The Wilmington morning star., 1940-04-15
Tribute To Cooperative Spirit
Given By Department Of
Agriculture Expert
GUY A, CARDNELL
General Agricultural Agent
Atlantic Coast Line Railroad Co.

Lhllliitit SOdSt lAlI1c nam Ulu w.
The following tribute was paid to
the cooperative spirit of common
lines, cooperating with the Agricul-
tural Marketing service, Z. S. De
partment of Agriculture, by James
G. Cross. Mr.. Cross is specialist in
transportation with the Agricultural
Marketing service. For more than
% years he has been identified with
the work of collecting t~ransporta-
ton statistics for the Department Of
Agriculture.
In one room OF the Department
of Agriculture, at Washington, D.
c., the lights burn nearly all night
long. During the early morning
hours, long after most of the city is
asleep, a telegraph operator is busily
receiving reports from the railroad,
express and boat lines, covering the
shipments of fresh fruits and Vege-
tables. This information, collected
by the Agricultural Marketing serv-
ice from all parts of the country
during the night, is summarized and
disseminated at $50 in the morning
ever $500 miles of leased telegraph
lines, over the radio, through print
ed reports, and by the daily press.
This work had its beginning back
in 1913, when a plan was devised to
investigate, in cooperation with the
common carriers, a means of out
lining reports of the movement of
fresh fruits and vegetables from
producing sections to consuming
centers. The reports actually got
under way in 1914, but they were
not published on the present basis
until 1918, under the impetus Of the
war emergency.
For more than 90 years, the rail
roads, express companies, and BOAT
lines have co]operated with the De-
partment of Agriculture in furnish
ing the fresh fruit and vegetable in
dustry with vital information per.
tanning to actual movement. The &c
ports of the carriers are submitted
voluntarily, and in a spirit of public
service, for no Federal legislation
compels them to furnish informf.-
ton of this kind.
The daily wire reports are the
backbone of the carlot and boar
shipment reports. The essential liz
formation takes into consideration
only three factors; % name of kind
of fruit or vegetable; (2) name of
state or county of origin, and 90
number of cars
ALTHOUGH only three separate
items of information are furnished
by daily reports, the grower of dis
tributor, through a succession OF
succession of such reports, can de-
termine approximately when the
fovement of a particular crop begins
in each state. when the movement
ends; the peak, or heaviest move
ment; the movement from compet-
ing areas; and the volume of move
ment for any state or for the United
States.
each Tuesday a weekly summary
of rail and boat shipment informa-
ton is published by the Agricultural
Marketing service. The report shows
the shipment of fresh fruits and
vegetables by state of origin for the
current week, the preceding week,
the comparable week the preceding
year, total shipments to date, total
shipments to the same date the pre-
ceding year, and total shipments or
the preceding year.
"The railroads also furnish the
market news reporters at the prln-
cipal cities with information cover
ing the number of car arrivals, the
cars on track, and the unloads. This
information is extremely important.
A Virginia grower, for example, may
contemplate shipping two cars OF