The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-08-09

0EO, bOSCOn-S market Udy IS now the same as New York's, and Portland, Me, is but one market day later than Philadelphia. Today a carload of strawberries can make the Journey~be- tween Norfolk and Boston in just thirtyssix hours and a half.
 Perishable freight is the bane of the railroad mans existence He some times loses more sleep over it than | he does over passengers. It involves l problems not met with in most kinds 1 of freight It must be delivered in the ! quickest time possfbls and in this connection the railroad, like the ship perS and the commission men. must always reckon on the market day. The loss of one market day on peFishable | freight like awberTies often means the loss of the entire shipment. The failure of a railroads freight schedule to- insure delivery of this kind of l freight for certain market day may mean the loss to that railroad of this entire business; to the commission men | and marlketmen it means so much less business to get returns from. On the other hand, the ability of the time l table experts and the traffic men to knock off half an hour even on the run, ming time of a freight train may mean to the road thousands of dollars of new business and for the commission men may open4up a brand new line of trade. For years men have worked over these freight train schedules try ing to Top off precious minutes of time in the yards, in the stops en route and in the delivery. Always their aim has been in the case of New England to get table luxuries, such as early strawberries, melons and peaches, into Boston by the second market day.
 There is no more pertshable produce than strawberries, and next to them comes fish. The New England rail roads must bring the first into New England and carry the second out. In the case of berries it is absolutely es- sential that they be consumed within seventy-two hours from the tfme they are picked for them to- command price that will make the business worth while. When one considers that these early berries are picked in Vir- ginia ahd points farther south the problem confronting the New England railroads in getting them on the New EngIander's table within this limit of seventy-t two hours is thus seen to be big one. If carload of Wberries consigned to New England produce merchant misses market day at the South Boston yard it means usually a. depreciation of at least 5 cents on every box; on melons it means prob ably cent apiece That may not seem much, but in the aggregate it is enough frequently to wipe out the profit on an entire shipment
 In order to make q market day with this kind of freight, the railroad must get it Into Boston, say between the hours of a and a.. n. The market day begins promptly at a. m. That is the hour when the big bell rings out in the perishab1e freight yard and there begins a scene of ae- Hvity among the marketmen.. When this bell rings the cars must be ready to open so that their contents can be inspected and sampled and the fruit or vegetables sold right as they stand in the car. Ten minutes after this bell rings the contents of the train may be on the way b the market
 This hour of a. m-, taen, is the goal upon which the eye of the operat- ing man and the traffic man in the railroad organization is fixed. It is the hour they must make. not one day, but every day, or lose the busi- ness. Down in Virginia, through Mary land and Delaware a freight train loaded with the luscious early berries of southern plantations, the first to feel the vitalizing effect of the spring sunshine, may be rushing through the night toward this goal with the speed of 8 passenger train. The engineer has this goal in mind, the yardmen along the route have it in mind, and up in the railroad offices the operat- ing men have it in mind too. Like the man with the bah in the football game, these men fare all working to put the train with it's produce over the goal line before the big bell in the Boston yard rings out as signal for the market men that another market day has begun
 New England has not always enjoy ed the privilege of having strawberries in February or even melons in May It was not many years ago that the avera ge householder had to rely chiefly on his local fruits and vegetables He wa ted until July for his strawberries. His melons and peaches he got later Vegetables out of season were rare This was when New EngIand, by the then means of transportation, was many market days away from the south. These were the days of inten- sfve railroads, as MT. Brandefs would probably call them, short railroads connecting with one another, but op- erated separately and involving many transfer points. When freight has to go over several railroads operated on the intensive principle it is bound to suffer delays. Between Boston and New York there were the New Haven. the old Stonfngton road and the Bos