Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1897-09-04

~ =" Ill moving wheat, and
similar p ments
VIII probably occur from day to day
throughout the season. 1t will all come
p@ck again by and by with a generous
fruitage of interest
1t is generally accepted fact that A
good wheat crop and good times GO to-
gether. bur 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 yellow grain that is sveepino east
ward over the country. A few figures will
tell the story more eloquently than any
words can
An ordinary freight car will hold 1000
bushels of wheat. 1t will require 100000
ears to move the present crop; coupled to-
Eether IN single train they would reach
from New York almost to San Francisco
a heet OF l,bD ordinary grain-carrying YES
sis Will he hardly enough to transport to
Europe the part OF the crop that will be
exported II the Erie canal gets only its
usual share of the grain-c arrying business.
IocDh canal boats will be filed with wheat
enough 10 make tow half as long as the
canal itself.
In Dollars and Cents
IL We put the figures in the form of dol
lars and cents the array is even more strik-
ing. Half million bushels of whea; at CD
cents per bushei-the average price that the
farmer is receiving - means s3u0pO Oty,
Three hundred millions to be expended in
hitting mortgages, paying labor buying
1ood ana clothing and agricultural nipple
incnts is itself i powerful spur to pros
perity. But this is not ALL To convey the
grain from the fields 10 the Atlantic sea-
board costs about ~ cents per busheI ON
the portion OF the crop which must be
ba -ir,s =
mean tens OF millions OF dollars for the.
railways and elevators, lake vessels and
canal boats, for the commission man and
the Iabcrer. Europe must pay well for all
she takes, and that means SiJ0,OUo.UOo or
more coming across the Atlantic to paw for
American wheat. And not to carry the
enumeration to wearisome length. IL will
Sufflce merely 10 refer to the share of this
golden harvest which will be reaped hy the
miller, the manufacturer of machinery and
others more or less directly affected.
This rich bounty, so great and so wide
spread, i not won without a vast expend-
iture of human effort. The way in which
this food of yellow grain is moved con-
trolled and directed is highly interesting as
an object lesson in modern industrial de-
velopment- 1t is interesting, too. to note
that if the present crop is the largest of
recent years the facilities for handling II
are also the most perfect. This year 1897
has seen the largest harvesting mac hine
the biggest Srain-C arrying boats and the
most gigantic elevator ever built
Cuts Fifty-Foot Syvath
Out in Redlands. Cal, they have been cut
ting grain this season with a harvester
that is truly a mammoth OF it's kind IL
has cutting bar over fifty feet in width
cuts the grain, threshes it. ties it UP in
sacks and turns out hundreds of these
sacks per hour. In going a mile this ma
chine reaps nearly ten acres, and does
arlr
cradle scythe and fail. could in "a 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 ard
driven of TO the nearest railway station
where they are dumped into grain cars
OF small storage warehouses; grain car
l. an ordinary box fltted with an in
side partition and an extra door of plank
ing that 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 the great transfer sta
tions. of which Kansas City and Duluth
are perhaps the largest. There it is turned
over TO the big trunk lines or lake vessels
Tor the next stage of the journey
The extraordinary demand for wheat
in the eastern markets has led to an un-
usual ssate of affairs in Kansas City and
otheF western shipping points during the
past Jew weeks. The grain has been re-
quired for shipment as fast as il came in
50 that ii has net been allowed to lie in
the elevators at all. 1t has been found
however. that the easiest way to transfer
II Is 20 run il through the elevators. Ac-
cCrdinSly the cars from local points are
run III on one side of the elevator and
cars, or in Duluth the boats for the east
on th+ other one leg of the telescope
chute with its endless belt of cups Is lei
down on the receiving side and the grain
Is hois;ed up to the lofty roof of the ele-
Nitor. and rushes down on the opposite
side without paus ng a moment in the Trans
able still to collect their toll of oDe-haf
cent par bushei for transferring the grain
Two Great Wheat Routes,
There are two great wheat routes from
the ives. to the Atlantic seaboard. One
Is water route via the great lakes and
the Erie canal. and the other is a land
route via the four great grain-carryiny
trunk lines The former is the cheaper
and the latter is the more expeditions.
and the competition between the two pre-
vents the prices CT transportation from
rising TO an exorbitant height The larger
part of the grain moved between Duluth
ton water and land route in big steel
and thence by rail to New York. Tine lake
rate from Duluth to Buffalo is 2h cents
per bushel during the busy season. and as
the ne yer grain ships have q carrying