Fruit Farming for Profit .in California, 107 



City for five hundred and thirty carloads of green fruit 

 in the year, while in Philadelphia but eleven cars are 

 used ? Philadelphia has at least one half the popula- 

 tion of the City of New York, while the climatic and 

 commercial conditions are completely analogous. But 

 these nine hundred and nine carloads, shipped to these 

 Eastern centres, pass through towns, villages and cities, 

 whose population in the aggregate is equal to the 

 population of the cities to which the fruit was con- 

 signed. 



Briefly, then, what is proposed is a system of direct 

 distribution. It is evident that the one thousand one 

 hundred and forty-two carloads of green fruit shipped 

 to Chicago were in part re shipped, and this is the 

 feature to which objection is raised. If a carload of 

 fruit was shipped to Chicago, and was subsequently 

 re- shipped to Milwaukee or Indianapolis, an additional 

 profit to the middle man ensued. Thus the fruit was 

 burdened with a price that placed a limit upon its 

 consumption. It will be gratifying to all Californians 

 to know that the proposition of direct shipment to 

 all the centres of the East, great and small, instead of 

 shipping to commercial centres for secondary shipment, 

 or redistribution, has met with concurrent favour at the 

 hands of the press and those directly interested. The 

 transportation companies of the country stand ready to 

 second any improvement which may be devised or be 

 sought to be applied by the consignors of the freight. 

 The present facilities for freight shipments from the 

 Pacific Coast to the Eastern States constitute the cheap- 

 est service, when rate and speed are considered, that is 

 performed by the railroads of the United States. This 



