NORTH LOUISIANA & GULF RAILROAD. The stockholders, officers, and directors of the North Louisiana & Gulf Railroad Company bear the same relation to the Huie-Hodge Lumber Company; and the two companies are one investment. The tap line is in two separate sections. -One track connects with the Rock Island at Hodge, La., where the lumber company has a sawmill and planer, and extends westward for about 10 miles to a point known as Danville, where the lumber company has a hardwood mill. This track was originally operated as a private logging road and was taken over by the tap line, when incorporated, in January, 1906. Beyond Danville there are several miles of rails at present owned and operated as an unincorporated logging road by the lumber company, but which was formerly included as a part of the North Louisiana & Gulf. The tap line deeded this track back to the lumber company in exchange for the four miles of track that now composes the other section of the incorporated tap line. This track connects with the Louisiana & Northwest Railroad at a point known as Bienville, La., and runs eastward to a point in the woods known as Walsh; it was laid by another lumber company in 1907 and was acquired by the present owners in 1909, with the purchase of the sawmill at Bienville. We understand that since the hearing several miles of additional track have been laid from Walsh to Danville, thus connecting up the two parts of the incorporated tap line. The new track also serves to reach additional timber of the lumber company.

The tap line has 5 locomotives, 1 combination car, 6 box cars, 7 flat cars, and 70 logging cars. Two of the locomotives are used by the lumber company in hauling the logs over the unincorporated tracks to Danville, the rental paid being in the form of a charge of 25 cents per 1,000 feet on the logs handled. From Danville the tap line hauls the yellow-pine logs to the mill at Hodge without charge. The tap line also hauls rough hardwood from the mill at Danville to the planing mill at Hodge; and no charge is made for this service. Some of the hardwood lumber is shipped out without planing. On shipments from the mill or planer at Hodge a part of the service is performed by the tap line and a part by the Rock Island. The same conditions exist with respect to the movements of logs and lumber at the Bienville mill on the Louisiana & Northwest, That line allows a uniform division of 2 cents per 100 pounds, while the Rock Island pays from 1 to 4 cents per 100 pounds. Joint rates were first established by the Rock Island in 1906 and by the Louisiana & Northwest in 1909.

The annual report for the year 1910 shows a total traffic of 40,228 tons, of which 1,145 tons were merchandise and supplies, and the remainder was forest. products. One logging train is run daily in each direction, on which passengers are carried, the revenue from that source for the year 1910 being less than $800, with revenues from mail service amounting to about $340. There are one or two small shippers of staves, bolts, and ties along the line; and mention is made on the record of the proposed establishment of a salt and crushed-rock plant, which it is hoped will ship two or three carloads a day. But the traffic of the tap line, in which the lumber company is not directly interested, is very small, and the service it performs is that of a mere plant facility of the lumber company.

Each of the mills on this line is within less than 1,000 feet of the tracks of the nearest trunk line. No allowance may therefore be made out of the rate on the products of either mill. On the products of the hardwood mill a division of 2 cents may be paid by each of the connecting trunk lines, except when again milled or planed at Hodge.