The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1896-03-20
BIG ICE BOXES.
THE FOtsD OF MILLIONS KEPT
cool FROM DAY TO DAY.
Perisiiabie Meats, Fruits and Vegeta-
bles kept Fresh II Long Time
in Cold Storage Warehouses
How It is Done.

Sucn proportions tlat III mas Hau b WASH
effect upon the commerce of the
world has all been within very recent
years. The storage by the ancients
of food in caves and the suspension OF
butter and meat by our grandfathers
into deep wells were both in their way
effective, but those methods are diff
ferent indeed from the storage of
thousands of tons of perishable things
in the great warehouses constructed
for the purpose in every large city.
Some idea of the extent to which cold
storage has been carried may be OBJ
tanned from the fact that in New York
City one firm of warehousemen main
tains eighty-three houses for cold stor-
age There are in the whole city twice
that many more. Twenty years ago
there was not a single one. Besides
these cold storage houses there are in
New York about dozen public ware
houses, where a temperature we'll be-
low the freezing point is maintained,
and in these frozen meats, killed in
the neighboorhood of New York or lii
the West, are stored till ready for dis
tribution to the consumers nearby or
for shipment abroad or to other parts
Of the country.
While the freezIng of meat for the
preservation and transportation has
been a most important innovation on
the old method of Strengthening in
each neighborhood for that neighbor-
hood alone, the development OF the
principle of the cold storage and it's
general adoption, has been OF vastly
more Importance
By the use of cold storage many
millions of dollars are saved every
year to the consumers of food in the
United States. And a like amount,
whatever it may be, is saved also to
the producers. Cold storage, there
fore, has what the mechanicians call a
double back action, and like it,
'blesseth him that gives and him that
takes" Before there were cold stor-
age warehouses in the cities, towns
and villages in America, such products
as eggs, butter, fruits and vegetables
would be so low in price at some periods
of the year that it scarcely paid to
take them to market, and at otker
periods they would be so high that
they were almost out of the reach of
the persons not lucky in the possession
of long and well-hlled pocketbooks.
This resulted in an almost sinful waste
and most serious loss to the pro-
ducers. Every particle Of this waste
was also loss to the consumers. But
the cold storage warehouses have
changed all this. When the market is
glutted with an excess of perishabie
things, and there would be loss to
the producer to sell, there is now no
imperative need that he should sell at
once. He can store his butter and
eggs, his fruit and vegetables, and
hold them until the great excess has
been exhausted, when he will pretty
surely secure u reasonable profit on
the original cost of production, to-
gether with an added reward for his
patience. At first glance this would
seem to be at the expense of the con-
sumner, but this is not SO, for the cold
storage has become 50 expensive that
these products will almost instantly,
even at times when production has
been stopped, find their way to any
place where prices have risen because
of the efforts of the spectators to
effect what are called corners There
was an instance of the futility OF such
efforts this winter.
When cold storage warehouses were
first introduced the ice which made
the low temperature WAS kept in the
cellar, and the cold air was pumped
to the other floors. This involved ex-
pense and the results were not entirely
satisfactory. Practical experiments
demonstrated that the ice could be
kept in the top Of warehouse and
the cold air circulated at once more
chcaply and satisfactorily. This is
the method now generally employed |
except where the ce-making machinc |
principle is used, and pipes similar to
steam pipes are run around the varl- |
Gus rooms. The temperature OF cold |
storage rooms is maintained at from !
thirty four to forty degrees. and here |
eggs, butter. cheese, fruits and vege-
tables are kept fresh an astonishingly |
long time. The parts OF any building |
used as cold storage place are care !
fully insulated so as to keep out heat |
and too great cold. The insulation is
SO perfect that it is not lnfrequently |
the case that the ground or street floor |
of such warehouse is used for ordl-
nary business, and the temperature
kept just as the occupants wish.
OF course some products are more !
easily kept than others. Strawberries. |
for instance, are about the most per-
ishable of the fruits that are ever sent |
to these places. They are often sent
in the evening and taken ont again at |
4 O'Clock in the morning. TWAS diff
cult in the early stages of cold storage
development TO keep eygs in a good
condition. The eggs did not spoil in
the ordinary sense, that is, they did !
not rot, but they became musty and
were far from pleasant to those OF
acutely critical taste. Eggs are usually
packed in kiln dried straw. and it was
found that the moisture in the cold |
air that circulated in the storage
rooms sought out this very dry straw
and stayed there. This WIS what made
the eggs musty. To prevent this the
air in egg-storage places is kept as
free as possible from moisture. The
great hotels have cold storage places
Of their OVID, and the managers buy
even perishable supplies Iii such large
quantities that they secure them ut
advantageous Wholesale prices. Those
great hotels i'll Florida built and run
~ the Standard Oil masnate, Mr.. !
Flagler, are equipped with both cold
and freezing storage, and the supplies
of food not obtained from the neigh
boring gardens are laid in in one lot
for +Ea uh,Io season Eyan in to1ar.