The Aberdeen weekly. [volume] (Aberdeen, Miss.) 1878-1933, 1908-10-23
Extracts From M & o. K. r. Di-
rectOTS Report.

Following is an extract from the
Annual Report of President Finley
and the Board of Directors of the
Mobile and Ohio Railroad Company
to the bondholders and stockhold-
ers Of that Company, issued undn
date Of October 9, 1908, it being
the sixtieth annual report of the
Company;
OPPORTUNITY AND DEVELOPMENT.
The Mobile and Ohio Railroad
was completed in April, 1861.
The war betweenthe States immedia-
tely followed, and both Federal and
Confederate armies destroyed its
bridges and twisted its rails from
Columbus, Ky, TO Mobile, Ala.
as they conceived the exigencies of
the situation required. 1t had to
be practically rebuilt after the war.
It's builders secured a donation
of public lands from the Federal
Congress. The declared purpose Of
the Act of Congress donating these
public lands to the Mobile and
Ohio Railroad Company was to
establish a national highway con-
Meeting the Gulf of Mexico with the
great Northwest. The Mobile and
Ohio Railroad has now fully met
the expectations of its original
builders. At the Port of Mobile,
on the Gulf Of Mexico, it now re-
ceives from Central and South
America a large volume of tropical
fruits, which it carries to the
Northwest, and in turn receives
grain and grain products, packing
house and varied manufactured pro-
ducts, which it delivers at the Port
of Mobile to vessels that reach all
the principal markets in South and
Central America.
BANANAS.
The handling of bananas Is a
notable example of this traffic in
tropical fruits. The Company has
at Mobile elaborate terminal for the
berthing of banana boats, which
terminals are equipped with the
most modern facilities for the rapid
and safe handling of the fruit bust
ness. Notwithstanding the delicate
nature of the banana, it is conveyed
from ships hold to cars with great
dispatch. Three electrical convey
ors are on the fruit wharf, and are
so constructed that they will fit the
matches of any ship. Dispatch is
essential in handling fruit, and by
the use of the conveyors a carload
of bananas at the terminals of this
Company can be loaded in less than
five minutes. 1t has frequently oc-
Cured that the cargo of a banana
boat consisting of, say, forty car
loads OF fruit. has been discharged
at Mobile and transported to st.
Louis, a distance of 644 miles, in
% hours. About four hours would
be consumed in discharging the
fruit from the boats into ears and
"a hours for transporting ii to St.
Louis.
This business has grown until
the Company moves about twelve
thousand carloads of bananas per
annum.
PINEAPPLES.
This company has traffic ar
rangements with the Munson steam
ship Line, operating between Mo-
bile and Havana and other Cuban
ports. and through this connection
the pineapple movement from Cuba
has been forested by the Mobile and
Ohio Railroad Company, as it |
creates a return long haul tonnage
for cars which have been loaded |
South with merchandise. This |
traffic has grown until the shipment |
of pineapples this season amounted |
to six hundred carloads; a move |
ment which began only four years
ago In addition, the cargoes of |
sisal from the South American
countries also create item of revenue.
VEGETABLES.
Truck farming around Mobile and
along the line of the Mobile and
Ohio Railroad, as far north as
Tennessee. has been largely de-
veloped in the last few years. By
reason of earlier seasons. Jon the
Gulfsthe handling of the kproduct
CT the gardeners of the Mobile
District is finished before that of
the growers farther north has begun.