506 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



siuce we have rented storage. However, I have agreed to take his 

 place and tell you something about cold storage, although what I 

 have to say may not enlighten you as much as it should in regard 

 to the storage of fruits. I know as much about horticulture as the 

 hog that Professor Warren lold us about in connection with the 

 orchard. I have always looked on the hog as being good for one 

 thing, and that is hams, bacon and lard; but I am glad to hear that 

 it has other merits. Now as to Cold Storage. As most of the great 

 inventions of the past century have had to pass through an ex- 

 perimental stage or period of existence, so has this been true of the 

 different refrigeration systems that have been invented and tried 

 during the past thirty years. The original method was called the 

 absorbtion system, but it was soon discovered that while it was 

 a sensible method, yet the compression system was the more prac- 

 tical, and this has almost entirely superseded the absorbtion sys- 

 tem, except where fuel and Avater are cheap. The compression 

 system with brine as a circulating medium is the one in use 

 at our plant. About four years ago we enlarged our plant, 

 which is really a pork-packing institution. While we had for 

 quite a number of years taken in some outside storage as a 

 matter of accommodation, yet it was not until this time that we 

 made it practical in this direction, and since then we have done some 

 outside storing. W^e find that apples, pears, peaches as well as 

 berries, vegetables, oranges, lemons and other fruits, can be kept 

 with a positive degree of success in our storage rooms. Of course 

 you might imagine that melons and such fruit which are of a juicy 

 character will not carry so well, also that over-ripe fruit will not 

 keep for any length of time, although cold storage has saved thoL 

 sands of dollars on account of a temporary over-stocked market, and 

 also on account of the weather. Right here I wish to say that this 

 should be of great advantage to horticulturists because I have 

 noticed that most of the apples stored in our place have been for 

 the produce and fruit dealers in Harrisburg, and very little for 

 the fruit raiser himself. In other words, the crops of the fruit 

 raiser come in at a time when they bring the least money, and the 

 commission and produce dealers buy these crops and put them in 

 storage somewhere, and reap the benefit that is to be derived by 

 holding them until there is a rise in the market. Now most of our 

 storage, of course, has been in the line of butter and eggs, while 

 that has no immediate relation to the business of the horticulturist, 

 yet the fruit raiser is frequently a producer of butter and eggs, as 

 well. But I see no reason why the fruit raiser should not take 

 advantage of this opportunity to carry his fruit. It certainly is a 

 practical method to pursue. 



In our place of business, it is true, we have not carried as much 

 fruit this last year, and the reason for this I do not know, except 

 that we have not gone after the business. I am not here talking 

 for business, we have a very limited space of cold storage to rent 

 in connection with our other business, and we encourage the storing 

 of eggs, because we put them in in the early part of the season, and 

 they stay there all summer, which makes ihem the least expensive 

 goods for us to carry, but we never turn down any man with fruit, 

 if we have any room at all. W^e always have a little room for the 

 horticulturist, so that while 1 am not here to solicit business, yet T 

 feel that the fruit grower should take advantage of this opportunity 



