BUREAU OF CHEMISTRY. 5G1 



these establishments, and of the advice ^iven to shippers to use me- 

 chanical refritreration for the handling of eggs and the cooling and 

 packing of poultry, the number of plants using mechanical refrigera- 

 tion in Kentucky and Tenmessee has increased during the last fiscal 

 year from 2 to G and the tonnage of refrigeration has increased from 

 48 to IGO tons. 



At the request of the management of the Tennessee State Fair, a 

 commercial poultry exhibit and demonstration was held in connec- 

 tion with the fair in the latter part of August, 1911, consisting of 

 charts giving brief directions for the better handling of market 

 poultry and eggs, cases containing commercial grades of eggs, show- 

 ing the monetary loss to the farmer and consumer due to the produc- 

 tion of inferior eggs, dressed poultry showing best and poorest types, 

 milk-feeding batteries with chickens actually being milk fed, and 

 killing demonstrations by professional poultry dressers. Daily talks 

 were given on the handling of poultry and eggs. 



The laboratory has been visited by approximately 100 people, 

 including shippers desiring information regarding the handling of 

 poultry and eggs, railroad men wanting information regarding re- 

 frigerative cars, temperatures, and insulation; Government meat 

 inspectors, cold-storage men, agricultural extension college professors, 

 poultry raisers, editors of poultry and trade papers, veterinarians, 

 chemists, housewives, etc. 



During the past year an all-metal cooling truck for the cooling 

 of poultry was perfected and is being rapidly adopted by the poultry 

 packers of the country. Tliis truck is covered by patent No. 1020575. 

 A killing frame for the better killing of poultry has been devised, 

 and a picker's ticket for use to determine the numbers of chickens 

 picked by each picker has been designed. 



Two phases of the field work at the Nashville station have excited 

 an unusual amount of interest, (1) buying eggs and poultry on a 

 "quaHty basis," and (2) the improved results obtained in the ship- 

 ping of eggs by cooling before loading and transportation under 

 refrigeration. The old custom of buying eggs in 30-dozen lots, pay- 

 ing a definite sum, regardless of the percentage of loss, is changing 

 slowly but surely to tiie quality basis, where the shipper usually sej)- 

 arates the eggs into three grades, paying a different price for each, 

 according to the quality, and paying nothing for rotten or moldy 



eggs. 



'rhe precooling of eggs has been accomplished for the education of 

 tiie shippers far from mechanical refrigeration by moans of a port- 

 able refrigerating plant installed in a refrigerator car. The prin- 

 ciples were devised by the Division of Field Investigations in Po- 

 mology, Bureau of Plant Industry, for use in their fruit-mai'kcting 

 work m the far West. They cooperated with this bureau in ada])t- 

 ing and modifying those principles to render them applicable to the 

 work of this bureau. The result is a well-insulated portable room, 

 divided by a partition, in which a temperature at or near 0° C. can 

 be uuiintained. The space is sufficient to permit of handling eggs or 

 poultry in 10,000-pound lots. Eggs precooled in this car were 

 shipped during May and June from Winchester, Ky., to New York. 

 The results indicate a remarkable saving in quality as comj)ared 

 with eggs not precooled. 



70481°— AGE 1912 36 



