58 THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA 



own berries and other fruits, and much that we bought, 

 with very good success. I think this first successful car 

 was sent out in 1872. 



" But I was never satisfied with these cars built for the 

 dairy product industry, which only carried about li tons 

 of ice. I wanted a car that could hold five tons in its boxes 

 (a cooling house on wheels), in which the fruit could be 

 placed as packed with the certainty that it would cool in 

 transit and be safe for at least a three-day trip. After 

 much canvassing among car builders, I finally secured a 

 well-insulated car with this ice capacity. From this time 

 forward the evolution in transportation methods was ac- 

 complished." 



Railroads now began to build and operate refrigerator 

 cars. These were used for several years with varying suc- 

 cess, the chief difficulties being that the cars had a limited 

 ice capacity and that there was no well-developed system 

 for re-icing them en route. According to The American 

 Garden, for 1885, "The experiment of shipping strawber- 

 ries from Tennessee to New York in refrigerator cars, 

 which was tried this year for the first time, did not prove 

 a success. The transit required four days, and many 

 of the berries were badly decayed." At this time the out- 

 look was not encouraging. Refrigerator cars were satis- 

 factory, if re-iced when necessary, but the shipper had no 

 assurance that this would be done. 



At this juncture F. A. Thomas, of Chicago, joined Parker 

 Earle and proposed a plan that put the business on a sub- 

 stantial basis. As related by W. A. Taylor : ^ " His plan 

 was to provide a through service from shipping point to 

 destination in special cars under one management, re-icing 

 the cars in transit as found necessary. It was, in short, 

 1 Yearbook, U. S. Dept. Agr., 1900, p. 445. 



