Tht  RURAL  NEW-YORKER 
July  28,  1923 
992 
LOCAL  CONDITION'S.  —  Eastern  growers  may 
wish  to  know  something  about  local  conditions.  The 
Pennsylvania  and  the  New  York  Central  are  both 
heavy  delivering  carriers  in  the  East,  followed  by 
the  Erie  and  the  Boston  and  Maine.  Over  one-half 
of  the  fruits  and  vegetables  these  lines  handle  origi¬ 
nate  on  some  other  railroad.  The  Pennsylvania  and 
the  New  York  Central,  are  in  addition,  the  most  im¬ 
portant  lines  to  the  Eastern  grower  of  fruits  and 
vegetables.  Their  roads  penetrate  the  leading  fruit 
and  vegetable  producing  areas,  and  during  191S  the 
Pennsylvania  Railroad  originated,  that  is,  loaded 
on  its  own  lines,  east  and  west  of  Pittsburgh,  1,912,- 
S50  tons  of  fresh  fruit  and  vegetables,  and  the  New 
York  Central  was  a  close  second  with  1,518,501  tons. 
On  a  basis  of  15  tons  as  the  average  load  for  a  car, 
the  New  York  Central  originated  about  100.000  car¬ 
loads  of  fresh  fruits  and  vegetables,  a  large  portion 
their  lines  or  even  on  them  it  may  be  three  or  four 
weeks  before  it  is  possible  to  get  it  back  again  for 
another  load.  It  will  be  evident  therefore  that  the 
New  York  Central,  well  equipped  as  it  is  with  re¬ 
frigerator  cars,  cannot  meet  the  shippers’  require¬ 
ments  during  the  heaviest  shipping  months  unless 
it  receives  equipment  from  other  sources.  It  is  not 
feasible  for  a  railroad  to  put  money  into  equipment 
which  would  be  used  but  three  or  four  months  of  the 
year.  The  heavy  shipping  season  in  New  York  does 
not  conflict  with  that  of  Georgia  or  the  Southern 
States,  and  the  necessity  for  the  fullest  possible  use 
of  refrigerator  equipment  led  to  the  establishment 
of  a  refrigerator  car  pooling  system,  which  has  been 
of  benefit  not  only  to  the  Eastern  shippers  but  to  the 
Pnited  States  as  a  whole.  There  is  a  feeling  in  the 
East  that  shippers  have  been  hurt  by  the  operation 
of  the  refrigerator  car  pool.  Such  is  not  the  case. 
With  its  present  equipment,  the  New  York  Central 
could  not  have  served  its  shippers  as  well  as  it  has 
Smaller  Farm  Buildings  and  Storage 
ON  page  847  you  ask  suggestions  from  readers  re¬ 
garding  smaller  buildings  and  storage  room  in 
the  dairy  barns.  I  do  not  see  any  advantage  in  this 
for  the  practical  farmer,  owing  to  the  extra  expense 
and  work  each  year.  If  you  had  reference  to  the 
dairy  barns  near  the  city  where  everything  is  bought 
there  would  be  an  advantage,  as  they  would  buy 
everything  in  baled  form. 
With  clover,  every  time  you  handle  it  you  lose 
the  leaves,  and  all  know  what  part  of  the  plant  one 
has  when  they  are  gone.  In  the  next  place  it  takes 
the  same  roof  whether  10  ft.  posts  or  25  ft.,  only 
difference  is  the  extra  studding  and  weatherboards 
and  posts.  The  average  building,  minus  accidents, 
will  last  generations,  plus  paint  and  small  repairs 
which  must  be  considered  against  convenience  on  the 
side  suggested.  I  ’own  one-fourth  interest  in  a  baler 
and  have  had  some  experience  baling.  If  all  goes 
©  Underwood  &  Underwood 
This  is  a  view  of  Fifth  Avenue,  New  York,  on  a  bright  Spring  day.  What  we  see  here  is  extended  for  miles  along  the  Avenue.  Years  ago  Fifth  Avenue  was 
noted  as  the  home  of  the  very  wealthy.  The  lower  part  of  it  has  now  been  largely  abandoned  as  a  residential  section.  It  is  given  up  to  office  buildings, 
and  high-class  stores.  Thousands  of  cars  are  packed  into  this  narrow  space,  the  high  buildings  acting  like  walls  to  prevent  quick  air  circulation.  On  still 
days  the  exhaust  from  all  these  cars  poisons  the  air  perceptibly.  New  Yorkers  face  so  many  germs  and  gases  that  they  are  said  to  become  immune  to  many 
diseases  and  dangers. 
of  which  was  loaded  in  Western  New  York,  with 
about  25,000  cars  on  the  Michigan  Central.  In  this 
territory  about  25  per  cent  of  the  annual  movement 
is  in  October  and  IS  to  20  per  cent  in  September  and 
another  25  per  cent  of  the  movement  is  in  August 
and  November  combined;  in  other  words,  about  70 
per  cent  of  this  movement  is  in  the  four  months, 
August  to  November.  During  1018  .the  New  York 
Central  had  about  7,700  refrigerator  cars  with  which 
to  handle  40,000  carloads  of  fruit  and  vegetables  in 
two  months,  or  an  average  of  two  and  a  half  trips 
a  mouth  per  car  if  all  cars  were  in  operation,  which 
is  an  impossible  schedule  to  maintain,  and  some  com¬ 
modities  can  and  do  move  in  box  cars.  The  United 
.States  is  fortunate  if  but  6  per  cent  of  its  equipment 
is  out  of  commission  for  repairs,  and  in  August  of 
certain  recent  years  as  high  as  14  per  cent  of  the 
refrigerator  equipment  has  been  out  of  commission. 
Again,  not  all  refrigerator  cars  are  suitable  for  the 
movement  of  such  products  as  peaches,  lettuce,  etc. 
The  New  York  Central’s  witnesses  testified  in  1919 
that  on  the  average  they  got  12  trips  or  13  trips  a 
year  under  refrigeration  from  each  car  they  owned; 
in  other  \'ords,  when  a  car  is  loaded  and  shipped  off 
unless  the  car  pool  existed,  and  it  must  be  remem¬ 
bered  that  the  pool  is  a  voluntary  arrangement  of 
the  railroads,  and  is  managed  by  a  man  who  is  ap¬ 
pointed  by  a  committee  of  railroad  executives.  It 
is  responsive  to  the  orders  of  the  railroad  executives, 
and  any  credit  or  blame  which  belongs  to  it  should 
go  to  the  officials  and  the  railroad  executives  in 
control  of  it.  Certain  railroads  have  taken  a  keen 
interest  in  the  development  of  the  fruit  and  vege¬ 
table  traffic,  and  have  placed  this  traffic  and  the 
control  of  the  refrigerator  cars  in  a  department  and 
under  men  who  understand  it.  This  is  a  forward 
step,  and  is  to  be  commended.  The  inauguration 
of  such  a  department  by  the  New  York  Central  has 
done  much  to  aid  the  shippers  and  save  the  rail¬ 
roads.  During  the  past  season  this  department  kept 
men  in  large  unloading  centers  to  secure  the  speedy 
unloading  and  return  of  equipment.  They  tried  to 
furnish  equipment  suitable  for  the  movement  of  the 
particular  commodity  and  made  an  earnest  effort 
to  co-operate  with  shippers.  Their  attitude  is  to  be 
commended,  and  it  is  hoped  that  all  lines  in  the 
East  moving  perishable  food  products  will  institute 
similar  methods.  samuel  fkaser. 
well,  20  tons  can  be  baled  per  day.  But  if  an 
average  of  15  tons  can  be  put  up  you  are  working 
well. 
It  takes  two  men  in  the  mow  or  stack,  one  to 
feed,  two  to  wire  and  weigh  and  store,  and  then 
the  extra  man  can  always  be  busy  if  he  is  in¬ 
terested.  We  pay  $4  per  day  and  dinner.  There  is 
$24  added  to  the  cost  of  that  hay  for  labor  and  no 
food  value  added,  besides  engine,  baling  wire  and  oil. 
We  charge  $3  per  ton  when  on  custom  work  and 
furnish  two  men  and  everything.  The  farmer  who 
has  the  work  done  would  be  charged  on  the  15  tons 
at  $3  per  ton,  $45  plus  four  men  extra  $1G  or  $61. 
We  have  found  nearly  every  stack  more  or  less 
moldy  and  damaged,  and  it  cannot  be  baled  if  wet 
or  damp.  It  has  cost  just  as  much  to  put  this  hay 
in  the  stack  as  to  have  a  barn  large  enough  to 
hold  the  hay  and  straw  and  not  the  extra  work  and 
loss  as  under  the  suggested  system.  Here  in  New 
Jersey  we  must  thrash  the  wheat  out  of  the  field 
or  may  as  well  not  sow  it  on  account  of  weevil  and 
bug.  Now  with  storage  large  enough  to  run  the 
thrasher  and  blower  right  by  the  barn,  blow  your 
straw  and  chaff  into  the  mow.  Your  work  is  done 
