The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1897-09-12
WONDERS Of WHEAT
Moving Half a Million Bush
els to Market.
SOME FACTS AND FIGURES
THE PRESENT CROP WILL BE
WORTH $3OO,OOO,OOO.
MONEY, MUSCLE AND MACHINERY
An Account of the Handling of the Yellow Grain
From the Reaping Untl II is Loaded
Into the BIZ Vessels sassa.s
aEE For Export. san@
SOME FACTS AND FIGURES
MONEY, MUSCLE AND MACHINERY


" HNG for export. eaznx
Written for The Evening Starr
1t is estimated that the wheat crop
of the United States for the present year
will be almost 100000. 900 bushels, and
that 2OO0OO,O 600 bushels of this will be
demanded by Europe. One New York
bank shipped west over million dollars
the other day to be used in moving
wheat. and similar shipments will prob
ably occur from day TO day throughout
the season. 1t will all comes back a
i'm by and by with Il generous fruit
age of interest.
1t is "A generally accepted fact that q
good wheat crop and good shines go to-
gether. burt few persons even of those
most directly affected understand just
how it is that the two facts are related
or what an enormous power for good is
in the great flood of yeslow grain that Is
sweeping eastward oyer the country. y
few figures will tell the story more
eloauently than any words can.
An ordinary freight car Will hold 1000
bushels of wheat. ! 1t will require 800
1000 cars TO move Sthe present crop; cou-
pied together in a$single train they would
Francisco \ $tieet of / 800 ordinary
grain-carrying $ycssels will be hardly
enough to transport 10 Europe the pat
of the crop that will be exported. If
the Erie capal gets only it's usual shar"
of the gradn-carrying business. 10000
canal boats will be filled with wheat.
enough to| make tow half as long rs
the canal itself.
II WEI put 'the figures in the form of
dollars and cents the array is even more
striking Half million bushels of wheat
ut 60 cents per bushelEthe average price
that the farmer is receiving
$500 100000. Three hundred millions to
he expended in lifting mortga ges. pay
ing labor buying food and clothing and
agricultural implements is itself a pow
erful spur to prosperity. But this Is not
all. To convey the grain from the fields
10 the Atlantic seaboard costs about 20
cents per blshel On the portion of
the crop which must be moved half a.
cross the continent this Will mean tens
of millions of dollars for the railways
and elevators. lake vessels and cana
boat for the commission man and the
laborer Europe must pay well for al
SHt lahtS. anu lUit liItdHS Nl't-opf,p'b
or more coming across the Atlantic to
pay for American wheat. And not TO
carry the enumeration to wcarisome
length. it will suffice merely 10 refer to
the share of this golden harvest which
will be reaped by the miller the man
ufacturer of machinery and others more
or less directly affected.
This rich bounty. so great and SC
Il &c. %
expenditure of human effort. The way
in which this food Of yellow grain is
moved. controlled and directed is highly
interesting as an object lesson in mo-
dern industrial development. 1t is in
teresting, too to note that if the present
crop is the largest of recent years the
facilities for handling it are also the
most perfect This year, 1897. has seen
the largest harvesting machine. the big
gest grair-carrying boats and the most
gigantic elevator ever built.
CUTS 4 FIFTY FOOT SWATH.
Out in Redlands, Cal, they have been
cutting grain this season with Il harvest
er that is truly n mammoth of its kind.
1t has a cutting bar over fifty feet in
width, cuts the grain, threshes it, ties it
up in sacks and turns out hundreds of
tlitSc SdChS per nOul. III SoiHS 1t Itil-
this machine reaps nearly ten acres, and
does more work than o. grandsire, with
his cradle scythc and fail, could i'll
whole season.
This is the starting point Of the wheat
on its journey marketward. The sacks
that are thrown out by the great har-
vesters are gathered UP in wagons and
driven off to the nearest railway station,
where they are dumped into grain cars
or small storage warehouses. A grain
car is an ordinary box car fitted with
an inside partition and an extra door of
planking that can be let down, making
the car perfectly tight. The cars from
the various branch lines are hurried off
as soon as loaded to one Of theAlreat
transfer stations, Of which Kansas City
and Duluth are perhaps the largest.
There it is turned over to the big trunk
lines or lake vessels for the next stage
Of the journey.
The extraordinary demand for wheat
in the eastern markets has led to an
unusual state of affairs in Kansas CITY
and other western shipping points during
the past few weeks. The grain has been
required for shipment as fast as it came
in, so that it has not been allowed to
lie in the elevators at all. 1t has been
found, however, that the easiest way TO
transfer it is to run it through the ele-
vators. Accordingly the cars from local
points are run in on one side of the
elevator, and cars, on in Duluth the
boats, for the east on the other. One leg
Of the telescope chute with its endless
belt OF cups is let down on the receiv-
ing side, and the grain is hoisted I'D to
the lofty roof of the elevator, and rush
es down on the opposite side withou.
pausing moment in the transfer. The
elevator men have thus been able still