CONSUMER PREFERENCES IN PURCHASE OF MEAT 11 
or because of personal opinions regarding its healthfullness. Of the 
196 adults answering the question, 73.4 per cent gave dietary reasons. 
The next most important reason numerically was that of not caring 
for meat. This reply group included the vegetarians who were found 
in the households visited. 
In the poor class, 5.4 per cent of those replying stated that they 
did not eat meat because of its high cost. 
Replies to this question by the Jewish, German, Italian, and Scan- 
dinavian members of the foreign group were the only ones in which 
the number of replies was sufficent to justify consideration. Of the 
four, the Jewish, German, and Scandinavian replies were in agree- 
ment with the results obtained from housewives of the American 
white group. The Italian housewives indicated a decided tendency 
toward emphasizing vegetarian habits. 
Question 6. — What kind of meat is preferred in your household? (Tables 6,7> 
and 8.) 
In Table 6 a summary of the meat preferences of the various 
groups based on the household as a unit is shown. In Table 7, pref- 
erences of households in 12 cities are shown by cities. In Table 8, 
preferences of the individual members of a limited number of house- 
holds are presented for Baltimore, Binghamton, Jacksonville, and 
New Haven. 
Beef was the preferred meat in 66.4 per cent of the 2,270 house- 
holds of the American white group. Preferences for pork totaled 
16.8 per cent of the total number of replies. The number of house- 
holds preferring lamb was 9.9 per cent of the total while the indi- 
cated preference for veal was but 6.9 per cent of the total number 
of replies. 
When the classes of the American white group were taken sep- 
arately, it was found that there was a gradual increase in the preference 
for beef as the standard of living increased. At the same time the 
preference for pork decreased materially. The preference for pork 
in the poor class, when measured as a percentage of the total number 
of replies, was 35.2 per cent, for the middle class, 18.7 per cent, for 
the well-to-do class, 7.9 per cent, and for the wealthy class, 5.2 per 
cent. 
The preference for lamb in the American white group became 
more pronounced as the standard of living increased. This increase, 
together with the decrease in the preference for pork indicated 
previously, was attributed largely to the effect of price variation 
between the two commodities. Pork found favor among the house- 
holds of the poor class because of its lower price. Lamb found 
favor in the wealthy households because preference outweighed price 
considerations. 
Veal was preferred in about the same relative amounts by all classes 
of the American white group. 
In the colored group, decided increases in the preferences for pork 
and veal were found. The number in the poor class preferring pork 
was 61.4 per cent of the total number of replies, while the correspond- 
ing percentage in the American white poor class was but 35.2. The 
effects of these increased preferences for pork and veal were appar- 
ent in material decreases in the preferences for beef. Only 23.3 per 
cent of the colored poor-class housewives stated that they preferred 
