54 THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA 



longing of the season is very desirable." It is doubtful, 

 however, if he would be equally sanguine as to the bene- 

 ficial effect of this competition now, when southern berries 

 appear on the Boston market in considerable quantity as 

 early as January, and are offered very freely in March and 

 April, two months before local berries are ripe. Probably 

 he would feel that the appetite now is created much too 

 early in the season to last, in full vigor, until the arrival 

 of local berries. 



Ventilator cars and fruit-growers' express. — The rapid 

 extension of railroads between 1860 and 1875 stimulated 

 large plantings at great distances from the markets. 

 Many fields were a thousand miles from their market. 

 When shipped by express in open crates, and later in ven- 

 tilator cars, the berries from these distant points frequently 

 spoiled in transit. Responding to pressure from the 

 shippers, and much against the wishes of express companies, 

 the railroads first attached ventilator cars to certain pas- 

 senger trains ; later they put on special fast fruit trains, 

 operating as nearly as possible on passenger schedule. 

 In 1867 the Illinois Central Railroad put on the first fruit 

 express train for strawberries, operating from Jonesboro 

 and Cobden, in southern Illinois, to Chicago. The venti- 

 lator car was provided with springs and an air brake, like 

 a passenger coach. It had many barred openings for ven- 

 tilation, covered with wire netting to keep out cinders. If 

 the crates w^ere loaded in such a way as to secure a free 

 circulation of air around them, the berries carried as well 

 or better than by express, and the transportation charge 

 was much less. Ventilator cars still are used for markets 

 not over thirty-six hours distant. 



One of the most discouraging features of the business 

 at that time was the frequency with which the strawberry 



