COLD STORAGE 55 



and 13,800,000 cubic feet or more than half to the so-callerl ])rivate ware- 

 houses. 



In igi6 the total amount of produce handled by the subsidized compa- 

 nies was more than 84,000,000 pounds, of which 12 per cent, was stored for 

 others. In the same year the public but not subsidized w arehouses handled 

 about 85,000,000 j)ouuds, of which 18 per cent, was .stored for others. The 

 exact amount of produce stored in 1916 in warehouses of these two classes 

 by others than the firms which occupied them was slightly over 24,000,000 

 pounds. But the total quantity of produce placed in 1916 in cold storage 

 warehouses not belonging to its owners was about 88,000,000 pounds. It 

 follows that 64,000,000 pounds or 73 per cent, of the total quantity owned 

 by the outside public were stored by the so-called private companies, which 

 therefore can certainly not be said to deserve their name. It may be, 

 howe\'er, that a considerable share of this amount belonged to compa- 

 nies owning cold storage warehouses who stored it outside their own ])re- 

 mises. 



§ 2. FUXCTIOXS OF THE Bl'SINEvSS OF COI.D STORAGE. 



The original and essential function of a cold storage warehouse is the 

 preservation of food but in Canada this has come to occupy a second place. 

 In Canada these warehouses are concerned with : i) the purchase of food- 

 stuffs from the ])rcducers, 2) their preparation and preservation, 3) their 

 distribution in a) the home and h) the foreign market. 



Canada's export trade in products which have been in cold storage is 

 practically limited to four or five large meat companies and three or four 

 large firms ex])orting cheese and other dairy produce. This export trade, 

 which has attained to immense proportions since the outbreak of war, 

 has greatly increased the capital and strengthened the organization of the 

 companies concerned in it. But it has made of the home consumer, 

 althoitgh he li\'es in a land of ])lenty, a buyer who conq)etes with a hungry 

 world. 



Table I. shows the comparative po.sitions of ilic home and the expori. 

 trade in meat, eggs and dairy produce. 



According to the estimates of the Agricultural Department the annual 

 home consumption of butter in Canada is 27 pounds a head, that of cheese 

 2 V2 pounds a head and that of eggs 17.3 dozen a head. 



The commission appointed by the United States De])artment of Agri- 

 culture to inquire into the gene:al situation as regards the meat su|)p]y 

 reported that in iqoo the consumption per head of the Canadian popula- 

 tion was 54 ]wunds of beef, 11 pounds of mutton and lamb and 44 pounds 

 of pork ; while in iqii it was 61 pounds of beef, 9 pounds of mutton and 

 lamb and 67 poands of pork. The consumption of pt)rk therefore increased 

 proportionately more than that of beef. That it continued to do so 

 after 191 1 might be concluded from the circumstance that 325,000,000 

 pounds of pork and only 295,000,000 pounds of beef passed through the 



