TRANSPORTATION 145, 
distances to the center of consumption. Where fruit is 
shipped in carlots, and especially from the South and 
the West where they run solid trains of fruit, the rail- 
roads try to carry these upon passenger schedule or 
what is commonly known as fast freight. 
For the smaller shipments where fruit is carried, not 
by the carload but in connection with the regular ex- 
press shipments, they nearly always go in the express 
ears which run in connection with passenger trains; but 
where whole trains of fruit are moved, they run on an 
independent schedule which is somewhat slower than the 
ordinary passenger time. As the quantity of fruit 
shipped varies considerably from season to season and 
from month to month, the railroads have to provide cars 
a long time ahead and arrange traffic schedules to handle 
the more perishable goods. They have to provide an 
enormous number of refrigerator cars, also establish 
icing stations along the route, and must have large 
terminal facilities for switching accommodations at the 
centers of consumption. Then they must arrange a 
schedule for moving the fruit which will allow it to go 
through on fast time and. have no more delay than is 
absolutely necessary while in transit. 
From the Pacific to the Atlantic coast, it requires 
from 12 to 14 days to move a car of fruit. Under the 
pre-cooling system this has been cut down two or three 
days, and now the railroads are promising to make the 
entire journey in as short a time as 10 days. Due largely 
to the stimulating influence of competing lines, this will 
very materially affect the quantity and the quality of the 
fruit shipped. It has been the habit in the South and 
the West to pick the fruit far too green, in order to 
