The Railway Library, 1909: A Collection of Noteworthy Chapters, Addresses, and Papers Relating to Railways, Mostly Published During the Year
History
The Railway Library, 1909: A Collection of Noteworthy Chapters, Addresses, and Papers Relating to Railways, Mostly Published During the Year
Railroads -- United States -- Periodicals
The price paid by the housekeeper per dozen for eggs during the
season of shipment seldom exceeds by more than five cents the price
received by the Western farmer who takes them to the country store.
That is, the railroads bring eggs a thousand miles to New York for a
cent or a cent and a half a dozen, and two thousand miles or so for
about two cents and a half a dozen, the dealers taking the remainder
of the five cents as payment for handling. The net difference between
the price paid per pound for butter at the creamery, whether in New
York City or in the Mississippi Valley, and that paid by the New York
retail dealer averages about one and one-half cents for commission
and one cent for freight.
In December, January and February turkeys are taken from the Texas
ranches to marketing centers, the transportation charge on ten
birds weighing one hundred and twenty pounds being about 25 cents.
After these ten birds have been dressed and packed they weigh about
one hundred and two pounds, and the freight rate from Texas to New
York is $1.50 for 100 pounds. That is, a Texas turkey that retails
in the New York market for 20 cents a pound will have paid one and
three-fourths cents per pound to the railroads that took it from
the ranch to the concentration point and thence to the market. The
farmer in Texas received about nine cents per pound, leaving a trifle
over nine cents to be divided between the packing house, the produce
merchant and the retail dealer. Chickens and other dressed poultry
that come from Chicago pay a freight rate of about three-fourths of a
cent a pound, the railroad company supplying a refrigerator car, and
keeping them iced while in transit.
The rail rate from Chicago to New York on grain and grain products
for domestic consumption has been about 17½ cents per 100 pounds;
that is, a bushel of oats or corn or wheat, that may bring in New
York anywhere from 40 cents to $1, has been brought from the Western
farm for from eight to fifteen cents. Hay that has yielded the farmer
$18 or $19 a ton and sells in New York at about $24 has paid the
railroads somewhere from $3 to $5 per ton, according to whether it
came from the meadows of the Ohio or the Mississippi Valleys.
A bullock that weighs 1,200 pounds will, at Chicago, bring on an
average $5.50 per 100 pounds, which includes an average of five cents
per 100 pounds for freight from the grazing grounds. Its total value
at the stock yards, therefore, is $66. When it has passed through
the packing house its weight will have been reduced to 700 pounds.
From Chicago to New York it will pay 45 cents per 100 pounds freight
or, in other words, the 700-pound carcass, which, if retailed at an
average of 15 cents a pound would bring $105, has paid the railroads
between $3.50 and $4 from the far West to the metropolis.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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