TRADE TOPICS

Press, Volume XLIX, Issue 14842, 6 December 1913, Page 14

TRADE TOPICS

BRITISH CLOTH. (from ode OWN COREESPONDKNT.) Tailoring circles In London are interested by the announcement in a Brunswick newspaper that the scarcity of business in German cloth mill is duo to the preference shown for English .■suitings by a largo section of the German public. It is added that in hundreds of tailors' *■•_op-windows the words "Genuine English" are displayed on almost every yard of cloth. The editor of the 'Tailor and Cutter" expressed his opinion thai tho explanation given of tho falling-off in business in German j mills was tho correct one. "The Eng- | lish cloth." he said, "has a reputation ! all over the world, and very much j so in the United States. The Americans j have been making very Dig efforts to cope with their home requirements, but English-made cloth is valued very much I more, than the home-made production. If you go to Paris, you see many English tailors there, and many English houses lutve also branch depots in the French capital." A-LA-MODE BEEF A curious story attaches to the recent announcement of the death of Mr W. Wilkinson, who for thirty-five years kept the a-hi-mode beef shop at 73 Fleet street. The dish, the prepara- , tion of which is a closely guarded secret, has made several fortunes for members of tho Wilkinson family.. Tho reoipo, it is said, was. sold by a soldier cook soon after Waterloo for a pot of porter to Mr John Balls,' tho greatunclo of Mr Wilkinson. He started an eating-house in 1820, in Butcher's Hall Lane, a thoroughfare near Smithfield, which has disappeared! Air Wilkinson's father and four of his uncles had eatinghouses in various parts of the city, and were enabled to retire from business. A-la-mode beef, printod in the original plates Ma-mode consists of tenderly , done pieces of meat in a thick brown f gravy. The secret lies in the method of preparing tho ,beef for the table. The gravy. is made of the pure meat extract and three kinds of herbs. The names" of the herbs are the firm'B secret. BEST ANGLICAN TOBACCO. __ Mr J. C. Wallis, of Peterborough, has harvested a crop of twenty-five acres of tobacco.at Mildenhall. This is the largest and.in many respects the most important crop yet grown in East Anglia. Growth was retarded by the cold east winds and very dry weather which prevailed at the time of planting, but after the rain on August 10th, the crop grew amazingly. Many leaves which on that date only measured 8 inches by 4 inches were a month later 30 inches by 300 ft long, 32ft wide, and 34ft in height, was unable to hold the crop, and another temporary barn 60ft long has had to be built to store it. The curing is now being undertaken, and will he succeeded by stripping, sort*rag, and fermentation/and the quality and aroma of the tobacco depend in great measure on the Buccess of these operations. CHEAP CHRYSANTHEMUMS. . The mild autumn has. produced some eupcrb chrysanthemums, which are on sale in the City streets. Specimen flowers, six inches in breadth, fetch 3s a dozen wholesale instead of 6s, which is the average prico. The flowers are in pink, white, and yellow, the pink having the greatest sale. Last year a single specimen bloom would cost ls retail; this year the price is 6d. Chrysanthemums oh sale m London are "all grown in England. They remain in bloom from August to March, and o'nlv disappear when daffodils take their place. THE LONDON FOG. It ts estimated that a London fog costs tho inhabitants £5000 a day ior gas,, as well as a very large sum lor electric light. Mr Goodenough, speaking at the Gas Exhibition, said t__ intensity and duration of logs'in London had undoubtedly diminished in recent years owing to the rapid displacement of coal as a fuel by ita punlied essence. Dealing with the importance of gas cookery, he remarked that h© t did not think he was exaggerating when he said that the steady increase in the sobriety of tho country in receut years was to an appreciable extent due first to the better knowledge of cooking now. possessed by the average working man's wife, and second in no small measure to the advent of the gas cooker, to enable the working man's wife to put her knowledge to practical us© without any tiring, dirty work, and at an exceedingly reasonable cost. INSURANCE ACT PRESCRIPTIONS. It is stated by panel chemists that in some districts panel doctors are prescribing on such a generous scale that long before tho end of the year the sum allotted for paying the drug bills will be exceeded. In one case a doctor ordered on a single prescription medicine to the valuo of several pounds, and in more than one London district it is stated, on the authority of chemists, that extract of malt is being ordered in such large quantities that i the families of insured patients arc j using it instead of butter to spread on bread. Other oases are reported in which doctors order, lint by the pound when an ounce or two would suffice. These instances of extravagance are exceptional, for the cost of the average prescription works out at about sovenpenco-