130 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



prized in many markets. Before the war, the rate to New York per 

 hundred pounds was 45.5c; to Chicago 28. 5e. During the war, the rate 

 was raised to 55.5c to New York, and 36c to Chicago. Last Autumn, 

 the rate to New York was raised to 77. 5e, and to Chicago 51.5c. 



Michigan is by no means the greatest sufferer. The real sufferers 

 are Washington and California, and to only a slightly less extent, Florida. 

 It used to cost $1.25 per hundred to ship cantaloupes from California 

 to New York. It now costs S2.085 per hundred. The freight on oranges 

 formerl}^ from California to New York was $1.15; now it is $1.92. The 

 celery rate from California has been increased in exactly the same propor- 

 tion as the cantaloupe rate. It is no uncommon experience to pay 

 from $500 to $800 freight on a single car of oranges, cantaloupes or 

 grapes from California. 



The case of the California lemon grower is almost pathetic. There 

 is a plentiful supply of cargo space on practically all ocean carriers. 

 Ocean rates have been reduced since the war to an extraordinary^ extent. 

 Inland rates, in the meantime, have increased very greatly. The Sicilian 

 lemon grower and shipper can place his product practically throughout 

 the eastern United States, shipped all the way from Italy, at a less 

 freight cost than our own California shipper must bear. My own organ- 

 ization is a large grower of lemons in the hillside section around Corona, 

 California. We have had the experience during the past Autumn of 

 paying $1.66 per box freight on fruit that sold in the New York market 

 as low as $1.25 per box. 



The result on shipments was readily apparent when the new rate 

 went into effect. From a movement of about 35 cars per week, it 

 dropped to 6 or 8. The increase in lemon rates has been about 75c 

 per hundred pounds. The result is to choke off distribution. To come 

 out whole on his picking, packing and loading labor, his paper, nails, 

 wraps and other packing house supplies, and on his freight, the grower 

 would have to receive at least $2.75 per box, and in many cases as much 

 as $3.00, without considering any possibility of a credit upon his growing 

 costs. It costs even the relatively efficient grower around $3.00 per 

 box to grow his lemons and place them on board car, ready for ship- 

 ment. 



The effect of this situation upon the railroads, I believe, has not yet 

 been sensed by them. Gradually growers will be forced out of business 

 and the increased rate instead of being a revenue producer will be a 

 revenue reducer. I believe that the Union Pacific in Idaho has already 

 found this to be the case with alfalfa hay. No alfalfa was moved, and 

 the railroad, in order to induce a movement, cut the rate in half with 

 just the result you would expect, namely, the stimulation of immediate 

 shipments. The railroads may readily find that this excessive increase 

 in rates, so far as perishables are concerned, may kill the "goose that 

 laid the golden egg." 



The situation in the apple sections of the Northwest is similar and no 

 less serious. The rate from all shipping points in the State of Washington 

 to New York and Chicago is identical. Before the war, it was $1.00 

 per hundred, then it was raised to $1.25 per hundred, and how it stands 

 at $1,665 per hundred. In spite of the best efforts of the most up-to-date 

 producers of apples in the world, the Lord will make little apples, and 

 not all apples will be fancy and extra fancy. C Grade apples will be 



