THE TRANSPORTATION OF WHEAT 189 



all of these primary markets are located at the points where 

 the circumference of an irregular circle intersects the great 

 inland waterways. From each of these centers radiates a 

 fan-shaped net-work of railway lines. In the main, these lines 

 extend to the north, west and south. Sometimes over 25 grain 

 carrying lines come from a single city. Not only do the rail- 

 roads from any one city compete with each other as carriers 

 of grain, but they also compete with the roads radiating from 

 other cities. The competition is all the more intense because 

 success or failure for certain primary markets in securing the 

 grain often determines whether it goes to the Atlantic or Gulf 

 seaports, and thence to the foreign markets. As a consequence 

 the middle west is well equipped with railway mileage. The 

 net earnings of the railway systems come largely from the grain 

 traffic to the east and south, and from the traffic which this in- 

 duces in the opposite direction. 



The movement of wheat from the local markets of the pro- 

 ductive areas to the primary centers for subsequent distribution 

 is almost entirely by rail. There is very little water tran- 

 sportation. In 1899, 50,000,000 bushels of wheat, corn and 

 oats were received in St. Louis. The receipts by wagon were 

 almost equal to those by water, which were little more than a 

 million bushels. 



Chicago is the greatest primary grain center in the world, but 

 on account of the great quantity of flour manufactured at Min- 

 neapolis, the latter city stands pre-eminent in wheat. During 

 the last decade, there has been a marked increase in the amount 

 of wheat received at Kansas City and St. Louis; the amount at 

 Minneapolis and Chicago has not varied; and the amount at 

 Duluth has declined. Buffalo is a great point of interior con- 

 centration for the purpose of forwarding to Atlantic seaports. 



Transportation from Primary Market to Seaboard. In every 

 country the extensive growing and shipping of wheat is closely 

 dependent upon the existence of adequate transportation fa- 

 cilities. To the lack of these the comparative insignificance of 

 the grain traffic of the United States in the eighteenth century 

 was mainly due. This was before the railroad era; canals 

 were developing but slowly; and highway transportation was 

 too expensive to be practicable for any great distance. During 



