CONSUMER PREFERENCES IN PURCHASE OF MEAT 33 
The same method of purchase was used to a large extent by the 
housewives of the poor and middle classes of the colored group. 
In the foreign groups, 91.9 per cent of the Italian housewives saip 
that they purchased meat by the pound. A slightly larger percent- 
age, 94.8, of the Polish housewives bought meat by the pound rather 
than by the portion. 
Differences among the cities were slight and probably of relatively 
slight importance. When the replies of housewives of the middle 
and well-to-do classes of the American white group were combined 
for four cities, it was found that the lowest percentage reporting that 
they purchased by the pound, 70.5, was in Binghamton. In Jack- 
sonville, 84.8 per cent of the housewives stated that they bought by 
the pound. Between these extremes were the percentages of Balti- 
more and New Haven. (Table 51.) 
Question 17. — Name the kinds of beef steaks and beef roasts you can recognize, 
if cut. (Table 52.) 
In getting answers to this question interviewers were instructed to 
ask the housewife to name the various kinds of beef steaks and beef 
roasts which she could recognize if they were cut and separated from 
the carcass. 
In the American white group, 2,787 housewives answered the part 
of the question relating to steaks. The average number of steaks 
recognized was 3.1. There w T as a definite tendency for the average 
number recognized to increase with the increase in the standard of 
living. The average numbers of steaks recognized by the housewives 
of the poor, middle, well-to-do and wealthy classes were 2.4, 3, 3.5, 
and 3.4, respectively. 
The average number of steaks recognized by the housewives of 
the poor and middle classes of the colored group was somewhat 
smaller than the number of those recognized by the housewives of 
the same classes in the American white group. 
In the English, Finnish, French, and German groups the average 
number of steaks recognized was relatively high. In the remaining 
five groups the average number of steaks recognized was rather low. 
Somewhat similar results were obtained from the tabulation of the 
answer to the part of the question relating to the number of beef 
roasts recognized by the housewife. For the 2,618 housewives of the 
American white group replying to the question, the average was 2.3. 
Knowledge of roasts was highest in the wealthy group and lowest in 
the poor class. The average numbers recognized by the housewives 
of each of the four classes were: Poor, 1.5; middle, 2.1 ; well-to-do, 2.5; 
and wealthy, 3.3. 
The average number of roasts recognized by the housewives of the 
two colored classes was lower for both than the averages of the poor 
and middle classes of the American white group. 
The English group of housewives, which was first in the number 
of steaks recognized, was also first in the number of roasts recognized, 
and the German group, which was second in the average number of 
steaks recognized, was also second in the number of roasts recognized. 
The Scandinavian group, however, which was fifth in the average 
number of steaks recognized, was third in the number of roasts recog- 
