sers benefit by these market arrangements, for if they buy from a
regularly authorized dealer they can file a claim with the
administration if the supplies delivered are faulty and if their case
is proved the account will be rectified.

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.

[Illustration: 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 windb