The gain in popularity of freezing as a means of food preservation has created a need for additional refrigeration on the farm. Even with the wide selection of commercial equipment to choose from, many of the units purchased have proven to be inadequate in storage and freezing capacity. A practical solution to the problem of ample capacity and economy of installation and operation, in many cases is the walk-in type farm refrigerator which may be constructed in part by farm labor using locally available materials. Such a unit designed, constructed and extensively tested in the V.P.I. Agricultural Engineering Department. One of the major items in the initial cost of such a farm refrigerator is the installation of the refrigeration equipment. The nature of this type of installation is conductive to very inefficient use of labor, equipment and facilities. If shops equipped for refrigeration work were used to prefabricate the refrigeration equipment the labor could be used more efficiently because, (a) costly time involved in travel to and from the installation would be reduced to a minimum and (b) the assembly would be made in familiar surroundings with all of the necessary tools, equipment and supplies available. Furthermore, the supplier should be able to finish a more trouble-free installation because the assembly could be made under better working conditions and the equipment could be thoroughly inspected and adjusted before being released from the shop. All these advantages for prefabrication should make it possible for the farm operator to ger a more satisfactory installation at less cost. Also, he would have a unit that would be structurally separate from the refrigerator in which it was installed. In case of emergency such a unit could be removed for repair or replacement or for use in other refrigerators. Manufacturers of refrigeration equipment offer integral units for air conditioning installations, for use with milk coolers and in similar applications which have proven highly satisfactory. These units are designed for operation at an evaporator temperature considerably higher than that required in a walk-in refrigerator. While the gasoline powered units designed for operation on refrigerated transport trucks came closer than any of the other units studied to meeting the requirements for use with the walk in farm refrigerator, they were not considered to be fully satisfactory. In all cases commercial equipment currently available would require considerable modification before it could be used. Since the integral refrigeration units used for other purposes have proven satisfactory it seemed feasible that such a unit could be designed and used on a walk-in type farm refrigerator. / Master of Science