PROCEEDINGS OF TWENTY-SIXTH FRUIT-GROWERS' CONVENTION. 197 



given, nor what obstacles are encountered by the transcontinental lines in attempting 

 to make the very fast time requested by your committee. While I do not attempt to 

 pass on the reasonableness of the six-day time to Chicago and eight days to New York 

 on deciduous fruits from Sacramento, I am of the opinion that six days to Missouri 

 River points and eight days to Chicago is quite as fast time as we can fairly afford to 

 make from San Bernardino on citrus fruit, and that this time, made regxdarly, should 

 satisfy all reasonable requirements. Indeed, I think that absolute regularity is more 

 essential than fast time as to all the fruit business of California. We are exerting all 

 our powers and are spending very large sums of money in the endeavor to accomplish 

 this regular service, but few people outside of the carriers themselves realize the diffi- 

 culty of keeping trains on time over a 2500-mile stretch, which embraces nearly all 

 possible climatic and geographical variations. We are striving to make our freight 

 service regular and reliable, and sparing no pains or expense. It is our desire to make 

 the fruit industry in California profitable and satisfactory to the grower, in order that 

 it may be the same for the carrier. As previously stated, we expect to meet the views 

 of your committee next season as to the elimination of private cars and the reduction 

 of refrigeration charges. We hope also to make good, and above all, regular, time, but 

 we are not prepared to promise a reduction in schedule time at the present. 

 Yours truly, 



(Signed:) E. P. RIPLEY. 



O 



