THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



530 



Receipts of Flour at Chicago, 1857. 



Bylake ^ 5,300 barrels. 



Canal 12.900 „ 



Galena Railroad 114,800 „ 



Michigan Southern do 5,500 „ 



Michigan Central do 3,000 „ 



Rock Island do 106,000 .. 



Illinois Central do 9,800 „ 



Burlington do 84,700 „ 



Milwaukee do 1,300 „ 



St. Paul do 42,900 „ 



St. Louis do 7,100 „ 



City manufacture 96,000 „ 



489,300 barrels. 

 Receipts of Wheat at Chicago, 1857. 



By lake 8,400 bushels. 



Canal 885,500 „ 



Galena Railroad 3,766,200 „ 



Michigan Southern do 11,100 „ 



Michigan Central do 13,500 „ 



Rock Island do 1,181,400 „ 



Illinois Central do 679,400 „ 



Burlington do 2,972,000 „ 



Milwaukie do 7,300 „ 



St. Paul do 279,800 „ 



St. Louis do 549,400 „ 



Teams 200,000 „ 



10,554,100 bushels. 

 Receipts of Corn at Chicago, 1857. 



By lake 3,200 bushels. 



Canal 4,122,600 „ 



Galena Railroad 354,100 „ 



Michigan Southern do 144,1 



Michigan Central do.. 

 Rock Island do. . . 

 Illinois Central do. 



St. Paul do 



St. Louis do 



Burlington do. . , 

 Teams 



1,500 



407,400 



192,100 



6,800 



, 83,300 



1,892,900 



200,000 



7,408,700 bushels. 

 The three great aourees of the flour and wheat supply were 

 the Galena railroad, which extends from Dubuque (on the 

 Mississippi river) across the State of Illinois to Chicago ; the 

 Rock Island railroad, which extends from Rock Island (on the 

 Mississippi river), and follows the course of the Illinois Canal 

 to Chicago ; and the Burlington and Quincy railroad, which 

 extends also from the Mississippi river, and forms a junction 

 with the Galcua and other railroads at a short distance outside 

 of Chicago. The canal formed the principal source of the 

 corn supply, and a large portion was brought from the Illinois 

 river by canal. With the exception, therefore, of corn, the 

 principal Chicago grain receipts were furnished from the Mis- 

 sissippi River, thus confirming what has been advanced as to 

 tlie precarious character of the present western transit trs^de. 

 The aggregate grain receipts at Chicago, and the aggregate 

 shipments, for the year ending 31st December, 1357, were as 

 follows : — 



Receipts. 



Flour 393,000 barrels. 



Wheat 10.554,100 bushels. 



Corn 7,408,700 „ 



Oats 1,307,200 „ 



Barley 122,000 „ 



Rye SG,600 „ 



Shipmknts. 



Flour 255,200 barrels. 



Wheat 9,485,000 bushels. 



Corn G.825,000 „ 



Oats 415,600 „ 



Barley ., 169.900 .. 



Before passing to the consideration of other staple products 

 it will be necessary to recur to observations previously made 

 on the subject of cereal transport. Flour and grain, unlike 

 pork products and hides and tallow, are bulky in proportion 

 to their value, and could not bear a thousand miles' transporta- 

 tion by railroad without unnecessarily diminishing the profits 

 of the farmer, or unnecessarily overstepping the market price 

 at the point of destination on the seaboard. The previous 

 illustration will bear repetition. During the summer 1858 

 wheat was carried by water from Chicago to New York at 

 7}^d. a bushel, and flour at 23. a barrel ; and the regular rail- 

 road tariff would have been 23. a bushel for the wheat, and 

 6s. 5^d. for the flour. To have used railroads for the move- 

 ment it is therefore obvious that the farmer would have had to 

 submit to a considerable abatement from the Chicago market 

 price, or the produce when it reached its destination would be 

 held at a large advance on current rates. But while wheat 

 and flour cannot be transported by railroad from the west to 

 the seaboard, articles of more value in proportion to their bulk 

 are profitably carried ; still, so long as the communication of 

 the lakes and cauals is open, and a few days'* extra time is of 

 no account, commodities of the greatest value are carried east 

 and west by water, the transportation charge being less the one 

 way than the other. But during winter there is no choice, 

 and eastern and European trade requiring beef and pork, and 

 lard and hides, these commodities are sent daily as the cattle 

 and the hogs are slaughtered, the cost of railroad transit being 

 taken into account; and this business is prosecuted in an 

 extensive and vigorous way. But although the hog and cattle 

 product trade is carried on by railroads, and in fact owes its 

 great western development to the railroad system, there is no 

 reason to suppose that in future railroads will become available 

 for the transportation of wheat and flour from Chicago or St. 

 Louis to New York. The American grain trade is not con- 

 fined to the western section of the continent, as the hog and 

 cattle trade really is ; and during winter, when the Erie canal 

 and the lakes are frozen, the Eastern States consume their own 

 growth of wheat and flour, and all margin for extra transporta- 

 tion charge is thus destroyed. To understand this fully it is 

 only necessary to consider that in a great measure the price of 

 grain is equalized throughout the world, and especially is it so 

 throughout the United States. If the crop is full or short, the 

 eastern markets sympathize at once with the markets of the 

 west ; and although the supply of western grain is stopped in 

 winter, the existence of the supply, and the certainty of its 

 appearance in the spring, is not lost sight of for a single 

 moment, but exercises as much influence in Broad-street, New 

 York, when stored in Chicago elevators, as when stored at the 

 Atlantic Dock, Brooklyn. Such being the case, prices through- 

 out tbe winter maintain a kind of level between the west and 

 east ; and the range of fluctuation does not admit of railroad 

 transport. The peculiarities of this trade form the subject 

 matter of a special article. 



Considering then the great economy of water transit, in 

 connexion with previous remarks as to the ultimate tendency 

 of western trade towards the Mississippi river aud New Orleans, 

 it is manifest that the present mode of prosecuting the western 

 winter provision trade by railroad presents no difliculty in the 

 way of transferring that trade to the channel of the Mississippi^ 

 In the first place, there would be a large saving in the cost of 

 transportstion to the seaboard, the water communication being 

 the cluupei ; i '.d, in the second place, every word advanced as 

 to the place of growth of Chicago wheat and corn, applies 

 equally to hogs and cattle. These are bred at perhaps an 

 average distance of two hundred miles from Chicago, and over 

 that distance the hogs and cattle are carried by the railroads, 

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