Food for or six per cent, in six months, in the most favorable circumstances. 

 Plants Hence, it follows that ninety-four cents a bushel for wheat when 

 8 first threshed in August, is as good, taking into account the shrink- 

 age alone, as one dollar in the following February. 



Corn shrinks much more from the time it is first husked. 

 One hundred bushels of ears, as they come from the field in Novem- 

 ber, will be reduced to not far from eighty. So that forty cents a 

 bushel for corn in the ear, as it comes from the field, is as good as 

 fifty in March, shrinkage only being taken into account. 



In the case of potatoes— taking those that rot and are other- 

 wise lost — together with the shrinkage, there is but little doubt 

 that between October and June, the loss to the owner who holds 

 them is not less than thirty-three per cent. 



This estimate is taken on the basis of interest at 7 per cent., 

 and takes no account of loss by vermin. 



One hundred pounds of Indian meal is equal to 76 pounds of 

 wheat, 83 of oats, 90 of rye, 111 of barley, 333 of corn stalks. 



Length of Navigation of the Mississippi River. 



The length of navigation of the Mississippi River itself for 

 ordinary large steamboats is about 2,161 miles, but small steamers 

 can ascend about 650 miles further. The following are its prin- 

 cipal navigable tributaries, with the miles open to navigation: 



Miles. Miles. 



Minnesota 295 Wisconsin 160 



Chippewa 90 Rock 64 



Iowa 80 Illinois 350 



Missouri 2,900 Yellowstone 474 



Big Horn 50 Ohio 950 



Allegheny 325 Monongahela 110 



Muskingum 94 Kanawha 94 



Kentucky 105 Green 200 



Wabash 365 Cumberland 600 



Tennessee 270 Clinch 50 



Osage 302 St. Francis 180 



White 779 Black 147 



Little White 48 Arkansas 884 



Big Hatchie 75 Issaquena 161 



Sunflower 271 Yazoo 228 



Tallahatchie 175 Big Black 35 



Red 986 Cane. . 54 



Cypress 44 Ouachita 384 



Black 61 Bceuf 55 



Bartholomew 100 Tensas 112 



Macon 60 Teche 91 



Atchafalaya 218 D'Arbonne 50 



Lafourche 168 



The other ten navigable tributaries have less than fifty miles 

 each of navigation. The total miles of navigation of these fifty- 



