8 BULLETIN 109^ V. S. DEPAETMENT OF AGEICULTURE. 



Shad. 



Shad roe. 



Smelts, eulachou, etc. 



Squid. 



Weakfish. 



Whitefish. 



Whiting. 



Mackerel (excepting Spanish). 



Eock fishes (including grey and red 



cod). 

 Sablefish (black cod). 

 Salmon, fall. 

 Salmon, silver. 

 Salmon, others. 

 Sea bass. 



In order to relieve the congestion of work on compilations at the 

 first of the month, incidental to the preparation of other storage re- 

 ports, and thus enable the bureau to handle its work more economic- 

 ally, the reports for fish are obtained for the 15th of each month. 



METHODS OF SECURING INFORMATION. 



In securing the information two methods were available, one being 

 to obtain reports from the owners of the goods, and the other to ob- 

 tain the data from the cold-storage warehouses. Obviously one or the 

 other of the methods had to be rigidly adhered to in order to prevent 

 duplications. 



The latter method was adopted, as it required a much smaller list 

 of reports with less chance of error, and it was believed that co- 

 operation could be secured more readily from the warehousemen 

 than from the owners of the products. The principal difficulty en- 

 countered in the beginning of the work was the lack of any complete 

 list of cold-storage warehouses. Various lists were consulted, but 

 none proved complete. The first apple report was based on the hold- 

 ings as reported by 289 cold storages. That the list was very incom- 

 plete is shown by the fact that the report of June 1, 1917, showed the 

 apple holdings of 569 warehouses. 



In June, 1916, the work of compiling a complete list of cold- 

 storage warehouses was begun. Circulars were sent out to a list of 

 more than 3,000 firms compiled from various sources. They were 

 sent to all firms listed in any aA^ailable records which, judging from 

 their advertisements and descriptions of their business or equipment 

 in trade publications and journals, might be conducting cold-storage 

 plants. In addition, one cooperating firm in each city was asked to 

 furnish a list of all cold-storage plants in that town. The returns 

 were classified and resulted in increasing the list of known cold- 

 storage warehouses to more than 1,000. Since that time many names 

 and addresses have been secured from various sources, and the list 

 has been extended to include packing-house plants having refrigerat- 

 ing apparatus. There were 1,450 names on the list of the Bureau 

 of Markets on January 1, and it is believed it included practically all 

 of the cold-storage plants in the country. 



Blank forms are furnished to the cold-storage firms on which to 

 submit their reports. These forms are mailed on the 8th and the 24th 



