4 BULLETIN 237, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
The districts are arranged from the top to the bottom of the page 
according to the opening dates of the shipping seasons. By glancing 
down the column for each month one can see not only which districts 
have overlapping shipping seasons, but also the relative amounts 
being shipped from each district. 
In drawing up this chart it was assumed arbitrarily that the num- 
ber of cars shipped from one district was the same each week from the 
beginning to the end of the shipping season. Inasmuch as the ship- 
ments gradually increase from the beginning of the season until they 
reach a maximum at the time the bulk of the crop is moving, then 
gradually fall off until the end of the season, the diagram might be 
misleading. However, the chart shows in a general way the over- 
lapping or competing of the different districts and forms the basis 
for future work of a more accurate nature. 
A superficial study of the map and the tabulation might lead to an 
erroneous conclusion as to the relative magnitude of the strawberry 
industry in Northern and Southern States. It must be remembered 
that great quantities of berries are grown in the North in small patches 
and are shipped to market by trolley, by express, and by less than car- 
load freight, while a great many go directly to the consuming centers 
in the producers' wagons. Comparatively few of these shipments, 
however, are concentrated into carloads and shipped over long dis- 
tances except from the northern districts on the Pacific coast. 
The chart indicates that the eight most important commercial 
strawberry districts in 1914 were as follows, ranked according to car- 
load shipments: Central California, 1,905 cars; Tennessee, 1,571.5 
cars; Maryland, 1,569.3 cars; Delaware, 1,374 cars; southern 
Louisiana, 1,243 cars; North and South Carolina, 967.3 cars; Vir- 
ginia, 779 cars; Ozark region, 748 cars. 
With respect to the northern cities east of the Mississippi River, it 
may be said in general that when they are depending on northern 
berries, each is to a large extent supplied by its own territory. The 
car-lot movement is light, and the marketing problem wholly different 
from that which confronts the shipper in the Carolinas or south of 
the Ohio River. This is one reason why the industry in the South 
has developed to such large proportions within very limited areas. 
While no attempt has been made to list stations where no full cars 
originate, yet at those stations where full cars do originate the less than 
car-lot shipments have also been ascertained, and have been reduced 
to equivalent carloads, and are included in the tables here shown. 
Thus Jefferson County, Ky., usually ships in solid cars, but last sea- 
son being an off year, no full cars went out, although less than car- 
lot shipments equivalent to seven cars were forwarded. As this is 
usually car-lot producing territory, it has been given its proper show- 
ing on the map. 
