MARKETING POULTRY CARCASSES 
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stand up and be weighed. The prices paid is the average 
worth of all chickens purchased at that market. All farmers 
who market an article better than the average are unjust 
losers, while those who sell inferior stock receive unearned 
profits. The producer of good stock receives pay for the extra 
quantity of his chickens, but for the extra quality no recogni- 
tion whatever is given. To the deserving producer, if quality 
was recognized, it would result in a greatly increased stimula- 
tion of the production of good poultry. Any packer, if ques- 
tioned, will state that he would be willing to grade chickens 
and pay for them according to quality, but that he does not 
do so because his competitor would pay a uniform price and 
drive him out of business. The man who receives an increased 
price would say little of it, while the man who sells poor 
chickens, if he failed to receive the full amount to which he is 
accustomed, would think himself unjustly treated and use his 
influence against the dealer. A recognition of quality in buy- 
ing is for the interest of both the farmer and the poultry 
dealer, and a mutual effort on the part of those interested to 
put in practice this reform would result in a great improve- 
ment of the poultry industry. 
Cold Storage of Poultry. 
The growth of the cold storage of poultry has been phenom- 
enal. Poultry is packed in thin boxes that will readily lose 
their heat and these are stacked in a freezer with a tempera- 
ture near the zero point. The temperature used for holding 
poultry are anywhere from 0 degree up to 20 degrees. Poultry 
is held for periods of one to six weeks at temperature above 
the freezing point. 
Frozen poultry will keep almost indefinitely save for the 
drying out, which is due to the fact that evaporation will pro- 
ceed slowly even from a frozen body. The time frozen poul- 
try is stored varies from a few weeks to eight or ten months. 
The usual rule is that any crop is highest in price when it 
first comes on the market and cheapest just after the point of 
its greatest production. Thus, broilers are high in May and 
cheap in September. In such cases the goods are carried from 
the season of plenty to the following season of scarcity. This 
period is always less than a year. The idea circulated by wild 
writers, that cold storage poultry was kept several years is an 
economic impossibility. The interest on the investment alone 
would make the holding of storage goods into the second sea- 
son of plenty, quite unprofitable, but when the costs of stor- 
age, insurance and shrinkage are to be paid, storing poultry 
for more than one season becomes absurd. 
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