BODCAW VALLEY RAILWAY. The Bodcaw Valley Railway Company was incorporated in 1904 and has capital stock outstanding to the amount of $67,000. Its tracks extend from a connection with the Cotton Belt at Alden Bridge, Louisiana, in an easterly direction for about 24 miles. It is owned by the Frost-Johnson Lumber Company, which acquired the tap line when it purchased the mill and timber of the Whited & Wheless Lumber Company; no separate or specific amount was paid for the railroad and equipment.

The Bodcaw Valley is remarkable in the fact that it receives from the Cotton Belt an allowance of from 1 to 21 cents per 100 pounds out of the rate, although it neither hauls the logs to the mill nor performs any service on the finished product from the mill. The mill of the lumber company is located on the tracks of the Cotton Belt, which places the empty cars at the loading platform and moves the carloads of lumber away. The tap line conducts no train operations, its tracks from the timber to the mill being used by the Smyth Logging Company, which is also subsidiary to the Frost-Johnson Lumber Company, for the movement of logs to the mill. For this
purpose the logging company leases the equipment of the tap line and pays a yearly rental for the tracks. Such is the testimony appearing of record, although the annual report indicates that the tap line has several trainmen. The entire traffic as reported to the Commission consists of logs, amounting for the year 1910 to 78,592 tons.

This tap line yields a substantial profit to its owners, having paid during the year 1910 a dividend of 20 per cent on the stock, its net operating revenue for that year being $7,140. Apparently the bills for the allowances are sent to the Cotton Belt by the lumber company, and the cash' accruing under the settlements passes to the lumber company.