102 MASS. EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETIN 169. 



Amherst to Boston, Central Vermont Railroad, . 



Cushman to Boston, Central Vermont Railroad, . 



Cushman to Norwich, Ct., Central Vermont Railroad, 



Cushman to Stafford, Ct., Central Vermont Railroad, . 



Greenfield to Boston, Boston & Maine Railroad, 



South Deerfield to Tampa, Fla., Boston & Maine Railroad, 



Amherst to Boston, Boston & Maine Railroad, . 



Amherst to New York, Boston & Maine Railroad, 



Hadley to Boston, Boston & Maine Railroad, 



South Deerfield to Boston, Boston & Maine Railroad, . 



South Deerfield to New York, Boston & Maine Railroad, 



Cents. 

 11 

 14 

 13 

 12 

 12 

 42 

 12 

 17 

 12 

 13 

 13 



Problems of Transportation. 

 Shortage of Cars. 

 When shipping is at its height some trouble is experienced in getting 

 a sufficient number of cars. This is not always due to a real short- 



age of cars, but rather to a lack of 





Fig. 29. — Loading onions into the car. Note 

 the coarse mesh bag and the typical method of 

 handling it. After December 1 refrigerator 

 cars are used almost exclusively. 



extra track for the placing of 

 empty cars at some of the local 

 shipping points in the valley. In 

 general, however, there is little 

 complaint against the railroad 

 companies in this respect. 



More frequent complaint comes 

 because of delays while in transit. 

 Onions which leave the valley on 

 Thursday should arrive at Boston 

 the next morning in time for the 

 Friday morning market. Ship- 

 ments which do not arrive at that 

 time must be held over until the 

 following week, because Satur- 

 day's market is usually small. 

 During the fall such delays are 

 especially frequent making it diffi- 

 cult to time shipments properly. 



Demurrage. 

 Demurrage in Massachusetts is regulated by a commission which has 

 accepted without any prescribed regulations the application of the "unified 

 code" or "national car demurrage rules" by the railroad companies. 

 Among other things this code allows forty-eight hours for loading and 

 unloading cars, such time to be computed from the first 7 a.m. after place- 

 ment and notice. Sundays and holidays are excluded in the computation 

 of time. The charge is $1 per day or fraction thereof after the expiration 

 of "free time" until cars are released. It also makes provision for an 

 extension of time when it is impossible to load or unload on account of 



