eliminated. Cured meat is subjert to 

 shrinkage, but frozen meat shrinks very 

 little. Lockers enable farmers to kill at 

 frequent intervals and have a variety of 

 fresh meat on hand at all times. 



From the financial side, the farmer 

 does very well with a locker plant. But 

 how about health.' Is frozen meat as 

 good as other .^ 



If meat is quick frozen and held stead- 

 ily at a temperature of ten degrees above 

 zero, it is superior in quality to the same 

 grade of fresh meat. Quick freezing 

 makes meat 20 percent more tender and 

 kills nearly 80 percent of the bacteria it 

 contains. A month of storage kills one- 

 fourth of the remaining bacteria, so that 

 a quick frozen piece of meat, stored for 

 one month, has 84 percent of the bacteria 

 killed. This is a major health improve- 

 ment. 



If a piece of pork is quick frozen at 

 ten degrees below zero and then placed 

 in a locker room at ten above, it will be 

 perfectly safe from trichinae. Quick 

 frozen fruits and vegetables retain far 

 more of their natural color, flavor and 

 vitamin content than if canned, and are 

 superior in these respects to the average 

 fresh product that has been picked twen- 

 ty-four hours. In fact, frosted foods 

 have been selling at premium prices 

 along the Atlantic seaboard for several 

 years — quick freezing and frozen stor- 

 age enables the farmer to take advantage 

 of this fine food, and save money while 

 doing it. 



Plants have been built by individuals, 

 corporations, and cooperatives. In each 

 case they have been successful because 

 they bring a reasonable return on the 

 capital invested while saving the user a 

 substantial sum on his annual food bill. 



LOCKER ROOM 

 Farm Bureau Mambar Jamas Dala of ftia 

 Story County Farm Buraau, Ames, la. 



Future development is problematical, but 

 present trends indicate that a constantly 

 increasing number will be installed by co- 

 operative organizations. 



Locker plants offer several distinct ad- 

 vantages to co-ops. They enable an exist- 

 ing organization to increase its net reve- 

 nue substantially and to increase patron- 

 age in other lines from members. In 

 some cases they have provided the reve- 

 nue that reduced overhead costs in other 

 operations. In others they have increased 

 patronage of cooperative distributing as- 

 sociations to the point where they were 

 able to earn a sure profit. 



Evidence available today shows that 

 locker plants are a real service to all 

 parties concerned, but it is just as evident 

 that proper design and operation are es- 

 sential. There must be adequate insula- 

 tion to keep uniform temperatures in the 

 chill and locker rooms, aside from the 

 fact that poor insulation will deteriorate 



in a very few years. The building itself 

 must be solid and substantial, because a 

 locker plant is a life time installation. 

 The plant must be conveniently and ef- 

 ficiently arranged so that there is no un- 

 necessary loss of refrigeration and so 

 customers nuy reach their lockers with a 

 minimum of effort. 



Fortunately, most of the plants built 

 today meet these standards. Modem 

 engineers have perfected designs to con- 

 form with the requirements of scientific 

 food preservation. Prof>erly engineered 

 cold storage locker plants fill a definite 

 need: they save money for the user and 

 give him better food than he could other- 

 wise have; they are a sound investment 

 for co-ops or private individuals; and 

 they are a long step in making it possible 

 for rural America to achieve a state of 

 self-sufficiency unknown since the days of 

 the spinning wheel and home loom. 



YOULL FREEZE 

 YOUR WHISKERS 

 In tha sharp- 

 fraaza room whara 

 sub-zero tempera- 

 tures woH[ fast to 

 hold flavor and tex- 

 ture. 



Lee County First To 



Build Storage Lockers 



y^^^HE Lee County Cold Storage 

 ^"^"^ Company was recently incor- 

 xj porated by the I.A.A. legal 

 department under the co-operative act 

 of Illinois as a subsidiary of the Lee 

 County Farm Bureau. It will operate 

 cold storage locker plants in that coun- 



The initial plant will be located in 

 Amboy where a building was purchased 

 sometime ago and is now being 

 equipped with a refrigeration system 

 cooling room, and 328 large size lock- 

 ers each of which is capable of storing 

 300 pounds of meat. On Oct. 20 ap- 

 proximately 160 lockers had been sold 

 (|10 a year rental). On that date also 

 nearly $2000 of stock had been sub 

 scribed and solicitation for additional 

 subscriptions was going forward rap- 

 idly. 



It is reported that the Amboy plant 

 will cost in the neighborhood of $9000 

 including building and cold storage 

 equipment. The Cold Storage Com- 

 pany also contemplates operating a 

 similar plant at Dixon if the demand 

 justifies. The $10 per year storage 

 charge does not include service fees of 

 the butcher who will be employed to 

 cut meat and wait on patrons. The 

 Amboy plant will be ready for opera- 

 tion on or before the middle of No- 

 vember according to Farm Bureau of- 

 ficials. 



The Lee County Cold Storage Com- 

 pany is organized with the following 

 stock setup: 5000 shares 6% preferred 

 (par value $10) ; 2500 shares B pre- 

 ferred (no par value) held by Lee 

 County Farm Bureau ; 2500 shares com- 

 mon stock to be held by Farm Bureau 

 members. •-■^- ; . • 



NOVEMBER. 1936 



