RAILWAY TRANSPORTATION 515 
The fact that 1921 showed very little shortage of equipment was 
due to lack of demand for cars owing to business depression. On the 
other hand, the adequacy of car supply in the last three years, and 
more especially in 1925, in the face of heavy traffic, was due not only 
to better management and the ownership of more and better cars by 
the carriers, but also to the cooperation of the buyers of rail transpor- 
lation in giving the railroads, 90 days in advance, an estimate of the 
amount and kind of equipment that would be required. 
Although car loadings during every quarter of 1925 exceeded those 
of the corresponding period of 1924, high surpluses of equipment were 
Chart IV.—CAR LOADINGS OF PRINCIPAL COMMODITY GROUPS. BY 
QUARTERS (CLASS I ROADS) 
MILLIONS OF CARS 
BOM 
a RK 
a fey 
40 
3 5 
3 0 
> 
20 
5 
8] 
+ — 
er 
Tee 
Su, 
5 
925 
maintained in every“quarter; even during the last quarter, when a 
slight shortage of certain classes of equipment was noticeable, the 
daily surpluses of cars averaged almost 149,000. Traffic was handled 
most satisfactorily, with a minimum of delay or interruption. 
Car Loadings, by Commodities. 
The figures of car loadings, by quarters, for major commodities 
show certain fairly regular seasonal fluctuations (Table 7). The im- 
Proved service of the carriers has resulted generally in more seasonal 
loadings because of lessening of stocks carried. Grain and grain 
products normally move in greater volume during the last half than 
whe first half of the year, but the difference was less marked in 1925 
than in 1924. Forest products in 1924 and 1925 show little change.