New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1918-04-11
Housewife Can Make Dollar Go
Tar If She Knows How to Do 1t
Vegetables At Marked Decrease in Price Over Last
'eaf' Used Instead of Meat, Will Reduce Cost of
Llvng-Wheat Substitutes Flgh-Eggs Cheaper

The thrifty housewife trying to
make dollar feed as MANY as it did
year ago can almost do it in spite of
the war, recent investigation shows.
But she must be able to increase her
native shrewdness in proportion with
the cost OF living. And she must be
able to persuade her family that fresh
Vegetables taste just as good as red
meat.
The investigation shows that vcge-
tables are the one kind of food that
mas decreased in price. as compared
with year ago. Some items. such as
potatoes, onions and cabbages, have
decreased markedly. On the whole the
market in these commodities is, as
the merchants put it, "f. trihe easier"
II the housewife can take advantage
OF this fact, if she can persuade her
folks that potatoes are more desirable
than portcrhouse and cabbages than
bacon, then she can perhaps show bit
of saving in her monthly budget.
But otherwise she must resign her
self to putting 25 per cent more each
the fortune OF war.
The sympathetic Vegetable
She who yesterday bought Eve
pounds Of potatoes and stopped to
compare the price with that of year
ago may have been struck with the
thought: why, the cost of living has
actually gone down during war time"
Potatoes, due to special causes. were
unprecedcntedly high at this time last
year. Onions again offer contrast
that may be called sensational. A year
ago the prices on onions were entirely
fancy. The strongest of the vegetables
then brought SIS to 50 per hundred
pounds Wholesale, as compared with
60 cents to 81 to-day. But there was
at that time an onion trust in ex-
istence. such as to bring tears to the
eyes. That trust, along with many
other unwholesome combinations, has
been broken up, and onions are normal
again.
But many other vegetables were also
cup" at the time, out of sympathy"
as the dealers put If, with their kins-
folk, the potatoes and the onions.
Cabbages a year ago we're quoted
wholesale at Sl25 to $3.50 a ton, as
against SIS to $40 now Beets were
IS to $3.50 q barrel, as against 81 to
$3.50 now. Cauliflower were s. to
$3.50 a crate, as against 81 to S1.75
now.
THE articles which a year ago were
considerably high have come down to
normal and the others have kept steady
or shown only slight advance. Here
vegetables, as gathered yesterday from
stores and markets in widely separated
sections Of the city:
Year ago To-day
Cents Cents
Potatoes. per lb. .......... SM 9 s0l--
Beets. per h. l2Ml5 l5m IS
String beans. per III. ...... 25m-- 2om
Carrots. per bunch. ....... LOG 100
in general. the ups" and the
downs" about offset each other, as
paragus, Scotch peas, marrow beans
the same as this season last year.
The Farmer Does His Bit
IN dairy products. too, the prices
have remained encouragngly close to
last years figures, though there has
The scarcity price on eggs which OBJ
tanned during the coolest of last win
ter's weather has been broken. and re-
cent action, Federal or local, has been
specially effective as applied to the
products of the dairy.
Legs are up slightly, but the price
is considered phenomenally low Deal
es aver that they make little money
on them and carry them at present
chiefly as lead" Milk, as all moth
ers know, has gone up in the last year
from ] cents quart (Grade b. to
Is cents. Not many weeks ago it hit
16 cents, from which pinnacle it was
brought down a bit by official agree
ment.
But, strangely enough, the rise in