Your directors have gone into 12 figures in detail and ure satis fied that the chief factor in produeing this reversal was the very poor summer we had last year from the point of view of the aerated water business. As you know, we rely part of our business for a considerable contribution to the total profits, but the incidence of whit ix generally conceded to have een a cool summer, comparatively speaking, hail a very marked effect on the ales, which dvetined in valu by just 25 per cent. Overhewt changes on this department remai ed at practically the same figure-—$24,758, us aguinst $23,589, the slight excess being chiefly due to the rental of the western depot, to increased advertising of ur.products in the effort to bring ina erger demand, and a small inci ment of salary' to the factory manager ax por agreement. We closed the your with almost exactly the same valve of stocks on hand at the end of the previous year, purchases "during the year were reduced by about 0 per cent, in ratio with the reduced volume of sales, The nett result of this section of the business was a considerable reduction in the profit, for which the reduced volume of sales practically. accounts, since ax the overhead charges would have remained the same the extra business would have been to a very considerable extent additional profit.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.