missible holding of food in cold storage is either necessary or desirable. The inducement to hold is profit, and profit can be realized only by selling into final consumption. And when goods can be carried to a later date and sold at a higher price it is evidence that the relative scarcity which results in that higher price would have been more stringent had the goods not been so carried. In respect to the time of selling stored foods, therefore, the interests of consumers (as a whole) and of owners of the food, would seem to be identical; for it is the increased public need which results in the higher price, and profit, considering storage operations as a whole, depends upon a correct judgment as to that need.

There seems, therefore, no means by which tradesmen dealing in raw foods can utilize cold storage preservation for their own benefit at the cost of a public injury, but that, on the contrary, the profitableness of holding surplus depends upon the performance of a public service.

The ideal function of cold storage preservation is to carry just such amount of surplus from the time of greatest yield as can be consumed during the later period of relative scarcity at just sufficient advance in value as will cover the cost of carriage and afford a maximum satisfactory profit for the conduct of the business and the necessary investment of capital. But it is impossible that this ideal can be uniformly realized. Even if the operations of storage accumulation and withdrawal for market were uniformly governed in the light of the fullest possible knowledge and with the best of judgment, it would be impossible always to determine the quantity to be stored and the normal price thereof so that later deficiency at corresponding prices would be exactly offset. For the extent of later shortage can never be certainly known and the extent of demand at any particular prices is variable and uncertain. As a matter of fact, these operations of storage accumulation and later output, being carried on by thousands of individual and independent dealers, in the dim light of imperfect knowledge, even as to important statistical facts that might be known, can never result in ideal effects. Sometimes the quantity of certain foods stored at the prices paid proves to be excessive and a part of the surplus, toward the approach of the next flush season, has to be thrown upon the markets at heavy losses; sometimes the quantity put away is insufficient to offset the later scarcity and a part of the surplus, carried late, realizes for larger profits than normal. But these conditions are, to a large extent, inevitable, and while they show that the ideal function of cold storage preservation can not always be realized, they do not materially lessen its value. When a series of years is considered it will be found that the average profits are comparatively small in relation to the risks and the investment involved. And even when, during the flush season of accumulation, prices are sustained above the normal level by an amount of accumulation that later proves excessive, consumers get the surplus later at correspondingly

lower prices. The reverse is also true, that when the quantity held is deficient, leading to relatively high prices in a part of the season of natural scarcity, a greater previous accumulation, sufficient to prevent so much advance, would have resulted in higher prices during the previous flush season.

The view that the economic effect of cold storage is to increase production and to lower the yearly average price of food whose production is variable is evidenced by such statistics as are available. In the manufacture of butter, for instance, the months of greatest production are from May to August, inclusive, and the months of usual deficiency are from November to March. In the New York market the average price of creamery butter from May to August during the period from 1880 to 1892, before cold storage preservation was generally used, was 21.9 cents. During the same months in the period from 1902 to 1911, when cold storage facilities were largely available, the average price was 23.4 cents. But while this comparison shows an average advance of one 11 cents during the four months of normal accumulation of surplus the effect upon prices during the normal season of shortage was very apparent; for in the months November to March in the period 1880 to 1892 the average wholesale price was 34.3 cents, while during the same months in the period from 1902 to 1911 the average for fine fresh creamery was only 28.9 cents, and the average for fine storage creamery 26.7 cents.

THE QUALITY OF COLD STORED FOODS.

The quality of all perishable food products varies according to the methods of their production and the care taken of them during transit from producer to consumer. The more perishable foods, being produced in a very wide territory by a vast number of producers, and usually transported over long distances, are found in distributing markets to be of extremely irregular quality and condition. Usually qualities are best in the seasons of maximum production, and while goods put into cold storage are also of irregular quality most of those intended for long holding are selected, handled and packed with especial care. The effect upon perishable foods of holding in cold storage is various. It is less in respect to those carried hard frozen, as meat, fish, poultry and butter, and upon durable vegetables and fruit, as potatoes and apples, than upon animal products that cannot be frozen, as eggs in the shell. Yet in all perishable foods commonly carried in cold storage, quality, as judged by popular standards, is preservable up to the limit of usual commercial necessity, in a highly satisfactory degree. The more durable fruits and vegetables, carried in properly corrected and controlled atmospheric conditions, after months of holding, are often indistinguishable in point of quality, from those marketed soon after their harvest. Butter carried frozen for months loses very little of its original flavor and character.

Poultry, also, if of fine quality and condition when frozen, may be so held for a long period without noticeable deterioration. Eggs in cold storage gradually lose the peculiar freshness of a new laid quality, but under proper conditions they remain sound, sweet and acceptable when carried at about 30 degrees temperature for at least nine or ten months. Scientific investigation conducted by the research laboratories of the United States Department of Agriculture has given no evidence of any effect of an unwholesome character upon the quality of perishable foods held in cold storage up to the limit of usual commercial practice when the products were sound and wholesome when stored.

The cold storage of surplus and the sale thereof in the markets adds not at all to the irregularity in quality of our food supply. On the contrary, the average quality of the supply is improved, for, without the facility of refrigeration, freshly marketed products would inevitably be poorer; they are now often poorer than similar goods of much greater age properly carried in cold storage. Furthermore, the length of time perishable foods are carried in cold storage is, within reasonable limits, no criteron of their quality. Perfect products, properly refrigerated. for months, may be, and often are, superior in all the elements of quality to imperfect goods, freshly marketed or held only a short time. Again, because of the very widely spread sources of our food supply, the necessity for collection at innumerable points and transportation over long distances it is hard to say what goods are "fresh." Even when collected. at interior points, transported to distant markets and put into consumption with usual promptness perishable products are often two to four weeks in the transit from producer to consumer, and often under more or less unfavorable environments.

Under these circumstances it is seriously to be doubted that there is any real ethical foundation for the recent demand that, in the sale of perishable foods, there must be a stated distinction between so-called fresh" and stored products, or for the feeling that consumers asking for broiling chickens in the winter, for instance, are deceived if furnished with acceptable goods frozen six months before. And this doubt is intensified, no matter how scrupulous we may be in standing for truth and fair dealing, when it is considered how difficult will be the enforcement of laws compelling such distinction in commodities of irregular quality and condition whose age and previous environment cannot be known by examination, and in respect to which a comparison of quality is often in favor of the older goods.

The writer's conclusion from the foregoing considerations, based upon a long and disinterested observation of the practical use of cold storage preservation, is that artificial refrigeration furnishes the most important of all modern factors in the conservation of perishable foods, leading to an increase in their production, and to a consequent lowering of average.

prices. Also that governmental attention to the industry would be more usefully directed toward providing for continuous and frequent statistical information of the rate of food accumulation and output, to the end that operators may be guided by the largest possible knowledge, rather than toward any undue restriction of the industry or the imposition of costly and difficult requirements which, though seemingly designed to prevent deception, are, upon analysis, found to be unnecessary and impractical.

NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF CONSERVATION COMMISSIONERS.

This Association, consisting of Conservation commissioners and other persons connected with various departments of State development, held two sessions during the Conservation Congress. Several important subjects were considered, but most of the time was given to a discussion of the work done by certain departments connected with public service.

The first session considered State Surveys, their work and co-operation. As a result of this meeting an agreement was reached as to the order or sequence of the surveys, the object being to secure for the States the largest returns from each survey. The sequence of the surveys and the leading points to be emphasized, as decided by the commissioners, are as follows: (1) topography, (2) structure, (3) drainage, (4) ground water, (5) local climate, (6) soil, (7) plant and animal life, (8) social and industrial conditions. This order is thought to be most helpful so far as the surveys are concerned. It is also the natural order. It was plainly shown that several States have wasted time and money in taking up the various surveys in a way that does not develop these relationships. For instance, some States have started industrial and agricultural surveys before they have mapped the geology, topography and water resources. Such an order does not bring the best results. Furthermore, it is wasteful.

Several prominent directors of State surveys took part in the discussions of this session, among them being Dr. George W. Field, Dr. A. H. Purdue, Dr. F. W. DeWolf, Professor Kay, Dr. C. E. Bessey, Dr. C. H. Gordon, Dr. Frank W. Rane, Prof. George A. Loveland and Hon. J. E. Beal. Among the other speakers were Hon. George Coupland, Mr. Ellis, W. E. Barns, Henry A. Barker, H. E. Hardtner and Dr. H. H. Waite. Dr. David White, of the United States Geological Survey, gave valuable suggestions.

At the second session of the commissioners, the forest laws of Louisiana were discussed by Hon. II. E. Hardtner, ex-Chairman of the Louisiana Conservation Commission. Following this was a general discussion of forest laws and forest management. Hon. W. E. Barns, of the Mis

souri Conservation Commission, gave a talk on the improvements of lumbering in the South. Prof. Earl O. Fippin of the Agricultural College of Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y., read a paper; subject, "The Soil Survey as a Means of Agricultural Improvement." This paper was followed by discussion, in which the value of the soil surveys as it relates to State development, was brought out with considerable detail.

The officers elected for the ensuing year were: President, Dr. G. E. Condra, Lincoln, Neb.; Vice-President, Dr. George W. Field, Sharon, Mass.; Secretary, Henry A. Barker, Providence, R. I.

ACCIDENT PREVENTION SECTION.

On October 2, 3:30 o'clock, the section on "Accident Prevention" held a large and enthusiastic meeting in the Auditorium of the German House. The presiding officer was Mr. M. W. Mix, of Mishawaka, Ind., President of the Manufacturers' Bureau of Indiana. At this meeting the following resolution was adopted:

Resolved, That we appreciate the efforts now being made by manufacturers of machinery for use in industrial plants to so far safeguard their machines as to minimize the danger of personal injury to workers; and that as manufacturers and individuals interested in accident prevention we recognize the difficulty, and in some cases even impossibility, on the part of purchasers of individual machines to properly attach safeguards; and realize that the original manufacturers of the machines by reason of their wide experience and efficient engineers, are better able to develop and provide proper safeguards for all machinery; and that it is the sense of this meeting that any efforts along this line are highly commendable and will be appreciated by all interested in the Conservation of human life.

Resolved, further; That a copy of this resolution be sent by the President to every machine manufacturer with a request for his co-operation.

CONSERVATION OF WATERS.

Report of the Standing Committee on Waters. W. C. MENDENHALL, Washington, D. C., Acting Chairman.

To the public the Conservation movement seemed to rise suddenly in the last few months of 1908 and the early part of the year 1909, but what the people of the United States was really witnessing then was not so much the origin of a movement as its organization. Through a generation before that time Government bureaus, individuals, and associations here and there had been methodically assembling facts, and those who were familiar with these facts had been reaching conclusions that were oftentimes disturbing in their tenor. These individuals and groups. were brought together, their conclusions were given publicity of a most effective type, and what had been scattered and disorganized recognition of a vital problem was given solidarity and nation-wide recognition by the acts of President Roosevelt and Gifford Pinchot in organizing the