The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-12-16

II she Is tardy about starting In she makes
up for it further along.
Yes, country eggs are soaroe tuss now,
and the supply will not increase mnon
probably for six weeks 70 come. but prices
VIII not 60 higher, for the reason that
housekeepers won't stand for IL.
In poultry there has been a Is per cent.
advance In the last Ave years, but comparing
this years prices with last years there its
Little difference. But In all my experience
OF forty-odd years I have never known
such a ~fiuctuation In prices as that which
marked the sales during the week before
Thanksgiving and which indicated an
attempt 10 speculate on The part OF the
commission merchants which didn't turn
out an well as they expected.
For instance, the Monday before Thanks
giving paid % cents at wholesale for the
best grade turkeys; the day before hanks
giving the same grade was offered for II
cents a pound. just now. however, the
nrst class article In no higher at whole
sale than IL was one year ago.
How about retailsp. the merchant was
asked. Have not many retailers Of all
sorts OF produce put up prices on their
own accounts
TO some extent, yes. for the reason
that rents ar higher and labor costs more
than 1t did q few years ago7'
Fifteen per cent. higher9'
We'll, no. But then every dealer doesn't
charge Is per cent. more for his goods than
he did one year ago.
yes, I know. living costs from 20 TO 10
per cent. more now than it did . year or
two g is the statement we see in print
every day or 30, but it isn't true. Some
products are considerably higher; many
others, including most dry groceries, are
no higher. In some cases they are lower.
Most Of the California and Florida fruits
are sold at auction when they reach this
market, and the finest Of these Of late have
shared in the high price boom. Undoubt-
eddy this is the fault Of the dealers and
not because the supply is below the average
or that freight rates are higher now than
twelve months ago. Personally I am in
clined to doubt that there Ia q shortage
Of California fruits either fresh picked or
dried. 1t Is a case Of speculation and
speoulators.'
An of1cer of the United Dressed Beef
Company denied that the cost OF beef
had advanced at all in many years.
Beef is not one cent higher this year
than last year, or than it has been for half
a dozen or more years." said this man.
Whatever fluctuations in price are found
at the retail shops are OF the retailers W
making. The finer, fancy grades OF beef
are always scarce and they always COM
mand very high prices at retail, although
at wholesale we don't ask more than the
regular schedule price.
Buy a porterhouse steak o. Fifth or Sixth
avenues and the price asked is % or maybe,
30 cents a pound. Buy a porterhouse
or sirloin steak over on Second avenue
n it costs 12H cents. Naturally the one
is much finer than the other, but there is
not enough diff erence TO warrant the diff
ference in price"
With mutton, lamb and veal IL is diff erent,
the dealers admit, Aman at the New York
Veal and Mutton Company a the opin-
ion that mutton and lamb were % per cent.
higher h five years ago., and he adj
duced some figures to show the advance in
the last two years. In November, 1904,
dressed mutton at wholesale was OK cents
a pound for the whole carcass, and lamb
81 cents q pound, and in December the
price was 0 cents for mutton, 1914 for lamb.
In 1905, for November and December, the
quotations ~were-mutton 10 cents and 10
cents. lamb II cents and liz cents.
November mutton this year sold at eH
cents, lamb at TX, and in the first week
OF this month the price OF lamb had adj
vanoed to IL cents, mutton dropping q
quarter OF a cent.
The live price Of veal in 1904 was 8 cents
a pound; in 1906 81 cents, and at the
present time sI cents a pound.
Most OF our mutton comes from Canada,
Michigan and Ohio the man explained.
We used to get every spring about 1000
lambs from New Jersey, but this year we
didn't get 5000. Farmers who used to raise
sheep turned their attention to something
else. The depreciation In stock his year
Is at least 90 per cent, and the scarcity OF
good lamb and mutton is what has caused
the jump in prices.
But this state OF things ia being remedied
right now. Many farmers who abandoned
sheep raising in favor OF giving their atten-
ton to dairy products are now abandoning
dairy products and going back into sheep
raising. The present scarcity will not last
much longer, l am sure
The public has no occasion to growl
over the price Of dry groceries, said the
manager Of leading grocery house. Sugar,
tea, coffee, -four are not a fraction higher
than they have been for several years,
neither are cereals sold by the PACKAGE
The manager Of another large concern,
with stores all over the city, acknowledged
that cereals were no higher sold by the
package, but said that the packages were
10 short in weight.
.As for canned goods, tomatoes which
we now get 10 cents a can for we sold this
time last year for 7 cents, and yet everybody
knows that the tomato crop for the last two
years was splendid. It's simply q question
OF the middlemen taking advantage Of the
upward drift in the prices OF other articles.
There is a lot Of talk about labor being
higher than formerly, and maybe it is in a
few, a very few instances. but the rank and
file OF employees in any produce business
are not paid 1 per cent, II 70 much, more
wages than they were paid a year ago.
The average ~housekeeper In moderate
circumstance spends at least a third more
than she did, say, ten years ago for pro-
visions, not 30 much because provisions are
hikher in p~rice-they are at the most five
per cent. higher-but because she buys
more ~extravagantly than formerly, buys
va~atahlaa noultrv and other th;n0a o,,.