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RE: (erielack) 40' Box Car bagged feed loading-more info

   Neat article, Frank, & very helpful.......When I worked in Binghamton, 
the AGWAY had a large mill in YO yard. it was on the west side of the tracks 
near the North end of the yard & I believe before u went under the hiway 
bridge. I never really gave much thought to the reasoning behind that 
business, but this made it pretty clear.

Walt Smith


>From: Frank Mellott <fmellott_@_pa.net>
>Reply-To: "EL Mail List" <erielack_@_lists.elhts.org>
>To: EL Mail List <erielack_@_lists.elhts.org>
>Subject: (erielack) 40' Box Car bagged feed loading-more info
>Date: Wed, 01 Aug 2007 20:20:33 -0500
>
>
>Trying to answer Paul Brezicki & Mike Oravec's questions.
>
>Since you want your feed as fresh as possible, and it has a relatively 
>short shelf life, its bagged, regardless of era, as close the dairy farm 
>(Paul Brezicki's example) as possible.   In the pre covered hopper (LO) era 
>in the Northeast,   the farm would have bought form the closest mill.  
>Without transportation, the farm was limited to what it could grow or get 
>from neighbors.  The railroad allowed the "neighbors" to be farther away.  
>Most feed was  grown on the farm.  When the farmer needed more, and 
>couldn't get it from neighbors, he could buy at the local mill.  The mill 
>tried to buy all it could locally and minimize the amount it hauled in.
>
>I called my dad to see what ingredients were available in Bedford County, 
>PA in the 1950's.  His answers will be appropriate for almost anyone 
>modelling the EL in NY, NJ, PA.   Cows don't care for raw corn..  They 
>prefer it ground and mixed with other stuff.  If the farmer didn't have a 
>grinder/mixer (very rare on 1950's farms) a portable one could come to the 
>farm, usually weekly or biweekly.   More common was to haul his ingredients 
>to the local mill and buy supplement (primarily soybean meal with added 
>vitamins, minerals etc) to add to his corn and oats.  If he didn't have 
>enough corn and oats he could buy corn, barley, and maybe wheat, or rye, 
>locally grown or brought in bulk (grain door boxcars).  Depending on 
>location and season, cottonseed meal, dried brewers grains or beet pulp 
>(all  bagged)  could be brought in by rail.  The mill would grind and mix 
>his ingredients and he'd take them home.  He'd only get 1 week or less 
>(depending on how big his truck was) at a time.
>
>During the heyday of the coops in the 1930's, Eastern States and others 
>started centralized mills that would grind and bag the feed and ship it by 
>rail to the local dealer or their store.  The dealer would take his truck 
>to the team track and probably "4 out of 10 times" have to hook a chain on 
>the car door and drag it open with the truck.  The bagged feed was piled on 
>the floor, no pallets.  He doesn't remember where the mills where though. I 
>know Agway had mills in Binghamton, Gettysburg, Syracuse and other places, 
>but don't know the territory each served.
>
>Large mills could also be used by Purina, Mastermix, Wayne, etc to sell 
>feed in areas where they didn't have enough volume for  a local mill.   The 
>car of bag feed (the same stuff the farmer could get ground locally) would 
>come to the team track and the dealer unload and take to the farm. Or the 
>farmer could drive to the car.  Even a 40' box would take a  couple days to 
>get unloaded.
>
>So in  short...your bagged feed cars went from the mill to the local store 
>or team track.
>The bulk cars went to the central or local mill.  You could send a bulk car 
>to a team track to be unloaded by a milll not located on a siding directly.
>
>Either way gives you a perfect reason to send on line cars to the local 
>mill that were backhauled from the south or west with bulk grain or online 
>or connecting line cars with bagged feed from on line or near by central 
>mills.  If the car records you are studying show the origin, it might help 
>us learn who's central mills were where and where the cars they loaded came 
>from.
>
>The farm got bagged feed.  Bulk feed to farms was another late 60's 
>innovation that really didn't take off until the late 70's or mid 80's.
>
>
>Frank
>
>
>
>
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