258 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



societies, which they were so auxious not to infringe on. 

 (Hear). 



Mr. Clayden .said he thought the latter end of May 

 would be the best time for holding the meeting, and he should 

 say put breeding stock in the first rauk ; but at that period 

 of the year much fat stock had often been held over, the 

 weather was not too hot, and they would no doubt have a 

 "■ood show of fat stock at that time. 



Mr. Fisher HcBBS called attention to the importance of 

 holding out encouragement to the production of good agricul- 

 tural implements, Essex had a number of small implement- 

 makers as well as large, and they were rising up year by year, 

 having, through the meetings of the Royal Agricultural Society, 

 an opportunity of competing with the leviathan makers. 



Mr. R. Baker could not but think something might be done 

 for the agricultural labourers, that they might have something 

 for the prize-man recommended by each local Society. He 

 thought the greatest encouragement should be given to neat 



stock and sheep. If they had the meeting in the summer they 

 would have but little fat stock, if in winter but little breeding 

 stock ; but in May they would have sufficient fat stock to give 

 eclat to the show, though they could not expect a great quan- 

 tity. The great object, however, should be the improvement 

 of breeding stock. In the old Society he brought the subject 

 of breeding before the committee, for at that time he had not 

 seen a calf weaned in the county ; now breeding was carried 

 on to some extent.and if they introduced a good breed, and good 

 short-horns were spread over the county, they would soon see 

 a different state of Essex breeding. 

 The resolution was carried. 



A general committee con sisting of sixty iuflueutial gentle- 

 men waj appointed. 



Thanks were voted to the Chairman, which Mr. Du Cane 

 acknowledged; and the meeting adjourned to Friday, the 26th 

 of February. 



THE TRADE AND COMMERCE OF CHICAGO IN 1857. 



We again avail ourselves of the information for- 

 warded us by the commercial editor of the Chicago 

 Daily Press, in his Sixth Annual Review of tlie 

 Trade and Commerce of Chicago for the Year 1857. A 

 year of more than ordinary calamity, in which some of 

 the old and wealthy cities on the Atlantic seaboard have 

 been obliged to succumb to the financial crisis, but that 

 has left this city of Chicago, which is only the growth of 

 the past dozen years, as sound as ever in its commercial 

 relations, and with a vigour and elasticity which 

 promises to be equal to any and every emergency. 

 True it is that the trade of Chicago, being dependent 

 on the produce of the surrounding agricultural country, 

 poured into its stores and warehouses along three thou- 

 sand miles of iron road, was on a more solid basis than 

 many of those other cities which bore tlie traces of the late 

 commercial ruin. Still, we were prepared to see in its 

 returns symptoms of the general staernation in trade ; 

 while we find the fact to be, that the prudence displayed 

 by the banls;ers and traders of Chicago, aided by their 

 solid capital — the accumulations of the energy and suc- 

 cessful commerce of the last twelve years — has preserved 

 her credit, and enabled her to achieve a commanding 

 position amongst her sister-cities of the Union. The 

 report says : 



"Though some of our country banks were forced to close 

 their doors, and all the banks in Illinois and Wisconsin, 

 except the Marine and the Chicago Banks of this city — 

 which, to their honour be it said, paid the coin on demand 

 for all their issues — virtually suspended specie payments, 

 yet our bankers received at par the bills of all the country 

 banks, and thus saved the business of the city from 

 utter stagnation and ruin. The position which our bankers 

 assumed towards our business men, and that of business 

 men towards each other, was not one of hostility, but 

 of mutual forbearance and support ; and never, in commer- 

 cial as well as in all other matters, was the motto more 

 beautifully illustrated — ' In union there is strength.' " 



The consequence of this "union" was that, during 

 the worst weeks of the panic, the shipments of wheat 

 were one hundred thousand bushels per day, and of all 

 cereals averaged nearly two hundred thousand bushels. 

 By a reference to the commercial tables, we find that 

 the exports last year, in spite of the low prices which 

 prevailed, have not materially fallen of. They have 

 exported more wheat, packed more beef, and shipped 

 more cattle than in the previous season ; and a large 

 surplus is reported in the country for this (the coming) 

 season-'s business. The prospects of this year are staled 

 to be such as will far outstrip that of any previous one. 



The grain trade of 1857 has been active, and, contrary 

 to all expectation, shows but a very slight falling-off as 



compared with 1856, and an increase over 1855. Grain 

 is the most important branch of the trade of Chicago. 

 The receipts in the year 1857 was 21,856,206 

 bushels : this shows an advance over 1855, which was 

 only 20,487,953 bushels, yet 1857 wanted about 

 3,000,000 bushels of being as large as 1856. The ship- 

 ments of grain and flour, reduced to its equivalent in 

 wheat, was, for 1857, 18,032,768 bushels, or 2,818,618 

 bushels less than those shipped in 1856 ; but it is 

 2,000,000 over the quantity shipped in 1855. These 

 numbers give the general totals of all cereals ; but if we 

 look at the great staples (wheat and flour), we find that 

 the increase of shipments of 1857 is over that of 1856, 

 Thus, of wheat they exported 9,485,052 bushels ; or, 

 1,147,632 bushels more than in 1856, and 3,286,897 

 bushels more than 185.5. In flour likewise there is the 

 large increase of 40,000 barrels more shipped than in 

 1856, the numbers being, for 1857, 259,648 barrels. 



The provision trade of 1857 shows also an important 

 increase over 1856 ; the number of cattle slaughtered 

 in the past year being 19,127, or 4,000 over 1856, It 

 is stated that before the scarcity of money occurred, the 

 packers calculated on 30,000 head as being the quantity 

 required. The quantity of live cattle shipped was 

 25,000, or 3,000 over the business of the previous year. 



The figures given above will show our readers the im- 

 portance and the rising position of this vast grain empo- 

 rium. The grain trade of this prairie city, and its rise 

 and progress, to those who have seen it in its infancy, 

 appear a miracle. In 1838 it commenced by the ship- 

 ment of 39 bags of wheat. In 1857 (not twenty years) 

 it has attaiaed the magnitude of over 20,000,000 bushels 

 of all kinds of grain. Yet this is as nothing: to what the 

 position of Chicago promises at its full and future deve- 

 lopment. It is yet but in its infancy. From its situa- 

 tion — " the key and natural outlet of the great north- 

 west" — it must become the mightiest interior commercial 

 port of America. As the railways creep up still more 

 north and west, so will the trade of Chicago increase, 

 and that from the actual producers of the soil ; so that 

 to the merchants of the old world it must become the 

 cheapest and best supplied market. The reviewer 

 proudly says — 



" The grain trade of Chicago, it must be remembered, too, 

 in this connection, has a much brighter future than most 

 people dream of. As a mere depot for the grain trade of 

 the East, Chicago will not long remain. The markets of 

 Liverpool, Glasgow, Hamburgh, and the whole Continent of 

 Europe are fed by us ; and it is not natural to suppose that 

 we will remain an inland port when a canal of about fifty miles 

 iu length will carry our ships of a thousand tons burthen 

 laden with grain to the St. Lawrence, and thence into the 



