24 WISCONSIN STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY . 
Thus, a ton of wheat by rail from the Mississippi to New York, rates $32 20 
The same by water. 47 60 
Difference per ton in favor of water.$15 40 
Home value per bushel, 75 miles inland, by water, 1,700 miles. $1 36 
Same by rail, 1,200 miles. 97 
Difference per bushel of wheat in favor of water route. 30 
Difference per bushel of corn, same. 41 T 3 5 
Now, if we multiply the surplus wheat and corn I have called 
attention to, as belonging to the five states named, by the amount 
that might be saved per bushel by water over railway transporta¬ 
tion, it will be seen that it amounts, in a single year, to the enor¬ 
mous sum of $105,309,404.60, to say nothing of the millions of 
tons of other inward and outward freights. It would be safe to 
say that aside from merchandise and some other “ fast freights,” 
which must always go by rail, the saving to the people of the five 
states named could not be less than $175,000,000 annually. This 
sum would more than complete the improvement of the Fox and 
Wisconsin river, widen, deepen, and double-lock the Frie canal, 
and build the Niagara ship canal, besides. 
This question of railway tariffs is the must subtle branch of 
the fine art business it has been my fortune to meet with. In 
order to post myself on the subject I sent for all the way and 
through tariff rates of all the principal railroads in the west, to¬ 
gether with their annual reports. Several of the roads gener¬ 
ously responded; others, for causes, to their agents best known, 
did not. But I began to investigate such as were sent me, and 
the more I investigated the more I was in the fog, like the man: 
who got insured, the more he read his “ policy,” the more he be¬ 
came convinced he was not insured at all! I had plenty of sta¬ 
tistics from statisticians and the best scientists on the subject in 
the country, that ranged the rates from 14 mills to 20 mills per 
ton per mile, as an average. I took up the tariff schedule of the 
Michigan Central and the Milwaukee and St. Paul Companies. I 
set down the classifications, prices per 100 pounds, and rates per 
ton per mile in each class, lor the longest distance, so as to get 
the lowest rates, and then I examined their respective reports for 
the number of tons moved one mile in one year, and their com¬ 
pound average of rate per ton per mile for the longest distance for 
