594 AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS 



South Carolina; Hamlet and Raleigh, North Carolina; Richmond 

 and Potomac Yard, Virginia. 



The service of diversion includes not only changing the destina- 

 tion of a car in transit but forwarding it to a destination beyond the 

 one originally named. For instance, a car shipped to Cincinnati may 

 be forwarded under certain conditions to Indianapolis for unloading; 

 or, it is reported, a car consigned to a given town may be partly 

 unloaded there and the remainder of the consignment sent on to 

 another town. This, however, costs more in freight than would a 

 direct shipment of a full carload to one market. 



Conditions on one route will illustrate how the system of reporting 

 car movements may be used by a patron of the railroad. Suppose a 

 dealer in Chicago, on a Thursday morning, wishes to know the loca- 

 tion of a carload of tomatoes which were shipped to him the morning 

 before from Crystal Springs, Mississippi. He makes the request of 

 the railroad company's agent in Chicago, giving the initial and num- 

 ber of the car and the date and place of shipment. On consulting the 

 "passing" reports it is found that this car, known in transit by the 

 symbol "CS-4," passed Fulton, Kentucky, at 6:00 A.M. that day 

 (Thursday) and would be due at Cairo, Illinois, at 8:30 A.M., or, let 

 it be assumed, about an hour after the time the dealer made inquiry. 

 It would be due in Chicago Friday at 4: 50 A.M. With this informa- 

 tion the dealer knows that, if he desires to divert the car, he may 

 select one of a number of markets located north of the Ohio River. 

 He knows that there is a large movement of tomatoes toward Chicago 

 and believes that the prices on Friday will be better in some other 

 places than in Chicago on the day his produce is due on the market. 

 He has already received news from some points. An associate in 

 St. Louis may have telegraphed the evening before that the supply 

 already in that market, together with what was due to arrive on 

 Thursday, would be about as much as could be sold at fair prices; 

 that, if more was received, prices would probably be low. On the 

 other hand, a report from Indianapolis may indicate good prices for 

 Friday morning, better ones than are promised in Chicago for that 

 day; so the Chicago dealer orders the car to be diverted to Indian- 

 apolis. He may waif until 3:00 P.M. Thursday before reaching this 

 decision, so that he may hear from other markets. Meanwhile the 

 car has been moving northward. The order for diversion is sent by 

 the superintendent of transportation to the proper official at Effing- 

 ham, Illinois, where the car is due to arrive about 5:45 P.M., and 



