EEPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 27 



IMPORTANT CONCLUSIONS WARRANTED. 



Out of the great mass of details contributed by the warehousemen 

 and obtained by the price experts and out of the profusion of the 

 derived results extracts are made for concise and pointed conclusions. 

 The information obtained is sufficient to alter some old views with 

 regard to cold storage, and it also establishes new ones. 



LENGTH OF TIME IN STORAGE. 

 PRINCIPAL MONTHS WHEN COMMODITIES ARE RECEIVED. 



Warehousemen were requested not to include in their reports com- 

 modities whose owners intended to keep them in cold storage only 

 a few days and to make no report for a warehouse doing only a tem- 

 porary accommodation business. No reports, also, were to be made 

 for fresh meats in coolers; nor was the time passed in coolers to be 

 added to the time in cold storage proper. 



The two years covered by the investigation begin with March for 

 dressed poultry, eggs, and fish; with May for fresh beef, mutton, 

 and pork and butter. 



The principal months when fresh beef is placed in cold storage 

 are September, October, and November ; mutton, August, September, 

 and October; butter, June, July, and August, and sometimes May; 

 eggs, April, May, and June. Pork is quite well distributed through- 

 out the 3'ear, and the prominence of winter in the receipts into cold 

 storage is barely perceptible. Poultry is made up of diverse ele- 

 ments. Broilers go into storage from the latter part of August until 

 November and roasters from October to December. There are besides 

 the different varieties of poultry. November, December, and Janu- 

 ary, and sometimes October, are the heaviest storage months. 



AVith regard to fish, there seems to be no regularity in the heavy 

 months ; the three heaviest months in the year beginning with March, 

 1909, were August, November, and January, but in the following year 

 the months were April, July, and December. The kinds of fish that 

 go into cold' storage are seasonable, and the natural supply does not 

 last throughout the year. There are also often two storages for 

 fish. In the initial one the fish is received fresh at the place where 

 caught and kept a length of time determined by circumstances. This 

 place is not usually one of consumption, so that in that event the fish 

 is transferred frozen to cold storage at a place where it is to be 

 consumed. In this investigation the two storages are added together 

 in stating time of storage. 



During the three heavier cold-storage months of 1910-11, 47 per 

 cent of the fresh beef placed in cold storage during the whole year 

 was received into the warehouses; 59.8 per cent of the fresh mutton; 

 69.2 per cent of the dressed poultry; 70 per cent of the butter; and 

 79.4 per cent of the eggs. 



