THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



271 



succession of adverse winds and calms. Capt. Grang states 

 that he kept up with a fleet of about 30 sale of lake vessels 

 which left Detroit River with the Madeira Pet, and when- 

 ever it blew fresh lie could pass them. Under ordinary 

 circumstances the trip from Montreal to Chicago can be 

 made in from fifteen to twenty days, and had the JMadeira 

 Pet got into Lake Huron two days earlier than she did, the 

 prevailing winds since then would have brought her up at 

 least ten days earlier. The Madeira Pet was built in 1850. 



The Dean Richmond, as our readers probably know, was 

 the enterprise of our own citizens, and was considered as 

 partly an experiment. To the present undertaking we are 

 indebted to parties not interested in our city's progress; but 

 to shrewd, intelligent, business men. The originator of the 

 project is W. J. Gilbert, Esq., of St. John, New Bruns- 

 rt'ick, who spent last season in our city and the north-west. 

 The cargo, which consists of hardware, cvitlery, earthenware, 

 paints, glassware, china, white lead, &c., was shipped by 

 Messrs. Ker, Welsh and Co., of Liverpool — Mr. Ker having 

 also spent a portion of last year among us — and is consigned 

 to Messrs. L H. Burch and Co., of this city. Mr. T. R. 

 Gordon, of New York, now here, is agent of the consignees. 



Chicago's facilities to handle and stoke grain. 



Chicago's pre-eminence as a grain depot is due, not alone 

 to her geographical position as the key to the great north- 

 west, but also to the facilities she possesses to receive, ship, 

 and warehouse. To the casual visitor, her grain trade does 

 not appear to be near the magnitude that the figures show 

 it to be. Our warehouses are all erected on the river 

 and its branches, with railroad tracks running in the rear 

 of them, so that a train of cars loaded with grain may be 

 standing opposite one end of a large elevating warehouse, 

 being emptied by elevators, at the rate of from six to eight 

 thousand bushels per hour, while at the other end the same 

 grain may be running into a couple of propellers, and be on 

 its way to Buffalo, Oswego, Ogdensburgh, or Montreal, 

 within six or seven hours. And all this is done without 

 any noise or bustle ; and with but little labour, except that 

 of machinery. Take, for example, the Illinois Central Rail- 

 road Grain Warehouse. It can discharge twelve cars 

 loaded with grain, and also load two vessels at once, at the 

 rate of twenty-four thousand bushels per hour ; or it can 

 receive from twenty-four cars at once at the rate of eight 

 thousand bushels per hour. So with the other large grain 

 warehouses in our city. Our capacity to handle grain is 

 unequalled by any other city or grain market in the world — 

 not only from its dispatch, but also from its cheapness. 

 Take, for instance, the following list of the warehouses in 

 this cit3', with the capacity for handling, storing, &c. : — 



CAPACITY FOR HANDLING AND STORING GRAIN. 



Elevating Capacity for Capacity to Capacity 



Warehouses. storage. receive and to sliip 



ship per day. per day. 



Bushels, Bushels. Bushels. 

 Illinois C. Railroad (Sturgis, 



Buckingham, and Co.) .. 700,000 65,("00 22.5,000 

 Rock Island Railroad (Flint, 



Wheeler, and Co.) 700,000 5.5,C00 200,000 



Chicago and G. U R. R. . . 500,000 50,0t 125,000 



Gibbs, Griffin, and Co 500,000 60,000 150,000 



Munger and Armour 3oO,000 50,000 100,300 



Muiin, Gill, and Co 200,000 30,000 75,000 



Flint, Wheeler, and Co 160,000 '.'5,000 50,001 



Burlinganie 100,000 25,000 50,000 



S. A. Ford and Co 100,000 20,000 40,000 



Jas, Peck and Co 60,000 29,000 40,000 



Walker, Bronson, and Co... 75,000 30,000 60,000 



Total 3,395,000 430,OCO 1,115,000 



It will be seen from the above table that the capacity to 

 " receive and ship " each ten hours is 430,000 bushels. "This 

 is a low average, makings allowances for stoppages and delays 

 in trimming the vessels, &c. The "capacity to ship " alone is 

 1,115,000 bushels per day of ten hours. These figures, however, 

 may be and often are doubled in busy seaeons, by working 

 both day and night. 



The capital invested in the grain trade of Chicago can hardly 

 be estimated ; but an idea of it may be formed from the 

 amount of capital invested in the mere handling and ware- 

 housing of grain. The following is a valuation of the real 

 estate and the cost of the erection of warehouses, elevators, 

 &c., in our city : 



CAPITAL INVESTED IN HANDLING AND WAREHOUSING. 



Cost of warehouses, Value of 



Warehouses. elevators, &c. real estate. Total. 



111. Cent'l Railroad . 175,000 dols. 150,000 dels, 325,000 



Rock Island Railroad 150,000 , 90,000 240,000 



Gibbs, Griffin & Co. (Buddings & Real Estate) 2(!0,000 



Chi. & Galena R. R. „ „ „ 300,000 



Munger & Armour 80,000 80,000 160,000 



Munn, Gill & Co.. . 66,000 80,000 146,000 



Flint.Wheeler&Co. 25,000 50,000 75.000 



Burlingarae's 20,000 36,000 56,000 



S. A. Ford & Co. . . (Buildings & Real Estate) 90.000 



Walker, Bronson & Co. „ „ „ 80,000 



Jas. Peck & Co. . . „ „ „ 80,000 



Total capital invested in warehouses. . . . dols. 1,752,000 

 Besides the above, however, warehousemen have to employ 

 a large capital in paying freights, making advances, &c., of 

 which we have no record, but which must be quite large. 



THE FUTURE GRAIN TRADE OF CHICAGO. 



Such is a view of some of the leading features of the grain 

 trade of Chicago, from which the reader can conclude what it 

 now is. What it will yet become who dare predict ? It is well 

 known that the Northwest is in its infancy, and that the sta- 

 tistics we have presented from time to time in the columns of 

 the press are but the beginnings of a mighty future. Our rail- 

 road now tap the Mississippi at ten different points, and are fast 

 extending their iron arms into Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, 

 Kansas, and Nebraska. Hitherto the greater portion of these 

 territories have been consumers. It will not be long before 

 they are producers. Hitherto our own State has been but 

 partially cultivated, as well as Wisconsin and Iowa. The fact 

 that the lUinois Central Railway Company alone have already 

 sold, to actual settlers, 1,059,556 acres of land, might lead 

 even a stranger to western development and progress to con- 

 ceive that, however great the grain trade of Chicago has 

 become, it is still in its infancy. 



It would be an easy task to show that the progress in the 

 Northwest for the past five years has not been of that character 

 which tells to proper advantage in statistical tables ; yet even 

 then they are startling, and to some people scarcely credible. 

 Our agricultural operations have been carried on under great 

 disadvantages on account of the sparse settlement of the conn- 

 try, the scarcity of labourers, and the lack of sufficient capital. 

 Every year, however, lessens these obstacles, and the progress 

 of future years will in all probability be in a greater ratio than 

 that of the last five or ten. By aid of railroads now built 

 and being built, in almost every county of Illinois, Wisconsin, 

 and Iowa, Chicago becomes the great depot for the produce of 

 the entire Northwest. Here will congregate the capital of the 

 East and of Europe for the purchase of breadstuffs, and here 

 will be erected warehouses, the magnitude and capacity of 

 which no one can estimate. 



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 50 miles in length will 

 carry our ships of a 1,000 tons burthen laden with grain to the 

 St. Lawrence, and then into the broad waters of the Atlantic. 

 No ; Chicago — the commercial emporium of the entire North- 

 west — will before many years be placed in as direct communi- 

 tion with Liverpool, Havre, and Glasgow, as New York now 

 is. When this shall have been accomplished — when our rail- 

 roads have reached the valleys of the Missouri, the Platte, the 

 Big Sioux, and the Red River of the North — then will the 

 grain trade of Chicago begin to shape itself into a legitimate 

 magnitude and importance. 



AGRICULTURAL MACHINERY — WAGES FOR FARM LABOUR. 



The inventions in the department of agricultural machinery 

 which have been made within the last 15 or 20 years seem to 

 be the result of that same providential order which in so 

 many ways in the world's history has provided for the world's 

 wants. The fertile soil of our highly-favoured West would 

 fall far short of meeting the demands now made upon it, were 

 it not for this kind of machinery, which so greatly increases 

 results without a corresponding increase of manual labour, 



