The sun., 1919-08-24
Meal for Five
Persons Show S
ProducerRe
82Cents From $11
Check While the
BulkGoes toHotel
OverheadExpense
BY JOHN w. HARRINGTON.

TO a quintet of farmers may become
an epoch meal?
After paying the check without pro-
test the group had a conference with
the President OF these United States
and told him that So cents represented
all of the S11 which tho farmers of
the nation received of the amount.
How much of the dollar which we
consumers pay for our daily fare of
meat and drink actually gets back to
the producer2 The sons Of the glebe,
represented in this instance by repre-
sentatives of the National Federation
of Farm Bureaus, have been asserting
for months that the farmer had little
or nothing to do with the high cost OF
living.
Starting from this 81 checl: as q
base line, let us see how much OF It
really got to the toiler on the
acres of the Western States, where
most Of our food originates, and how
much went up into the high mountain
OF hotel overhead"
The test meal consisted, according
to the estimate OF the representatives
OF the federation. Of the following
items, with their calculated returns to
the farmers: Beef (porterhouse
steak), two pounds. SO cents; potatoes
IL cents; bread, Q cents: butter, z
cents; coffee, cream and Sugar, 4
cents. and corn. 20 cents. This would
give a return Of per cent. of the bill
to the producers. 1t is not hard to
follow these estimates, II, for the pres
ent, the steak is set to one side, for
even experts who are we'll disposed to
the farmers side of the matter do not
believe that all the factors have been
considered.
Corn Prices Vary.
Now corn, roasting ears being in
season. Is something about which
there can be no difference of opinion.
In cheap restaurants and hotels of this
city part of an ear. counted as
portion, is cold for 10 cents, while in
middle class restaurants it is on the
bill of fare at 20 to 25 cents an ear,
and in expensive hotels and restau-
rants the tariff is from 80 to 40 cents
the ear. Corn is corn, Just the same
corn which used to be hawked about
the streets in kettles in the ante bel
lum days Once in while on the
East Side Of the city the cry of Hot
corn!" still is heard.
"Corn?" said II. w. Collingwood, the
editor of the Rural Neto Yorker. Wei,
swth corn l am somewhat familiar, as
d dshave farm out in New Jersey where
! raise II, and from which 1 sell 1t at
times to the trade. Sweet corn, such
as is served in many restaurants, is
sold by many farmers at $3.50 a hun
dred ears. Recently had very good
luck with my Early Mammoth corn,
and was able to command what was
considered an unusual price for it, SO
, a hundred. or three cents an ear. But
these ears were fully a foot long and
the corn was OF exceptionally fine
quality.
II sold a carload OF II to a commits
sion dealer in the Harlem market, and
he distributed it, as far as / could
Judge, to high class restaurants and
hotels. Two days after the sale 1 was
having luncheon at a good class res
taurant, although one not rated as ex-
pensive, and saw the man next to me
order sweet corn. The waiter served
an ear which looked like some of my
own planting and charged the custo-
mer twenty cents for 1t. All that the
restaurant man had to do was to strip
of the husk and boil the ear for a few
minutes. The price Of that ear of
corn was seven times what the farmer
had received. approximately. Corn of
not nearly as good quality is being
sold at thirty cents an ear in some
restaurants.
Pound for Pound.
THE farmers who called on the
President had bread. 1t is generally
accepted that a pound OF wheat makes
a pound Of bread. OF course, not that
much -four goes into the bread, because
there is a loss from the milling, the
separation OF the bran and the mid
dlings and all the other products, and
yet what with the addition of the wa
ter and the yeast we may say that the
rule given works out in practice. Even
at the present price OF wheat-which
by the way, the farmers OF the coun-
try do not find at all satisfactory-the
sixty pounds OF wheat in the cereal,
which is the weight OF a bushel, nov
selling at $2.06 on the average, will
make sixty pounds OF bread. The
farmer. therefore, gets out of a pound
OF bread three and half cents. The
average amount of bread served to
a person in restaurants is four ounces,
which would mean that usually bread
brings forty cents a pound when sold
in that way. 1t will be seen that the
calculation of the FIVE farmers is
fairly accurate along this line.
ounce to each person in the average
restaurant. Allowing a top price OF
fifty-five cents for butter, this means
three and half cents an ounce. Many
restaurants give barely half an ounce.
1t may be seen on looking over cur
rent prices paid to producers of but
ter in July that 40 cents is the aver
age reported by the Department of
Labor, or approximately three cents
the ounce for a high grade of butter
which is quoted at retail at SO cents in
Washington Market. Probably the
g.. farmers, being busy with roasting
ears. had an extra supply Of butter,
but this Is not taken into the account
by Mr.. Collingwood.
Potatoes" continued the editor
are sold at rather higher prices in
restaurants. had occasion the other
Gay to address some farmers out in
Ne" Jersey. and on my way 1 bought
AT restaurant a portion OF potatoes
Tor which I paid 10 cents. They
weighed just three ounces boiled
fnat means SO cents a pound. or Ss1