Less Foreign Demand for Products. 41 



porting mercliandise, as concerns most products, it is 

 evident the change was so great as to present the appear- 

 ance of a new world since the time 1850-60. The average 

 cost of sending a bushel of wheat from Chicago to New 

 York in 1858, all way by rail, is given as over thirty-eight 

 cents. In 1870 the charge was twenty-six cents; in 1898 

 but twelve cents. This means a large further reduction 

 in cost of getting grain from the farms to Chicago. In- 

 stead of at some times and in some places burning corn 

 for fuel because the cost of reaching the market was too 

 great, the surplus is now sent on for consumption. In- 

 stead of corn, oats, and the refuse of wheat after the 

 flour has been extracted being the main reliance at the 

 West in the feeding of live stock, hay now is largely sub- 

 stituted. The production of dairy products to a great 

 extent, of vegetables and of fruits, has lessened per capita 

 the consumption of wheat and meat by the western peo- 

 ple. In these various ways the surplus of exportable 

 products has been largely increased. 



Now with all the changes that have taken place, the 

 vast increase in area of production, and in the number 

 of persons so engaged, with much improved appliances; 

 with cost of carriage from the farms to Chicago, from 

 Chicago to New York, and from New York to Liverpool 

 greatly decreased, it is exceedingly strange that from 

 1878-1883 to 1892-1897 there was almost no increase in 

 the value of total agricultural exports ! 



Again, Mr. Stanwood says that the idea is erroneous 

 '^that sentiments, national friendliness, a desire for reci- 

 procity, rather than necessity, price, and hard-headed 

 business considerations, regulate the purchases of a na- 

 tion, particularly purchases of articles of food. Accord- 

 ing to modern ways of trade, the person who sells flour 



