Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1869-08-19
6sneral 8ntelIistnee.
THE GRAIN BUSINESS oPNEMY YORK

TIE GRAIN BUSINESS OF NEX YORK
Where the Grain ~ Stored-Extento of
the stcrehouses.The EieyatOrs-
Capital Employed I'm Handling the
Products of the West. 40
The New York Times has an interesting
article upon the grain business of that city,
from which we extract the following para
graphs in relation to the storehouses, which
are mostly in Brooklyn:
The estimated valne of wharves, land
and buildings devoted to storage in Brook
lyn is about ten million dollars. The grain
storehouses are mostly built in the neigh
borhood of
THE ATLANTIC DOCKS.
This famous basin is situated in South
Brooklyn, adjoining the ferry from Hamil-
ton avenue to Whitehall street. and covers
an area Of forty acres. 1t has upward of
three miles of wharf accommodation, and
within its warehouse-walled sides vessels
he as quietly as would any small boat
moored in mill-pond. There have been
at the Atlantic Docks, at one time. one
hundred and thirty sea-going vessels. and
from one-tenth to one-eiehth of all the
vessels in the port of New York locate
there. The grain warehouses are built on
the piers which ineloee the basin, so that
boats may come directly to the wharves,
and be there unloaded of their grain car
goes by means of steam elevators, or ships
may lay alongside the piers and receive
their cargoes direct from the store lofts
During the receiving season, say from Oct.
10th to Dec. 10th. canal boats may be seen
arriving here by the hundred. daily each
master anxious to have his ssel discharged
and to return for another cargo. On the
closing of canal navigation, as many as six
hundred loaded boats have found a home
IN the basin. the larger portion to lie up
with their eargoes until they could be sold
during the winter.
AFLoATING TOWN.
These boats, when congregated together
present a curious and interesting feature
of one phase of metropolitan life. Gen.
orally. the Captain of each boat lives on
board, with his family, and the hands en-
ployed to assist in navigating the craft board
with him. The cabins are neatly fitted
up for this purpose, and although the ac-
commOdatiOns are not as ample as those
provided for residence on land, each boat
affords n comfortable home for its inmates.
The women members Of the families visit
and enjoy each others society with appar-
emily much pleasure as is observable
among ladies' who move in the higher cir
cles of city life: and the children romp
over the decks with rs much hilarity as dis
tinguishes the more favored youngsters
whose homes are on Brooklyn Heights
Almost every family has one member who
can play the violin, and the sounds of
merry music that emanate from the cabins
after nightfall tell plainly the content that
peculiarly characterizes the '.jolly boat
man." The fleet, as ii is termed when
the boats are collected in the basin, is, in
reality, small floating town.
GRAIN STORAGE.
1t was estimated that, three years ago,
there were held, ahoat, at the Atlantic
Docks, II, 500, 900 bushels of grain-wheat
corn, oats and barley-worth S25, 900, 000
There are here. also, large accommodations
for storing West India goods-supar.
molasses, &c.-Tobin's stores, on the front
pier, covering about two ceres. The stores
of General Pinto, devoted also to this
class of merchandise, are next in capacity
There is ample room also for the storage of
salt, guano ana bulky goods, the estab-
Eshments of MessIs. Woodruff 4 Robin
son, VIM. p. Barber and others being de-
voted to this purpose. The Onondaga Salt
Company also have depot here.
The greater portion of the docks proper
ty. however, is devoted to grain storage,
anil the handling and transferring of the
cereals form the bulk of the business done
here. The aggregate capacity Of the docks
warehouses is about Is, ZOO, 900 bushels
Among the prominent firms engaged in
this trade are Messrs. c. B. Lockwood &
Co, proprietors of the Masters Stores
known as Elevator a, whose establish
ment covers an area of about two acres is
four stories in height, and will hold 2, ,OOO-
600 bushels of grain.
The elevator of this institution will take
mp from n vessel 5000 bushels of any kind
of grain per hour, clean, weigh, convey
and deposit it in its appointed bin, 800 feet
from the point whence it started. The ca
pacity of this single warehouse is equal to
that of a field Of eight acres, supposing the
grain to be piled thereon to the height of
ten feet, or to a line of loaded canal-boats
of the ordinary tonnage five miles long.
This same firm has additional stores with
an aggregate capacity of about halfas much
more as the main establishment. Messrs.
r.. H. Lambier x Go. have two elevators,
with warehouse capacity equal to Lockwood
Il Co.'S Elevator A." Messrs Shaw 4
Co. s Excelsior Stores on the south pier
run from No. 20 to No 90, and will accom-
modate about 1,5O0, 900 bushels. One
huge elevator does the transferring for this
establishment, and there are provided here
machines for drying. shutting, cleansing,
and every facility for preserving grain.
There are, also. many smaller stores, the
general operation of which is upon the
same principle as that employed in the
aforementioned establishments.
THE TRANSPORTATION OF GRAIN
to New York was, for many years. monopo
lied by the Erie Canal; but lately the
railroads are beginning to freight it hither,
and we announced only the other day the
abandonment of this part of the canal
transportation, the competition bet~een
the railroads having reduced freights so
much that the boats cannot afford to carry
IT. A great bulk Is, however, still bro't by
water. 1t is estimated that the value of
the boats engaged in freighting grain to
this city through the canal is about $1S,-
600, COO. The daily arrival of these, known
in the trade as "a tow" averages eighty
boats, and eacL tow is worth. at rough
estimate, about half million dollars. The
bulk of grain afloat, seeking port, frequent-
ly amounts to five million bushels gG one
time. Large stocks of grain are Gccumu-
lated in the warehouses during the latter
part of the Fall season for use during the
Winter months, when it is removed as oc-
casion demands.
THE OLD HANDLING SYSTEM
Formerly the whole system of loading
and unloading the vessels was done by
gangs of laborers. The process was q slow
one, and entailed vast expense on the
owners of cargoes. About twenty years
ago the steam elevator took the place OF
these laborers or grain shovelers, and,
while it materially lessened the cost of
transferring, performed about twice the
amount of labor that was formerly done by
hand. Nnle or ten men employed In feed
ing and finding an elevator can now ac-
eompiish in one day as much work as
gang OF one hundred men could before the
present system was adopted. In Liverpool
the old manual labor process is still ad-
I~-.I 40