ECONOMICS OF THE FISHERIES 331 



We have arranged as our Table 5 the data in Cavin and Burk's summary 

 (their Table 38) of apparent annual per capita consumption by weight for 

 the 3 2 -year period, 1909- 1940, arranged in twelve categories of food, and the 

 totals of all foods; also included is the series of corresponding calculated 

 energy contents in calories taken from their Table 39; we have averaged the 

 columns and computed the percentage of the average of each class of food 

 on the average total consumption for the period.^*' 



In our Fig. i, these data are exhibited in graphic form/' The curves for 

 the several classes of foods are slightly smoothed by a 3-point moving average 

 so as to avoid the confusion of crossing over by the wiggles in so many curves 

 compressed into small space, but the totals by weight and calorific content 

 are plotted unsmoothed. 



For the many important and interesting implications of this study, the 

 reader must be referred to the original report. For our purposes here it suffices 

 to call attention to the main points bearing on the economics of the fisheries 

 as a part of the food industry. 



The total amount of food in customary retail weights which disappeared 

 was almost constant at 1,520 pounds per capita per year over the 3 2 -year 

 period, 1909- 1940, of turbulent economics which included a depression after 

 the First World War, an inflationary boom, another and violent depression 

 and recovery. In this 3 2 -year series, the average annual deviation, plus or 

 minus, from the average of the entire period was 2.0 per cent; the maxima 

 of deviation were + 3.4 per cent (1909) and — 3.8 per cent (192 1). 



The total energy content was also, for our purposes, almost constant 

 around the average of 3,368 calories per capita per day; the average annual 

 deviation from the average of the entire period was 2.6 per cent, with a maxi- 

 mum in any one year of +6.7 per cent (1928) and —3.4 per cent (1935). 



Not only the total weights and energy content per capita, but also the 

 nutritive elements (protein, fat, calcium, iron and the common vitamins) 



16. We have omitted from our presentation the data for the war and postwar period in which 

 a marked increase in per capita consumption occurred. The total rose rapidly from 1,547 pounds 

 in 1940 to the unprecedented 1,705 pounds in 1947 and dropped back to 1,581 pounds in 1948. 

 The largest part of the increase was in dairy products, and a noticeable amount in meats, etc., 

 citrus fruits and leafy vegetables. There appear to be reasons for regarding this period as highly 

 abnormal and the figures misleading for our present purposes, involving such matters as the war- 

 time demand for milk for the suddenly increased number of babies born, black market operations, 

 hoarding by consumers, many of whom bought to the limit of ration coupons regardless of need 

 during the rationing period and the rush to buy when rationing was discontinued on October 15, 

 1946, shipment of gift parcels to needy persons abroad and the exclusion of the military con- 

 sumption from the data. 



17. A logarithmic scale is used here (as in all of our other graphs) in which, unlike the arith- 

 metical scale, like relative changes or changes in per cent, cause like deflections or slopes of the 

 curves, regardless of the kinds or sizes of units used. For example, a 10 per cent change in the 

 400 pounds of milk will cause the same slope or deflection of the milk line as a 10 per cent 

 change would cause in the 10 pounds of coffee line. The logarithmic scale also makes it possible 

 to plot the wide range of quantities from less than ten pounds of beans to the 1500 pounds total 

 food and the 3400 calories. 



