REFRIGERATION AND ITS ADVANTAGE TO THE PUBLIC 667 



summer in refrigerated cars direct to the refrigerating depart- 

 ment, where they may be kept any desired length of time. If 

 goods are not sold from the stands during the day they can be 

 returned to the refrigerating department again; while, in other 

 markets, whatever time the farmers were obliged to return home 

 soon became known, and people learned to wait and take ad- 

 vantage of their selling at reduced rates in order to close out 

 their goods. This discouraged hundreds of farmers and caused 

 them to give up their stands in the markets. 



ADDITIONAL COLD STORAGE NECESSARY 



It is my opinion that, in order to give the producer an oppor- 

 tunity, large markets and storage houses or refrigerating plants 

 must he erected in dit'ierent parts of the city. Xot only steam 

 but trolley lines should have their switches run directly into the 

 plants, so that when perishable produce is plentiful it could be 

 held until later when the fanners could realize a good price. 



While a groat deal of discussion has been going on and much 

 money spent by the state in the distribution of farm products, 

 and while we have raised a splendid crop of products, it has been 

 very discouraging for the farmer; the prices he received were en- 

 tirely inadequate for the labor expended. There has been no 

 method of holding his goods until the market becomes better. 



KEEPING PEACHES AND PEAS 



The last few years we have been making a special effort to 

 keep peas and peaches. We found that they can be kept from 

 four to five weeks and come out in good condition. Many cases 

 of peaches were put in at fifteen cents per basket and in three 

 weeks were sold for from forty to eighty cents per basket. Peas 

 put away when they practically could not be sold were kept three 

 weeks and then sold at from fifty to sixty cents per basket. 



The thorough investigation now in progress in New York has 

 established the fact that, while there are large refrigerating plants 

 in the cities and also in the country, yet they are not sufficient 

 for the storage of products, or else they are operated in the in- 

 terest of the speculator. 



