The Relation of the City to its Food Supply:
report of a committee of the National Municipal League, November 19, 1914, 
Clyde Lyndon King, chairman. Philadelphia:National Municipal League, 1915

That there are corrections to be made in the distributive processes no one will deny. For instance why do strawberries go from Selbyville Delaware the largest strawberry shipping point in the United States to Philadelphia 104 miles be resold and go back over the same track as far as Wilmington Delaware 27 miles to be hauled to the storage house of the commission man again sold and hauled by huckster's team fourteen miles to reach the consumer at Kennett Square Pennsylvania. Any quality left in the berries after the last leg of this roundabout journey is due rather to the providence of God than to the wisdom of man. The Pennsylvania Railroad touches all the points mentioned in the example cited above The railroad charges 45 cents per hundred pounds for strawberries from Selbyville Del to Kennett Square Pa for both carload and less than carload lots with the advantage to the large shipments 12,000 Ib minimum of guaranteed refrigeration Small shipments sometimes by virtue of their combining for the same route to make up the minimum enjoy the same advantage All berries travel by fast freight in ventilated cars The rate from Selbyville to Philadelphia is the same as the Kennett Square rate viz 45 cents <snip>
 
Mr William G Williams of Selbyville the largest berry buyer in that town for the past twenty five years says that the present route of strawberries from his town to Kennett Square with the transfers incident to that trip subtracts from 25 per cent to 35 per cent from the value of the berries... <snip>