Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1908-03-17
The 8istmarek Trihue


Allowing that good, healthy feeder
will eat a quarter of pound Of
macaroni at meal, this would mean
one meal for 100000, 900 individu-
ais. 1t would give three meals day
for every day in the year for every
for every day in the year to nearly
one million four hundred and sixty
thousand people.
How many Parmesan eheeses, bu-
shells of tomatoes, rounds of beef,
burger as WAKEFIELD calls it, and
bushels of onions it took to prepare
this lot of macaroni I will not dare
to figure out.
Averaging durum wheat at 81
pounds to the bushel and averaging
35 pounds of -four produced to bu-
shell when milling, it took 12,000,-
600 odd bushels of durum wheat to
produce these 215,O00 tons of paste.
Its production gave employment
to 1900 people at, say, an average
of $3.50 per year, and meant an
outlay of O375,OO0 in wages.
The home Italian consumption of
macaroni is $4,000 tons, so the
Italians an their native campania
are macaroni eaters sure enough.
Only 10000 tons, or 40,OO0,00O
pounds leave Italy for export, and Of
this 100000, 24,000,o0O pounds
come to America. The price of 6
$40 cents per pound is presumably
the f. o. b. price at any Italian port,
so the macaroni manufacturers
abroad get $1,6s0,000 only out of
this country-but that is too much.
At 6 $40 cents per pound I would
figure 1882 per 1876 pounds of
-four, or barrel. If bushel of
wheat yiels 35 pounds of semolina
-four, then it takes just 5 6-10 bu-
shells of grain to barrel of -four.
What the price of macaroni or dur
UNI wheat may be in Italy I don't
know, but at $1.00 per bushel this
would make their macaroni -four cost
hem under $500 per barrel.
Now spread the wages paid, 1885,
900 over 100000 barrels of -four
and you find it costs II cents per
barrel in Italy for mere labor alone,
to work 1876 pounds Of macaroni
from start to fnish-labor only, no
allowance for rent, fixed charges
and the other items. Let us call
them another II cents, making II
"a cents complete to work 200
pounds of flour into paste, or II
cents per 100 pounds. q am guess
ing blindly here). So for the sake
of more figuring let us put down:
SIS bushels Of durum wheat at
$1.OO, $500 per Dbl.
Expenses of manufacture, labor
and general expenses, "a cents per
bbl
otal, 1874 per Dbl.
So, for round figuring, we will call
it $500 per barrel, Or cents per
pound, that the macaroni costs to
produce in Italy. If so, this means
3.S cents per pound profit, provided
they sell all their product at 6S
cents per pounl; or a profit of over
100 per cent, which does not seem
quite right as to figures, for manu-
facturers of staple foods do not as
a rule make 100 per sent clean, 10
per cent to 20 per cent being more
like the normal figure. So, where
are my figures wrong.
The 215,OO0 tons at 1000 pounds
to the ton, give 430, 900, 900 pounds
That's correct. And 200 pounds to
the barrel gives 2,150,0OO barrels
Of flour used. Allowing 35 pounds
of flour yield to bushel of wheat,
it certainly took 100000 bushels
of wheat to- turn out the given
amount of -four.
At $1.00 per bushel for wheat, Civ
ing the miller the 81 pounds of bran,
middlings, ETC., for his labor and
profit for milling, it would mean Sc
bushels of wheat to a barrel at a
cost of $500 per barrel for the mac
aroni -four. When the macaroni
manufacturer sells at 6.8 cents pei
pound he gets, in round figures, $13
so per barrel for his flour, out OF
which must come all labor and ex-
pense and profit, margin of $500
per barrel on the -four worked up
Something wrong somewhere.
The estimate of wages paid to the
1900 workmen it took to produce
this macaroni Of $250.OO each pei
year, for Italy, would be fair, ma,
be liberal wages. This works out g.
cents per barrel. We now have floul
and labor costing $500 and "a cents
as near as possible to $500. There
is $3.50 to be accounted for, so we
call the rent and fixed charges and
salaries 100 per cent on the labor
We get another "a cents per barrel
that reduces the visible profit te
$7.26 per barrel