Rocks and railroads….

This week I continued working on the metadata for the collections from the A.K. Smiley Public Library. The items consisted of a mixture of letters, receipts and memorandums. The letters were sent between James T. Taylor, one of the investigators who had to ascertain the most reliable and at the same
time the cheapest water supply to the City of Perris and the California Marble & Building Stone Company.
The subject discussed through the letters was the supply of crushed rock. The amount of rock was measured in yards. The rock was delivered to the Bear Valley Irrigation Company. Transportation was done through railroad cars. The interesting aspect was as to how the rates of the rock per yard changed based on the time of the year. Between the months of January and June, the rates were moderate but gradually increased towards the end of the year. But towards the end of the year, the transportation costs had also increased due to unavailability of railroad cars as they were used for transportation of coal.
The receipts were the payments for the rock along with the transportation costs. The memorandums mainly had information regarding delays in delivery or requesting for further supply of rocks from James T. Taylor. I wonder why this change in price, and how the season would affect the quality of the rock and transportation costs. Hopefully, through items I will be working on in the following week, I will be able to get an answer.