234 THE UNITED STATES 



ability of Southern soil to a diversity of crops and 

 purposes being now taken full advantage of; while the 

 general prosperity of what were once purely agricultural 

 districts has been very greatly increased by a further 

 rapid development of industrial enterprises. 



I may add, by way of conclusion, that the figures I 

 have given do not fully represent the sum total of the 

 fruit carried, for, irrespective of all this, the Illinois 

 Central also handles a very large traffic in bananas and 

 other tropical fruits, imported by way of New Orleans. 

 This makes it necessary for us to have a large equipment 

 of cars especially designed for handling fruit. As going 

 to show the extent of this business, I beg to call your 

 attention to the fact that on June 30th, 1903, the Illinois 

 Central R.R. Co. had in service : — 



That is to say, the equipment available for this purpose, 

 if used for no other, could carry over 100,000 tons at 

 each loading of the cars. 



*& 



This most instructive story — for which I have 

 to express my cordial acknowledgments to Mr. 

 Stuyvesant Fish and Mr. Hudson — brings out, 

 I think, with great force and clearness the fact 

 that the agriculturists in the United States, as 

 in the countries of Europe with which I have 

 already dealt, have not been slow in benefiting 

 from the latest developments of agricultural 

 science ; that to this cause is due, in part, the 

 great expansion in agriculture brought about 



