Fayette County herald. [volume] (Washington [Washington Court House], Fayette County, O. [Ohio]) 1860-1???, 1867-10-10
Magnitude of the Western Grain
mrada

Magnitude of the Western Grain
Trade.
In attempting to provide means
of transportation ih future years
for the enormous grain trade of
the West, it is needful for those
who manage cur railroads and ca
nails to reflect upon the rapidity of
its growth. The Buffalo CONNER
cial Advertiser says: The unparal-
leled development of the West in
population and production will in
the ensuing thirty years give trade
between the West and New York
e lual to upwards of $8,000,000, 900
to go through the canals if they
shall be made sufficiently capacious
for its accommodation, There will
be this amount of trade aside from
that by the railways. A canal boat
Of the size now navigating the Erie
Canal, two hundred and fifty tons
burthen, will carry as much as one
railway train of 25 cars. From sew
enty to eighty boats of this class
can be laden with grain and dis
patched eastward in each and every
twenty-four hours. If the canals
should be ignored, and the entire
business now done upon them
should be transferred to the rail
roads, it would require forty fr:ight
trains to be dispatched daily by
the Central, and forty by the Erie,
in addition to the business they are
now doing.
Twenty. five years ago the grain
trade Of this city was from two to
three million bushels annually, 1t
now averages from fifty to sixty
million bushels annually, in addi-
to the flour trade, The receipts at
this port of grain in one day last
year were upward of three million
bushels. The receipts here on the
18th of this month were upward of
seven hundred thousand bushels
beside upward of a million slaves,
and six million feet Of lumber
Estimating the result Of the future
by the past, the time is not far dis
tant when the grain trade at this
point will be a hundred million
bushels annually. A movement of
sixty million bushels Of grain by
rail would require 6,857 trains Of
twenty-five cars each, equal to sew
entecn trains daily, by each Of the
two roads during the entire navi-
CATION season Of two hundred days
and yet the grain trade is scarcely
one-half of the tonnage to be
moved.
A glance at the grain trade Of
Chicago, given daily in all the jour
nails of that city, showing the re-
ceipts by each railway and by ca
nal, indicates that the combined
movement of grain by all the rail
roads centcring there is but little
more than that of the Illinois Ca
nal. The Times ignores the great
lakes and the lines Of steamers, en-
bracing some fifty large class YES
sells, which ply between this and
upper lake ports in connection with
the railroads and canal and give in
their place a continuous railroad
from Chicago to New York. These
lines of steamers give the New
York railroads the power of sue
cessful competition with other rail
routes outside this State and it is
through them that trade is centered
in New York. Ignore water trans
portation for rail transportation
Why, the ocean freight from San
Francisco to New York on wheat,
seventeen thousand miles, is about
the same as the rail freight from
Chicago to New York, eight hur-
dred miles Ohio Farmer.