28 BULLETIN 1443, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
replied that other adults in the family did the meat purchasing or that 
meat dealers solicited in person. 
Variations between cities in the extent to which the different 
methods of purchasing were employed were of interest, although 
explanation of the reasons for these variations was not at hand, 
(Table 35.) In Baltimore, Birmingham, Denver, Jacksonville, Lin- 
coln, Minneapolis, New Haven, Oklahoma City, Pittsburgh, San 
Francisco, and Washington over half of the housewives of the com- 
bined middle and well-to-do classes of the American white group 
stated that they personally purchased meat for family use. The use 
of the telephone was relatively highest in Fargo, Grand Forks, and 
New Orleans, where approximately 40 per cent of the housewives 
stated that they used this method of purchasing meat. Baltimore, 
Pittsburgh, and Washington housewives made the least use of the 
telephone, less than 15 per cent of the housewives of the two groups 
from these three cities stating that they- ordered meat by telephone. 
In Binghamton, Birmingham, Denver, Fargo, Grand Forks, and 
Lincoln the percentages of the total numbers of housewives replying 
that the meat for the family was customarily purchased by the 
husband varied from 13.4 per cent for Denver to 21.3 per cent for 
Binghamton. The remaining cities showed relatively low percentages 
in comparison with those of the six cities. 
Question 16. — (a) When you purchase meat, is your mind made up to buy beef, 
pork, etc., before you go to the store? (Tables 36 and 37.) 
In answer to this question, nearly three-fourths of the housewives 
of the American white group replied that they had their minds made 
up regarding the kind of meat they wished to purchase before going 
to the store. 
There was a slightly greater tendency for the housewives of the 
poor and middle classes of the American white group to state that 
they either had their minds only partly made up or did not know 
the kind of meat they desired before they went to the store than 
was the case in the well to do and wealthy classes. 
The housewives of both classes in the colored group indicated by 
their answers that they were not so inclined to decide the kind of 
meat to be purchased before going to the store as the housewives of 
the poor and middle classes of the American white group. 
The tendency to wait to decide on the kind of meat to be pur- 
chased until reaching the market was apparent to a considerable 
extent in some of the foreign groups. About 22.2 per cent of the 
Finnish housewives, 26 per cent of the French housewives, 31.6 per 
cent of the Italian housewives, and 31.2 per cent of the Jewish 
housewives stated that they did not decide upon the kind of meat 
they were going to buy until they had reached the store. The an- 
swers of the housewives of the remaining foreign groups were dis- 
tributed similarly to those of the American white group. 
According to the replies of the housewives of the middle and well- 
to-do classes of the American white group in the 16 cities, an average 
of nearly 70 per cent of the group had their minds made up in regard 
to the kind of meat which they wished to purchase, before they 
went to the store. (Table 37.) 
Variations between cities were somewhat marked, as 90.9 per cent 
of the Washington housewives in the two classes and 85.9 per cent 
