Norwich bulletin., 1922-03-10
(WFaten Specially for The Baaletin.l


With a comparatively small city, ike
Norwich, It Is fairly easy TO show how
the city's nearby territory could. under
Rsscesslty; furnish + az the foods It needs
But with q whale Of city, IKE New
York the pfoposit.on ID different The
feeding OF five OF SIX million people Is
nanifestly 4 bigger problem than the
feeding Of thirty on forty thousand
Does anyone seriously claim that sich 2
tremendous market as that Of Greater
New York could be Adequately supplied
from closely adjacent farns7
Wen, let's lock at the thing for q few
minutes. Let's AVOID making any claims
Of any sort. at the outset. but Just null
around the edges bit and See what
shows Itself. Lets netther assert nor
deny, but just sktrrnish after such facls
Is come within range Of our vision. Then
nobody will have to draw In his horns
or sing small no matter how # turns
Some statisttcians connected with Co.
lumbia university have recently got to-
gether a lot of facts and figures which
Will help US amazingly in making a
start. They have been hard at work for
a long fine finding out about how much
Of each form Of food New York city
consumes every week; where It mostly
comes from; how lar Il has TO be
brought; and how many landings II
goes through. after reaching the city.
The first public use they make Of theil
| collected material is an attempt to tnolla.
| fly the Irritation Of city consumers oyeI
| the high retail prices Of their foods. b.
accenting sharply the costs Of getting
those foods to their kitchens. That ISM
! at all our purpose. We may even smll,
| a little incredulously at the idea tina.
| any mere coIlocat4on Of figures viii eve;
smooth the scowGs off a city housewife
face as she queries the prices denande,
for potatoes and onions, and pork chop
and beef steaks, and celery and cabbage
and grapefruit and grapenuts. We ma,
even go so far as TO insinuaGe that |
would really be better to seek out som
way Of alleyiating that housewives de
priyations than to spend time in tryin
to make her contenfed under them. Blu
let all that pass. The statistics the
have collected are Informative. in hlg
degree, as to our different question
That question b not h1w much d
these foods cost now? hut could thos
h-ngs be raised nearer Neg York cit
and SO supplied it cheaper and fresher?
The statisticians have found out for q
that New York city draws on eleve
states for IT'S lettuce; on twenty on
states for its onions; on eleven state
; for its Strawberries; on seventeen state
for its pota oes, etc. To sum all up, tn
big city acquisitions IT'S fruits and FveEt
tables, leaving meats and grains tempS
rarity out of consideration. from no lei
than thtrty-seven states and twelve fol
eign countries or islands. Some Of theg
things are brought to 1t from producer
twelve thousand miles away; New ZeE
land, for example. The average haul
the whole tremendous total Is about or
thousand miles.
At present freight Yates the me,
transportation Of New York city's mi
lions Of tons OF food products costs Il
consumers Millions upon millions of do
lars. II the average haul Of thousar
miles could be cut down to an averas
Of five hundred, that one saving wou
lalve those millions Of freight charg,
, and correspondingly reduce the cost
the transported foods II the ayeras
haul could be reduced to two hundrt
and fifty miles, 1t would cut freight COS
!. to q quarter of their present exorbitanc
: Now. though New York is on the sci
: coast. and . circle Of two hundred al
! fifty miles around It would take In q COZ
! would still include a good deal Of far
v land-al1 Of Connecticut and New Jerse
t for ms ance, and goodly parts OF Ne
n York stats, Pennsylvania, Massachuseti
s etc
e Would II be humanity possible for Il
farms Included IN such q circle to supp
all the food demands of New York cit,
At first thought, you'd simply laul
and say "Of course not" Right off L
bat, just like that cot course not''
: And you'd be righ&-so far as orang
and grapefruit and lemons and banan
: and coffee and tea and pepper and M
raegs and pomegranates and guava. 5ei
d and some such troptol products are co
= cerned.
# But. leaving out Of considerations thin
ls whtch the Climate peremptoruy forbl
US growing. how about the potatoes Al
the apples and the cab5ages and t
peaches and the wheat Aour and the be
n and the eggs and such natural crops
the temperate gone7
III Again, it may be assumed that me
anybody's first answer would be "A
surd7 II It takes thirty-seven states a
twelve foreign countries TO do It now,
course half q dozen states or parts
states couldn't do IT.
There are potatoes for instance Nj
York city has big mouth tr spui
Il gets away with about 235 carloads
week. "And there are a6ty-two wee
every year" you say.
ye-es, that seems 10 be Aecc1din' 70 I