1908.] Freight Charges on United States Wheat. 601 



rates from 562 local stations in Illinois and Nebraska to Chicago 

 in 1905-6 was 8d. (16 cents) per 100 lb., 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 was found to be yd. (14 cents) per 100 lb. Making allow- 

 ance for the relative quantities of wheat received at each of 

 these primary markets during 1905-6, the average rate from 

 local railway stations to primary markets was y\d. (15-5 cents) 

 per 100 lb., which added to the cost of carriage from farms 

 makes the total cost of transportation is. o\d. (24-5 cents) 

 per 100 lb., or about y\d. (14 - y cents) per bushel. 



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 route 

 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, though 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 mean rate in 1905 from Chicago to New York by lake 

 and rail, that is by boat on the Great Lakes to Buffalo and 

 thence by rail, was ^\d. (6 -40 cents) per bushel ; by rail all the 

 way it was nearly 5^. (9 -90 cents) ; and by the Lakes and the 

 Erie Canal it was 2%d. (5 -53 cents) per bushel. The railway 

 rate to other ports varied slightly, but it may be taken that the 

 mean all-rail rate from Chicago to the Atlantic seaboard was 

 under <\d. (7 -8 cents) per bushel. 



The cost from the markets further west and from local 

 stations east of the Rocky Mountains to the Atlantic seaboard 

 is estimated at 6%d. (13-4 cents) per bushel, which is the mean 

 rate from Kansas City and Omaha, while the rate to Gulf 

 ports, New Orleans and Galveston is put at $±d. (10 -8 cents). 

 The average rate from local stations to both coasts, allowing 

 for the relative quantity of wheat exported from each, would 

 be 6l-d. (12 -6 cents) per bushel. 



Ocean rates were higher than usual during the year 1905-6, 

 and the mean charge for carrying wheat by regular steamship 

 lines to Liverpool from New York, a distance of about 3,100 



