2 a 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
[January, 
of miles. If you were to trace the journey of a bushel 
of wheat from your farm to the table where it is eaten 
as bread, it might take you a long distance, and through 
many strange scenes. You see the sacks of wheat 
loaded upon the wagon, you know that they go to the 
nearest railroad station, or it may be to a shipping point 
on the river or lake, and then your knowledge of it ends. 
The East has been these many years sending its people 
to the West, and now theWest sendsits grain Eastward. 
It comes by railroad and canal, and at last reaches the 
coast. It may be made into flour in New York, Phila¬ 
delphia, or Baltimore, and make its last appearance on the 
table of a Fifth Avenue 
palace or a Five Points 
hovel. But most of it must 
keep moving, and go on 
and on across the wide 
Atlantic before it finds a 
mill. The steamers sailing 
from New York to Europe 
on Saturday, a few weeks 
ago, took 263,000 bush¬ 
els of wheat on that day, 
and every Wednesday and 
Saturday similarly large 
quantities are taken away. 
Some of you wheat raising 
boys can calculate how 
many farms like yours 
it will take to make up 
the quantity taken Dy the 
steamers on that one day. 
These steamers often have 
to unload and take in their 
return cargo in three or 
four days, and you may be 
sure it is busy times with 
them ; the work goes on 
day and night, and while 
the imported cargo is 
going out at one end, the 
export cargo goes in at 
the other end of the enor¬ 
mous ship. As you well 
know, it would be very 
slow work to shovel up 
all this grain and carry it 
on board in baskets, so 
steam is called into use. 
The wheat—possibly some 
of that from your own 
farm, is brought to the 
side of the ship in canal 
boats or barges, and from 
there it is loaded upon 
the steamship by means 
of a “ Steam Elevator.” 
The engraving shows how 
one of these looks by the 
side of a ship, and its out¬ 
side appearance; it is not 
rare to see two or three 
of these at work at one 
steamer. These elevators 
have an endless band, to 
which pockets or buck¬ 
ets are attached, and this 
"being moved by a steam 
engine, a continuous row 
of pockets, full of wheat, 
is going up to the highest 
point of the elevator; there 
they pass overa wheel, the 
■wheat falls out and a row of empty pockets is going down 
on the other side. The result is a large stream of wheat, 
running from the elevator, which may be directed by 
means of spouts to any part of the hold of the ship. At 
last the great steamer gets her load, not only of wheat, 
but of flour, pork, beef, ana many other of the products 
of our farms, even to the eggs from your barn-yard, and 
starts at the very hour—with all the promptness of a 
Jerry-boat—on her way across the ocean. These grains 
■ of wheat, how they must be tossed and rubbed, and as 
the steamer goes plunging on and on, every day and 
hour carrying it farther and farther from the farm where 
it grew. At length after its long journey by land and 
sea it gets—the destination of all wheat—to mill. Where’ 
does it at last appear as bread ? Who can tell ? It may 
be in the scantily furnished home of some workman at 
Manchester, or in the castle of some nobleman ; it may 
.be at the table of a London clerk's boarding-house, or 
possibly at that of the Prince of Wales at Sandingham, 
or of the Queen herself at Windsor. All, workman, 
nobleman, clerk, Prince, or Queen, must have bread— 
they are all equal in this—bread is a universal want, 
and our fertile farms, our industrious farmers, and you, 
wide awake industrious boy, as you help whether by 
working in the field or at the thrashing machine, all are 
■contributing to auswer the world’s great cry for bread. 
A Distinguished Visitor from 
Africa, 0*. Oiigo, Esq. 
Probably there has not been in many years an arrival 
in Europe which caused so much excitement among a 
certain class as that of the subject of our sketch. The 
Emperors, Princes, Mayors, and other high dignitaries, 
made a great fuss, a while ago, over the visit of the Shah 
of Persia. More recently our own Ex-President General 
Grant has received, not only from the officials, but what 
is much better, from the people in general, a magnificent 
welcome. But it is doubtful if the arrival of the Eastern 
Monarch, or a Western Ex-President, was ever viewed 
with so much interest, as has the arrival of an Indi¬ 
vidual from Africa, with no title at all, by a few men of 
science. Monarchs and cx-Presidents were after all but 
men, while one Individual from Africa was much less than 
a man, and that very fact made him ail the more interest¬ 
ing. Travelers in Africa had long ago given accounts ot 
wonderful creatures who were found there, creatures as 
large as the largest man, and with strength to do won¬ 
derful things, such as crushing a gun-barrel in their teeth, 
and carrying off the natives in their arms. Later, 
skulls and skeletons, and stuffed skins of this creature— 
known as the Gorilla, were sent first to this country, and 
later to Europe, and these only increased the desire to 
know more about the animal. It was stated by trav¬ 
elers that the ferocity of these creatures was unbounded, 
and that even when taken quite young it was impossi¬ 
ble to tame tbem. Several young gorillas were shipped 
to Europe, but they somehow died, or otherwise disap¬ 
peared before they reached port, and this was given as 
additional evirtense that the animals could not be tamed. 
An African captured a very young Gorilla, and sold it to 
a Portugese gentleman living in Africa, for a small sum. 
A Prussian Exploring Expedition happening to stop at 
the village where the Portugese lived, that gentleman 
gladly gave the young Gorilla to one of the members of 
the party, who took the animal to Europe, and finally 
sold it to the managers of the Aquarium at Berlin for 
$5,000. It then was no longer a mere animal—a young 
gorrilla, but Mr. Pongo, and under that name his fame 
extended all over the civilized world. Never was a young 
Royal Highness more carefully watched than was Pongo. 
What he did when awake, how he slept, what he had for 
breakfast, what for dinner, and what he did between 
meals were closely studied, faithfully recorded, and the in¬ 
telligence sentall overthe world. Berlin had Pongo, and 
London was Pongo-less, and this would never do; Lon¬ 
don endured this for two years, and at last sent to Berlin 
and had the young Gorilla 
brought over. Once in 
London poor Pongo had a 
hard time of it, he was 
written up in all the daily 
papers, and pictured in all 
the illustrated weeklies ; 
the scientific men came 
and they measured his 
bones and counted his 
ribs, they talked about his 
“facial angle,” and his 
“ occipital ridge.” At last 
Pongo went back to Berlin 
and—soon died. Whether 
London fog, or London 
science, was too ranch for 
Pongo, we probably shall 
never know. He went 
back to Berlin and died 
very suddenly, and all that 
is left of him is his many 
portraits, one of the best 
of which, from a London 
journal called “ Our Lit¬ 
tle Folks ” is given here. 
When this picture was ta¬ 
ken, Pongo was supposed 
to be about three-and-a- 
half years old, he was be¬ 
tween three-and-a-lialf and 
four feet high, and weigh¬ 
ed forty-three pounds. 
Though covered with hair, 
and going on all fours,Pon. 
go was looked upon as be¬ 
ing more like a human be¬ 
ing than any ape or other 
animal ever before known, 
but it only needs a look at 
his portrait, where he nat¬ 
urally uses his foot as a 
hand, to see that he is very 
far from a human being, 
even the lowest and most 
degraded of which we 
have any knowledge. He 
showed considerable intel¬ 
ligence, but not more than 
is exhibited by some dogs; 
and though he had been 
taught to sit at the table 
and eat very much what 
his keeper ate, and even to 
take his food sometimes 
with a spoon, he showed 
his natural tastes by pre¬ 
ferring to sit upon the 
floor or to swing upon a 
trapeze, which was provid¬ 
ed for him. Poor Pongo 
died before he could teach us much about his people— 
that is, the full-grown gorillas of the African forests. 
According to the accounts of travelers, they grow to be 
five-and-a-lialf feet, and some say over six feet high. The 
skeleton is in many respects more like the human skele¬ 
ton than that of any other animal; the bones of its limbs 
are wonderfully large and strong, and while its head is 
largo, that part of the skull which holds the brain is very 
small. Indeed the brain of the largest gorilla is not half 
the size of that of the lowest savages yet known. The 
gorillas are said to go in troops of four females and one 
male; the two sexes being somewhat different in color, 
the hair on the males being grayish, and that of the 
females, blackish. The gorilla is found principally in 
the western part of Africa, in the forests north and south 
of the equator. The males are exceedingly savage, and 
do not hesitate to attack a man if he comes in the way. 
They are said to come towtjjds their enemy, beating their 
breasts and roaring terribly, and to be most dangerous. 
Yet as human-like as gorillas seem in some respects, 
several of the African tribes eat its flesh, while other 
tribes will not eat the flesh of this or the chimpanzee or 
other apes, because they are so much like man. Pongo 
has proved so interesting, that no doubt other gorillas 
will be taken from their homes and taught the ways of 
civilized life, and we hope may not share Pongo’s fate. 
