4 BULLETIN 709, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
age at fair prices. "When the stock is moving out of storage it is 
important to know how fast it is being disposed of, in order that 
on the one hand the dealer from previous experience or from records 
may be able to judge how quickly it must be moved to prevent com- 
petition with the product of the next season, and on the other hand 
the consumer may be able to determine whether under all the cir- 
cumstances the existing supply is being offered at fair prices. 
It is apparent that this information has a cumulative value. It is 
useful when comparisons are made between the current holdings 
and movements and those of the previous year, but it is more valu- 
able when comparisons are made for a series of years, and its value 
increases with the completeness of the returns as inclusive of all 
holdings. 
COLD-STORAGE REPORTS OF COMMERCIAL ORGANIZATIONS. 
Many trade papers make monthly estimates of the quantities of 
certain products held in cold storage in various cities on the first of 
each month. Their sources of information are confidential, but it 
is well known that they are not based on actual knowledge, as they 
do not have the cooperation of all operators of warehouses. The 
data they publish are valuable but are confined to the holdings of 
a few of the great distributing centers. 
For more than 10 years the American "Warehousemen's Association 
has obtained such data from about 54 of the more important storages, 
regarding their holdings of creamery butter and eggs. The figures 
they have collected are especially valuable in that they cover a series 
of years and are based on the business of the same firms for almost 
the entire period. 
The accompanying diagram (fig. 1) shows the average percentage 
of the creamery-butter holdings in storage on the first of each month 
of the year as reported to this organization. It is based on the 
average monthly holdings for a period of 10 years, from 1907 to 
1916, inclusive, the average holdings on the 1st of September for the 
10 years being 64.378,898 pounds. 
It will be observed that more than three-quarters of the holdings 
in these warehouses are stored during the months of June and July, 
while most of the distribution is within the months of October to 
March, inclusive, about one- fourth of the total holdings being with- 
drawn during December. It appears from these figures that on 
an average only 6.9 per cent is carried over into the next season. 
Figure 2 is a diagram showing the average monthly holdings of 
case eggs for the same date. The maximum holdings are shown to 
be in storage on August 1. During April, May, and June 84.5 
per cent of all the eggs stored were placed in these warehouses. The 
deliveries extended over the months of August to February, inclusive, 
one-fourth of the stock being sold out in December. On the aver- 
