194 



TRANSPORTATION 



farmers and advises them as to how and where to sell produce. 

 Other roads help organize the farmers into cooperative associations 

 and give them instructions on packing and grading, showing the 

 need of the standardized pack. One of the greatest preventable 

 leaks in our marketing system is the loss in shipping foodstuffs in 

 frail and insecure containers or in containers not properly loaded. 

 The accompanying figures illustrate this loss (Figs. 34, 35, and 36). 

 (4) Supply of Farm Labor. Some roads now cooperate with 

 the State departments of agriculture in supplying labor for jobs 

 and jobs for labor. The railroad works largely through its local 



FIG. 36. Potatoes in barrels loaded on bilge and no head liners used. 



ticket agent. The local agent is in touch with the farmer, on the 

 one hand, and with the central office on the other. He receives 

 the farmer's application for hiring help; he also learns of places 

 on the farm for labor. The central office of the railroad collects 

 and classifies the applications and reports, and presents them in 

 quantities to the State officials. 



(5) Forestry and Landscape Gardening. One railroad has put 

 1,000,000 acres under systematic forestry management. Another 

 railroad has planted a large acreage to trees, including the follow- 

 ing trees: red oak, 2,067,529; locust, 1,915,235; Scotch pine, 

 371,711; European larch, 47,045; Norway spruce, 46,500; catalpa, 

 40,605; pin oak, 26,220; white pine, 14,372; black walnut, 10,885; 

 other species, 27,524; making a total of 4,617,626 trees. Railroads 

 also contribute money and services in the work of prevention of 

 forest fires. Landscape gardening is carried on about the railway 



