IX 
53 
Car-load Shipments of Apples 
The primary or car-lot distribution of the annual ap¬ 
ple crop of the United States is a large undertaking and 
requires extensive market machinery to move the crop with- 
i 
out serious loss and waste. The importance of an efficient 
organization is obvious when we remember that the bulk of 
the crop is moved during the two months of October and No¬ 
vember. It is during these months that the railroads have 
great difficulty in supplying the necessary cars to move 
the apple crop to the large markets, to the seaboard, and 
to the great central storage warehouses at important rail¬ 
road centers. The average annual shipments for the five 
years from 1916 to 1930 were approximately 75,000 carloads. 
A large number of these cars haa to be moved during the 
busy crop moving season when other crops such as potatoes, 
cabbage, wheat, and oats were demanding their allotment of 
freight cars. In 1919-30 according to a study of the 
monthly movement of apples in the Pacific Northwest, 60 
per cent of the cars were shipped during October and No¬ 
vember, This required 33,000 cars for this region alone 
during that time. Assuming fifty-three business days dur¬ 
ing the two months, we find that an average of 415 cars 
would be needed at the sidings of the various packing 
houses each day to be loaded ana started toward their des¬ 
tinations . 
Similar problems have arisen in the eastern commer¬ 
cial apple growing regions from year to year. Where com- 
