KEPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 29 



In one ■uarehouse there was discovered some fresh mutton that had 

 been in cold storage for 271 months, and this was 10.2 per cent of the 

 fresh-mutton receipts of all reporting warehouses for May, 1909. Of 

 the receipts of butter in that month, 0.3 of 1 per cent remained Sep- 

 tember 1, 1911. 



So, determining the percentages in a similar manner, it was found 

 that 0.1 of 1 per cent of the receipts of poultr}' for a month was still 

 in cold storage at the end of 26-^ months and 0.3 of 1 per cent in the 

 case of butter. 



For a storage of 21i months, fresh mutton is represented by 0.8 

 of 1 per cent and poultry by 0.4 of 1 per cent. Poultry has 0.1 of 

 1 per cent for 19^ months, 0.2 of 1 per cent for ISh months, 0.1 of 1 

 per cent for 174 months, less than 0.05 of 1 per cent for 16^ months. 

 For IG-i months butter has 0.5 of 1 per cent and for 15i months 3.3 j 

 per cent, while mutton for the last period has 0.5 of 1 per cent. i 



For 1J4 months in cold storage, 0.1 of 1 per cent stands for fresh 

 mutton, less than 0.05 of 1 per cent for poultry, 3.5 per cent for 

 butter, and 0.1 of 1 per cent for fish. 



Fresh beef had 0.1 of 1 per cent still in cold storage at the end of 

 13 J months; fresh mutton, 2.2 per cent; fresh pork, less than 0.05 

 of 1 per cent : poultry, 1,3 per cent ; butter, 6.6 per cent ; and fish, 10.5 

 per cent. 



At the end of 12^ months fresh beef had 0.5 of 1 per cent in stor- 

 age; fresh mutton, 0.6 of 1 per cent; fresh pork, less than 0.05 of 1 

 per cent ; poultry, 0.2 of 1 per cent ; butter, 6.5 per cent ; and fish, 13 

 per cent. 



This statement covers all of these commodities held in cold storage 

 longer than 12^ months. "Warehousemen explain excessively long 

 storages by stating that they are caused by lawsuits and other circum- 

 stances of an uncommercial nature. 



A\T2RAGE LENGTH OF STORAGE. 



Since the receipts and deliveries were reported by warehousemen 

 for each month, it is easy to compute the average time of storage. 

 The fresh beef received into storage during the year beginning with 

 May, 1909, was kept there on the average for 2.3 months; the fresh 

 mutton, 4.4 months; the fresh pork, 0.9 of 1 month; and the butter, 

 4.4 months. The poultry received during the year beginning with 

 March, 1909, was kept on the average 2.4 months; the eggs, 5.9 

 months; and the fish, 6.7 months. 



The average time of storage differs as between the first and the 

 second half of the year adopted for the purposes of this investigation. 

 The average time for fresh beef in the first half of the year is 2.6 

 months, in the second half 1.8 months; fresh mutton in the first half 



