TRANSPORTATION AND STORAGE FACILITIES 585 



Development after that was rapid. From a total of sixty cars in 

 service in 1888, the company which Mr. Thomas organized increased 

 its facilities, until by 1891 it had in use over six hundred cars. These 

 traveled o.ver various railroads as needed, being used for Florida fruit 

 in winter and Louisiana and Mississippi strawberries in spring, gradu- 

 ally working out northward as the season progressed, with long trips 

 out to the Pacific Coast in July, August, and September. Their use- 

 fulness did not cease with the approach of winter, for they protected 

 their contents against a considerable degree of cold, and when heated 

 could safely be used in severe cold weather. 



The larger plantings, stimulated by the refrigerator-car service, 

 soon made possible the loading of cars at a single shipping point or 

 at a few along the line of road, so that small growers now have the 

 same advantage as large shippers except in the matter of car-lot 

 rates. 



In recent years the business of operating cars has been taken up 

 by many lines, so that there are now probably fifty or more different 

 private car lines in service of various kinds, in addition to similar cars 

 operated by many of the railroads that traverse fruit-producing 

 regions. The fruit is in many sections loaded from the packing house, 

 where it is protected from the heat of the sun, directly into the cold 

 refrigerator car, from which it is not removed until it reaches its desti- 

 nation, 1,000, 2,000, or 3,000 miles away. From the important fruit 

 sections these cars are moved in solid trains to the principal markets. 

 Capacious icing stations established at intervals along the main routes 

 of travel permit re-icing of the cars with the utmost dispatch. 



Official statistics of the number of refrigerator cars in service are 

 lacking, owing to the failure of some of the car lines to report the 

 number of cars owned and operated by them. A careful estimate by 

 the manager of the Railway Equipment Register in March, 1901, indi- 

 cates that there were at that time about sixty thousand cars in service 

 hi the United States, Canada, and Mexico. 



No basis exists for estimating the total volume of produce handled 

 by these cars, but it is very large. Leading shippers estimate that 

 95 per cent of the California deciduous fresh fruits are now handled 

 in them, and the proportion from other sections is steadily growing. 

 Small-fruit and orchard areas in the more remote regions adapted to 

 fruit culture are steadily growing under the influence of this service, 

 and the producers are enabled profitably to diversify their production 

 as never before. 



