FOOD VALUE AND USES OF POULTRY. 13 



liness in surroundings, in handling, and in everything else concerned 

 is essential, for dirt introduces microorganisms which cause decay. 

 Ordinarily poultry will remain sweet for a week or more at a tem- 

 perature of 50° F., but if it is to be kept longer it must be stored in 

 a dry place at a temperature no higher than 34° F., which, except 

 in winter weather, means in artificial cold storage. 



COLD-STORAGE POULTRY. 



In former times every family in the country either raised its own 

 poultry or obtained it from some neighbor, while town and city 

 dwellers bought theirs direct from a farmer or from a retail market 

 which received it direct from the farm. Such local supplies can still 

 be obtained in many rural districts and small cities, and to a limited 

 extent in large cities; and provided that the grower cares for the 

 birds properly, fhis direct method of marketing probably brings the 

 birds to the household in the freshest possible condition. For a 

 long time, however, the farms within easy driving distance of the 

 larger cities have not been able to supply all the poultry needed and 

 birds have been shipped in from long distances. To what extent our 

 markets are dependent upon poultry from a long distance may be 

 seen from the last census, which shows that over half of the poultry 

 used in the United States is produced in only 10 States, most of them 

 in the central groups. Of course r this change in the poultry supply 

 could not have taken place without a corresponding development of 

 refrigerating machinery and methods of transportation, which has 

 made it feasible to ship fresh birds for hundreds of miles and to hold 

 them for market in good condition for a length of time which would 

 have been impossible not many years ago. 



The whole cold-storage business has developed so rapidly during 

 the last 20 years that the public still has rather vague ideas regarding 

 many features of it. As far as poultry is concerned, chickens make 

 up by far the largest part of the total amount handled, but large 

 quantities of turkeys and a limited number of ducks, geese, and other 

 birds are also stored. The methods of treating the different varie- 

 ties are fundamentally the same. 



It is hardly surprising that there, is a good deal of confusion as to 

 exactly what is meant by cold-storage poultry, for very few defini- 

 tions or standards have been set up to describe it in different States, 

 and those that have been adopted are often conflicting. It has been 

 suggested that the terip. "cold-storage poultry" be used to describe 

 all poultry which has been kept for more than 30 days at a tempera- 

 ture below 45° F. If such a definition were legally adopted, the 

 practical effect would be that no birds which had been kept for more 

 than a month could be sold as fresh. To a person accustomed to 

 think of fresh poultry as that which has been kept for a few days 



