Lincoln County leader. [volume] (Toledo, Lincoln County, Or.) 1893-1987, 1900-09-21

DTdSS kelue, 10 make sure CndI 1t cOInet
strictly within the lawful speciflca
tions. He is an absolutely impartial
judge. He records only the number and
initials of the car. He never knows who
Is the shipper. 1 heard of one deputy
who inspected his own brothers wheat
| for six months without knowing whose
| 1t was.
"The official Inspector Is accompanied
| by number of active young men of
the sampling bureau, which represents
the great elevator and commission
houses. They climb into the car, thrust
a brass plunger deep into the wheat,
| bring up sample here and there, fill
a bag, label 1t with the number and
initials Of the car, and pass on with tho
inspector. 1t Is swift work. Of neces-
| sity, for the samples must be In at the
| opening of the Chamber of Commerce,
where, set out in little tin pans, each
bearing the grade tag Of the State in.
| spector. they form the basis OF tho
| days trading"
At present the four great wheat ele-
vator centers are Minneapolis, Duluth.
Chicago and Buffalo. In the last-named
city some of the elevators have a stor-
age capacity of from 100000 to $780,
600 bushels, some of them built of steel,
operated by electricity from Niagara
Falls, protected from fire by pneu-
matte water systems and having com.
plete machinery for cleaning, drying
and securing the wheat, when that Is
necessary.
| The elevators are provided with So
! called ''legs," long spouts, containing
moving bucket-belts, which are lowered
into the hold of a grain-laden vessel.
Here the wheat is shoveled by grimy
workmen, toiling In cloud of dust,
into the pathway of huge steam shov-
els, which, in turn. draw the yellow
load-it looks from above like so much
sand-to the ends Of the "legs," where
the buckets seize 1t and carry 1t up
wards into the elevator, and distribute
1t among the various bins. A cargo Of
10000 bushels can thus be unloaded
in few hours, while legs on the other
side Of the elevator will reload 1t into
cars, six at time in five minutes, or In
an hour fill canal boat
The cost Of all these operations has
been reduced to ridiculously low fig
ure-the entire work of unloading,
storing and reloading rarely adding
more than one cent to the price of a
bushel of wheat.
Carriage to Seaboard.
The transportation of wheat from the
West to the seaboard is business of
almost inconceivable magnitude. 1t
means millions of dollars year to
railroad and ship owners, and during
the rush season of the late fall, so great
is the demand for transportation that
shippers find difficulty in obtaining
enough cars and vessels.
Most of the wheat of the Northwest
now goes by way of the lakes, through
the Sault Ste. Marie canal, to Buffalo,
where 1t is shipped by rail or canal to
New York, Boston, Baltimore and Phil.
adelphla
Few appreciate the magnitude of the
lake shipping interests, which have
been developed to a considerable extent
by the transportation Of wheat. Du-
luth-Superior Is the second port In the
United States in point of tonnage, be-
ing exceeded only by New York. The
Sault Ste. Marie Canal passes two and
a half times as much tonnage in eight
months as the Suez Canal passes in
full year. Lake shipping furnishes,
moreover, the cheapest transportation
In the world, the rate being apprOxi-
mately three-quarters of a mill per ton
per mile.
Some of the greater lake vessels car
ry enormous cargoes-up to 250,000
bushels of wheat in single load. With
out comparisons 1t is difficult to form
any conception of the immensity Of u
cargo of this size. In Duluth, 700 BUSH
els are estimated as carload. At that
rate, a cargo Of 252,OO0 bushels, which
has actually been transported from Du-
luth to Buffalo, would fill $50 cars or
nine trains of forty cars each. At fif-
teen bushels to the acre, this cargo
would represent the yield of 16,8O0
acres of land. In many localities u
farm of 160 acres Is looked upon as a
large one. 1t would take 105 such farms
to raise enough wheat to furnish this
one cargo.
Until recently New York had the
lions share OF the wheat export busl-
ness; but latterly Boston, Baltimore,
Philadelphia, New Orleans, Galveston
and Montreal have been large exporters.
For the fiscal vaar 1900 Naw Ynrlr tooIr
only 2S.S per cent, while New Orleans
and Galveston had 1G9 per cent. each,
Boston ~, Baltimore 0.4, and Philadel-
phia 6 per cent, the remainder being
scattered between Montreal, Portland
Norfolk and Newport News.
| 10 nIIofn q orn In from Mr RnIrn,. tho