Heavy Loading of Freight Cars in the Transportation 

 of Northwestern Apples 



CONTENTS 



Page 



Conditions in 1917 - 3 



Temperatures in heavy loads 5 



Handling heavy loads under ventilation 7 



Fluctuating temperatures in box cars 7 



Condition upon market arrival 9 



Page 



Excessive breakage caused by poor loading 

 methods 9 



Relation of heavy loading to distribution 13 



Methods of shipping during 1917 season 13 



Recommendations .. 19 



CONDITIONS IN 1917 



GREAT INCREASES in the production of apples in the North- 

 western States coupled with critical car shortages seriously 

 handicapped the efforts of the shippers and carriers to transport and 

 market the Northwestern apple crop efficiently during the season of 

 1917-18. From a production of 14,775 carloads of apples in 1912 

 in the States of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana, shipments 

 increased to more than 22,800 carloads for the season 1917-18. 

 Various far-reaching causes resulted in an unprecendented national 

 car shortage. This affected the available supply of refrigerator cars 

 to the extent that during the week of November 9-15, 1917, carriers 

 were able to supply but 423 refrigerator cars at shipping points where 

 the minimum requirements for that week were 1,064 refrigerator cars, 

 each loaded with 756 boxes. While this week marked the most acute 

 stage of the car shortage for the season, its severity existed from 

 October 12 to the end of the calendar year, resulting in the loading 

 of 2,290 box cars in the principal shipping districts during this period. 

 The average load in these box cars was 891.4 boxes. Further than this, 

 the heavier loading of refrigerator cars, brought about by urgent 

 appeals from many sources, resulted in raising their normal load of 

 630 boxes to an average of 763.1 during the period of heaviest move- 

 ment (October 5 to December 15). On a basis of 665 boxes as a 

 satisfactory carload, this shows that there was an actual shortage of 

 4,162 refrigerator cars up to December 15 in handling about half 

 of the crop. 



These conditions, anticipated by the Department of Agriculture, 

 demanded that information be secured during the shipping season 

 that would show how heavily refrigerator cars may be loaded for 

 the safe shipment of apples, the best methods for handling such loads, 

 and to what extent box cars may be safely used for this movement. 



