Evening capital and Maryland gazette. (Annapolis, Md.) 1910-1922, 1917-10-26
THE ACTUAL COST OF A
FIVE CENT LOAF OF BREAD
Scientific Deduction Made By Prof E.
F. Laid, Of North Dakota Agri-
cultural College.

The following from Western
magazine is Of especial interest since
the price OF bread has advanced, and
because the scientist. DR. Ladd. who
made the deduction. is a son-in-law Of
Annapolis, his wife having been be-
fore her marriage Miss Rizpah Spro-
gle. OF this city. sister Of Mr. Daniel
S. Sprogle, of Garden Farms, West
Annapolis:
AT the recent meeting Of the Ma
tional Non-Partisan League at Mime
apolis, Prof. E. E Ladd, of the North
Dakota Agricultural College, gave
the following analysis Of the cost OF
barrel of -four and of loaf Of
bread.
1t is estimated that ~ bushels OF
wheat, or 270 pounds, will produce
that is, when it is milled TO 72.6 per
cent, and it has been recommended
that the per cent of flour should be
greater than this. but at 72.6 per cent
milled, there would remain, approx
mately, "A pounds of mill feed.
Let US take the cost Of wheat as
milled for producing one barrel of
-four. The miller does not. in the
larger commercial mills. use No.
Northern as the wheat from which he
produces his -four, but the average,
under the present grades, will prob
ably be about No. 4. Let US see, then,
what will be the cost of the wheat for
a barrel of -four on the Minneapolis
market if the basic price for No. /
Northern is $500 Chicago
First, there is a differential of 3
cents in freight, in favor of Mime
apolis. or the basic price at Mime
apolis would be SILT If No. 4 wheat
is used in the mills OF Minneapolis for
the production of the flour, then there
is another saving of 10 cents per
bushel or the cost of the what at the
mill door is $207. Let us assume that
the handling expenses, commissions,
etc, will bring this to $40 per
bushel as the value of the wheat that
goes upon the rolls; that means. then,
that the wheat at the rolls in the mill
has cost $9.45 for the barrel of flour,
or, to summarize, as follows:
The actual figures.
Wheat AZ blu. at s2.I0 per bu. s9.45
Cost of milling, per barrel. .. rs
Miller's profit ............... .25
Total. ...............,... .S10.45
Let us now ascertain what the re-
turns are from this product as milled
and converted into bread and feed
stuff:
MIL reed S1.25
The above, deducted from the cost of
the wheat, or S1O.45, minus $1.25,
equal 1920 as the cost of straight
-four, but the baker uses considerable
of grades lower than straight -four in
his shop. Nevertheless, let us trans
form this flour at 1920 per barrel into
14-ounce loaves of bread, and in some
parts of the country the average
weight of bread is found to be IA
ounces. and others 10 ounces. There
fore. we will take both sets of figures.
and the prices have varied from 5 to
10 cents per loaf We will, there
fore, use both sets of prices. One
barrel of -four will easily make 500
loaves of 14-ounce bread, or $50
loaves of Bounce bread.
Value of Loaves.
sc loo
800 14-ounce loaves. j. $500 $4,000
$50 12-ounce loayes. 80. 1900 $500
The cost of this flour was, as al
ready stated. 1920. Therefore, when
the bread is retailed at 5 cents per
loaf of IL ounces, which is about the
average size loaf in this section of the
country. there is a gain of $3.50 for the
material used in baking, and the cost
of retailing the bread, Or. if we take
the loaves at 10 cents, we have $3.50
as the difference Certainly it cannot
cost 21a times as much to convert
-four into bread and retail it as it does
for the farmer to raise the wheat,
transport it to the mill. and for the
miller to transform it into -four.
There was prepared and submitted
to the Committee on Price Fixing for
wheat. by j w Cullivan, statement
giving the approximate retail prices
for bread in several European coun-
tries as compared with Washington.
For the early Spring the data is as
follows. the composition being war
bread.
Wheat Price per
Country Ounces Loaf