REFRIGERATION A.M> ITS ADVANTAGE TO THE PUBLIC 665 



The cheapest way to refrigerate is where there is access to 

 water power, which saves the expense of installing steam boilers 

 and buildings attached. It is not necessary that the refrigerating 

 plant IK> located on the stream, since electricity can be generated 

 and the power sent any distance desired. 



GROWTH OF REFRIGERATION 



When refrigeration was first put into operation it was used 

 mostly for butter, then demand was made for the storing of eggs, 

 later poultry and meats, then apples. 



For the last five years nearly all food that is about 80 per 

 cent of all food products in the United States has been refrig- 

 erated. Within the last few years New York has increased her 

 storage capacity 100 per cent, and many of her products are put 

 away by speculators in times when they are cheap, and are held for 

 higher prices. This applies more especially to apples and pears, 

 while the West stores immense quantities of eggs and poultry. 

 Pennsylvania also stores a great many, besides nearly all other 

 farm products at certain times of the year. 



TIIK I;KAIU.\<; TKH.MISAL MARKET^ 



At the Reading Terminal Market, Philadelphia, there is, no 

 doubt, one of the largest markets in the world where the man- 

 ager caters to the grower and to the interest of the producer, and 

 where the grower can store his goods and then sell at either 

 retail or wholesale and at a good profit. For instance, we have 

 some farmers who put away from 5000 to 6000 barrels of apples. 

 Out of 20,000 barrels of apples which we have stored, 95 per 

 cent are from people who grow them, many of whom have stands 

 in the market where they can retail their apples at a good profit. 

 To show how profitable it is, we have farmers from Pennsylvania, 

 Xew Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland who rent stalls and come 

 this distance from these four states respectively, four times 

 each week. 



Out of some thirty markets which existed twenty-five years 

 ago in Philadelphia there is only one besides the Terminal 

 Market which is a success, and I attribute it entirely to refrig- 

 eration. The farmers can ship their goods by rail during the 



