28 BULLETIN 1317, U. S. DEPARTMENT OE AGRICULTURE 
meat markets in relatively large numbers. Among the nationalities 
generally considered as the new immigration a small percentage are 
operating straight meat markets. (See Table 13.) This condition 
is probably explainable chiefly on the basis of time, the earlier immi- 
grants having arrived and entered the business when the straight 
meat market was the prevailing type. It is probably also in part 
explainable by difference in racial characteristics. Many of the 
newer immigrants, particularly of the commercial type, find it com- 
paratively easy to establish and conduct small combination stores 
either in settlements of their own racial groups or in other districts 
where unpretentious and often insanitary establishments supply the 
local demand. With accumulation of capital and broader oppor- 
tunity they expand their operations into larger concerns along com- 
mercial lines, although perhaps without the skill in the trade itself 
characteristic of less pretentious operators of straight meat markets. 
In several Pacific coast cities orientals have made rapid progress 
recently in establishing themselves in the trade. In other cities the 
trade seems to be passing very largely into the hands of the races 
of the recent immigration. 
It is not to be understood that the foreign born, particularly the 
recent arrivals, are as large a factor in the total sales of meats at the 
present time as their numbers would indicate. In considerable meas- 
ure they are engaged in operating small combination stores in dis- 
tricts inhabited largely by persons of their own race and nationality, 
and in such instances their average sales are inevitably less than those 
of dealers longer established. Their numbers are, however, an 
indication of the present tendency and their share in the total 
volume of business in the meat trade must be expected to increase 
with the length of time of their connection with it. 
GRADES AND CLASSES OF BEEF HANDLED 
Data regarding grades of beef handled by the different types and 
classes of stores were necessarily based on the personal concept and 
statements of dealers and others familiar with the trade, verified as 
far as practicable by inspection of stocks on hand when stores were 
visited by investigators and by comparison with data obtained from 
other reliable sources. 
This information was obtained from 2,263 stores. (See Table 14.) 
The terms used to indicate grades are " good," " medium," and " com- 
mon," effort being made in the canvass to use these terms with sub- 
stantial^ the same significance as in the wholesale price quotations 
of the United States Department of Agriculture. Since the quanti- 
ties of prime and choice beef are small, these grades Avere included 
with the good grade. The estimates of the average amount of sales 
of beef were: 21 per cent graded as good or higher, 60 per cent me- 
dium, and 19 per cent common. Figures based on records of slaughter 
indicate an average of 22 per cent of good, choice, or prime, 48 per 
cent of medium, and 30 per cent of common or lower grade. The dif- 
ferences are explained partly by the fact that the dealers made their 
estimates during the spring and early summer, when a higher grade 
of beef is prevalent on the markets, and partly perhaps by a tendency 
to report a higher grade of meat than was actually handled. 
