lOmin 
to collect (1) figures on direct deliveries to small retailers and 
(2) receipts in trucks owned by growers, chiefly from nearby sources. 
However, this understatement did not generally affect the comparison be- 
tween truck and rail unloads in this study to a serious extent. The 
reason was that shortehaul movements were likely to be predominantly by 
truck so that only a very great understatement of the truck unloads (which 
apparently did not occur) could affect the ratio of truck to rail unloads. 
For example, of all the unloads at Atlanta of Florida snap beans, cabbage, 
and tomatoes, not less than 98 percent were on trucks, If the actual truck 
unloads were twice the number reported, the actual percentage of truck un- 
loads woulda be only slightly higher--99 percent, . 
Movements According to Market 
Generally, railroads were relatively more important to distant markets 
than to closer markets. Only 5 percent of the total unloads at Atlanta 
(608 rail miles avay from Belle Glade) of the 8 major Florida fruits and 
vegetables analyzed here were by rail in 1952 (see table 3), This per- 
centage increased, although somewhat erratically, to markets farther away 
as mileage increased. The proportion by rail to Washington, D. C.. 
(1,02 miles away) was hl percent; to New York (1,272 miles away), 75 per- 
cent; to Boston (1,499 miles away), 89 percent; and to Seattle (3,37 miles 
away), 99 percent. 
However, some markets did not fall into the mileage pattern indicated 
above. For Dallas, only 8 percent of the unloads were by rail, although 
the distance from Belle Glade was 1,279 miles, approximately the distance 
to New York City, the proportion for which is 75 percent. Washington, D. C. 
and Baltimore are only about 50 rail miles apart, yet Baltimore was a much 
more important rail market, receiving 63 percent of the selected commodities 
by rail as compared with 1 percent for Washington, D.C. Rail transport 
was more important at Detroit than distance would indicate. In 1952, 
95 percent of the Florida unloads in Detroit arrived by rail, as compared 
with 70 percent for Chicago (the same rail mileage from Florida) and with 
75 percent for New York, which was only 60 miles nearer. Los Angeles 
(2,719 miles away) and San Francisco (3,12) miles away) had surprisingly 
small percentages by rail, 20 and 33 percent, respectively. 
Movements According to Commodity 
There was, in addition, a wide variation in the relative importance 
of railroads and trucks according to commodity. Among the commodities 
analyzed here, the percentages transported by rail to all markets ranged 
from 33 percent of total shipments of snap beans to 83 percent for celery 
(see table 3). The percentages for oranges and grapefruit were 73 and 
7h percent, respectively. 
For each commodity, there was considerable variation among markets, 
the relative importance of railroads generally being--as noted--less for 
the nearer markets than for those farther away. For examole, for tomatoes, 
- the percentage of rail unloads to the total ranged from 1 percent for. 
Atlanta to 100 percent for Portland, Oreg.,and Seattle, Wash. For potatoes, 
the range was from ), percent for Atlanta to 100 percent for Los Angeles, 
4 
