18 BULLETIN 458, U. S. DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE. 



The local rates from New York to the interior mills are the same 

 for all cotton moving from any section by that route to ultimate 

 points of consumption. Similarly the ocean rates from the ports 

 of Galveston and New Orleans both to New York and to European 

 ports are the same for all cotton, whether produced in the Imperial 

 Valley or elsewhere. In considering the higher rate to market which 

 is paid on Imperial Valley cotton, it is necessary to take into account 

 merely that portion of it which applies from Imperial Valley points 

 to the ports of Galveston and New Orleans. 



Prior to the beginning of the production of cotton in the Salt 

 River Valley of Arizona and in the Imperial Valley of California, 

 the railroads west of El Paso, Tex., and Albuquerque, N. Mex., had 

 had no experience in the transportation of cotton except in carload 

 lots from the cotton belt destined to Pacific coast mills and to Pacific 

 coast ports for exportation to the Orient. On the cotton shipped 

 for consumption at Pacific coast mills, a transcontinental domestic 

 rate of 95 cents per 100 pounds had been established, which rate in- 

 cluded 10 cents for compression in transit. The through export rate 

 from the cotton belt to the Orient via Pacific coast ports was very 

 little, if any, higher than the domestic rate to Pacific coast cities, 

 and, in dividing it, the amount received by the rail carriers for the 

 haul to the Pacific coast was much less, of course, than the domestic 

 rate to the Pacific coast. 



When it became necessary to establish an eastbound transconti- 

 nental commodity rate for the cotton of the Imperial Valley, the 

 through export rates to the Orient had been canceled, and the rail 

 carriers were receiving for the haul from the cotton belt to the Pacific 

 coast the same amount on both domestic and export shipments. With 

 a rate thus established for the westbound movement, it was taken 

 as a standard, and the eastbound rate was made the same. 



The eastbound rate of 95 cents, including 10 cents for compression, 

 leaving a net transportation rate of 85 cents, remained in effect till 

 the summer of 1915, when it was raised to $1.05, including 15 cents 

 for compression and leaving a net transportation rate of 90 cents. 

 The advance of 5 cents in the net transportation charge was per- 

 mitted by the Interstate Commerce Commission on the showing by 

 the carrier of a higher cost of performing the eastbound service. 

 The present proportional any-quantity rate on compressed cotton 

 from both Galveston and New Orleans to New York is 25 cents per 

 100 pounds, which makes a through carload net rate from Imperial 

 Valley points of $1.15. 



The cotton acreage in the Imperial Valley has increased rapidly 

 under the stimulus of the unusual conditions which recently have 

 affected the world's markets, and apparently the existing high prices 

 of cotton are sufficient at the present time to counterbalance a freight 



