18 Experiment Station Bulletin 367 



will prefer to buy them, but farmers often want large or walk-in type 

 boxes which are expensive or difficult to move into the location desired. 



A number of home freezers in which meters were placed have proved 

 economical. Three boxes, ranging from 30 to 60 cubic feet, used from 

 805 to 1249 kilowatts of electricity per year, or an average of 24.1 k.iv. 

 per cubic foot, which, with a rate of 2.5 cents, would cost 60 cents per 

 cubic foot per year. Assuming 40 pounds of food storage, the electrical 

 cost would be 1.5 cents per pound. 



The cost of eight homemade boxes of from 30 to 65 cubic feet of 

 storage space (exclusive of owner's labor but including installation of 

 the refrigeration unit) ranged from about $290 to $490, and averaged 

 $380 for 42 cubic feet, or about 35 per cent as much as O.P.A. price ceil- 

 ings announced on a number of commercial boxes of similar size. 



Utilization of Freezer Storage Space. In three plants, the 20 per 

 cent of locker holders using space most efficiently processed more than 

 11 times as much food as the 20 per cent of holders using the space least 

 efficiently. This upper group showed combined locker and processing 

 costs of three, four, and eight cents per pound, and they processed 34, 

 46, and 57 pounds per cubic foot of space, respectively, in the three 

 plants. Eighteen per cent of the locker holders in five plants held more 

 than 11 cubic feet of storage space. Holders of large lockers use their 

 space less well than small locker holders. In one plant those with six 

 cubic feet of space processed twice as much per cubic foot as those with 

 20 cubic foot of space. 



In seven plants one-sixth of the patrons held more than one locker 

 and had about one-third the total space. 



Processing Fruits and Vegetables. Few locker plants process fruits 

 and vegetables. They are not generally equipped and operators con- 

 sider such processing unprofitable. Small lots of various products do 

 not lend themselves to processing by expensive labor-saving machines. 

 The few plants that have processed small amounts of berries and peaches 

 for sale encounter high costs. Prices of fresh peaches and berries in this 

 area usually are very much higher than in processing areas. 



Lack of sugar and high prices have discouraged freezing fresh fruits 

 for sale. Most vegetables require special equipment, and neither farmers 

 nor locker plants have been prepared to process them. However, more 

 information is needed on such products as sweet corn and beans now pro- 

 duced for canning factories. 



Home Freezer Prices. Average ceiling prices on 169 models of 69 

 makes of home freezers ranged from $22.06 per cubic foot for those with- 

 in the range of 48 to 54 cubic feet, to $55.84 for those under six cubic 

 feet. The average for all was $31.50 per cubic foot. Eight homemade 

 boxes averaged about $9.00 per cubic foot exclusive of owner's labor but 

 including installation of the refrigerator unit and purchase of the unit 

 and supplies at retail. The addition of 100 hours of labor at $1.25 would 

 bring the cost up to $4.80, or less than half the average ceiling price on a 

 commercial box of similar size. Purchasers are likely to get better values 



