The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1880-08-12


has become of less account because the rail
road has made coal for the greater por
ton of the Eastern and Middle States q
cheaper fuel. That our maize and whea
crops have passed to the West indicates, tc
Mr.. Atkinson's mind, progress rather thar
decay. Though we have in the East no work.
ers OF thousands of acres who make corr
and wheat by machinery. there are more
thrifty, prosperous farmers who own and
cultivate moderate quantities of land in the
Middle States and New England than in the
Western States: the reason being that the
more dense population of the towns and
cities of the East engage in commerce and
manufacturing and the machanic arts affords
a quicker market for a variety of products
that cannot be moved over long distances,
but represent in the domestic system as
great proportion as the consumption of
bread.
The application of machinery TO agricul-
ture in the West 1.-THE binder has superseded
the last element of manual labor) the small
cost of producing meat and the agency of
the railroad in eliminating distance are the
secret of this great change. A barrel of
flour and barrel of pork or its equivalent,
are said to be the annual food requirement
of an adult in the Eastern States: and these
can now be conveyed 1000 miles by rail for a
sum equivalent to days wages of an ordi-
nary laborer.
Mr.. Atkinson makes a careful review of
the subject of land in the West, the meth
ods of agriculture by the application of ma
chinery &c, and shows by carefully gath
cred data that wheat can be produced profit
ably for fifty cents per bushel; and that it is
not improbable that as we make progress in
developement less cost may be reached.
Next comes the matter of transportation.
In 1860 the cost of transportation for ton
of merchandise from Chicago to the sea-
board was $24: in 1870, it was So: and grain
and meat have been carried at times as low
as $500 per ton of 2000 pounds: in fact, the
actual cost of railroad transportation has
been reduced to less than one cent per ton
per mile. These figures apply from Chicago
east: west of that point rates are higher; but
the work of progress is busy there. In 1870.
$3.50 miles of railroad were added to our sys-
tenn: the increase for the present year is es-
timated at 5000 miles; making our total
number of miles of railroad in the United
States January l, 1881, 95, 5,591. Can there be
any doubt that cheapness of carriage is not
temporary but permanent? May not the
same terms of production and transporta-
ton be applied to the vast territory west of
Chicago, where wheat is now manufactured
in some fields where each single furrow is
said to take day to run without turning?
The. ever-increasing tide of emigration will
answer this question speedily.
'Such having been the changes that have
been worked in the East" Mr.. Atkinson
continues, Sin enabling us to spare our
and apply it to occupations which give us
more comfort, more wealth, more prosperity
since railroads can be profitably worked at
less than cent per ton per mile on the
bulky products of corn and wheat, it may
be asked what is to be the permanent effect
of the steamship in enlarging the area of
cheap transportation on the English produc-
ton of corn and meat?" The article goes
ON to compare the cost of American wheat
in the English market with the home
ton of land rent and other artificial and
natural restrictions upon agriculture in that
country. and strikes a balance largely in
favor of the American product, even at the
present rate of ocean transportation. Such
being the conditions it seems very certain
that we shall continue to supply Great Brit
ain and Western Europe with increasing
quantities of bread and meat. 1t may be
affected swhen good crops return to Europe
and by varying crops at home, but with a
sound American financial policy the new
order will become permanent, and gradually
the changed condition that now exists be-
tween the Eastern and Western States will
extend to England and western Europe
Can any land subject to rent and artificial
restrictions, compete with unlimited areas
at the low average cost of our American land
in the West and ratio of transportation of a
cent ton a mile by rail, when the steam
ship continues the transportation at a less
and less charge as improvements continue
to be made? Must not English farming be
influenced and submit itself to the new or
der of things? We may now be witnessing,
not the decadence of agriculture in Great
Britain, but the very beginning of its true
progress. American energy has already
demonstrated American ability to furnish
bread and meat to England. We have
moved 150,0O0,0O0 bushels of grain 5000
miles in single season to feed the suffer
ing millions of Europe and prevent almost
famine among nations.