Vol.  LXXXII. 
Published  Weekly  by  The  Rural  Publishing  Oo., 
333  W.  30th  St.,  New  York.  Price  One  Dollar  a  Year. 
NE  W  YORK,  JULY  21, 
192: 1 
Entered  as  Second-Class  Matter.  June  26,  1879,  at  the  Post  17-0 
Office  at  New  York,  N.  Y.,  under  t.ie  Act  of  March  3,  1879.  ’  ' 
Rail  Movement  of  Fruits  and  Vegetables 
Part  I 
URING  1919  the  railroads  of  the  United 
States  loaded  and  hauled  about  a  million 
cars  of  fresh  fruits  and  vegetables.  Never 
before  nor  since  have  we  seen  such  a  move¬ 
ment.  During  1920  and  1921  the  move¬ 
ment  declined.  The  record  of  1922  is  not 
yet  available,  but  the  first  nine  months  show  an 
increase  over  the  same  period  for  1921,  and  the  in¬ 
dications  are  that  the  record  of  1922  will  exceed  that 
of  1921.  About  25  per  cent  of  the  movement  con¬ 
sists  of  white  potatoes,  about  225,000  to  250,000  car¬ 
loads  annually ;  apples  are  second  with  about  100.- 
000  carloads  and  all  citrus  fruits,  oranges,  lemons, 
grapefruit  and  miscellaneous  citrus  together  run 
about  90,000  carloads.  During  1922  grapes  ex¬ 
ceeded  50.000  carloads  for  the  first  time.  Peaches 
usually  run  about  30,000  carloads;  strawberries.  15,- 
000  to  18,000;  pears,  12,000  to  14.000  carloads.  The 
50,000,000  bunches  of  bananas  we  import  are  quite 
an  important  item.  Watermelons  vary  from  30.000 
to  nearly  30,000  cars.  The  latter  is  more  than  we 
have  shown  a  capacity  to  handle  at  a  profit  to  the 
growers;  cantaloupes  about  30,000  cars.  Cabbage, 
onions,  celery,  lettuce,  sweet  potatoes  and  other 
vegetables  and  miscellaneous  fruits  complete  the  list. 
Some  commodities  move  almost  exclusively  as  ex¬ 
press,  for  example,  Southern  strawberries  from  cer¬ 
tain  points;  Texas  spinach,  of  which  we  move  about 
1.500  cars;  California  asparagus,  cauliflower  and 
other  vegetables.  The  time  factor  is  such  an  import¬ 
ant  item  that  expedited  service  is  "  essential,  and 
again,  in  some  cases,:  the  express-  rate  is  no  more 
than  the  freight/;  |or  instance,  the  earth t  express 
rate  on  Texas  spinach  in  1920  was  actually  less  by 
a  small  margin  than  the  carlot  freight  rate,  hence 
this  commodity  moved  almost  exclusively  by  ex¬ 
press.  The  cars  are  furnished  by  the  express  com¬ 
pany,  the  icing  is  done  by  them,  and  they  assume 
the  liability  for  loss  and  damage  and  employ  the 
railroad  to  move  the  cars  for  a  percentage  of  the 
express  charge.  The  movement  from  the  States  east 
and  west  of  the  Mississippi  for  1920  and  1921  is 
shown  in  the  following  table. 
Tonnage  and  percentage  of  fresh  and  dried  fruits 
and  vegetables,  also  canned  food  products  originated 
n  i 
A  Mass  of  Mountain  Laurel  at  the  Arnold  Arboretum ,  Boston.  Fig.  390 
