The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-05-12
HOLLAND SUFFERS
 HIGH FOOD PRICES


 The Hague, May 11.-Honand is now suffering from high food prices. the result of various causes, chief of which was the rush of Dutch pro- ducers at the beginning of the war to take advantage of the increased de- l mand from abroad and the conse- quent1y augmented rates offered by foreign buyers
 Retail prices of a number of artf- l c1es of consumption have risen in eyer-increasing ratio ever since the outbreak of hostilities Statistics l covering 27 articles have been com piled and these show that, figuring the average cost at 100 during the past twenty years, the prices have now risen by 80 per cent Prices, however, started going up some time before the war. In fact since 1907 they have been rising steadily two or l three points year until July 1914. when they stood at 113. From Au- gust to December last year they 1 jumped suddenly to 121, in January this year they had mounted to 129, in February to 13o and they are still go- ing up.
 Meat, especially pork, has gone up 1 considerably in price. Part of this increase is due to the rise in fodder, hay and oiIcake. but much of it has been brought about by the passing over the frontier into Germany of l live animals, whose further export, however has been forbidden. Meal talso has been exported in large quantities, Germany taking in Febru- ary this year alone about 8,750,000 pounds of pork and Great Britain B. I 500sO00 pounds from Holland. The price of first quality beef; light 1 weight, wholesome, has gone up since August last from an. average of 16 l cents to IS cents a pound, while the retail price has increased from 22 to. 26 cents pound. Pork, hveweight, wholesale, which cost in August 1-2 l cents pound, now fetches Is 1-2 cents a pound, while the retail butch er's price has risen in the same time from an average of about 19 cents to about 2s cents a, pound
 l Potatoes form one of the products | of which Holland always possesses a surplus, and the question of their profitable export is an important con- sideration. A large part of the cu1ti- vated landI in Holland is planted with I them, the total extent being about
 400, 900 acres, most of it in the four Il northern provinces The quantity of the crop produced annually is about i 2,400,000 tons, valued at about S2S,- I 0O0,o00. About 100000 tons of this I quantity is ground into potato flour
 for which since the war began there has been an enormous demand from
 Germany. There was also a greater
 demand for potatoes in Holland. it.
 self owing to the presence of so many BeIS1an feIug6eS ana also to the use of potatoes for cattle feed instead of
 oilcake, which had become high in
 price. At one time there was a dan ger of a shortage of potatoes in this
 country in consequence of the in-
 creased exports and the minister of agriculture for a. time prohibited their export as @ precautionary measure in
 order to keep sufficient of them in
 stock for emergencies. Several of the
 larger cities bought up stocks at the
 same time, but the municipalities are
 now finding they made a mistake, for
 the potatoes are still on their hands
 and some of them are rotting. The
 exports in the first seven months of the war reached a total of S7O,O00
 the entire year of 1913, while the ex-
 port of potato flour amounted from
 November 1914 till March 1915 to
 about 78 ,o0O tons or nearly 44,0OO
 tons in excess of the export in the
 same period of 1913-1914. The high
 prices paid by Germany made the Io-
 cal price mount and the government
 found itself compelled to fix maxi
 mum price for retail selling, as the
 working classes had begun to feel the
 pinch.
 Cabbages and other green vege-
 tables have also become more expen-
 sive since Germany has been calling
 garden produce. The truck garden 1 CTS are naturally making good
 profits and the Dutch consumers find
 themselves compelled to pay more
 for their vegetables. The truck farm
 CTS, however, are making strong op-
 position to a proposal to regulate or
 prohibit exports Of these products
 which they declare would ruin their
 business. They argue that the sale