Prescott journal. [volume] (Prescott, Wis.) 1861-1871, 1862-07-23
Anthony TroIIop ON the Grain
Trade of the West.

tODer 1891. L went down 70 the gFanofies
and climbed up into the elevators, and
saw the wheat running in rivers from one
vessel into another, and from the railroad
vans up into the huge bins on the top
stories of the warehouses-for these riv-
ers of food run up bill as easily as they
do down. / saw the corn measured by
the forty bxshel measure with as much
ease as we can measure an ounce of
cheese, and with greater rapidity. l as
certained that the work went on week
day and Sunday; night and day, incess-
antly--rivers of wheat and maize ever
running. I saw the men bathed in corn
as they distributed it in its flow. / saw
bins by the score laden with wheat, in
each of which bins there was space for
comfortable residence-I breathed the
-four, | drank the -four, and felt myself to
be enveloped in world of breadstuff.-
And then I believed and understood, and
brought it home to myself as fact, that
here in the corn lands of Michigan, and
amidst the bluffs of Wisconsin, and on the
high lands of Minnesota, and the prairies
of Illinois, had God prepared the food
for the increasing millions of the eastern
world, as also for the coming millions of
the western.
| do not find many minds constituted
like my own, and therefore / venture TO
publish the above figures. l believe
them TO be true in the main, and
they will show, if credited that the in
crease during the last four years has gone
on with fabulous rapidity. For myself,
| own that those figures would have done
nothing unless | had visited the spot N.Y.
self. A man cannot, perhaps, count up
the results of such work by quick
glance of bis eye, nor communicate with
precision to another the conviction which
his own short experience has made so
strong within himself-but to himself
seeing is believing. To me it was so at
Chicago and Buffalo. l began TO know
what it was for country to overflow with
milk and honey, to burst with its own
and be smothered by its own riches
From st. Paul down the Mississippi by
the shores of Wisconsin and Iowa-by
La Crosse, from which one railway runs
eastward-by Prairie du Chen the term
mus of a secondly Dunleith, Fulton,
and Rock Island, from whence three
other lines run eastward, all the wonderful
State of Illinois, the farmers glory
along the ports Of the great lakes
through Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, and
further Pennsylvania, up to Buffalo, the
great gate Of the Western Ceres, the loud
cry was this: "How shall we rid our
selves of our corn and wheat?" The
result has been the passage of 60,00O,0 900
bushels of breadstuffs through the gate
in one year! Let those who are suscep-
tible of statistics, ponder that.
THE ELEVATORS.
Here is Mr.. Trollope's idea of Buffalo
elevators:
An elevator is as ugly monster as
has been yet produced. In uncouthness
of form it outdoes those obsolete old
brutes who used to roam about the semi
aqueous world, and live n most unoon,-
Portable life with their great hungering
stomachs and huge unsatisfied maws.-
The elevator itself Consists of big NOV
able trunk-movable as that of an ele-
plant, but not pliable, less graceful even
than an elephants. This is attached to
huge granery or barn; but in order to
give altitude within the barn for the ne
cessary moving up and down of the trunk
seeing that it cannot be curled grace
fully to its purposes as the elephants is
curled-there is an awkward box erected
on the roof of the barn, giving some
twenty feet of additional heig ht, up into
which the elevators can be thrust. 1t
will be understood then, this big nova
bic trunk, the head of which, when it is
at rest, is thrust up into the box on the
roof, is made to slant down in an OBJ
lique direction from the building to the
river. For the elevator is an amphibious
institution and flourishes only on the
banks of navigable waters. When its
head is ensconced within its box, and the
beast Of prey is thus nearly hidden with
in the building, the unsuspicious vessel
is brought up within reach of the crea-
lures trunk, and down it comes, like
musquito's proboscis through the deck in
at the open aperture Of the hold, and
so into the very bowels and vitaIs of the
ship. When there, it goes to work upon
its food with a greediness and ayidity that
is disgusting to a beholder of taste and i'm
agination.
4 r
should have stated that all this wheat
which passes through Buffalo comes
loose in bulk. Nothing is known of sacks
or bags. To any spectator at Buffalo
this becomes Immediately matter of
course-but this should be explained as
we in England are not accustomed to
see wheat travelling in this open, ungnard.
ed and plebian manner. Wheat with us
is aristocratic, and travels only in its pri-
vate carriage.-NorM american.