62 



ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



Off. Doc. 



COLD STORAGE ACT 



There remains for consideration the enforcement of the Cold Stor- 

 age Act. Some idea of the volume of the cold storage business dur- 

 ing the year covered by this report may be gained from the sub-joined 

 table. This table states the amounts of cold storage food, by classes, 

 found in storage on March 31st, June 30th, September 30th and De- 

 cember 31st, 1915. These data are compiled from the quarterly 

 reports required by law from the various cold storage warehousemen. 



QUANTITIES OF FOODS IN PENNSYLVANIA COLD 

 STORAGE WAREHOUSES 



Foojs. 



a 



Meats: 

 Whole carcasses: 



Beef 



Veal 



Lamb and mutton 



Hogs, 



Parts of carcasses, classified: 



Beef 



Veal 



Lamb and mutton, 



Hogs 



Game, 



Pish, 



Domestic poultry, 



Eggs: 



In shell 



Broken, 



Butter, 



588,685 



16,821 



241,002 



369,421 



787,966 



47,796 



67,435 



823,817 



8,738 



4,172,492 



2,305.311 



2,613,541 



338,225 



3,452,796 



The use of cold storage facilities for the storage of foods for 

 periods of less than three months is very large. For this reason, the 

 above given quarterly statements fail to afford a proper notion of 

 the entire volume of foods held by cold storage warehouses in this 

 State. The attitude of the cold storage warehousemen toward the 

 enforcement of the act has been willing, in spite of the vexations due 

 to certain terms of the law. The com|)laint continues that the Penn- 

 sylvania law deprives the Pennsylvania warehouses of some busi- 

 ness which would normally be theirs, and that the reason for this 

 deprivation is the fact that neighboring states have no like laws. On 

 the other hand, it is clear that if one state waits until all the states 

 have acted or are ready to act in concert, protective legislation nec- 

 essary for the public good must be indefinitely postponed. The 

 present Cold Storage Law is criticised because of the specific time 

 limits it imposes on the storage of different classes of foods. It is 

 possible that amendments of these limits might be advantageous 

 and also that some clearer and more practical definition of the cold 



