Show MORE GOVERNMENT CONTRACTS Spirited Competition Between Local Milling Companies 1 Another competition for government r f flour contracts in on and again the InterMountain In-terMountain Milling company and the T Layton Milling and Elevator company I com-pany have locked horns These flour contracts come every few months and the bidding is always very sharp t Seme time ago the quartermaster at Fort Douglas advertised for bids on 36700 pounds of full straight grade flour in 100 pound sacks net weight and 5800 pounds of high patent in 23 pound sacks net weight The bids received were opened yesterday and the InterMountain and Layton people were the two lowest bidders The former offered to furnish the straight grade at 133 and the high patent at 153 while the Layton companys figures I fig-ures were S333 for the straight grade I and 165 for the high patent For the flour to be furnished at Fort Duchesne each competitor tacked on n more per hundreds the InterMountain and Layton Lay-ton mills being the only bidders As Is always the case the 10pound simple submitted with each hid will be 1 tested by the post bakers before the awards are made for quality is even more important than price with Uncle Sam Flour was never offered at lower ratS The last ontract from Fort Douglas was awarded to the InterMountain Inter-Mountain Mlllna company at 138 for straight grade The bid of 133 for that quality of flour offered by the combine com-bine with wheat on the upward move was a great surprise to the other competitor com-petitor who claim that the big company com-pany is playing freezeout in the hopes of securing the entire local market Notwithstanding the extremely low price of flout Salt Lakes bakers are not selling larger loaves for 5 cents than when the chief ingredient was sold for twice as much as today Flour never was cheaper and the customers of the bakers should receive some of the bonelfts The loaves of bread should either he larger or the price lower but there seems to be no tendency ten-dency toward a change The agricultural agricul-tural department has just given out a bulletin on the cost of bread the estimates es-timates being based upon Higher 1 prices for flour than the Utah millers are securing The general gen-eral facts contained in the bulletin are taken from the forthcoming report of Prof W O Atwater on the nutritive value of foods It says In pracUce 100 pounds of flour will make from 333 to 137 pounds of bread 4i average being about 136 pounds Flour such as is used by bakers is now purchased in the eastern states at not over 4 per barrel This would make the cost of flour in a pound of bread about lUc Allowing J c for the shortening and salt which Is certainly very liberal the materials for a pound of bread would not cost more than 2c Of course there should be added to this the cost of labor rent interest on investment expense of selling etc to make the actual cost to the baker Very few accurate weighings and t analyses o bakers bread have been made in this country so far as I am ware but the above statements represent rep-resent the facts as nearly as I have been able to obtain them The average oj aver-age weight of a number of specimens 4 of lOc loaves purchased in Midclle town Conn Vas but was onefourth of a pound This makes the price to the 1 consumer So per pound The price Qf bread and the sizebf the loaf ara S t1 a 2 2 ae0 j practically the same now as when flour was worth twice as mucli The cost of bakers bread is a comparatively com-paratively small matter to the person who buys only a loaf now and then but in the eastern states and In the larger towns throughout the country many people and especially those with moderate incomes and the poor buy their bread of the baker Six cents a I pound or even half that amount for the manufacture and distribution I seems a very large amount In the large cities competition has I i made bread much cheaper but even there the difference between the cost of bread to the welltodo family who bake it themselves and tto the family of the poor man who buys it of the baker is unfortunately large The report also goes into the chemistry chem-istry and scientific features of bread making The nutrients in bakers bread are Protein 9 per cent fats 2 per cent carbohydrates 56 per cent mineral matter 1 per cent total CS percent per-cent nutrients and 32 per cent water In wheat flour the total nutrients are SS per cent and water 12 per cent showing that the nutrients are largely reduced by baking The potential energy en-ergy in a pound of flour is 2000 percent per-cent in a pound of bakers bread 13QO per cent With the increase in the proportion of water in the bread as compared with the flour the proportionate propor-tionate nutrient is diminished but the addition of shortening and salts brings up the fat and minerals In the bread so that the proportions are larger than in the flour |