COST OF STORAGE 355 



the agitation became so pronounced that both the Republican 

 Party and Democratic Party had planks in their platforms asking 

 that laws be passed by Congress to regulate cold storage and also- 

 demanding a limitation of the length of time that food products 

 should be held in storage, with requests for branding the same 

 as storage products. 



Cold storage has undoubtedly been of greater benefit to the 

 farmer than to anyone else, as the fruits he produces as well as 

 his poultry, meats and dairy products go into storage. If it 

 were not for the fact that these products can be carried over from 

 the time when there is an abundant supply to the time of scarcity, 

 very low prices would be paid for them. According to the design 

 of Nature, milk, cream and almost all other products can be 

 produced more cheaply in the summer when grass is abundant, 

 than in the winter months. This is an economic problem with 

 the producer. There is no extra labor involved in feeding cattle 

 during the period when they are on pasture. 



Cost of Storage. The average length of time that butter 

 is kept in storage is approximately five or six months. Very 

 little of the butter that is held in cold storage belongs to the 

 owner of the cold-storage plant; it is held by many people 

 distributed over a wide area. The cold-storage owner rents 

 space in the storage plant to dealers for storing their products, 

 and he might be termed a landlord renting out space. 



The charges by the cold-storage companies for the storage of 

 butter are usually about one-fifth of a cent per pound for the first 

 month and one-eighth of a cent per pound for each succeeding 

 month. To this must be added insurance charges and interest 

 on investment. For the purpose of completing the data for an 

 estimate, it will be assumed that the average price of butter for 

 storage is 35 cents, and the interest rate 7 per cent. On this basis 

 the cost, per pound, of carrying butter in storage for a period 

 of six months would be approximately as follows : 



Storage charges, including insurance i cent 



Interest on investment i J cents 



Total 2\ cents 



