The Opelousas courier., 1897-12-25
VALUEOFCOLDSTORAG
A VISIT To THE FROZEN WARE.
HOUSES IS INTERESTING.

Hess-By Means of Piped Chemicals the
Temperature Is Kept Below Zero
Eatables Kept for Years.
The almost perfect system to which
cold storage has been brought in this
city and its suburbs IS known only in
a general way to the average citizen.
1t will doubtlessly cause surprise &c
persons who are not familiar with the
facts to learn that a quail they eat fo1
breakfast has been dead in some cases
for II or two years, and that quail
and other game birds, fish and meat
are frequently frozen for a year OF
more and then sold in as good a con-
dltlon as they were the day they were
put into the great ice-house.
The business has grown to such di-
mansions that it is estimated roughly
that market men, shippers and others
interested in the trade have So, 900,
600 invested in the business, exclusive
OF the cost of the buildings. Large
structures, usually located adjacent to
the markets or abe railroad depots,
are IN demand forecold storage ware
houses, and thereffre several on upper
West street, moe near Washington
market, others lnatedn near the Fulton
market and under the arches of the
Brooklyn bridge, that seem particular
ly"well adapted for the purpose. Ex-
cept in the case of fruit and such vege-
tables as are destroyed by freezing, it
is said to be.seldom that provisions
are sold to the consumer upon arrival
In this city. Prices, of course, have
much to do with the sales, and when
there is an overstock of chickens,
eggs, beef, fish, meat or similar COM
modify, it is packed away in a cold
storage warehouse, where it is held
until prices justify a sale.
As regards game, 1t was only last
winter that emissaries of the state
| game warden came to this city to find
out why certain restaurants were sell
ing venison, pheasants, quail and
every other sort of game out of season.
The deputy game wardens had quail
for breakfast in September, when the
law said hat they should not be killed
until December; venison for dinner,
when deer can only be hunted in jan
uary, and woodcock and snipe. Then
they made a list of the restaurants
where the game had been obtained and
arrested the proprietors. The pro-
prietors gave the names of the men
from whom they had boughtth game,
and these were found to have obtained
it from the warehousemen. It was
learned that some of the game had
been killed more than a year before
during the regular season. There
were expressions Of consciousness and
wonderment on the faces of the game
wardens when they departed for home.
In their reports they said the law had
not been violated.
"We certainly have developed the
business" said one Of the ware
housemen, ''to a point that is I'M
equalled in any other part Of the world.
Europe has nothing like the cold
warehouse system of this city. Even
royal personages have to take their
vegetables, meat, fruit and game in
season. Here we do not. The cold
warehouse system, has been growing
so slowly and yet surely in this city
that it would be considered a hardship
by citizens if they had to do without
it. We have developed a pampered
taste that requires fruit at Christmas,
commodities that in the good old
times we could get only when nature
,nrNr1InI +hnm of Tim 20 p,1vAl,c af4or
the time they are grown Or killed.
Rich men want trout at all seasons of
the year, when it is known that they
can only be obtained in the spring.
Young chickens cannot be obtained
except at their weight in gold during
the winter, if they are grown during
the cold months and killed just before
being used. By means of the cold
storage system they cost little more
on New Years day than they do in
May. Spring lamb, that was obtain
able formerly only in May and June,
is carefully packed away in the spring
and sold the succeeding winter and
weeks before the earliest spring lamb
of the following spring is born. Beef
and mutton are not kept nearly so
long-no need to do so.
"Bluefsh can be obtained only at
certain seasons, yet they are on sale
all the time. The same is true regard
ing bass, mackerel and other fish.
Oysters and clans are also kept for
months at a time and frequently from
one season to another"
A visit to one of these warehouses is
interesting. The walls are of extra
ordinary thickness, sheathed with
wood and filed with huge ice-boxes.
In sc of the more modern ware
houses the same chemicals used to
make artificial ice are circulated
through the rooms by means of pipes,
which keep the temperature several
degrees below zero. The fish, meat
Or game to be preserved is packed in
the ice-boxes, which have double
walls, and the ice is packed around
them. With the atmosphere around
them below zero, the articles to be
preserved are kept at a temperature
that would make an Arctic explorer
shiver until they are wanted, when
they are taken out and sold, some
times in a few days, and as often in a
few months. The refrigerator cars
have helped to develop the cold stor-
age business.
There are about twenty-five large
cold storage warehouses in this city
and a greater number of small ones.
In all they employ nearly a thousand
men.-New York Commercial Adver-