Packaging Salt/Sugar...etc.??

[Stonewall_Greyfox]

I got thinking about this recently...and am curious as to how certain goods were packaged for transport...and for retail in shops, specifically; salt & sugar.

Please provide period references, or pictures to support answer.

NOT LOOKING FOR OPINIONS, but Documentable evidence.

Thanks,

Paul B.

[Virginia Mescher]

Re: Packaging Salt/Sugar...etc.??

I got thinking about this recently...and am curious as to how certain goods were packaged for transport...and for retail in shops, specifically; salt & sugar.

Please provide period references, or pictures to support answer.

NOT LOOKING FOR OPINIONS, but Documentable evidence.

Thanks,

Paul B.

Paul,

There is an article on our website, www.raggedsoldier.com in the archived section of Virginia's Veranda, titled "How Sweet It Is" that will probably answer your question on sugar. In short, how sugar was packaged for retail sale depended on the type of sugar. The lower grades of sugar (unrefined, brown, demerara) were shipped in barrels and the white refined sugar was formed in cone shaped loaves of various sizes, wrapped first in white paper and then in blue paper, tied with string and shipped to merchants.

I've also researched salt extensively for an article in Food History News. Most of the primary sources I've read are not specific as to the type of containers salt was packed in after processing. They just relate that it was "packed into vessels (Manufacture and Builder, June 1869) or containers . Some sources indicated that the salt was packed into barrels (Manufacture and Builder, February 1869 and Great Industries of the United States, 1872).

I also looked in Historic Accounts my ledger database and checked the sales of salt. Salt there was sold by the bushel, peck and sack. A bushel of salt weighed 56 pounds and cost about $1 in 1859 and a peck cost $ .25. I don't know how much a sack of salt weighed but it must have weighed quite a bit more because it cost $2.50. In this store salt was only sold in these quantities.

As you probably know there were very few things that were packaged in small quantities for retail sale. Most all the foodstuffs were packed in larger containers and then shipped to merchants who then measured out the quantities the customer purchased onto paper and wrapped the package with string or poured a liquid into a purchased container or one the customer brought in themselves. In Historic Accounts there are entries for customers purchasing a molasses jug along with the molasses and sometimes the merchant sold his containers such as goods boxes, coffee bags or salt sacks (these were not mentioned when a sack of salt was purchased).

Let me know if you have any further questions and I try to answer them.

[jdanner723]

Re: Packaging Salt/Sugar...etc.??

An article in the Hardcracker Handbook mentions that if soldiers preferred their coffee sweet they would actually mix the sugar right in with the crushed grounds and carry them in a ration bag.

[Little Jo]

Re: Packaging Salt/Sugar...etc.??

A stores list that I have from California from 1856 lists salt as follows:
Fine 20lb bag
Fine 10lb bag
Fine 5lb bag
California gr'nd 10lb bag
Coarse p lb

Sugar is listed as follows:
Boston, crushed
New York, crushed
Refined Loaf
Dutch refined, csks
China, first quality
China, second quality
China, third quality
Ping Fa
Manila, first quality
Manila, second quality
Manila, third quality
Batavian, first quality
Batavian, second quality
Peruvian brown
Sandwhich I brown
New Orl's yellow



Jo Byrum

[tomarch]

Re: Packaging Salt/Sugar...etc.??

Could there be some items from the steamboat Arabia collection to help answer this?