tance hauls. Competition between the various railroads also tends to keep 

 the price a little lower on shipments West to East because historically, most 

 of the manufactured goods have moved West, and in order to save empty 

 cars from coming back without loads, grain is hauled at low rates. All 

 points in New England are subject to the same railroad rates per 100 pounds 

 of grain for shipments from the Midwest as are points West of the Rocky 

 Mountains, Shipments to Boston or Bangor, Maine, for example, are sent 

 at the same cost even though there is about 300 miles difference. The same 

 is true on the West coast. Chicago is about 1,240 miles from Salt Lake City 

 and 1,835 miles from San Francisco, but the transportation charges are 

 the same. 



Table 8. Freight Rates on Grain (Corn, Oats, and Wheat) 



Minimum Weight 40,000 pounds 



September 29, 1950* 



*Source — Transportation and Warehousing Branch, P.M. A. 



In the Boston area New England has an advantage over the Pacific 

 coast, Georgia, and Utah, but is less advantageously placed than the Mid- 

 west areas. 



In terms of the Boston market, the Midwest has an advantage over the 

 rest of the country, especially if they ever entered into broiler production 

 on a large scale and used a maximum of home-grown or locally-produced 

 feeds. It takes about three carloads of grain to produce one carload of 

 broiler meat, assuming a three-pound broiler was raised on 12 pounds of 

 feed. This means that it would cost a broiler producer in Maine about $690 

 to receive three carloads of grain at 40,000 pounds a carload. Each car- 

 load would produce about 10,000 pounds of dressed broiler meat. A 

 broiler producer in California would be at a much greater disadvantage 

 since it would cost him $1,506 for three carloads of grain, plus $1,053 to 

 ship 30,000 pounds of broiler meat to Boston. A broiler producer in the 

 Midwest would have to pay the transportation charges on 30,000 pounds 

 of broiler meat to Boston which would be $318, half as expensive as the 

 Maine producer and a fifth as expensive as the California producer. 



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