Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1870-09-01
The Grain Trade.


an importance that until recently was
scarcely expected by the most sanguine.
Previous to the war it was only occasion
ally that an effort was made to do ANYTHING
more than merely local business in grain,
and after the opening of the Nashville and
Chattanooga Railroad, the dependence of
our dealers to fill orders from the South
was mainly on the shipments of Western
corn to this point, and then forward from
here. But this order of things, since the
war, has been almost entirely changed The
close of the war found our State in a
wrecked condition her population thinned;
her heretofore system of labor destroyed;
fencing, farming utensils and stock,
nearly all gone, and for the first two years
we could do but little else than repair
damages and make meat and bread for
home use. Yet, we had some supplies of
corn to ship in the spring of 1867. For
the years 1867-S, we had fine corn crops,
and were able to ship thousands to New
York, the Southern coast cities of Norfolk,
Wilmington, Charleston, Savannah and
New Orleans, besides considerable guam
titles to Cairo, Louisville, Cincin
natl, Pittsburgh, etc, Last year we
had a serious drought in all Mid
die Tennessee, which cut our corn
crop short by perhaps one half, and al
though we shipped considerable quantities
Of Tennessee product, yet we had to look
to outside sources for supplies to fill
great proportion of our orders. The pres
ent years crop is by odds the heaviest ever
raised in Tennessee, and we confidently
look for an unusually heavy business the
coming season. We expect that this year
we will not only be able to supply the de-
mands of Eastern Alabama. interior Geor-
gia and South Carolina, but that we will be
able, the railroads assisting US with reason
able tariff rates of freight, to drive the
Western corn out of the coast markets of
Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina and
North Carolina, and supply those markets
with whatever they may want for home
consumption or export.
The experience of the last few years has
proven that we have belt of country, en-
bracing Tennessee and Southern Kentucky,
which is superior, as a corn raising con-
try, to any other in the world. While we
cannot grow perhaps quite as much per
acre as is grown in the valley of the Wa
bash and other places West; yet our yield
from good land, properly cultivated, is
large, and the quality of the
grain is decidedly superior. North of the
Ohio river the seasons are frequently SO
short that the corn, although not positively
frosted, has such an amount of sap locked
up in it upon the approach of cold weather,
and which remains dormant until the warm
weather of spring or Southern climate
strikes it, when it softens and moulds,
while our Tennessee product, as a rule has
ample time, from length of season, to fully
matu re and effectually dry out before ship
ping, and will then keep in almost any
climate. Corn raised much south of Ten
nessee is too soft, light, chaffy and subject
to weevil
What has been said above in regard to
corn is quite applicable to our wheat crops
of the last few years; and Tennessee has
exported large quantities of wheat and
flour, both North and South, and this year
has the largest crop she has ever grown;
but unfortunately a large percentage of the
crop is damaged by reason of the excessively
wet weather following Immediately after
harvest and before our farmers had time to
thresh their grain. Still there is a great
surplus of sound wheat, and our shipments
of both the grain and -four will be large.
During the last season, considerable
quantities Of Tennessee white wheat were
shipped to Chicago and other western
points, out of which to make their finest
fancy flour, it having been clearly estab-
lished that their own products would not
make -four that could compete with ours.
The present years crop of oats, hay, bar
ley, bacon, corn, potatoes, peaches, apples,
etc, are unusually large, and altogether
Tennessee, as an agricultural State, is in
most furnishing condition. With her
farms better supplied with all the improved
implements of husbandry than they ever
were before, and with continued increase
of energy, industry and deep blowing, she
is bound to stand in the front rank.
The Flour and Meal Trade.
1t is estimated that the sales of -four
during the year has reached 32O, 900 bbls.,
in round figures to $1,7OO, 900.
Of this amount about S0,0 bbls. are
made within the limits of the city. The
fourishing condition of the trade is in a
great measure due to the enterprise of our
home millers, who received last year from
the sales of flour upwards of $3.50, 900.
The average capacity of these mills is 500
bbls of flour every twenty-four hours. In
addition to their receipts from -four, they
dispose of something like 2,4OO tons of
bran, which, at an average of $50 per ton,
yields revenue of $4,000. They also
sell some 24O tons of shipstuff, which nets
81, 200; and they expend for labor and
fuel $4,000, barrels, paper and cloth
sacks $4,000, drayage $4,000, all of
which disbursements are circulated at
home. In addition to the mandatory of
-four, the corn meal turned out last year
to 200, 900 bushels. In oonnec
ton with this department of trude, it is
not out of place here to to mention that
there are two Bag Manufactures in the
city which turn out 800, 600 bags, assorted,
and give employment to large
number of hands These factories, how
ever, do not supply the demand, for we
learn that upwards of 1900, 900 bags of all
kinds are imported here annually.
Leather, Hides, Etc.
The leather trade proper is represented
by eight firms, as follows: NJ Burns & Co,
J Lumsden & Co, Hamilton & Cunning
ham, ,hn Morrow & Son, Walsh & Nc
Govern, G A Litterer, A Steinau and
Locke & Co. The aggregate annual sales
IF the above houses do not fall much below
, million dollars M Burns n Co John