CYRUS HALL M c C O R M I C K 



which holds as much as twenty or twenty-five 

 wagons. And to-day one of the ordinary mov- 

 ing pictures of an American railroad is a sixty- 

 car train travelling eastward with enough \vheat 

 in its rolling bins to give bread to a city of ten 

 thousand people for a year. 



The trans-Siberian railway, which is the 

 longest straight line of steel in the world, was 

 built largely as a wheat-conveyor. So were the 

 railways of western Canada, Argentina, and 

 India. Ever since the advent of the Reaper 

 wheat has been the prolific mother of railways 

 and steamships. While the rice nations are 

 still putting their burdens on ox-carts and on 

 the backs of camels and elephants, the wheat 

 nations have built up a system of transportation 

 that is a daily miracle of cheapness, efficiency, 

 and speed. This system is not yet finished. 

 A new line of steamships is about to be set afloat 

 between Buenos Ayres and Hamburg. The 

 Erie Canal is being re-made, at a fabulous cost, 

 so that a steamer with 100,000 bushels of wheat 

 can go directly from Buffalo to New York. 

 And an adventurous railway is now pushing its 



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