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be — as it is to have a rate which is favorable to the shipper or consumer 

 or whoever may be interested in rates, because if you do not handle your 

 goods under proper conditions and deliver them to the markets in good 

 order, there is no doubt but that the expense all along the line will be 

 increased, notwithstanding any effort you make to adjust the rates. We 

 also know from the experience gained in our work in the department at 

 Washington, that maximum efficiency can be better attained in the 

 handling of products in carload lots. It is even hard enough handling it 

 under that method, and I think every railroad man will bear me out in 

 that statement, and those who handle refrigeration \vill say so too. But 

 to do it on the odd lot basis, a few cases here and a few barrels there, 

 one sort of package here and another there, with nothing fixed, nothing 

 uniform. How can you do this and bring your products in to the markets 

 in good order? We are a higgledy-piggledy disjointed nation in the matter 

 of distribution of food supplies. We must learn to do it better. I do not 

 know in just what direction we are going to develop in this matter. Take 

 such a period as we have just gone through in our Thanksgiving market, 

 where our poultry came in by tons unfit for use; and during last summer 

 when in the big poultry-producing territory south of the Missouri and 

 along the Mississippi we had a loss, an actual loss, of thirty-five per cent 

 of the eggs that were produced, representing a loss in money hard to 

 estimate, and which conservatively estimated during that period would 

 amount to $12,000,000. That sort of waste we must take steps to stop. 

 We do believe that the carload-lot unit is a means of stopping a great 

 deal of this waste. But you cannot keep a car cool — and refrigeration is a 

 prerequisite in the handling of a great deal of our shipments — ^you can't 

 keep a car cool if you open the door at every station and put in some- 

 thing that is hot. You have to start out with your carload cool and keep 

 it cool. It must be done efficiently, whether carload lots happen to agree 

 with om- own particular ideas or methods of doing business, is quite aside 

 from the national question. The national question comes first, for what- 

 ever is best for the nation is best for us too. 



Delegate : If you can keep meat for a year, as you have said, how 

 long can you keep milk? 



Dr. Pennington: I never tried it. Do you mean for a short or 

 long period? 



Delegate: Is there any method of keeping it until carload-lot 

 quantities were had? 



Dr. Pennington: There are ways of doing that by co-operation 

 among the farmers. Up until now it has only been a possibility, but in 

 the future it will be a reality. Then we will ship such articles as milk 

 by carload quantities. 



Mrs. James (of the Civic Club, Philadelphia) : Is there any known 

 method of taking care of small shipments? I know a great many farmers 



