clviii 



INTRODUCTION. 



5,198,927 bushels, while the receipts during the same year at the single port of Chicago amounted to 

 about fifty million of bushels, while Milwaukie received about ten million. The exportation of grain from 

 New Orleans to foreign countries had also fallen off year by year, till in I860 the entire amount ex 

 ported was only 2,189 bushels of wheat, 224,382 bushels of corn, and rye, oats, and small grain to the 

 value of $1,943, while during the years 1860- 61 there were exported from New York 23,859,147 

 bushels of wheat, 9,268,729 bushels of corn, and 2,728,012 barrels of flour. 



To demonstrate still further the change in the grain trade from the southern to the northern route, 

 the following table is appended, showing the exports of flour and grain from Cincinnati during the 

 four years preceding the blockade of the Mississippi river, with the amount shipped by the southern 

 and the amount shipped by the northern route 



TABLE P. 

 Shipments north and south from Cincinnati for four years. 



It is also to be noted, that of the amount shipped south, as given in the above table, but a very 

 small proportion reached New Orleans. For instance, in the year 1860, of the 478,308 barrels of flour 

 exported from Cincinnati, only 35,146 barrels were shipped to New Orleans, the balance having been 

 shipped north or to other ports on the river between Cairo and New Orleans. 



It is worthy of mention, however, that, although the export grain trade of New Orleans has not 

 kept up with the production of the valley of the Mississippi, the local river trade greatly increased in 

 consequence of the extraordinary demand by cotton and sugar planters, who were every year becoming 

 more dependent upon the northwestern States for their supplies of breadstuff s. 



THE GRAIN TRADE OF THE UPPER MISSISSIPPI. 



The grain trade of the Upper Mississippi is a very important branch of northwestern commerce. 

 The rapid development during the past five years of the resources of northern Iowa and Wisconsin, 

 and of Minnesota, has built up large towns on the river, such as McGregor, Winona, Hastings, and 

 St. Paul, on the Mississippi, and Stillwater and Hudson, on the St. Croix, all of which are depots 

 for the grain of the surrounding territory, which is shipped in steamboats and barges down the Missis 

 sippi river to Lacrosse, Dunleith, and Fulton, where it is transferred to railroads and shipped to Lake 

 Michigan ports. It is estimated that during 1863 the receipts of wheat alone, for the Upper Missis 

 sippi river, at Lake Michigan ports, was not less than six millions of bushels 



THE GRAIN TRADE OF CALIFORNIA. 



One of the most wonderful features of the grain trade is its growth and development on the 

 Pacific coast. California, which but a few years since was entirely dependent upon western South 

 American ports for a supply of breadstuffs, appears now on the records as a grain-exporting State, and 

 almost every mail from the Pacific conveys intelligence of one or more ships, loaded with wheat, having 

 sailed from San Francisco for Liverpool or London. Riches, other than gold, have been found on the 

 so d, as the excellent quality and heavy yield of California wheat and other cereals, fully attest. 



