Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1866-12-24
THE BREADsrURFs OF THE WEST.

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We copy the following interesting
sketch from an address, delivered at
Brattleboro', Vermont, by John A. An
drew:
Thirty years ago-twenty years after
the power-loom was introduced into
New England-Ohio alone of all the
Northwestern States was NJ exporter OF
grain. The first shipment Of grain on
the Lakes, of which there is any record,
was a consignment Of three thousand
bushels, shipped at Grand Haven in
Michigan for the port of Buffalo, in the
year 1886; and the first shipment ever
made in Chicago was only t~wenty-eight
years a~go-covering just seventy-eignt
bushels of wheat. Chicago to-day is
the first gr~ain-port Of the Union. In
1850, the eight food-producing States OF
the West and the Northwest, yielded
about three hundred million bushels OF
cereals, which became nearly six hun
dred and fifty millions, only ten years
later; thus presenting the result OF q
population Of nine millions OF people,
exceeding in quantity the cereal product
of Great Britain and Ireland, with their
population of t%weuty-nine millions, and
equalling that of France, with a popu-
lation seven millions larger. Within
ten years from to-day the same Com
monwealths will raise and gather at
least one thousand million bushels OF
cereal food, Of which not more than
one-ffth will be wanted for the diet OF
their own MISUNDERSTANDING eight
hundred millions, for the seed Of future
crops, for the support and fattening OF
animals, and for expectation to other
| States and countries, whether in the
form of grain, or flour, or concentrated
in beef, pork, oil, and lard, and in the
forms of distillation.
If YOU would move this mass Of crnde
grain by rail, over a single track, to a
| single station, you would need more
than "a, 900 locomotives, hauling each a
train of s 800 bushels of burden, and it
would require the arrival of n train
oftener than once in every five minutes,
both by night and by day, from the be-
| ginning to the end Of a working year.
| Nor is this all. For l have estimated
only on eight existing States. have
left unconsidered the vast areas yet to
be reduced to agricultural possession,
as well as the mineral wealth Of our
| northwestern regions, hereafter to be-
| come of colossal proportions, alike in
bulk and in value. This treasure, the
| development Of which is q part of the
| work of the present generation, defies
| human calculation. Nor, indeed, are
the figures of arithmetic able to express
its value. 1t involves consequences the
| most transcendent. II involves the flu
ture of our happiness, and renown, as n
great and united people. Its considera-
ton belongs to the domain Of patriotic
craftsmanship, where theoretic political
economy is only a single element in the
problem.
When, in 1925, the opening of the
Erie Canal married the waters of the
Hudson with the waters of the Lakes,
the genius Of prescience Of Clinton re-
lieved the agriculture of Ohio, then
struggling for a market, and opened mp
the vision of a new future to the West.
Already the Western Region Of our own
day is oppressed by the weight of
its own riches. Its freight burdens and
overtasks the railways, crowd the cars
and steamers, and chokes up the canals
and locks. And now, again, the time
approaches for the advent Of q new
highway for the future millions, and
the coming products of this illimitable
region, commensurate with its own
grandeur, and the necessities Of the
American farmer.