APPENDIX 207 



products are thus put into distant markets, and the season 

 during which they may be had by consumers is very much 

 lengthened. Take strawberries, for example. Instead of 

 having them in the New York market for three months, as 

 would be the limit if we had to depend on what could be sent 

 here without ice, they are on hand for eight months, although 

 part of the time too expensive to be used by people of moder- 

 ate means. Still, there are many who are willing to pay 

 thirty to sixty cents per quart for strawberries in January. A 

 few years ago the quantity received during the winter season 

 was very limited, and these sometimes sold as high as $5 

 per quart. 



"As soon as the growers found that the fruit, of which 

 they could sell but a small quantity at home, could be sent to 

 distant points so as to arrive in good condition and bring a 

 price that would give fair pay for their time and labor, those 

 who had been raising only garden patches branched out into 

 acres, and from Florida and the Carolinas the output increases 

 from now and then a scattered carload to dozens and scores. 

 This put new life into sections of the south that had been 

 practically dead, so far as outside trade was concerned; labor 

 was in demand, farm property increased in value, and in many 

 places these conditions still hold good. Of course, as always 

 happens, there were some who went into this business too 

 deeply on the start, and suffered severe loss. 



" The earliest strawberries come from Florida and Cali- 

 fornia the latter part of December. At that season the quan- 

 tity shipped is so small that no grower has a carload at any 

 one time, so he uses the refrigerator chest. This is a heavy 

 box made in various sizes from forty-eight to one hundred or 

 more quarts. The first of these cases made were crude affairs. 

 The berries got badly shaken in handling, and the water from 

 the melting ice soaked them, so that they were in bad shape 

 when opened. Improvements have been made to such an ex- 

 tent now that the berries are not damaged at all, opening up 

 in as fine condition as when packed. As cold naturally goes 

 down instead of up, the ice is put in a tight galvanized iron 

 tray in the top of the chest, and the cover shuts down closely 



