TRANSPORTATION AND STORAGE FACILITIES 571 



to the farmers of delivering this wheat at 9 cents per 100 pounds is 

 5 .4 cents per bushel. Hence the actual value on the farm would be 

 69.4 cents per bushel. The mean of the railway freight rates on 

 wheat from 562 local stations in Illinois and Nebraska to Chicago in 

 1905-6 was 16 cents per 100 pounds, the same as the mean rate to 

 Minneapolis from 311 local stations in Minnesota, North Dakota, 

 South Dakota, and Nebraska. To Kansas City, from 456 stations 

 in Kansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma, the mean rate is found to be 

 about 14 cents per 100 pounds. Making allowances for the relative 

 quantities of wheat received at each of these three primary markets 

 during the year 1905-6, the average rate on wheat from local shipping 

 points to primary markets in 1905-6 was 15 .5 cents per 100 pounds, 

 which, added to the average cost of hauling wheat from farms in the 

 North Central States, makes a total cost of transportation of 24.5 

 cents per 100 pounds, or 14.7 cents per bushel from farm to primary 

 market. 



The average of the prices for No. 2 red winter wheat at Chicago, 

 No. i northern wheat at Minneapolis, and No. 2 hard wheat at Kansas 

 City, allowing for the relative importance of each price in proportion 

 to the quantity of wheat received at each market, is 85 . i cents per 

 bushel, and the average farm value, including cost of hauling, of the 

 crop in the states and territory named was 80 . 7 cents. The average 

 freight rate being 9.3 cents, the average value on December i, 1905, 

 at the three primary markets for all marketable grades of the wheat of 

 this region would be probably not more than 82 cents. This would 

 make only 3 . i cents difference between the average value of all wheat 

 and the price of three of the better grades. 



From the interior wheat markets to the seaboard there are two 

 general routes, one eastward to Atlantic ports and the other leading 

 south to the Gulf of Mexico. Along the eastward routes the railroads 

 have to share their traffic with the waterways formed by the Great 

 Lakes and the connecting rivers and canals. The Mississippi River 

 is a potential although not always an active competitor for the traffic 

 from the wheat regions to New Orleans. During 1904 and 1905 

 practically no wheat was carried by river from St. Louis to New 

 Orleans. 



The freight charge from Chicago to New York or Boston for 

 wheat intended for export was 15 cents per 100 pounds in 1905-6, by 

 all-rail routes. The lake-and-rail rate from Chicago to New York 

 ranged between 5.75 and 7 . 50 cents per bushel. Shipments by way 



