Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1909-04-22
PRICES OF WHEAT AND GARDEN
PRODUCE AT THE HIGHEST NOTCH
Flour So Dear Bakers Are Keeping Loaves at Usual
Size by a Heavy Charge of Air.
No Such Sums Paid in a Decade For Potatoes, Lettuce. .parauu
ETC., Yet Retailers Say the Profit is Not Theirs.
Wholesalers Deny There is a.connbinahon.

Chicago.-James A. Patten was
victorious again, when he was able to
sell more of his May wheat at the
record price of $1.38. The deal for
a time worked out very we'll for Mr..
Patten, but the real burden is being
borne by the people, who are working
hard for their loaves of bread and
are getting less and less for their
money every day on account of the
high prfcc-of~Aou
the advance in the price of wheat.
Bakers admit that bread is more
expensive than it has been for a long
time, although the increase is care
fully concealed from the buying pub
lie. The retail price Of bread is still
five cents a loaf, but IL housewives
were to take the trouble to weigh
the loaves which they purchase they
would soon discover that they are
rapidly diminishing in weight, al
though the size may remain the same.
Corpulent loaves can be manufac-
tured by a heavy charge of atmos-
phere, but that counts for little when
it comes to assauging the pangs OF
hunger. Bakers are not taking at
all kindly to the game of boosting
the staff of life now being played on
the Board of Trade.
New York City.-While the Patten
bulls in wheat in Chicago rushed
prices up to war quotations, some
thing Of the kind happened In the
local market for vegetables and
fruits. In Washington Market. for
instance, dealers were getting 81 and
$7.25 a barrel for Bermuda potatoes,
as against $3.50 a year ago. Aspar-
agus sold at SIS a dozen punches, as
against 1926 a year ago, and let
tuce brought twenty-five cents for
three heads about as big as a mans
hand. A year ago dealers were glad
to get ten cents for three heads. Gu
cumbers sold for six to ten cents
each.
Apples are almost as scarce as
wheat. Seven dollars a barrel is the
nominal quotation, but only the big
dealers have any to sell, and the best
are being sent to London. The New
York State crop was badly damaged
by the dry spell last summer, and
when it was sought to put the apples
in cold storage they wouldn't keep.
Colorado apples were similarly at
fected. Thousands Of barrels, deal
ers say. rotted and had to be thrown
away. The vegetable market has
been stiffened lately by three severe
frosts in Virginia, which killed all
growing stuff, and the farmers have
had to replant.
The keeper of a small fruit and
vegetable stand in Washington Mar
ket said that, while it would be de-
MED, he was sure there was a trust
which controlled wholesale prices and
had put them up to the present high
level.
1.-THE United Fruit Dealers Asso-
citation is doing this" he said, land
it tells us prices are going still
higher. Every dealer IN this place
pays the same price. There is no es-
cape. The bulk OF the vegetable
stuff we sell at this season comes
from Charleston, s. c.; Bermuda
and Florida, both by rail and steam
ship. Some stuff also comes from
California. There seems always a
scarcity, though now, after the Easter
demand has subsidized, prices ought to
go down. The Virginia frost will be