Transport Charges in United States. 241 



This route is now placed under Government supervision, 

 and it is stipulated that the company provide for the careful 

 treatment of the goods. The ships on the line are to be 

 fitted with refrigerators suited to the different descriptions of 

 goods carried, and a reduction of about 20 per cent, is to be 

 made in the former freights. The rates are to be for one ton 

 of butter, 16s. ; of salt meat, 12s. ; of frf sh meat, iSs. ; of eggs 

 20s. ; and of fresh fish, 14^. 



Transport Charges in the United States. 



A report has recently been issued by the Division of 

 Statistics of the United States Department of Agriculture, 

 which deals with the changes in the railway and transport 

 rates which have taken place during the past thirty years. 

 The information is principally given in tabular form, and 

 shows the rates for conveying various commodities on the 

 chief traffic routes in the United States. Among the 

 agricultural products shown are wheat, maize, and live 

 stock, the rates for which appear to have declined from one- 

 half to one-third of the tariff thirty years ago. 



In the case of v/heat, the transportation rate between 

 Chicago and New York by the Great Lakes and the Erie 

 Canal has declined from 15 '95 cents per bushel in 1867 to 

 4'35 cents in 1897. The highest rate was in 1872, when it 

 was 21-55 cents, and the lowest was 4* 11 cents in 1895. The 

 proportion which the transport rate bears to the price of 

 wheat has, notwithsta,nding the heavy fall in wheat prices, 

 shown a rapid decline. In 1867 the export price was 

 approximately 5f times the cost of transport, whilst in 1897 

 it was about 17J times as great, that is to say, that in 1867 

 one bushel out of every 5f bushels received at New York for 

 export was taken by the carriers as compensation for trans- 

 portation east of Chicago, but in 1897 only one bushel was 

 deducted out of each 17J bushels arriving in this manner. 

 The rates for the conveyance of wheat from Chicago to New 

 York by lake and rail and entirely by rail do not exhibit so 

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