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PRODUCTION 



late winter. Seasonal fluctuations in supplies have been levelled 

 down in several ways : first, by the utilisation during the northern 

 winter of products from the Southern Hemisphere ; second, by 

 winter feeding on a large scale in the Northern Hemisphere both 

 of dairy cattle and of meat-producing animals ; and third, by 

 cold storage, whereby the surplus supplies produced during the 

 flush of the season are held over to a time of scarcity. The first 

 of these has had the effect of lowering prices, but the second and 

 third have tended to raise them on the whole, since stall-feeding 

 is more costly than grass feeding, and produce preserved in cold 

 storage more expensive, other things being equal, than that pre- 

 served by salting, and it is certainly more expensive to rely upon 

 cold-storage meat and butter than to do without them during the 

 winter months. The fact may be overlooked that, whereas the 

 consumer formerly paid a very low price during the summer, and 

 managed with little except salted stores during the winter, he now 

 pays a uniform moderately high price throughout the year. 1 In 

 point of fact, the consumption of fresh animal foodstuffs (i.e., those 

 not preserved by salting) is now naturally greatest during the 

 winter months precisely at the time when production, except as 

 regards supplies from the Southern Hemisphere, is most costly. 

 The possibility of holding supplies of perishable animal produce 

 in cold storage awaiting a rise in demand, does perhaps enable 

 speculative dealers to obtain an inflated price from the consumer 

 in certain cases. So-called "'corners " are not unknown in animal 

 foodstuffs, but the operation does not appear to be very common 

 owing to the rapidly increasing costs of storage with the lapse of 

 time. 2 



In recent years, also, with the growing control by governments 

 over public health requirements, there has been a consider tble 

 increase in the sanitary regulations concerning perishable foodstuffs, 

 which have led to systematic inspection by officials, and alterations 

 in the methods of production, preparation and distribution at their 



1 See U.S. Dept. Agric. Bureau of Statistics, Bulletin 101 (1913) entitled 

 " Cold Storage and Prices " from which the following table of percentage 

 increases in price due to the storage of butter and mutton (showing respec- 

 tively the lowest and the highest percentages) is taken : 



The above figures are an average of a number of American towns in 

 1910-11. 



2 See last note above. The writer of the Report quoted leaves it an open 

 question whether cold storage has been used by speculators and dealers as 

 a means of raising prices unduly to the consumer. 



