Elk City mining news. (Elk City, Idaho) 1903-1913, 1911-05-04
American Foods Lead.

livery Oulcldl report upon tne markets
of the European countries which are
the most prosperous and best fed of
the Old World states confirms the i'm
preston that American travellers get of
short national bills of fare, when they
go abroad. 1t is not a difference in
the quantity of food eaten, but of the
comparatively narrow choice, of vege-
tables and fruits especially, which the
average householder in Europe has I'M
der ordinary circumstances, says Ben
jamin Kari in Cleveland Inland Grocer
and Butcher
Few eatables known and priced in Eu-
rope are wanting in America, but many
things familiar here are lacking there.
Americans notice the difference when
they go abroad, and Europeans who
come to the United States to live are
soon conscious of the greater variety
of food within their reach here.
England, for example, the country
which spends more for food in proper
ton to its population than any other
state in Europe, gets along with scarcely
taste of green corn and hardly any
thing is known of sweet potatoes. There
are practically no watermelons and
muskmelons are a costly luxury grown
in hothouses or else imported from
Spain or Italy.
Americans miss cranberries in the fall
and winter and maple syrup and maple
sugar in the season when buckwheat
cakes are Grippe" at home. They miss
the buckwheat cakes, likewise. Ice
cream and ice cream saltwater are fast
gaining ground in Great Britain, but
they are still comparatively rare.
There are striking differences in
fruits. England has nothing to CORE
spond whit the common grapes of Amer
lea. Spanish grapes-the Malagas of
commerce-are cheaper in England than
they are in this country, but hardly as
cheap as California grapes are in their
season, and there are no grapes for
those who cannot afford to pay more
than the common grapes of America
bring in September, October and No
vember, in American cities and towns.
The contrast is more marked in
peaches In England they are a costly
luxury, never sold at anything like the
common prices in the United States or
in any such quantities. Rich men own
ing large grounds often grow them un-
der glass or trained against sunny
wall, and some are imported from south
ern Europe, every peach wrapped in
cotton and sold at fancy prices. The
working classes scarcely know the taste
of the peach.
Pineapples are sold in larger guam
titles in Great Britain than they were
until within the last few years, but a
recent official report places the price of
that fine fruit at from so cents to $1.45
apiece, for good pineapples, the highest
figures being reached about Christmas.
Through the winter it is common for
the market to range from 81 up to $1.20,
or even $1.30 apiece.
Oranges are used in England in large
quantities, and are as well known
throughout the United Kingdom as they
are in the United States, but the prices
are higher for fine fruit The supply
is obtained from Spain, Italy, the West
Indies, Palestine and North Africa, and
to some extent from California. The
large seedless "riaval' oranges from
that state sell at from cents up to
- cents apiece in England and other
parts of Europe.
This British scarcity of low-priced
fruit, of several kinds which are com
mon and cheap in America, does not
apply, in like degree, to warmer coun.
tries, such as Spain, Portugal and Italy
Grapes, melons and oranges are cheaper
and more commonly used there. Peaches
also are more abundant and not sc
costly.
But, on the other hand, such fruits
as raspberries, Strawberries, gooseberries
and currants are larger and finer il
England than they are in the Mediter
ranean countries All of them are com.
mon, of course, and cheap in season il
the United States.
Taking vegetables and fruits together
there is no part of the Old World where
the supply is so varied, so generous and
so cheap as it is in America. In GER
tain countries some fruits and some
vegetables are more plentiful and more
perfect than the average American
stock in an ordinary season, but there
are shortcomings which more than off
set these points of European superior
ity.
Altogether, Uncle Sam has the mos
ample bill of fare, with the greatest
variety and the lowest average cost thar
any country sets for its people.
Alaska Coal Controversy.