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PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION G, 
3.— POSSIBILITIES OF COOLING, CHILLING, AND FREEZING 
AS AFFECTING AUSTRALIAN AGRICULTURE. 
By ANGUS MACK AT, F.C.S., Instructor in Agriculture, Technical College, 
Ntw South Wales. 
I he term Agriculture , as used in this paper, is intended to apply 
m its fullest sense, as embracing the various branches of live stock, 
general farming, and garden cultivation, including the products 
thereof. 
The control which is being gradually won over temperature as 
being beneficial or destructive, and the effects upon agricultural pro- 
ducts— both vegetable and animal — which follow when cooled, chilled, 
or frozen, are opening immense fields of possibilities for Australia. 
By the aid of reduced temperature products which were formerly 
confined to the cities and towns, and their immediate surroundings, 
are already finding more extended outlets in districts where fresh 
fruit, as an instance, was scarcely known. Products such as meat, 
milk, butter, &c., are also being supplied to the towns in much greater 
quantity, and of decidedly better quality, by the aid of cooling 
conveniences, of cold storage accommodation, cold chambers on the 
railways and on shipboard, the uses of which are extending rapidly. 
Then, looking further afield, we see many of the products of 
Australia already placed in the great markets of Europe, and in such 
condition as has, even in the face of visible defects, won for them a 
fair share of appreciation from consumers who are used to having the 
very best products of the world in their markets. 
My purpose in this paper is to examine into the possibilities of 
extending the trade so favourably opened, not only for the products 
which have been tested, but for many others that come within the 
agricultural capabilities of the countiy. What has been attempted 
with success affords confidence that we arc on the right track ; what 
may be possible offers encouragements of no ordinary kind to the 
business man, and also to scientists, always on the alert to aid in 
spreading the benefits of industrial efforts towards the production of 
improved and extended food supplies. 
In view of the subject thus opened up, the kindred products of 
meat, fruits, and vegetables may be grouped as being capable of 
similar treatment for transportation and marketing purposes. There 
is, in the sense of the agriculturist, no limit to the extent to which 
any or all of such products might be increased. It is a simple matter 
of skilled agriculture, of suitable soil, suitably fed and treated, so as 
to yield all that might be required. The means of distributing our 
products, of marketing them profitably, offer greater difficulties. They 
presented difficulties which seemed veritable barriers in the days prior 
to chilling and freezing. For years the main hope of thinking men, 
who looked to advanced agriculture as the true foundation of the 
country, was in such an increase of population as would enlarge the 
demands for more extensive agricultural operations. There was the 
serious drawback, however, in the face of increased population, that 
supplies of fresh vegetables and meat would have to be confined very 
closely to the localities where they were produced. That difficulty is 
beiug cleared away. There is now the possibility that millions of 
people may occupy the seaboard sections of Australia, and that with 
