3IO READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



and, with the coming of the winter, the Great Lakes, found the 

 railroads and other transportation hnes unprepared. They were 

 new, and had never handled heavy traffic. Much freight had to 

 be turned away, and freight rates went up with a bound. The 

 aggregate freight rate from Chicago to New York via Buffalo, by 

 lake and canal, for a bushel of wheat rose suddenly from $0.1725 

 in July until it reached $0.3894 in October of the same year, 

 over 100 per cent increase, whereas in the corresponding three 

 months of i860 the customary rise in the autumn had been but a 

 little over 66| per cent. The West was frantic, but helpless before 

 the transportation lines ; for, while the freight rates advanced so 

 very fast, the price of spring wheat in New York in the same 

 time, July to October, went only from 72 cents to $1.15, 

 50 per cent increase in the wholesale price paid to farmers, to be 

 set over against the 100 per cent increase in freight rates. Press 

 and public and state legislatures were loud in complaint. Large 

 crops were of no avail to farmers if transportation lines took all 

 the profits. 



The sequel is important. In October, 1864, after the depreci- 

 ation of paper money had been constantly raising prices in general 

 for almost three years, the freight on a bushel of wheat, Chicago 

 to New York by Buffalo, via lake and canal, was only $0.27, 

 almost $0.12 less than in October, 1861, and in not a single 

 month from 1 86 1 to 1 864 was the figure of October, 1 86 1 , again 

 reached. On the other hand, the price of a bushel of spring wheat 

 in New York in the same interval (October, 1861, to October, 

 1864) jumped from $1.15 to $2.35 in July, 1864, $i-r85 in Octo- 

 ber, and $2.28 in January, 1865. Similarly, between the same two 

 points over the same route, the freight on a bushel of com 

 increased, July to October, 1861, from $0.1581 to $0.3563 ; while 

 the price per bushel of corn in New York advanced only from 

 $0.46 to $0.54. But in October, 1864, the same freight was 

 $0.2381, while the price per bushel was $1.56 in July, 1864; 

 $1.58 in October; $1.86 in January, 1865. Again, in the fall 

 of 1 86 1 the highest price paid for a live-stock car, Chicago to 

 Buffalo, was $95 ; in the fall of 1864, only $130 for the largest 

 cars, $105 for smaller ones. But the price of live cattle in the 



