improved. It is a much more efficient and satisfactory service than was rendered 10 years ago, and additional expense has attended every step towards improvement.

The record contains much testimony in regard to the provision of the peach tariff fixing minimums necessary to secure the carload rate per 100 pounds. As we have seen, the tariff fixes the minimum for the smaller cars at 20,000 pounds; for the larger 22,500 pounds. It is complained that, in order to obtain the minimum, it is necessary to load the peaches five tiers high, and that when five tiers are loaded the fifth tier rots in transit and the lower tiers are damaged thereby before reaching market; also, that, whereas the railways base their calculations of carload weights upon an estimate of 50 pounds to the crate, a fair average of the weight of crates is 42 pounds. In a 36-foot car 392 crates make four tiers and these 392 crates at 42 pounds weigh 16,464 pounds. In a 40-foot car 448 crates make four tiers and these 448 crates at 42 pounds weigh 18,816 pounds. The complainant asks that the minimums be reduced to these figures, 16,464 pounds for the smaller car and 18,816 for the larger.

It is also complained that, whereas the railways in fixing the minimums estimate the weight of a crate of peaches or plums at 50 pounds, a fair average of the weight of the crates is 42 pounds. Except in the matter of fixing the minimum it makes no difference what estimate is taken upon the weight of a crate, because no charge is made for transporting the excess above the minimums, no matter how heavily the cars are loaded. A carload of 392 crates at 50 pounds weighs 400 pounds less than the 20,000 minimum and at 42 pounds 3,536 pounds less. A carload of 448 crates at 50 pounds weighs 100 pounds less than the 22,500 minimum and at 42 pounds 3,684 less.

The railways are compelled to estimate the weight of the fruit for the reason that it is impracticable to have car scales at all the shipping points. Not all the Armour refrigerators bear stencilings of their tare weight and, if they did, these would not be trustworthy because the weights of the cars are continually changing, the tendency being for the cars to accumulate weight with age and moisture. Moreover, each car carries a quantity

of ice the exact weight of which it is not possible to determine. The record contains much widely varying testimony in regard to the actual average weight of the standard crate of peaches and the standard crate of plums. Of plums many crates are shipped along with the peaches, although no separate account of them is kept in the shipping records. Ten crates of peaches weighed at random from one shipment averaged 461⁄2 pounds, the lowest weighing 4211⁄2 pounds. Another 10 crates similarly weighed averaged 46 pounds. One witness testified that in weighing many crates he had found none weighing as much as 44 pounds, the weights running from 38 to 42 pounds. Plums weigh 49 to 51 pounds per crate.

When a car of peaches is loaded it is closed tightly, the contents not being thereafter exposed to the outer air until the car is opened at its destination. The air in the car is cooled by passing downward through the ice in the ice bunkers. The peaches are generally quite warm when loaded and the mass of fruit gives off heat which must be overcome by the currents of cold air. Tests of temperature show that the cold air settles in the lower portion of the car, the upper portion being considerably warmer, although circulation is secured in the packing by leaving space for the movement of the air. As before stated, the complainant asserts that it is impossible to safely transport peaches when more than four tiers are loaded, the fifth tier and all above it being surrounded by air not sufficiently cold to preserve the fruit, and that the decay of the tier or tiers above the fourth affects all the rest. A number of witnesses who have been identified with the management of the peach traffic testified that very few complaints have ever been made of damage done to peaches by reason of loading above four tiers. One very extensive shipper has made it a rule to ship largely above four tiers. A number of fruit merchants and growers testified that in order to secure safe transportation but four tiers should be loaded. One leading peach grower and commission merchant stated that he has found it expedient and necessary to adopt the rule of shipping in four tiers exclusively, and has found it to his advantage and profit to pay higher freight rather than to

load above four tiers in order to secure the benefit of the minimum rate, and some others testified to the same effect.

Testimony also appears in the record that much of the damage incurred by the fruit in transit is caused by the fact that often a car is detained two days in the loading, being frequently opened, thus permitting the admission of warm air; also, by the fact that the fruit instead of being cooled before loading is taken direct to the car from the tree and upon its journey to the car is subjected to the rays of the Southern sun. It is also claimed that diseases incident to the ripening of the peach at some times and in some sections are incipient in the fruit when it is loaded, and are developed in transit despite the most perfect refrigeration.

The defendants claim that experience has shown that peaches can be shipped safely in five tiers or even in more than five. Records of the traffic on various roads placed in evidence show that the great bulk of the peach movement from Georgia is and always has been in carloads weighing largely above the minimum and hence that the general loading is largely above four tiers. It is claimed that, if the damage which it is asserted attaches to transportation of more than four tiers actually occurs, the peach growers would not load the cars above the minimum and that there would be a general and emphatic complaint, which there has not been.

Exhibit B attached to the record is a statement of all cars of Georgia peaches handled by the Southern Railway during the season of 1903, moving all-rail via the Central of Georgia to Atlanta and thence by the Southern to Alexandria. A large majority of the cars originated at Fort Valley and Marshallville, the remainder being from many other points in the Georgia Central territory; the exhibit also includes all cars moving during the season of 1903 from Georgia Southern & Florida Railroad stations all-rail to Macon, and thence via the Southern Railway to Alexandria.

This exhibit shows the movement of 527 carloads of peaches. Of these, 265 were billed at 20,000 pounds. As has been shown, there are 392 crates in a 36-foot (or 20,000 pound minimum) car. Of the 265 cars of this class billed at 20,000

pounds, 252, or above 95% of the cars contained more than 392 crates and only 13 cars contained 392 crates or less. Two hundred and sixty-two cars of the 40-foot class were billed at 22,500 pounds. Of these, 214, or above 81% contained more than 448 crates, the four tier loading of this class; while only 48 cars contained 448 crates or less. The 527 cars of both classes contained 245,152 crates or an average per car of 465 crates which is 17 crates per car more than the four tier loading for the largest size or 40-foot car. In this exhibit are found records of cars containing the following numbers of crates: 609, 603, 588, 562, 560, 557, etc.

An exhibit filed by the Central of Georgia showing the peach movement during 1903 to all points East and North is similar to that filed by the Southern. In this it is shown that carloads billed at 22,500 pounds contained as many as 672 crates, 560 crates, 562 crates, etc.; carloads billed at 20,000 pounds contained as high as 588 crates. Very few of the cars contain loadings of four tiers or less. Similar statements of fruit movement by the Georgia Central for the years 1902 and 1901 show the same practices in loading, as to number of tiers.

The Michigan Central has a peach minimum of 20,000 pounds; Pere Marquette 20,000 pounds; lines carrying from Texas points 20,000; lines from California points 24,000. The Pennsylvania makes a minimum of 28,000 for peaches originating on its lines, 20,000 for Georgia traffic. On nearly all of these lines refrigeration is practiced, though the quantity of ice generally averages less than in the Georgia traffic.

Fifty carloads of peaches billed at 20,000, a total loading of 1,000,000 pounds, contained 25,244 crates, or an average of 504.8 crates per car. In this instance, estimated at 50 pounds per crate, the actual weight of the loading of the 50 cars was 1,262,200 pounds, an excess of 262,200 for which no freight was paid, or about 13.1 carloads of 20,000 pounds. Estimating a crate at 42 pounds, the excess carried in the 50 cars above the minimum was 60,248 pounds, or a little more that 3 carloads. Upon the 42-pound basis the shipper got the use of practically 53 cars and paid freight on only 50.

It is manifest that it is by no means the unanimous judgment

of the shippers that it is unsafe to load over four tiers high. If a car on which 81 cents per 100 pounds is paid contains, say, 600 crates of peaches and it is estimated that the peaches weigh 42 pounds per crate, the rate per 100 paid by the shipper is but 65 cents. As a matter of fact, the rates secured to peach shippers, by loading above the minimum, no charge being made for the excess, are materially less than the rates ostensibly applied to the traffic in question.

The proportion of dead weight to the weight which pays freight is greater, perhaps, in the peach traffic than in any other, and especially is this true of Georgia peach transportation because no other traffic necessitates the hauling of so much ice. Armour refrigerator cars are very heavy. Their tare weight when the cars are new ranges from 31,900 to 34,800, and the cars grow heavier with use. Taking 31,900 pounds as the minimum tare weight of a 36-foot car and adding 12,000 pounds as the average weight of ice in the bunkers during transportation, the revenue-paying weight, 20,000 pounds, is 31 per cent of the total. In the case of the 40-foot car the revenue-paying weight is 32.5 per cent. As compared with this a car holding 60,000 pounds of grain weighs 90,000, so that the revenue-paying weight is 66 per cent of the gross weight. In the case of coal, pig iron, etc., the proportion of revenue-paying weight is even greater than in the case of grain. There is less dead weight in the transportation of fresh meats in refrigerators than there is in peach traffic; also, less on nearly all, if not all kinds of classified merchandise. In the transportation of beer in refrigerators the carriers allow for only 4,000 pounds of ice whereas 12,000 is carried free with peaches. In the shipping of dressed meats the carriers are paid for every pound in excess of the minimum, the actual weights being furnished by the shippers from their books.

George R. Knox, General Freight Agent of the Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis and the Western & Atlantic, testified that a locomotive rated at 800 tons tractive power on ordinary freight schedules is rated at only 700 tons when pulling a train of refrigerators on the peach schedule. Taking into consideration the relative proportions of dead weight the results as to ex