59 2 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



he is getting his money's worth or not — whether his pounds are sixteen 

 ounces or only ten ; whether he is paying at the rate of five or twenty- 

 five cents per pound for a simple, ordinary, nutritious food. The list 

 of foods sold in packages is constantly increasing. It includes fruits, 

 pickles, vegetables, crackers, cakes, cereals, syrups, meats, fish, vinegar, 

 spices, milk, cheese, butter, jams, jellies and even dried eggs. The 

 great advantage, which all will admit, is that the package protects the 

 food from dust and dirt and possible infection. The disadvantage is the 

 greatly increased cost over the bulk articles. 



Until the present food laws and the "weight and measure" laws 

 were enacted, the consumer had not perhaps noticed that the " carton " 

 had taken the place of the pound, and that this had shrunken in 

 weight with each passing season. When the housekeeper, who was 

 hard pressed to make her scanty allowance carry her through the week, 

 expostulated with the grocer, in regard to the weight of his " pound " 

 of butter, he simply said " That is the way we buy it ; we do not sell the 

 package for a pound; nobody is cheated." Decidedly some one was 

 cheated — the consumer of course. The small housekeeper buys a bottle 

 of vinegar for 15 cents or at the rate of 60 cents per gallon for vinegar 

 selling in bulk at 25 or 30 cents per gallon. 



One of the most conspicuous illustrations of the tendency to allow 

 the manufacturer to reap, to say the least, a large profit, because the 

 consumer wants to buy his food " ready prepared," is the fad of making 

 the breakfast to a great extent of the newly invented " breakfast cere- 

 als." A few years ago the people did not know the meaning of these 

 words, and now they are common in the most modest bill of fare. 



Since these foods are made mostly from wheat, corn and oats, it is 

 absurd to suppose that the claims of some of the manufacturers are 

 true, when they say that these foods are in every way better than the 

 original grains from which they are made — in fact that the process 

 of manufacturing is a proteid-concentrating process. Analysis has 

 shown that the amount of so-called " predigested " or " malted " ma- 

 terial in these foods is small at most, and aside from the dextrin which 

 is formed largely by dry heat just as bread is toasted or potatoes are 

 browned in frying, these " malted " foods are little better than crackers 

 or bread. It is a question, anyway, whether the normal stomach wel- 

 comes the appearance of predigested food ; it is provided by nature with 

 " apparatus and chemicals " necessary for the digestion of food, and 

 why should the work be taken away from it? 



Dismissing then the claim that these prepared foods are so much 

 better than simply ground and partially bolted cereals, what do we pay 

 for the finished product per pound? Are these cereals luxuries? 



From the Bulletin of the Maine Agricultural Experiment Station 

 for 1906 we quote the following cost in cents per pound for some of 



