of the Borough of Man
! haitian alone represents the product of a
we'll cultivated area many thousand times
the area of the island itself. The people
| of Manhattan consume more than 49, 900
bushels of wheat a year. or almost 5000
bushels day. This is ground into many
different forms Of foods, but it by no means
represents the total consumption of foods
| of that character.
Every twenty-four hours in New York
sees the consumption of 5,1H,O00 pounds of
flour, 100000 pounds of yeast and 1900
pounds Of oatmeal and other cereal foods.
Daily Mountain of Meat.
The meat bill is pretty high. too. Here
| are the figures of the total average daily
consumption of meat in the city: Beef.
742S,0O0 pounds; mutton, 1,256,OO0 pounds /;
lambs, $4,000 pounds; ham, 10000 pounds
pork, $4,000 pounds. and veal, $4,000 pounds.
This represents large herd of cows. sheep
and pigs to be slaughtered to supply New
Yorks daily demand for fresh and smoked
and preserved meats.
| 1t should be understood of course that
the figures given for the beef, mutton and
other meat supplies are based on the actual
weight ION the hoof." Allowance must be
made for bones suet and waste in deter
mining just how much of the enormous
meat supply is really eaten.
| heverting once more to the quantity of
liquors which New York drinks it is in
teresting to note that in addition to 345-
900 900 gallons of water, 14,O7S 29f pints Of
beer and 1Oo,SS2 pints of wines and spirits,
we also consume 1,256,0OO quarts of milk
and $4,000 quarts of cream irrespective of
hundreds of cans of the same in condensed,
powdered and tabloid forms.
We also manage to get away with an
average of $4,000 pints of ice-cream in the
course of every twenty-four hours.
OF chickens geese, ducks, SQUAD. turkeys
and fowl, generally included under the
heading of game and poultry. a total of
3.42s,OOO pounds are required to meet New
York City's daily demand
Our bill of fare for one day also includes
1.4O0.O00 pounds OF potatoes, $4,000 pounds
of tongue. 100000 pounds of cabbages
beans ana other vegetables. 1872 900 heads
of lettuce, 5,056,0C0 pounds of fresh and pre-
served fruits, 1900 casks OF oysters clans
and mussels, and $4,000 pounds of fresh.
dried and imported fish.
Vast ImpOrtatiOns of Vegetables
Nobody will dare to deny when confronted
with these statistics that New York lives
| we'll
We import millions of dollars worth of
vegetables every day. Every day hun
dreds of barrels of potatoes arrive on
steamships from abroad. Many of these
come from Scotland. but they are not con-
sldered of as good quality as the home
grown article. Bermuda and the West
Indies send us very early potatoes. Many
squashes come from the Sandwich islands
Large quantities of lentils and Brussels
sprouts come in from Germany.
Almost every vessel arriving from Algiers
bring us artichokes. The best frogs come
from Ontario. Canada. and so do the
choicest sheep found in the New York mar
kets.
We get large quantities OF cheese crack
ers. pickles preserves and potted foods of
every kind from abroad. The West Indies
send vast shipments of early vegeta bles as
well as fruits.
The enormous amount OF vegetables I'M
loaded from foreign vessels at New York
would astonish the average person who
imagines that this country produces all We