588 



MINNEAPOLIS AND ITS MILLS. 



RECAPITULATION BY COUNTIES. 



The third table (recapitulation) gives the 

 losses by counties, including the estimated losses 

 in Lapeer, St. Clair, and Tuscola Counties. 

 These statistics vary but little from those gath- 

 ered by the State Commission. In addition to 

 the above, forty school -houses were burned, 

 t \\vlve in Huron County and twenty-eight in 

 Sanilac; also eight churches, six in Huron and 

 two in Sanilac. 



In the matter of relief, the Port Huron Committee report 

 receipts up to February 11, 1882 : 



Cash subscriptions $192,831 44 



Produce, clothing, and other 



supplies 253,960 26 



Total . - $44S,791 70 



The Detroit Relief Committee re- 

 ported receipts to Oct. 10, 1831 : 



Cash subscriptions $207,274 89 



Produce, clothing, and other 



supplies 74.786 83 



Total : 



State Relief Commission successor 

 to Detroit Relief Committee, by 

 appointment of the Governor to 

 February 1 1 : 



Cash subscriptions $199.300 05 



Estimated supplies 76,000 00 



$282,010 72 



Total. 



$275,300 05 

 Total cash and supplies $1,006,102 47 



In addition, Bay City, the Saginaws, and 

 other cities of the State sent large contribu- 

 tions, both in money and supplies, to the local 

 committees at different points. 



The Commissioner of Insurance says in his 

 preliminary report for 1881 that the losses were 

 but slightly covered by insurance. Also, " the 

 two mutual companies of those counties had 

 about 80,000 of losses, none of which have 

 been paid. Only twenty stock companies had 

 losses in the burned district, aggregating $101,- 

 942.66. This amount was promptly paid, near- 

 ly one half by a single company, the Agri- 

 cultural Insurance Company, of Watertown, 

 N. Y." 



The matter of further relief will be laid before 

 the Legislature at an extra session, to be held 

 February 23, 1882, and it is estimated that an 

 appropriation of $300,000 will be needed to 

 meet the taxes levied upon the property of the 

 sufferers under assessments made or ordered 

 before the fire, and to furnish the seed for 

 spring crops, and other supplies necessary, 

 until the harvest of 1882 can be gathered. The 

 unusually mild winter has proved exceedingly 



* Not in Port Huron district losses estimated from best 

 sources available. 



favorable, as the hastily constructed houses 

 many of them rude shanties were naturally 

 not fire-proof. 



MINNEAPOLIS AND ITS MILLS. Min- 

 neapolis, Minnesota, situated at the Falls of St. 

 Anthony, of the Mississippi River, has become 

 the most important milling center of the North- 

 west. Power of immense capacity is supplied 

 from the Mississippi River, which is nearly one 

 thousand feet wide at this place, has a fall of 

 seventy-five feet within the space of a mile, 

 and has been utilized to the supply of twenty- 

 eight flouring-mills and several saw-mills. "With 

 the help of a grant from the Government of the 

 United States, the gradual recession of the falls 

 from the wearing away of the soft sandstone 

 which forms part of the river-bed has been 

 arrested by the construction of a subterranean 

 wall of concrete across the river behind the 

 falls, and for a distance of fifty feet into the 

 banks on either side, and by covering the falls 

 themselves with heavy crib-work filled with 

 stones, and a flooring of timber. At a short 

 distance above the falls, the water is turned 

 into a canal sixty feet wide and fourteen feet 

 deep, by which it is carried in a course parallel 

 with the river to the mills. The mills have a 

 capacity which demands twenty million bushels 

 of wheat in a year, a quantity representing an 

 area of 1,250,000 acres of land in cultivation. 

 The grain is purchased by agents representing 

 an association of the millers, who canvass 

 the tributary wheat-growing districts for three 

 months after the harvest of each year, to se- 

 cure the bulk of the year's supplies, and fore- 

 stall the competition of Eastern speculators. 

 The wheat is distributed among the several 

 mills in proportion to their capacity for grind- 

 ing. While waiting to be ground it is stored in 

 the mills, which can take care of about 2,500,- 

 000 bushels ; in the elevators of the city, which 

 can hold about half that amount ; and at out- 

 lying stations on the various lines of railway. 

 The hard spring varieties of wheat are most 

 sought after for making into flour, and this 

 has raised the value of those varieties over that 

 of winter wheat, which formerly commanded 

 the highest price. 



The total productive capacity of all the mills 

 is computed at 28,000 barrels of flour a day. 

 The three mills of Messrs. Washburne, Crosby 

 & Co. possess a motive force of 3,550 horse- 



