DURANGO COTTON IN THE IMPERIAL VALLEY. 21 



perial and Calexico. The through rates to eastern mills and mar- 

 kets are so adjusted as to make it more economical to compress the 

 cotton in the valley than to forward it in flat bales uncompressed, as 

 beyond Niland there are no compresses available until shipments 

 reach the vicinity of San Antonio, Tex., some 1,200 miles from the 

 point of production. 



The tariffs require the payment of local charges from the ginning 

 point to the compress point on delivery of every shipment at a com- 

 press. When the cotton has been compressed and is ready to be re- 

 shipped, the local charges which have been paid for the transporta- 

 tion to the compress point are refunded on such part of the outgo- 

 ing cotton as moved to the compress point in carload lots. Five 

 working days are allowed for the service of compression, but the local 

 charges will not be refunded unless the cotton is reshipped within one 

 year from the date of its arrival at the compress point. To this ex- 

 tent then the transportation arrangements are equivalent to the 

 compression-in-transit privilege which prevails in the cotton belt. 



No refund is made of the local transportation charges on cotton 

 reaching the compress point in less-than-carload lots, and in this 

 respect the situation is different from that of the cotton belt, where 

 cotton moves on an any-quantity rate from the ginning point 

 through the compress point, with privilege of compression in transit 

 to market or to a seaport. 



The tariffs further provide that the carrier will not assume the 

 cost of unloading or reloading shipments at transit points; that is, 

 at the compresses. This ; is in line with similar requirements of 

 carriers in the cotton belt. 



As there are three gins located north of Imperial, it is necessary 

 to back haul some of the cotton in order to reach a compress. The 

 situation thus differs very materially from the situation in the 

 cotton belt, where the gins and compresses are more numerous and 

 more widely distributed, and where the location of the compresses 

 is such that a back haul is necessary only in very rare instances, 

 if at all. Not only is there granted in the Imperial Valley the 

 unusual privilege of a back haul in connection with the transit 

 privilege of this kind, but, so far as concerns carload shipments, the 

 back haul is made free of charge. 



Little information is available as to the quantity of cotton shipped 

 to compress points in less-than-carload lots, which incurs rail trans- 

 portation expense in addition to the transcontinental rate for the 

 eastbound movement. About one-third of the crop for the season 

 of 1915-16 was marketed through the Imperial Valley Long Staple 

 Cotton Growers' Association, and the records of the association 

 show that less than 2 per cent of the cotton that it handled was 



