The question of the cost for each individual a day and relation of cost and nutritive value are studied in Chapter XVIII. The proportion of the income to be spent for food is taken up in Chapter XIX. Labor and prices. — The amount of labor involved in producing a food material affects its price. Meats cost more than staple vegetable foods, like com, wheat, or beans, because we must raise the corn first to feed the animals. Meat is as cheap as vegetable foods only when the animal can find its own food, as in the pioneer days of any country, when only a small part of the land is under cultivation. To the Pilgrim Fathers, meat was cheaper than corn, in terms of 278 THE COST AND PURCHASING OF FOOD 279 labor, with deer at hand in the forest and com raised with difficiilty in small clearings. Meat production is now an industry, and the product an Expensive one, especially as the wide cattle ranges of our West, where the animals have for- merly found natural food, are now used more and more for other purposes. Transportation. — Carrying food from place to place in- creases its cost. In one sense this is another form of labor. Each person who handles the food material from producer to consumer adds something to what the consumer pays. We have heard much discussion of late of the " middleman," and the effort to bring the producer and consumer closer together. This simply means doing away with some person who handles the product after it leaves the producer and before it reaches the consumer and who must have something for his labor. In transportation there is another element in- volved, the original cost of the means of conveyance ; and the natural wear and tear on the product are items that increase the final cost. The modern farmer who carries his produce to market in an auto truck must have a return for the original cost of the truck and the keeping of it in repair. The long- distance railway furnishes cold-storage cars, and the cost of these arid their maintenance affect freight rates. A peach from South Africa costs from fifty to sixty cents in the Boston market. It is probably true, in this case, that a fancy price is asked because African fruit is a novelty here ; but the diflSi- culty and expense of long-distance transportation naturally make it costly. Demand and supply. — The relation of demand to supply affects the price of food in a way not difficult to understand. Where the supply is permanently small and the demand widespread, the price of the particular food material will be high, and vice versa. Olive oil is a good example of the per- 280 FOODS AND HOUSEHOLD MANAGEMENT manently high-priced food. Califoniia oUve oU brings a high price not only because it is pure and well flavored, but be- cause many people want it, and the industry is a small one. Many years are needed to establish an olive grove, and olive raising is not a popular way of making money, because it is slow. One enterprising American firm has bought an olive grove in Spain, and is using new methods there, but the prod- uct, though delicious, is no cheaper. Although the manu- facture of olive oil will doubtless remain a rather small in- dustry, the use of olive oil is increasing, in this country, at least. It does not seem Ukely, therefore, to become a cheap form of fat.

AI-modernized reading of the original text

The question of the cost for each individual a day and relation of cost and nutritive value are studied in Chapter XVIII. The proportion of the income to be spent for food is taken up in Chapter XIX. Labor and prices. — The amount of labor involved in producing a food material affects its price. Meats cost more than staple vegetable foods, like com, wheat, or beans, because we must raise the corn first to feed the animals. Meat is as cheap as vegetable foods only when the animal can find its own food, as in the pioneer days of any country, wwhen only a small part of the land is under cultivation. To the Pilgrim Fathers, meat was cheaper than corn, in terms of labor, with deer at hand in the forest and corn raised with difficulty in small clearings.. Meat production is now an industry, and the product an Expensive one, especially as the wide cattle ranges of our West, where the animals have formerly found natural food, are now used more and more for other purposes. Transportation. — Carrying food from place to place increases its cost. In one sense this is another form of labor. Each person who handles the food material from producer to consumer adds something to what the consumer pays. We have heard much discussion of late of the " middleman," and the effort to bring the producer and consumer closer together. This simply means doing away with some person who handles the product after it leaves the producer and before it reaches the consumer and who must have something for his labor. In transportation there is another element involved, the original cost of the means of conveyance ; and the natural wear and tear on the product are items that increase the final cost. The modern farmer who carries his produce to market in an auto truck must have a return for the original cost of the truck and the keeping of it in repair. The longdistance railway furnishes cold-storage cars, and the cost of these arid their maintenance affect freight rates. A peach from South Africa costs from fifty to sixty cents in the Boston market. It is probably true, in this case, that a fancy price is asked because African fruit is a novelty here ; but the diflSiculty and expense of long-distance transportation naturally make it costly. Demand and supply. — The relation of demand to supply affects the price of food in a way not difficult to understand. Where the supply is permanently small and the demand widespread, the price of the particular food material will be high, and vice versa. Olive oil is a good example of the per- manently high-priced food. California olive oil brings a high price not only because it is pure and well flavored, but because many people want it, and the industry is a small one. Many years are needed to establish an olive grove, and olive raising is not a popular way of making money, because it is slow. One enterprising American firm has bought an olive grove in Spain, and is using new methods there, but the product, though delicious, is no cheaper. Although the manufacture of olive oil will doubtless remain a rather small industry, the use of olive oil is increasing, in this country, at least. It does not seem likely, therefore, to become a cheap form of fat.

Foods and household management