The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-05-01
SHIPPING FRESH FRUITS.

One after another the difficulties of mar
keting the fruits of California have been
overcome, and the latest accomplishment
is one of the most important of them all.
The Southern Pacific Company has an
nounced, experiment having demonstrated
the fact, that most fresh fruits may be
shipped overland in ventilated cars in as
good condition as in refrigerator-cars; that
it and the Union Pacific each will put on 500
ventilated cars for this service by the LIST of
July, and that the fast time of five days
from Sacramento to Chicago will be made.
AS this will do away with $125 a carload
heretofore charged for refrigeration, and
as with this initial equipment the company
expects to forward this season between
1000 and 5000 carloads of green fruits, the
saving to the fruit-growers of the State
this year, other things being equal, will be
between $500 900 and 1926, 900. For its en-
terprise in this matter the Southern Pacific
deserves all praise.
But there will remain cherries and some
other tender fruits which will have to be
shipped in refrigerator cars, which are
owned by a company separate from the
Southern Pacific. It is believed that the
enormous profit, as its cars are monopoly
and its charges heavy. 1t may prove very
interesting to cherry-growers to know that
decision covering charges made by re-
frigerating car companies has been re-
Gently made by the Interstate Com merce
Commission, which places the whole SUBJ
ject in an entirely new light, and offers an
opportunity for California shippers to bring
refrigeration charges under the operation
of the interstate commerce act, and posi-
bly, at the same time to open competition
with the Southern Atlantic States in the
berry and vegetable trade. AS strawber-
ries ripen much earlier here than in the
Southern States which supply the early
Northern market, this decision may prove
exceedingly valuable to California.
The Truck Farmers Association of
Charleston complained to the commission
that the railroads constituting the Atlantic
Coast Dispatch line and other through
lines were charging so exorbitant a rate on
strawberries to New York and other North
ern cities that the crop could not be mar
keted. After hearing all the evidence, the
commission ordered a reduction of the
refrigeration charge from cents to "
cents quart, leaving the freight charges
untouched. This is reduction of 80 cents
a hundred pounds which foots up heavily
by the carload. The commission further
decided as follows:
1. The railroad companies, and not the
owners of the refrigerator-c furnish the
whole service to the shipper, and there is
no privity of contract between the car
owner and the shipper.
2. 1t is the duty of the railroad CON-
panies to furnish an adequate car equip
ment for all the business they undertake,
and also whatever is essential to the safety
and preservation of the traffic in transit
3. The companies, being bound by the
provisions of section of the act to regu-
late commerce, shall not permit or collect
an excessive or unreasonable charge for
refrigeration.
Where shippers deal directly with the
refrigerator company, as they do generally
in California, the railroad companies ap-
parently, under this ruling, cannot be held
responsible for the charges which the re-