10 BULLETIN 74, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
LOCAL TRAFFIC. 
The steamboat routes thus described illustrate the fact that river 
traffic is generally local. A few hundred miles is usually the maxi- 
mum length of the route of any one line of steamboats. In fact, it 
may be said that a run of 400 miles or more is exceptional. Of the 
92 routes specified in Table 4, only 16 are more than 250 miles in 
length, which is slightly more than the average length of haul for all 
freight carried on railroads in the United States. In other words, 
steamboat traffic is distinctly short-haul traffic. The business of the 
boats in general is to concentrate at important centers freight picked 
up at local landings and to distribute to those landings commodities 
shipped from the trade centers. Again, it is to be noted that this 
applies to the river trade in general and not to such movements as the 
barge traffic in coal from the Pittsburgh region, 
CHARACTERISTICS OF STEAMBOAT FREIGHT RATES. 
There is a great variety of freight tariffs for steamboat river trade. 
The unit of quantity in some cases is 100 pounds or the short ton, 
and in others the package. Some boats quote rates for carlots lower 
than for less than carlots, as is done in railroad freight tariffs. Spe- 
cific conditions give rise in many cases to specific rates. A certain 
commodity may be carried in one direction for a lower rate than in 
another, if the trade in the favored direction is large enough to 
justify special concessions in order to obtain it. Distance frequently 
has little or no influence upon the rate charged by boat. Sometimes 
over an entire route the same rate will be charged between any 
two landings regardless of distance. 
The minimum charge for a single shipment by water is by no 
means uniform throughout the country. In Louisiana the minimum 
charge for a single package is 10 cents and for a single shipment is 
25 cents, but if the boat has to make a special landing for a single 
shipment the charge is at least 50 cents. The steamboat tariff 
authorized by the State of Alabama specifies a minimum charge of 
15 cents on a single shipment. 
An example of the variety of packages taken as bases for steamboat 
freight rates is afforded in the Potomac River trade, between landings 
down the river and Washington. Rates on apples are as follows: 
30 cents per sugar barrel, 25 cents per flour barrel, 15 cents per half- 
barrel basket, 12 cents per bushel basket, 10 cents per box, 15 cents 
per bag, and 13 cents per small carrier; also 15 cents per two-basket 
carrier, and 8 cents per basket of five-eighths of a bushel. 
ILLUSTRATIONS AFFORDED BY THE NORFOLK TRADE. 
A large amount of freight is carried between Baltimore and Norfolk 
by bay steamers. This traffic, except where commodity rates apply, 
is subject to the Southern Classification, which ranges from 10 cents 
per 100 pounds for class 6 to 26 cents for class 1, and from 10 cents 
