The weekly echo. [volume] (Lake Charles, Parish of Calcasieu, La.) 1868-1876, 1868-05-16
From the N o. Crescent, 9thsI
New Orleans and tine Grain
Trade.


The concession of landing and
wharfage privileges and facilities
to the elevator company, BY the
two boards of aldermen, was equal
lY just and judicious. The mem
bers of the council need never lear
that they would not be sustained
By public opinion in extending the
spirit Of this proceeding into q
general policy which answers to
the commercial wants and looks to
the commercial progress of the
city. Ihes only serious infacility
formerly existing in connection
with the shipment Of Western
grain via New Orleans, was the
slow, expensive and Wasteful
method by which the transfer Of
cargoes was effected. lie was an
anomaly as.v onninous as it was
strange, an anachronism as melan-
choly as it was grotesque. The
handling of grain in sacks, and
sack By sack, was an interesting
sight no doubt to the artist and
the antiquarian, recalling, as it did, |
q primitive custom in vivid form
but no enlightened commeroialist,
solicitous Of the prosperity Of |
New Orleans, could have beheld it |
with complacency or patience. "a
city cannot be at once ancient and
picturesque, and modern and pros
porous New Orleans simply pur-
sues her destiny in the latter char
acter when she concludes to dis
place the piece of antiquity in
question with a modern improve
inent ia the shape Of the grain
elevator system,
What is lost by the absence Of
elevators is only moderately stated
By Prof, Warehouse, Of St. Louis,
in carefully prepared paper,
where he says Wheat sacks
nov cost from seventy to eighty
cents apiece or, II hired, two and
q half cents per bushel for each
shipment. The waste Of grain by
carriage in sacks, the extra labor,
the transfer to the shore, the dam
age, the cost Of tarpaulins, and the
injury 10 sacks, amount to sixteen
cents per bushel." This, accord \
ing to the same writer, is one
fourth more than the freight on
grain from Cairo to New Orleans,
on on grain from New Orleans to
New York; and three-ffths as ,
much as these two freights put to- !
gether.
The same writer, after setting {
forth the disadvantages of trans i
porting grain by the Northern {
lakes or by eastern railways, re-
fers in these words to a hacEneyed :
and fallacious objection to the :
route \
TT is sometimes alleged that the heat 9
IN the Gulf Of Mexico IS too great for : :
the safe transport of grain By the
Southern route. Corn is much more e
liable to be damaged by atmospheric 7
influences than wheat and -four made
from spring wheat is far more suseepti- 8
ble of injury from humidity than the
grain from which it is manufactured. y
Yet the present trade Of New Orleans in 9
corn and spring wheat -four is immense.
Besides, the movement OF Western ce-
reals is made in the cooler months AL
most an our shipments Of grain are Z
made from September to juno SO that,
even if the midsummer heat Of the q
gulf was al objection To the Southern 3
route, the difficulty would he obyiated /
py The season Of transportation The !
Lact, too, chat large quantities ef Vest :
aTn flour are now exported without I'M 3
Iury TYP the trans equatorial countries Of L
south America must not be ignored, s
Mhent rs oarliea nnhaImed from SAn 8