Wisconsin state agricultural society . 
26 
Thus, I found that the Michigan Central, instead of a com¬ 
pound average of only 1.57-100, actually charges its customers 
2 41-100, or nearly double; that the St. Paul, instead of a com¬ 
pound average of only 3 48-100, goes as high as 5 61-100, or near¬ 
ly double. The next question to be settled was, is this the proper 
way to test the matter ? It looks fair—at most it looks, on its 
face, that it must be lower than the actual charges, since there are 
only three classes out of the twelve lower than the compound aver¬ 
age, while, on examination, these three classes do not comprise a 
very large portion of the general freightage of any of the roads. 
But lest I should do injustice to the roads, by neglecting to state 
some occult fact, not patent to novitiates, I began a series of geo¬ 
metrical calculations, and before I got through I gave the whole 
series of “ geometrical progression,” a pretty severe chase, and they 
gave me a colossal task, such as I never encountered before. My fig¬ 
ures were multiplied by the yard of nonpareil fineness. No pil¬ 
grim to the Holy Land or archaeologist ever studied with more as¬ 
siduity to find the key to the Egyptian hieroglyphics, than did I 
to find the key to the fine art of keeping railway receipt accounts. 
I added up—I added down, I multiplied to the right and to the 
left, 1 divided and subtracted. In short, for months I was in 
a maze of waltzing figures, of “ addition ” and “ division,” if not 
“silence,” and to make sure, I commenced on one branch of one 
of the roads to determine the actual amount received on that 
branch, by reducing all Nos. of barrels, bushels, 1,000 feet, pieces, 
etc., etc., to car loads, from car loads to hundreds, from hundreds 
to pounds, and from pounds to tons. I then took the published 
rates per 100 lbs., the rates per bbl., the rate per 100 feet, the rate 
per piece and per cord, and reduced them all to rate per 100 lbs., 
and grains to rate per bushel, and all, in each and every class, the 
rate per ton per mile, and the whole to the number of tons moved 
one mile. All this for fifty-two stations on that branch, with the 
hundreds of manipulations, not only took a long while, but in¬ 
volved so much mathematical accuracy, that Ldared not even trust 
my own penchant for figures, and I employed an accomplished 
mathematician to assist me, and after months of hard labor, often 
trespassing on the we sma’ hours, I found that the general com¬ 
pound average amounted to a fraction over 5 61-100c per ton per 
