2 BULLETIN 237, TJ. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
therefore that it will be found immediately useful to the trade. It 
also should serve as a basis for valuable work in the future. 
Coincident with the publication of this survey and map, the Office 
of Markets and Rural Organization is attempting to inaugurate a 
limited telegraphic market news service for the strawberry crop. 
The office expects to secure reports by telegraph from all important 
car-lot producing sections, giving the number of cars shipped daily 
during the period of important movement, together with their desti- 
nation. The attempt will be made to keep this information up to date 
by securing the diversions as they are ordered, so that at any time 
the actual number of cars moving toward any one market can be 
readily ascertained. Acting as a clearing house for this information, 
this office will be able to keep competing producing areas and all con- 
suming centers advised concerning the total car-lot shipments. 
Supplementing this service on shipments, there will be daily tele- 
grams from all the principal markets giving arrivals and prices. 
Arrangements have been made to secure these reports from the 
persons in each market most ' deeply interested in the strawberry 
deal. A summary of this market information will be telegraphed 
daily, collect, to every shipping association desiring the information. 
The complete success of this service, especially as it is extended to 
other crops, will depend very largely upon the continued cooperation 
and assistance of the transportation companies. 
STRAWBERRY SHIPMENTS DURING 1914. 
The tabulated statement which follows shows the strawberry- 
shipping stations and the actual number of cars shipped from each 
during the 1914 season. It must be kept in mind that these data 
cover only the 1914 shipments and that seasonal variation is so 
great that in some cases these figures may be far in excess or much 
below the usual shipments. 
In some cases certain stations are credited in the tabulation with 
less than, car-lot shipments. This is explained by the fact that these 
stations normally ship in full carloads, but owing to a short crop or 
other abnormal conditions in 1914 they did not ship their customary 
quantities. These figures are grouped by States and by shipping 
districts. Counties are ignored in the tabulation, since county fines 
are without significance in a survey of this kind, which is not based on 
census data. 
In the region bordering on Chesapeake Bay, Lake Michigan, 
the Hudson River, San Francisco Bay, and Puget Sound shipments 
by boat are of considerable importance. Some difficulty has been 
experienced in obtaining accurate reports for these shipments. It is 
believed, however, that the figures for this class of shipments are 
fairly complete. In all such cases the quantity reported as shipped 
by boat has been reduced to equivalent carloads; for instance, 
