The patron of husbandry. (Columbus, Miss.) 1875-1883, 1881-05-07
From LefePs Mechanical News
The MfSsisSfDDi Iats,os

a"a III the commerce of the
MISSISSIPPI Basin-indeed, the
wheels already move with increased
speed. Within eighteen months
changes have occurred which startle
| .nose interested in toImer lines oil
transportation to the seaboard Il
is indeed sufficient to astonish shin,
Pers by rail when they see one small
toWboat and six attached barges
bearing at one trip down the Mis-.
slsslPpl grain enough 10 load 600
cars-twenty-fv five heavy trims:
when such lows arrive with in,
creasing frequency at New Orleans,
and great ocean. steamers drawing
twenty five feet of water 90 on.
daily without an hours detention
on the bar where vessels drawing
out sixteen feet once stuck in tough
mud tor weeks or months. What
ever the merits of the controversy
as to the Jetties and improvement
OF the Mississippi may be, two facts
are obvious: Where in 1875 but a
few thousand bushels of grain came
this way for Europe, now the
amount is swelled to many millions;
and where the exit of any sized
vessals was matter of painful uncer-
tainty, the daily departure of great
iron steamships of from 1000 to <
900 tons burthen is now as much a
certainty as the departure of daily
train, or of any ocean vessel from
the Atlantic ports.
Unless this change be illusory
and temporary, vast economic and
political consequences must result.
The Changers war on railroads, the
| movements against consolidation
and monopoly, the extraordinary
legislative movement to control
freight rates eastward, and the still
more extraordinary-not to say I'M
acknowledgements that government
shall own and control the railroads:
all these bid fair to become obsolete
issues even before they have well
taken shape, as river transportation,
free from possibility of monopoly,
will be the great conservator of
rates. Already important conse-
quences appear in the Northeast.
Canada is fastening to enlarge the
Welland Canal and reduce rates;
trunk lines are again offering low
freights from the Mississippi to the
Atlantic, and in New York there is
an earnest demand for the abolition
of tolls on the Erie Canal, and free
navigation thereof at the expense of
the State. SO eminent a thinker as
Horatio Seymour comes forward to
encourage his fellow citizens with
the claim that though freight may
reach New Orleans much more
cheaply than New York, yet the
latter has advantages for export and
as distributing center which will
more than shift the balance. But
the export trade, all trade indeed,
will obey the mechanical law in
following the line of least resistance,
and it is evident that grain can be
shipped from St. Louis to New Or
leans for less than half the actual
cost of shipment from Chicago to
New York.
BY the former water route grain
must be transferred at Chicago to
lake vessels, thence to the Erie Ca
nal, thence to the Hudson River,
and thence to steamers at New
4ork; but by the Mississippi grain
is transferred to the barge at St.
Louis, and from barge to ocean
steamer by floating elevators at
New Orleans. Already grain is
shipped from St. Louis and trans
ferred to ocean steamers in nine
days, and experienced operators
promise that it will soon be done in
seven; and at present the volume of
such traffic is only limited by the
capacity of elevators at New Or
leans, and the slowness with which
ocean vessels change to new route.
Capital, ever sensitive to such chan
ges, is diverted to the new channel
and fastening to increase facilities.
Jay Gould already has considerable
investment in the barges. 1t is no
longer question of natural advan
tages trammelled by lack of appre-
citation and capital: it is simply a
question of cost of transportation
under favorable circumstances, and
Of growth in the future limited only
by the grain production Of the
Northwest, and the chances of Sc
curing return from Europe.
Cargoes leave ST., Louis billed
through to Liverpool, and imports
in like manner return to St. Louis
as distributing center, and while
this trade is still in its infancy grain
is shipped from that city to New
Orleans for one-half the cost to
New York, and to Liverpool for
several cents less than by any At
lantic port. Before attempting any
exclamation of this extraordinary
change-itself but an earnest of
much greater changes to come-a
few facts and figures are in order,
to set its importance automatically
before the eye.
In the last three months of 1877
only twelve ocean vessels cleared
from this port, carrying but I,47o,-
8o7 bushels of grain; and in the
same months of 1873 the grain ex
ports was but I,4oS,2o7 bushels
mere 1.-THE of our national total. In