FIFTY-FIRST ANNUAL REPORT. 109 



We want you to see those durine; your spare moments. The Editor of 

 Hoard's Dairyman was hero at the same time. He went through all of 

 the barns inoluding the piggeiy, slu^ep learns, beef cattle, dairy cattle and 

 horses and upon his return to this liuilding ho made the statement to mo 

 that the Michigan Agricultural College had the best balanced live stock 

 equipment of any Institution in this Country. The thing that we arc in 

 great need of is more modest publicity so that the people of the State 

 may know just what thej^ have in the Institution. Despite the fact that 

 the Horticultural Department was one of liio first established and 

 equipped at this Institution in the maintenance of uniformity in develop- 

 ment it is my opinion that so far as teaching and development is con- 

 cerned the Horticultural Department of this Institution is in line for 

 assistance by way of buildings and facilities for carrying on investiga- 

 tional work. AVo ho])o the State may be able to furnish in the not far 

 distant future funds which will enable this Institution to extend the 

 Building equipment and the facilities and the men with which to carry 

 on the investigations and solve some of these problems with which we are 

 confronted. 



(Applause) 



Chairman: Our next speaker will be Mr. George Comlossy, Super- 

 intendent of Perishable Protective Service of the New York Central 

 Lines, of Toledo. Ohio. 



Loss and datnage to perishable freight in transit may to a large 

 extent be overcome by proper preparation of the shipment, proper stow- 

 ing of the containers in the car and by the use of good judgment in pre- 

 paring the car to withstand weather conditions prevailing in transit. 



It is essential that the shipper have full knowledge of his commodity, 

 his containers, the car and protective service necessary to afford the 

 shipment safe conduct to destination. 



I will first treat of the preparation of a refrigerator car to withstand 

 normal winter weather. An ordinary refrigerator car has three classes 

 of natural openings which must be protected by the shipper. 



1. The hatchways or openings thru the roof at each end of the car. 

 There are four hatchway openings, the fundamental purpose of which 

 is to admit ice to fill bunkers when car is under refrigeration; these open- 

 ings are equipped with canvas rimmed, insulated, removable plugs and 

 hinged hatch covers. Cars moving into temperatures below freezing 

 must have the plugs in place and hatch covers closed. To further assist 

 in preventing the entrance of cold air or exit of warm air, I recommend 

 that shippers lay two thicknesses of building paper on top of the closed 

 plugs, completely covering hatchway opening, and close hatch cover 

 over paper. This will require a total of 24 running feet of building 

 paper. 



2. The next important natural openings are the drain pipes, four in 

 number, one thru the floor at each corner of the car. The purpose of 

 these drain pipes is to carry off melted ice water when car is under re- 

 frigeration. Some drain pipes are equipped with a catch basin or bell 

 trap at the toj) of the pipe and others have a drip pan or can over the end 

 of the pipe. Where these traps or cans contain water or ice, they are 

 effectively closed and will not admit outside air to the car. I recom- 

 mend that the shippers see to it that the drain pipes are effectively closed, 

 the most effective method of closing same being to wrap the equivalent 



