Canning and preserving plants in the west, being scattered rather sparsely over a very large territory, and being farther away from the large centers of population than in the east, the western packer is able to get a large percentage of his tomatoes hauled to the factory by wagon. This is indeed a big advantage, not only in the saving of freight and handling expense, but in the condition of the fruit when delivered to the factory. Probably having been picked not more than twenty-four hours before delivery, the wagon-hauled tomatoes are solid, and because the skin is not broken by repeated handling, thus preventing the growth of molds, they require very little sorting, in fact, no sorting at all in some cases. A load of tomatoes which requires no sorting at all, however, is unusual. If the packer can get his growers to use spring wagons for hauling tomatoes, it is a big advantage, especially if the fruit must be held any length of time at the factory. If the wagon-hauled tomatoes can be worked up quickly the packer gets 100 per cent value for them, which he very seldom does get on shipped tomatoes, which commonly undergo a loss of between 5 and 20 per cent in shipment, depending upon the time involved in shipment, the ripeness of the fruit, the amount of handling it received, the condition of the weather, the kind of crate in which the fruit is packed, and the amount of ventilation it received in transit. Shipping Tomatoes Shipment by water, although slow, has the advantage of smoothness of transit, and the crates or baskets of tomatoes are not subjected to the frequent joltings of rail shipments, and it is to be remembered that every jolt makes the tomatoes settle to a certain extent in the crates and mashes the tomatoes in the bottom layers. The best car for rail shipments is the slatted car or stock car, which permits of better circulation than any of the other types. A box car should never be used, as it allows the fruit to heat very badly, and there is no circulation of air. The crates in the slatted cars should be so stacked as to allow as much circulation of air through the car as possible. However, care must be taken that the crates are so stacked that they will not shift. A small air space can always be left at the end of every other row on each side without endangering the stability of the crates, and a large air space can be left at the top. Tomato Crates