596 AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS 



potatoes, celery, hay, grapes, and other produce in carload lots for 

 periods varying from six months to a year. 



The privilege is granted free of charge in rare instances. Usually 

 an additional charge of from ij to 3 cents per 100 pounds is made. 

 Ordinarily the shipments pay full tariff rate to the storage point, and 

 when reshipped the charges are adjusted on the basis of the through 

 rate in effect at date of original shipment from point of origin to final 

 destination plus the storage charge. Where both the concentrating 

 and storage privileges are used, a separate charge for each privilege 

 is made. 



The concentrating privilege can be utilized most successfully in cases 

 where several small points of production of a particular commodity in 

 certain districts are somewhat widely separated. It would be of 

 advantage in such cases to concentrate small shipments and combine 

 them into carload shipments at certain points and move them from 

 these concentration points to distant markets or, by also utilizing the 

 storage-in-transit privilege, to put the freight into storage at some 

 convenient point and afterward move it to final destination at the 

 carload rate. Arrangements of this kind would enable small pro- 

 ducing points to reach markets which otherwise would be out of 

 reach, and would benefit the railroad by giving them a long haul on 

 the traflSc. 



Concentrating rates are also of benefit to the railroads by increas- 

 ing the size and regularity of shipments. They benefit the shippers 

 by enabling them to secure the carload rates, to secure quicker service, 

 and to permit them to supply the market at times when their products 

 are most in demand. Both of the privileges are susceptible of much 

 greater development in all sections and should be encouraged by the 

 railroads. It would be well worth while for the railroads, as well as 

 associations of shippers in various sections, to make a closer study of 

 the suitability of such arrangements in particular localities. Such a 

 study should be of especial interest to the shippers in the South, 

 where many new problems connected with the distribution of new 

 products must constantly arise for solution as crop diversification 

 progresses. 



If shippers feel that either of these transit privileges would be of 

 benefit and are prepared to supply suitable warehouse facilities, they 

 should then arrange to^confer with officials of the interested railroads. 

 In this way a friendly discussion would develop as to how the arrange- 

 ments could be made to fit any particular local conditions. Shippers 



