About fifty railroad car loads can be handled at once at the market, but when extended accommodation is provided it is intended to deal with two hundred carloads simultaneously. On supplies thus delivered a railroad tax is collected from the receivers for maintaining rail connections, and this yields an annual profit of $11,000.
INTERIOR OF THE BERLIN CENTRAL MARKET
The Fish Section of the Great Municipal Market of the German Capital.
Of the stand holders, nine-tenths are monthly tenants, and the remainder pay by the day. The highest charge is 9.5 cents per square meter a day for meat stalls. The fish sold comes mainly from Geestemunde, at the mouth of the Weser, and is sold under the strictest conditions, only a small commission being allowed to be added by the dealers.
The slaughterhouses deal with 800 wagons daily and for the use of the butchers and the market generally 2,000 square meters of distilled water are produced every day, valued at four cents the square meter. Eight thousand pipes conduct the water to every part of the market. To ensure cleanliness, bathrooms and rooms for drying clothes are established for the use of the butchers, who are charged two and a half cents a bath. In inspecting the carcases the veterinaries take the most minute precautions. From every animal four samples are taken, at different parts of the body, and each of these samples is submitted to tests for twenty minutes.
In an average year 14,000 carcases are condemned and destroyed, as well as 400,000 diseased parts. Whenever possible the inspectors cut away diseased portions, and the remainder of the carcase, after being sterilized, is sent to the markets known as the Freibank, for sale to the very poor. This proportion is not so startling when it is considered that something like two million animals are slaughtered every year, of which more than half are pigs. Until recently Germany used to export a large number of prime animals to the London market, but the demands of home consumers now prevent this and the export trade has practically ceased. In fact Germany, in common with the rest of Europe, is now competing for the world's refrigerated supplies.
Storm doors and windbreaks are provided at the entrances to the markets and wagons are only allowed inside at certain hours and through specified doorways. Thus there is an absence of dust, and a carefully arranged series of windows ensure ample ventilation. All dealers have to unpack their stock at least once every seven days, for the destruction of unsound articles. All supplies of unripe fruit, horseflesh and artificial butter have to carry labels disclosing their real nature. Attached to the market is a hospital with skilled attendance, for cases of sickness or injury happening on the market premises.
As in most other centers, the establishment of the market led to the peddlers entering into outside competition. They bought their supplies wholesale inside, and then offered them cheaply outside, free from stand rentals and other charges. This menace to the prosperity of the market grew so great that the peddlers' traffic in adjacent streets was prohibited and strictly limited elsewhere. This measure, in fact, is deemed essential in every city where municipal markets are conducted successfully.