DURANGO COTTON IN THE IMPERIAL VALLEY, 2 
perial and Calexico. The through rates to eastern mills and mar- 
kets are so adjusted as to make it more economical to compress the 
cotton in the valley than to forward it in flat bales uncompressed, as 
beyond Niland there are no compresses available until shipments 
reach the vicinity of San Antonio, Tex., some 1,200 miles from the 
point of production. 
The tariffs require the payment of local charges from the ginning 
point to the compress point on delivery of every shipment at a com- 
press. When the cotton has been compressed and is ready to be re- 
shipped, the local charges which have been paid for the transporta- 
tion to the compress point are refunded on such part of the outgo- 
ing cotton as moved to the compress point in carload lots. Five 
working days are allowed for the service of compression, but the local 
charges will not be refunded unless the cotton is reshipped within one 
year from the date of its arrival at the compress point. To this ex- 
tent then the transportation arrangements are equivalent to the 
compression-in-transit privilege which prevails in the cotton belt. 
No refund is made of the local transportation charges on cotton 
-reaching the compress point in less-than-carload lots, and in this 
respect the situation is different from that of the cotton belt, where 
cotton moves on an any-quantity rate from the ginning point 
through the compress point, with privilege of compression in transit 
to market or to a seaport. 
The tariffs further provide that the carrier will not assume the 
cost of unloading or reloading shipments at transit points; that is, 
at the compresses. This is in line with similar requirements of 
carriers in the cotton belt. 
As there are three gins located north of Imperial, it is necessary 
to back haul some of the cotton in order to reach a compress. The 
situation thus differs very materially from the situation in the 
cotton belt, where the gins and compresses are more numerous and 
more widely distributed, and where the location of the compresses 
is such that a back haul is necessary only in very rare instances, 
if at all. Not only is there granted in the Imperial Valley the 
unusual privilege of a back haul in connection with the transit 
privilege of this kind, but, so far as concerns carload shipments, the 
back haul is made free of charge. | 
Little information is available as to the quantity of cotton shipped 
to compress points in less-than-carload lots, which incurs rail trans- 
portation expense in addition to the transcontinental rate for the 
eastbound movement. About one-third of the crop for the season 
of 1915-16 was marketed through the Imperial Valley Long Staple 
Cotton Growers’ Association, and the records of the association 
show that less than 2 per cent of the cotton that it handled was 
