Manufacturing Bonded Warehouses.

A manufacturer may pay the duty on raw material imported, manufacture it into a finished product, ship this to a foreign market and receive a refund of the duty paid on the raw material, under certain restrictions. This refund is called a "draw back."

Cold Storage Warehouses.

Out of the development of our modern domestic and foreign commerce and transportation systems has come the cold storage warehouse. By means of cold storage the preservation throughout the entire year, of meats, fruits, poultry, dairy products, fish and vegetables has been accomplished to such an extent that the seasons have become practically eliminated, and the prices of these necessaries of life have been made uniform. In the season of abundance, instead of becoming a glut on the market, these products are placed in cold storage and preserved until trade conditions will warrant placing them on the market. Cold storage warehouses are constructed with specially built walls of great thickness, containing insulating material such as asbestos, cork, charcoal, shavings, etc., and every precaution is taken against the admission of outside heat. Formerly cold storage products brought a lower price in the market than those that were fresh, but under improved cold storage methods they now bring as high a price in the market and in some instances even higher. Eggs stored in March and taken out in November, sell as high as the fresh commodity. Eggs have been kept two years and found perfectly sweet when used. Five or six months is the usual period of storage with most products.

It is estimated by a reliable authority that products worth over $500,000,000 are placed in cold storage annually, in the United States. Thousands of tons of meat are stored for preservation awaiting distribution; between three and five million cases of eggs find their way into the cold stores each season; between one and one-half and two million 60-lb. tubs of butter, besides large amounts of oleomargarine, are stored; some two to three million barrels of apples are put in the cold rooms each fall, as well as great quantities of other produce, including vegetables of all kinds, molasses, tobacco, silks, furs, upholstered furniture, etc.*

The greatest center of the cold storage industry up to 1902 was Chicago, it having long been the greatest railroad center and center of supplies, and, being the first to engage extensively in the cold storage of eggs, became the egg center of the country, more than 600,000 cases of 30 dozens each finding their way into the Chicago coolers each spring. The greatest center, if Jersey City and Newark, N. J., are included, is New York, partly because of the vast local market and also because of her great export and import trade in perishable goods.

Fish freezing and storing warehouses are now found in all parts of the United States, including Alaska, as well as Canada

♦These latter articles are placed in cold storage to protect them from Insects. The leading retail dry goods houses In our large cities provide cold storage rooms for such articles, for their own as well as their customers' accommodation.

Cold Storage Center

Extent in the United States and foreign countries. The great fish freezing and storing houses in Washington, Oregon and Alaska, handle many millions of dollars worth of fish annually. The fish are mostly halibut, salmon and herring, and are frozen alive as caught, by placing them in cold storage warehouses, from whence they are shipped in refrigerator cars to the Atlantic cities and to Europe. Cold storage of meat has reached its greatest development in Great Britain, as that country imports 60 per cent. of its meat supply. Vast quantities are shipped from the United States, and besides a fleet of nearly two hundred vessels is constantly engaged in carrying meat from Australia, New Zealand and Argentina to England, the meat being first frozen, and then kept frozen throughout the long voyage across the tropics, in the cold storage holds of the ships. By experiment it has been ascertained that certain temperatures are best suited to the preservation of certain products and in a well regulated warehouse it is comparatively easy to maintain at all times the temperature best suited to the purpose. Thus a temperature near the zero of Fahrenheit best preserves fish, butter, ice cream, etc.; 20° to 28° furs and fabrics; 30° to 32° eggs; 31° to 33° apples, fresh meat or cheese; 34° to 36°, pears, peaches and other delicate fruits, vegetables and the retarding of plant growth in flowers out of season. All these varied temperatures are maintained in different rooms of the same warehouse at the same time.

The introduction of the refrigerating machine in 1890 gave the first great impulse to the establishment of commercial cold storage warehouses. Prior to that time ice and salt were the only means of securing the desired temperature, and this method is still in use to a small extent, but it is accompanied with serious objections, such as the carrying away of the moisture from the melting of the ice, the difficulty of obtaining sufficiently low temperatures or of keeping them under absolute control at all times, and, especially in the south, the excessive cost of the ice required. All these objections were overcome by the introduction of the ammonia or carbonic acid refrigerating machine. Liquid anhydrous ammonia, which can only be kept so under pressure, when allowed to expand into a gas, absorbs heat. The refrigerating machine simply reconverts the gas into a liquid to be again expanded, absorbing more heat, again liquefied and again expanded the process being continuous so long as the machine continues in operation.

The charges for cold storing vary greatly, and only on the most staple goods are charges anything like fixed. Apples usually pay 15c. per barrel for the first month and 10c. per month thereafter. Butter for long storage in zero rooms at about l/8c. per lb. per month, at 5° below zero at l/6c. per lb. per month. For eggs the charge is about 10c. per case per month or 40c. for the season, May to January. The ordinary charge for storage of furs is: for muffs 75c. to $1.00 and for fur capes or garments $1.00 to $2.50 for the season of eight or nine months.

The cold storage warehouseman, in addition to receiving goods from others for storage, is often a purchaser and owner of a considerable portion of the goods he stores. In Europe generally, and in this country to a small extent, negotiable warehouse receipts are issued for these goods and used as collateral for loans. The lesser use of these instruments of credit in this country is due, partly at least, to the absence of any definite system of inspection and of licensing and hence the lender depends largely upon his faith in the integrity of the individual warehouseman. The very fact that the goods are termed "perishable" casts suspicion upon them as security for loans even though they may be of the most staple character and as safe as any personal property. Insurance is a serious problem for the cold storage wareCharges houseman, as a slight damage by fire to the refrigerating machinery might cause enormous damage to the goods stored; hence insurance companies have compelled the warehouseman to become a co-insurer or pay additional premium on a "consequential damage" clause in the policy.