1328 
ly as a full carload. The territory served 
by these forwarders includes stations in 
Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, Illi- 
nois, Michigan, and a few points in In- 
diana. The forwarder, being responsible 
to the shippers, makes it his business to 
check the contents of the car as they are 
taken out, to note their condition, and 
to report to the shipper any irregular- 
ities as to the condition or number of 
packages. The car manifest of the for- 
warder shows the names of the shippers 
and of the consignees, the number and 
contents of packages. The manifests that 
happened to be in the office of one of these 
forwarders one day in July, 1911, and 
which were apparently not unusual, con- 
tained each a long list of separate items; 
the manifest for one car contained a list 
of packages for no less than 32 different 
consignees. 
A so-called “pick-up” system is con- 
ducted by different railroads for collect- 
ing less-than-carload lots from various sta- 
tions and combining them at transfer 
points into full carloads. Small consign- 
ments are collected from a number of sta- 
tions and brought to a given point to be 
combined into carloads. Among the typi- 
cal transfer points for combining small 
shipments into carloads are Canton, Miss., 
and Norfolk, Va. 
The growth of freight and express serv- 
ice on interurban trolley lines has made 
it easier to market small shipments of 
perishable fruits and vegetables prompt- 
ly. The interurban electric lines gather 
up small shipments and concentrate them 
at forwarding points. Large quantities 
of fruits and vegetables are thus handled 
from points in Southwestern Michigan. 
The produce is collected from such points 
as Berrien Springs, Eau Claire, and Mill- 
burg, and transferred to boats at St. Jo- 
seph and Benton Harbor to be forwarded 
thence to Chicago. This service is prompt; 
fruit collected one day is on the Chicago 
market early next morning. <A similar 
traffic is carried through Norfolk, where 
railroad freight from truck-growing re- 
gions is transferred to coastwise steamers 
for New York and the North. 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PRACTICAL HORTICULTURE 
Freight Service 
General Improvements in Railroad 
Facilities 
Progress in methods of hauling perish- 
able fruits and vegetables is part of a gen- 
eral betterment of railroad service. Im- 
proved roadway, heavier rails, larger cars, 
and more powerful engines, together with 
more efficient handling of the traffic, all 
help toward quicker and cheaper market- 
ing of produce. Some of the features of 
these improvements are shown in statis- 
tics compiled by the Interstate Commerce 
Commission. 
Within the past 20 years the quantity of 
freight moved has increased many fold. 
During the year ending June 30, 1889, the 
freight traffic on railroads of the United 
States equaled about 69,000,000,000 ton- 
miles; 20 years later this freight 
amounted to 219,000,000,000 ton-miles. 
This increased traffic is accounted for not 
only by an extension of railroads, but by 
an increase in the amount carried per 
mile. The density of the traffic in 1909 
was more than double that in 1899. To 
move this freight the size of the trains was 
increased as well as the number of loco- 
motives. In 1889 there was an average of 10 
and in 1909 between 14 and 15 locomotives 
in the freight service for every 100 miles 
of railroad, while the average number of 
tons carried in a freight train more than 
doubled. 
Tracing a Car’s Movements 
The freight carried on many railroads 
is divided into classes, based upon the 
kind of service rendered. The highest 
class of goods is given the quickest and 
most regular service. A second class of 
goods, and even a third or a fourth, may 
also be moved in trains having regular 
times for arrival and departure, but which 
are slower than the “manifest,” “red ball,” 
or “vegetable express” trains. These 
classes are distinct from the classes upon 
which freight rates are based. 
Fresh fruits and vegetables are usually 
included in the list of commodities which 
are given this best service. Trains car- 
rying these perishable products are run 
at greater rates of speed and with greater 
