158 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



The handling of poultry for cold storage is not as well regulated as 

 that of meat. A large amount of poultry is killed on the farm, instead 

 of at the packing house. From the farm it may be shipped by two 

 methods, the " wet " and the " dry." If shipped " wet," the poultry is 

 packed in ice and the skin becomes wet and softened, so that bacteria 

 can penetrate readily. If shipped in modern refrigerator cars, which 

 are recharged with ice every day, the poultry remains " dry " and ar- 

 rives at the cold storage warehouse in good condition. Poultry is 

 frozen either with the entrails (undrawn poultry) or after the entrails 

 have been removed (drawn poultry). Formerly it was thought that the 

 presence of the entrails had an injurious effect upon the keeping quali- 

 ties and in some places ordinances have been framed prohibiting the 

 shipment of undrawn poultry. Recent investigations have shown con- 

 clusively that undrawn poultry keeps in better shape than poultry 

 drawn in the ordinary fashion. The fundamental cause for the differ- 

 ence in keeping qualities of drawn and undrawn poultry is the presence 

 of bacteria in large numbers in the entrails. In the ordinary process 

 of drawing, of which there are different methods, the membranes of the 

 body cavity can not escape injury and bacteria invade the muscles. 

 The membrane remains intact if poultry is not drawn, or drawn care- 

 fully. For practical purposes it is no doubt preferable to allow the en- 

 trails to remain until the poultry is prepared for consumption. Re- 

 cently poultry has been frozen in paraffined pasteboard boxes, which 

 are delivered to the consumer in a sealed condition and with proper 

 directions for thawing. Frozen poultry should be thawed slowly in a 

 house refrigerator, which process requires about two days. 



The handling of fish for cold storage is surrounded with difficulties. 

 Fish is not part of our daily diet as meat is, but is consumed largely on 

 one day of the week. The fisherman may have a large haul or a small 

 haul. If large, there will be surplus to be disposed of. A number of 

 fish are frozen together, forming cakes of about 20 pounds each. The 

 cakes are piled up on top of each other in a cold storage warehouse. 

 The ice hermetically seals the fish, but every well regulated cold storage 

 warehouse has some provision for ventilation and the moving air takes 

 up the evaporating ice from the free parts of the cakes containing the 

 frozen fish. The heads become exposed and are recovered with ice by 

 periodical sprinkling and dipping. This requires considerable atten- 

 tion on the part of the warehouse man, but if properly carried out will 

 preserve fish for long periods. Thus waste is prevented and the market 

 kept supplied. 



