Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1913-08-28

1t Is this stream, rising ard falling
with tte weather conditions, which
feeds the gummer resorts end has en-
abled New EneIand's famous hotels to
cater to the finest trade and .cade them
indepandspt Of local truck farms. It
has also greatly increased the numioer
Of Bostcn's commission houses.
The speed with which this stream
flows northward Is equaled by the
celebrity with which 1t is handled in the
South Boston yard, the great distrib-
uting reservoir into which 1t pours
its tons Of produce. There are seven
yards and thirteen freight houses max
ing up the Boston terminal, and in and
out Of it run 1,sO0 cars a day, of which
this perishable freight forms only
part
AS soon as one Of the fast express
freight trains reaches the yard in the
early hours of the morning the cars
are marked showing what yar1 they
are intended for. this depending upon
the firms to which they are consigned.
Then the switch engines get busy.
| 1t takes an average of twenty minutes
! to mark the cars. They have so re-
! duced the time Of switching or CLASH
| fication. as it is called. that in thirty
minutes every car in forty car train
will have been put in its proper yard
| and place. On an average 1t is just
one hour from the time the big Pacific
/ locomotive lands its train of fruit in
the terminal that the cars are ready
to have their seals broken. That is
when 1t is ready to be sold by the
marketmen, though the sales do not
begin till the bell rings ut 6 a. m.
! There are few other cities where
this kind Of freight is landed so close
to the market. Ten minutes is all that
is required in Boston to transfer it to
the market from the car. In this
terminal. where Abs freight cars can
be kept at one time, there IS sufficient
space provided so that teams can back
up to 200 Of these cars
About % per cent of the produce
brought into this yard every day re-
mains there or is shipped out by OK
press. The cars destined for Portland
! and for northern New England begin
moving out by noon again, but from
Boston radius Of at least twenty FIVE
/ miles is covered direct Portland will
get its berries in time for breakfast the
next morning
About Is per cent OF New England is
affected by this fast freight service
perfected by the railroad men. The
sea has had to yield this traffic to the
line of steel which ties the north to the
south. Today the New Highlander,
even though he lives in Maine, is as
certain OF fresh stra wberries for his
table in the spring as he is of his own
garden truck in the summer.
When the great He'll Gate bridge and
Connecting Railroad joining the New
Haven system with the Pennsylva-
MA is completed in New York city
this schedule may be shortened even
more. This great engineering feat, I'M
dertaken by the two roads, will obviate
the long water transfer around Man
haitian Island. 1t is only three miles
across New York bay from Greenville,
where the Pennsylvania trains roll
In from the south, to Bay Ridge, where
the cars will again take the rails
bound for Boston, and the dangerous
and delaying tides of Hell Gate will
thus be avoided, While 1t will not
mean the saving # another market
day, It will mean that more trains can
be handled anM may result some day In
making Portland's market day the
same as Hoston's
The railroad Is the great harvester.
II gathers the grain in one corner Of
our country and distributes It IN an
other than man may be fed with tho
staff of life; hut, more thar that. IL
sees that his table Is supplied with the
good things OF the ground though be
i've amid the SHOWS