The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1875-10-06
THE GRAIN TRADE.
Decrease in the Receipts at
This Port in One Year.
URGENT NECESSITY FOR ELEVATORS.
Capitalists Resolved to Bring Back the Trade
to New York.


The utility OF grain elevators longer matter or
doubt Not only their utility, but their necessity has
been settled by the experience OF other centres OF trade
in grain To large quantities of cereals seeking
market mechanical means indispensable II receiving
and shipping ports would maintain their position in
competition with those that have rcsorted to ma
chincry operated by for dischargng and loading
cargoes in bulk Elevators have long boon the stand,
ard mode OF handling grain Chicago and Buffalo, and
more recently in Philadelphia Boston and Baltimore
and they so cheaper and facilitate the process that
those cities could never afford to give them up. Ana
yet, notwithstanding The papabe benefits arising from
the use OF this machinery wherever II has been
sorted TO- New York has been reluctant In adopt
ing upon scale commensurate with tho
requirements OF tho vast accumulation Of grain which
centres here that she has suffered seriously for the
want of tho facilities which it affords The cause OF
this indifference to the obvious advantages OF elevators
IL Is needless to inquire into Is patent that
the grain receiving and gram shipping metropolis of
tho country is without elevator al this late day
equal the demands of the trade IL we except the fire.
proof in Brooklyn which is necessarily confined in
its operations to grain received by canal boats and
bargcs 1t must not be forgotten, however that tho
late Jamos Fisk, Jr, had before the troubles tho
Eric Company, determined to bulda Greproof grain
cause plans and specifications to be made for such
structure.
COMMODORE vANpERrrLr's PROPOSED EaHvAToR.
The falling on in tho grain trade of New York, which
is matter Of record, and the transfer 10 Baltimore,
Philadelphia and Boston Of much Of what used to
here for shipment seward have determined Commo
dorc Vanderbilt to retrieve lost ground by the
ton of an elevator granary the cast bank Of tho
Hudson River at or sixty-lrst street, with a
and for receiving and dschargng from three hundred
and fifty to four hundred thousand bushels per day,
while IN process Of transit through port to homo
foreign markets His ability to put up such
will be universally admitted and the fact that he
has already broken ground by png for the foundation
must be taken earnest that its erection is
tainty.
II is OF no little Importance TO the OF tho
scheme that in taking this matter in hand he has the
hearty cooperation OF his son, Mr. w. H. Vanderbilt,
and Of the administrations of his railroads, whose
officers said to favor very strongly the construction
or an elevator capable OF meeting tho demands of tho
grain trade OF the Erie Canal and of the New York Gen.
trail with its feeders in the West by land and water.
ADVANTAGES ELEVATOR
The primary object of an elevator granary is to lf
cargoes of grain in bulk by mechanical apparatus,
driven by steam power, out of vessels up into
receiving chamber, high enough to allow 1t to be
spouted by its own momentum, after being weighed,
into separate and appropriate BINS for storage, until il
roady to be rcshipped, when it is lifted up by the
from the storing bins into the receiving
bins again, weighed n second time and spouted into
vessels cars for shipment bagged for home
sumption. The time consumed in these processes is
now reduced minimum by the perfection OF the
lifting apparatus and the speed with which II is pro-
poled and the expense thereof il SO SLIGHT as to be
almost nothing in the cost of bread to the consumer
Where large quantities of cereals moved such APP
planes M elevators are as necessary as vessels or cars
70 transport the same
FIREPRooF ELEVATORS.
With this fact no longer called in question: there
mains only one othcr important point and vital ono,
to be settled and that shall elevators DO made fro
proof notS Hitherto the wide difference in cost bo-
tween the roproof and the wooden elevator has opor
acl TO discourage the erection Of tho former but that
obstacle Is now almost entirely overcome, for such
have been the improvements In the mode and man
ner OF building them and IN inc cnarac-
tor of tho materials used in construction that
thor cost can be maae not TO exceed rom fifteen to
twenty five per cent moro than that Of wooden oncs
outlay in the FIRST instance, that is more than COM
pcnsated for by the saving in a lcw years OF
the difference in insurance, which has been
effected reproof structures at from half of
per cent to ono per cent while that wooden struc
lures will average from three TO six per cent Apart
from this significant fact which ought TO and will no
cessary lead 10 the general adoption ofrcproof struc
place Of wooden ones, however VOL protected
the outside whilo the interior is like finder box,
the Of absolute security which the improbabity
of destruction by rc under any circumstances
ally begets in the public mind is an element of more
value deciding the problem OF first cost than
tho saving in insurance for the grain once consumed
be replaced by any amount Of gold put against
the risk assumed by tho insurer of wooden structures
II is an absolute destruction of so much food. And
again, the lower the insurance Of freproof buildings
the less the expense to the nsuring grain merchant
and less the cost of bread to the consumer for he
1t is who pays, in the last instance the extra
upon storing grain.
Another grain warehouse and elevator Is being con-
sructod the bukhead at the foot OF Thirty fourth
street. North River, on peculiar plan The building
has water frontage of ninety eight feet Is sxtyfour
feet deep. and rests pile foundation Resting IN
the second story, with heavy framed hopper bottoms
arc forty-1ve hexagon shaped tanks bins fifty feet
deep, covering the entire area OF the building They
built Of spruce plank, two inches thick and four
inches wide, laid the fiat and firmly spiked
together, the outsides Of the outer tanks forming
the four sides Of the building for fifty feet above the
second floor, and also forming the supports for tho
roof which Is to be surmounted by tower twenty feet
square The whole structure will be 10 feet from the
foundation to the top OF tho tower and with the exce
ton Of the lower story will be covered with slate Tho
tanks 10 be used for storing grain and will be filled
by spouts branching from receiving hopper in tho
tower where the grain Is carried by long belt ele
at the rate Of 1000 bushels hour, tho tanks
having capacity OF 1000 bushels
SIGNIFICANT
A comparative table Of receipts of grain in New York
FOR the first nino months Of the years 1874 and 1875
shows falling OF Of Is, ~ $40 bushels Reports from
Baltimore show that she has more than held her own
for tho time in 1874 and 1875, while Philadelphia
exhibits increase of half million bushels or more