The Washburn leader. [volume] (Washburn, McLean County, N.D.) 1890-1986, 1891-08-29
To Move Crops.

To Move Crops.
Minneapolis Tribune: The certainty
Of an unprecedented crop in Minnesots
and the two Dakotas is imposing tire.
mendous responsibilities upon The rail.
way companies. Ever since the grain
fields began to give certain promise OF
the greatest yield on record the com.
panies have been exerting every energy
to SO increase their carrying facilities
that serious blockades might be pre-.
vented and the vast surplus carried to
the seaboard without anything more
than ordinary delays. But the output
of the threshers is so far exceeding all
early estimates that the of
every railway corporation will be taxed
to their limit in disposing of the earth's
bounties. In nearly every case there
have been great additions to the rolling
stock and equipment of the companies,
and even where there has heen noheavy
expenditure for additional engines and
cars to handle the present crop there
has been a formidable concentration of
moving forces at the leading shipping
points. This plan of distributing cars
to the business centers or to convenient
stations on the several lines where they
can be readily controlled whenever it
becomes necessary to utilize them seems
to have been generally adopted on the
principal freight roads.
With a view to ascertaining the ex-
tent of the preparations made to handle
the new crop, the headquarters of the
several roads were visited yesterday,
and the result shows that they have not
been caught mapping. The Great
Northern Railway, conceded to be M
of the best equipped roads in the coun-
try for handling farm products, is not
depending upon the liberal resources
already under its control. General Su-
pe%rintendent Case and Mr.. Mohler,
traffic manager, reported that ten large
engines and 800 cars have been added to
the equipment in anticipation of the
fall demand. -Four hundred of the new
cars are of the largest capacity. The
storage o of its elevators has also
been heavily increased this season. Ac.
cording to the assurances given by the
gentlemen named, the extra power
and facilities will be sufficient to
lblock any market within the
Great Northern territory on any given
day. The most serious trouble ex-
pccted is in securing facilities for quick
handling at terminal points. They say
that prompter inspection is impera-
lively demanded at Minneapolis. The
state allows one day for inspection here,
but more rapid work and an increase of
the inspectors working forces will be
required to prevent frequent and seri.
GUS blockades. Warehouses should not
be made out of cars. if embarrassing de.
lays are to be avoided. and the shifting
OF wheat from one elevator to another
or demands for re.inspection for the
purpose of delay should be scrupulously
omitted from the business procedures
of dealers. The Great Northern has en-
deavored to provide adequate means for
handling its share of the crop in the
most.expeditious manner, andhop pes that
its effort will be seconded by the com
mission and elevator men.
The Northern Pacibc 90. was found
equally alive to the necessity of prompt
spd generous measures to insure the
! isfactory movement of the vast &C
emulation in the fields. During the
year. or since the last crop, there have
been added to its equipment nc less
than 1,40O box cars and fifty engines.
OF course. this addition was not all for
the purpose of moving agricultural pro
ducts of 1891, but it will be utilized for
that purpose, and is now held as q re-
serve. The opinion wal expressed at
the general offices that this extra equip
ment will be sufficient to handle the
business of the line. provided there are
not too many calls for cars by the farm
ers. Heretofore there has been more
delay from this cause, than at the ele.
vators, and an effort will be made to
prevent q repetition of former expert
ih1nts. Provision has been made
for handling so per cent more
wheat in Minnesota and North
Dakota than in any previous year.
Inquiry at the headquarters of the
Chicago, st. Paul. Minneapolis & Omaha
90. ELECTED the information that 500
new cars and fourteen locomotives had
been ordered, and will be on the ground
and prepared for the journey of the
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