Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1894-03-02
Corn ON Its Ttnve!s.

ihe Icof'a heraiG gives sketch
o! the travels of corn in this:
Illinois is The great corn state. and
Peoria is the center of its most pro-
HE belt. Peoria is great grain
market and especially for corn.
Vast quantities OF The Golden grain
are shipped into this city for general
distribution and loaded into its man.
moth elevators by the hundreds of
thousands of bushels. A erea, deal
of corn j. shipped from Peoria. but a
vast quantity is used ut home.
There l. more corn used in Peoria
than in any three cities in the union.
even though those cities he New
York, Philadelphia and Chicago.
The reason i obvious. Peoria is
not on!y the center OF the great dis
tiiling interests, but here are located
two OF the greatest sugar houses in
the cosntry. Down the capac;ous
maws of the great di>tiileries are
poured every day 2p,0J1 bushels OF
corn. The sugar houses use from
5,oOJ to 1890 bushels more each
day in the year. To supply this
constant demand the product of
1000 acres of rich corn lands are
daily shipped into Peoria for home
consumption. Aside from these
there are fully 5000 bushels used
daily for other purposes. So
that il Is safe to estimate that fully
9.0O0.000 bushels o; corn are used
in this city annually for manufacture
ing and other purposes. The greater
part OF this is manufactured into
spirits. IL is wonderful to consider
the changes made by a bnshel OF
corn in its transition from the own
er'> crib 10 the glass OF the consumer.
These changes are various and far
reaching. They are other than finan-
cial. But consider simply the mere
element of valuc. Corn was sold re-
Gently for So cents per bushel. II
came all the way from Nebraska.
perhaps. where il brought but rs
cents. In transit two dealers re-
ccived n commission OF one cent each.
The railroad company received eight
cents Tor freight and other charges.
The distiller paid 81 cents. He took
and converted i; into four and half
gallons OF spirits. and fed one of his
steers on the refuse. The di,tiller
sold the spirits To "a local dealer for
1912. of which Uncle sam received
si.O5 A. tax on the spirits. leaving a
balance 10 the distiller of az cents
after he had paid 50 cents for his
corn.
The spirits. a.tcr being well
watered and compounded. are sold at
a profit by the compounder and rec
titef to tho dealer. who sells IL out
at - cents drink. The four-and
one-half gallons have swellcd to nine.
and before il gets through it swells
many head. and also The revenue
OF the city where is lines NAV be
cast. So that. i'm its travels from
the Nebraska crib 20 the Chicago sa-
loon. that bushcl Of corn has in-
creased In value from % cents TO
many dollars. aud with its constant
running mates has furnished en-
pl"y ment nj least 80 50 men or more.
and has contributed to both the ma
tional and municipal revenues. Such
magic there is Ia the juice of the
golden corn. OF the juice of that
one bushcl Of cYn n; least 100 per-
sons have imbibcN. from the pious
old lady who took it for Ia grippe. TO
the jolly old topper who took it for
1.-THE tight"
To resume. that bushcl of corn
was thus scattered on the highways
of business and pleasure: Farmer.
20 cents; railroads. s cents; commits
sion men, , cents; distiilcrs. az cenis:
feeder. 10 cents; Uncle Sam. Si.OJ:
compounder and rec;iiier. % cents:
retail dealer. go; city 50 The con-
sumner got whatever was left in the
spirits each according to his strength
or weakness.