The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1871-07-08

THE CIRCULATION OF THE DISPATCH
Is LARGER THAN THE COMBINED CIR
CULATIcN OF ALL THE OTHER DAILY
NEWSPAPERS OF THE CITY.
r:cnmopd's Future.
ALLrGnANY COUNTY, July l, 1871

wo,ld its uniform low grndcs enabling it
to take this trade from all competitors.
When it reaches the Atlantic tide, where IS
this immense tonnage to be deposited! In
Richmond, or at the companies town, on
the York or the James? That Is inc great
question now with Richmond.
Chicago has hid more rapid growth
than any city we have any knowledge OF:
Where It stands was, within tho memory OF
persons still living, wilderness. 1t now
numbers 800, 900 inbabitauts. 1t IS the
largest grain market in the world; also,
the largest meat packing (pork and beef).
as well as the largest lumber market, in the
world. These three perennial commercial
streams have made Chicago a great city.
Dry up these, and she would wither, and
soon become like ancient Tyre and Car
thagc. In the near future she is to have
rival in the coming city OF Huntington.
Situated on deep water, at the western ter
minus of the Chesapeake and Ohio road, in
close proximity to a most accessible coal
field, where it is almost ms abundant as
clsy, and rs easily mined on the eastern
end of the corn. producing section of the
West, large business, ut an early day, in
beef and pork packing, must be done here.
The southern portions OF Ohio, Indiana,
Illinois, and the whole of Kentucky, are
the great meat. producing sections of this
continent, and are us near TO Huntington
rs to Chicago-a large portion much nearer.
For many years Cincinnati, located in the
heart Of the meat-producing region, was
the pork. packing city OF the West. When
the railroad system was developed in those
States, Chicago being at point where,
when packed, it could be shipped east ut
smaller cost by water than by rail from
Cincinnati, this enterprising city soon
became formidable rival to Cincinnati,
and its meat-packing has continued to in
crease until it has outstripped Cincinnati,
and Is now the largest pork and beef pack
ing city In the West.
The hogs and cattle, when moving to-
ward Huntington, are travelling toward
their market, and are five hundred miles
nearer their destination than at Chicago.
To this point salt from the wells of the
| Ohio and Kanawha is in close proximity,
| and can be brought ut a mere nominal cost
| in bulk, saving the expense of the barrel.
Close by are extensive forests of hard wood
| suitable for barrels, into which the pork
and beef are packed and picked.
Huntington being altogether rs accessible
! as Chicago, with 800 miles the advantage in
proximity to the seaooard, the immense
saving in the cost of salt and barrels must
make Huntington 4 very extensive meat
market. This immense tonnage must pass
over the Chesapeake and Ohio road.
The meat producing West is also the ce-
real region OF this fertile country, which
can also reach Huntington with as much
facility as Chicago, and at as little cost.
| The wheat Of this productive section is the
great lever in connection with her water
power that is to elevate Richmond into o
city. Has she, then, enterprise to seize
this winter wheat product, to manufacture
it into flour, and through this lever make
| Richmond the city nature intended her to
be1
Winter wheat. until within few years,
was the only wheat grown IN the United
StrteS. Experience has shown that This
wheat is not adapted to the exposed prai-
rics of the northwest. They now grow in
that entire region a wheat which is
seeded in the spring, and called spring
wheat. 1t is much inferior in quality, but
much more productive than winter wheat
is in the older States, seventeen to twenty
bushels to the acre being an ordinary crop.
Mr.. Dalrymple, who cultivates farm be-
low st. Paul, makes q crop Of forty to Itty
thousand bushels a year. He cultivates
wheat alone, and from its cultivation has
made a fortune. The spring wheat region
is rapidly changing Its outlet from Chicago
to Duluth. (which is located at the western
end Of Lake Superior. 1t is 10 further
Chicago to New York. All the spring
wheat that can reach Duluth at
less cost than Chicago will of course take
that route it Is now going in that dircc-
ton from Winona, 150 miles below st.
Paul. The twenty million crop Of Mime
sofa, which heretofore has passed through
Chicago, will hereafter seek its outlet at
Duluth. The railroad from st. Paul to
j; uluth was opened August 1870, or less
than year. The whole trade of that re-
gion has been changed from Chicago to
Duluth, proving conclusirely the moment
the Chesapeake and Ohio is opened and
furnishes a cheaper outlet for the crop of
winter wheat than the Que through Chi
cago or Baltimore, it will Immediately seek
that outlet. ...
North of the United States, lying imme-
diatcly on its northwe stern border, Eng
land is the owner OF the largest and richest
spring-wheat territory in the world. 1t
embraces an area sufficient to make six
States us large as Virginia. Here wheat is
grown 10 to so bushels to the acre, equal in
quantity and quality to that grown on the
Baltic, where Europe for years has obtain
cd her bread. 1t is an interesting fact con-
nected with internal Improvement, that
since tho opening Of the SueZ canal the
wheat from the Baltic has changed It's di-
rection, and is now going to the Asiatic
east, to supply that Starving population
with bread. The supply thus cut of from
Europe Is filled up IRON the granaries of
the United States. The Northern Pacific
railway, now under construction, will pass
near the southern border OF this immense
Sprins-wheat region; lateral roads will
soon develop it. When subdued by the
plough it will produce more spring wheat
than all the northwestern States. The crop
of spring wheat in 1859 in the two young
States Of Minnesota and Wisconsin had
reached tho enormous amount of forty
three millions of bushels. The entire crop
of winter wheat received ut Richmond for
the year ending 25th June, 1871, was only
one million twenty-nine thousand bushels.
This explains the great prosperity of the
Northwest, and the rapid advance that
Chicago has made.
1t is conceded that water power Is much
superior to steam for the conversion OF
wheat into -four. Nature, aware of this,
has made ample provision for the grinding
of this great cereal, by establishing two i'm
mense waterfalls exactly at the proper
points to prepare flour to make bread for
q hungry world. The one, the falls OF the
James. at Richmond, on the Atlantic side,
and near the centre of the great winter
wheat belt of the United States, furnishing
water-power sufficient TO grind al the WIN
ter wheat that can be produced and at
point admirably situated for distribution
after its conversion into -four. @s.@ a
The other great waterfall which nature
has provided for the spring wheat is located
at the falls Of the st. Louis river, near Du-
luth, where this river falls into Lake Supe-
rior at the eastern side of the spring. wheat
region, at the cheap water outlet through
Lake Superior. The 81. Louis river is as