12 



BULLETIN 792, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



was nearly 43,000,000 pounds. The decreases were more regular, and 

 varied from 500,000,000 pounds during May to 36,800,000 pounds 

 during August. The stocks increased monthly until May 1, then 

 decreased until December 1. During December there was an increase 

 of 263/^ million pounds, indicating that the 1919 stocks were beginning 

 to go into cold storage. 



FROZEN LAMB AND MUTTON. 



The holdings of frozen lamb and mutton as reported on December 

 1, 1918, amounted to 9,046,250 pounds. All cold storages and pack- 

 ing plants on the list of the Bureau of Markets reported their holdings 

 for that date. These stocks were 53.7 per cent greater than on 

 December 1, 1917. Table 7 segregates the holdings of December 1, 

 1918, by geographical sections, and compares the holdings of each 

 section with those of December 1, 1917. 



Table 7. — Cold storage holdings of frozen lamb and mutton as reported on December 1, 



1918. 





Reported for December 1, 1918. 



Comparison with December 1, 1917. 





Stor- 





Percent- 



Storages 











ages 



Holdings 



age of 



reporting 



December 1, 



December 1, 







report- 



reported. 



total 



on both 



1917. 



1918. 







ing. 





holdings. 



dates. 











Number. 



Pounds. 



Per cent. 



Number. 



Pounds. 



Pounds. 



Per cent. 



New England 



23 



965,934 



10.7 



22 



938,378 



965,891 



+ 2.9 



Middle Atlantic 



57 



2,944,048 



32.5 



53 



2,209,845 



2,738,978 



+ 23.9 



South Atlantic 



14 



164,539 



1.8 



12 



108,369 



163,889 



-f 51.2 



N. Central (east)__ 



34 



2,351,142 



26.0 



29 



1,118,979 



2,031,756 



+ 81.6 



N. Central (west) . 



35 



1,608,718 



17.8 



31 



428,480 



1,411,830 



+ 229.5 



South Central 



16 



326,575 



3.6 



13 



61,405 



324,507 



+428.5 



Western (north) 



27 



204,473 



2.3 



23 



306,338 



198,103 



- 35.3 



Western (south) .-_ 



21 



480,821 



5.3 



20 



233,976 



476,383 



+ 103.6 



Total 



227 



9,046,250 



100.0 



203 



5,405,770 



8,311,337 



+ 53.7 



It will be observed that of the 9,046,250 pounds reported for 

 December 1, 32.5 per cent was stored in the Middle Atlantic States, 

 26 per cent in the North Central East section, 17.8 per cent in the 

 Central West section, and|10.7 per cent in the New England section, 

 a total of 87 per cent of the total United States holdings. Approxi- 

 mately 28 per cent was stored in greater New York and 25 per cent 

 in Chicago. 



Table 8 shows the total holdings for each month during 1918, 

 these totals being based on the stocks of the warehouses reporting, 

 plus an estimate of the holdings of storages not reporting. By com- 

 paring this table with Table 8 it will be observed that the unreported 

 stocks amounted to a very small percentage of the quantities reported 

 monthly. Using the stocks of December 1 as a base, this table, also 

 shows the percentage of the holdings of each month, the monthly 

 increase and decrease in holdings expressed in pounds, and the per- 

 centage that this decrease is of the stocks of the previous month. 



