The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-01-21
COLD STORAGE

Mems ingenuity in building hot
houses and cold storage warehouses
has enabled us to have Summer vege-
tables and fruits in Winter, and
Spring lamb all year round. The hot
house was built to feed those whom
the world has treated kindly f1nan-
cia1ly, and even to-day remains in that
position. The cold storage, on the
contrary, by design or accident, is pri-
mariIy an institution for the benefit of
those less fortunate in worldly goods
Cold storage has been benefit to
the product and meat industries, but
it has been far more for the fisheries
For vegetables, left to themselves,
grow at certain seasons; meat is pro-
durable, naturally, at any season; but
the supply of fish is dependent entire
Iy on the caprice of Nature.
AS. yet, the cold storage is. not play
ing the part in connection with the
fisheries to which it is entitled 1t is
doubtful if it's true function is as yet
understood by the industry itself. And
until such time as the industry under
stands the place of the cold storage,
and the truth about cold storage foods
the freezer must remain misunder-
stood.
For the real function of the cold
storage in, this respect is to enable
the dealers to provide the public with
sea. foods at those periods when. very
little fish is being caught and landed.
1t is the safety valve of the industry,
by means of which the distribution OF
sea food is to be regulated.
Cod, haddock, pollock, bake, cusk,
nackerel, swordf1sh - and for that
matter, every other 1sh-has a partic-
u1ar season when it is more plentiful
/ than at other seasons. Up-to-date,
however, no season has appeared at
which groundf1sh Good, paddock, bake,
pollock and cusl1) have entirely dis
I Tr,1f
/ and South Channel, and the other
banks frequented by the New England
fishermen.
The conditions for: catching the fish
also vary greatly from season to sea-
| son. The Spring and Fall are usually
poor seasons. with gusty, variable
winds, and high seas The Winter
weather, while steadier. also is mighty
poor for fishing.
Weather, however, is a very poor
thing to be dependent upon at any
season. A sudden. storm may prac-
tically paraIyze the fisheries for days
cutting off the entire supply of fresh
groundf1sh. Receipts at the Boston
Fish Pier then may drop from hum
dredss of thousands Of pounds to a few
hundreds of pounds. The dealers find
the public demanding. fresh nsh just
with which to supply the demand.
the same. but they have no fresh fish
The inevitable happened. Up goes
the price of fish. And this is most
apt to happen at the very seasons
when the general public actually needs
cheap fish.
Judicions use of the cold storage
would do much to alleviate this There
is no conceivable reason why the SUI
perddous fish of a glutted market
should not be put into cold storage,
rather than be sent to the curing
house of the cannery.
1S11r al md h
swordf1sh, two. varieties of sea food
only to be caught at certain short
seasons of the year. and to a very
slight extent with groundfsh.
II the case of 1nackere1 and sword
fish, the freezer fu1dIls the function
filled in the produce business by the
dollhouse, enables the awe11-to-do to
consume out-of-season foods. For this
reason, there is a greater margin of
profit in freezing these varieties, and
naturally the dealers prefer to invest
their capital in it..
public prejudiced against cold stor-
age foods Although they probably
could not be told from the freshly
caught article by one out of every
hundred consumers, the name tcold
storage fish, seems to stfgmatize them
as undesirable.
Nothing can do the work of nature
so well as nature herself. Neither
the hotheuse. the cannery. nor the
cold storage can be expected to turn
out product as fine as Nature. But
on the other hand. a, half a loaf is bet
ter than none, and in these days when
the average housewife is battling
tooth and nail with the high cost
of living the dollhouse, the cannery
and the cold storage product is not to
be despised, but to be looked upon
as a legitimate substitute for. Natures.
work.
Through the cold storage alone, can
the public hope to have a steady
supply of sea foods at moderate
price.