116 MODERN FRUIT MARKETING 
cold storage plant. Practically all the fruit in transi- 
tion from the warmer states must be kept in storage. 
All the meat, eggs, and other food products which must 
be shipped long distances could not possibly be supplied 
fresh were it not for the advantages of cold storage. 
In fact, in most every case the consumer in large cities 
uses daily either meat or fruit products which have 
been kept fresh in cold storage plant. 
The volume of business done would run far into the 
millions of dollars per annum and while creating a good 
income from the money invested in storage plants they 
also add largely to the comfort of the consumer who is 
forced to make the larger cities his home. 
Disadvantages of Cold Storage——There are also cer- 
tain disadvantages in the use of cold storage and these 
refer more particularly to the producer or to the person 
who wishes to store the fruit. First, it is not always easy 
to foresee conditions and if the producer stores his 
fruit he must do so at his own risk, hoping that at the 
proper time the market will rise sufficiently so as to move 
his goods at a fair profit. The individual producer is 
at a decided disadvantage in this case because he is not 
in a position to make a study of the market require- 
ments. On the other hand, operators of the fruit stor- 
age houses are themselves in the center of the consuming 
district and ean accurately forecast what may be ex- 
pected. In some cases, they are willing to advise the 
storer of these conditions, but this can hardly be ex- 
pected as a general rule. 
The second disadvantage is that the producer has 
- little or no protection. The fruit is often shipped 
across two or three states, and placed in storage. After 
