The Redwood gazette., 1903-05-20
ESPECIAL CORRESPONDENCE

five years has not only made Mime
apolis and Duluth the largest pri-
mary wheat markets and milling
centers in the world but has revo-
lutionized the methods of hauling
grain. Primarily the Falls of St.
Anthony made grain market and
at the same time made Minneapolis.
The headless neck of Lake Superior
which touches Minnesota soil Great
ed another grain market and Incl
dentally made Duluth. Without
Lake Superior there wonld have
been no Duluth, and without the
Falls of St. Anthony there would
have been no Minneapolis Back of
all this, however, there has been
another essential creative force in
the oceans of fertile, wheat-produc-
ing soil tributary to both places.
The growth of Minneapolis as a
receiving point for wheat has been
phenomenal when existing condi-
tions are considered. During the
year 1880 there was received at this
terminal 1O,259, 700 bushels. Atthis
period Minnesota was almost exclu-
sively a wheat state. But little of
any other kind of grain was raised,
and stock raising and dairying on a
large scale had not been seriously
thought of. Duluth was scarcely
considered as a market, and thus
practically the whole wheat crop of
the Northwest came to Minneapolis.
Now, the conditions are vastly
different The farmers in the south
ern part of the state have found the
soil and climate there highly favor
able to diversified farming, stock
raising and dairying, and that the
returns from efforts in that direc-
tion are more certain, one year with
another, than the same efforts in
wheat raising. This condition Of
things to the southwark has cut off
prolific source of wheat shipments
to the Minneapolis market.
Again, within a few years, many
mills have been constructed through
out the Northwest which consume
IN the aggregate a vast amount of
wheat. All thus consumed is not
marketed in Minneapolis And last.
but not least, Duluth, with the ad-
yantages of her seaboard, has grown
to such proportions as a market that
her receipts are now fully two
thirds as much as those of Minneap-
oils.
But in the face of all this the
growth of Minneapolis as receiv-
ing point has kept steadily !increas-
ing. During the year 1900 her
wheat receipts were 1861, $50
bushels-a gain in twenty years of
seventy seven and a half million
! bushels. or more than seven hun
dred per cent. The record of the
mills shows about the same percent
age of gain. In 1880 the aggregate
-four product of the MINNEAPOLIS
mills was 2,031 $40 barrels, while
the present yearly output is up
wards of fifteen millions barrels.
This shows a gain Of over six hun
dred and thirty per cent.
The great quantity of grain which
has to be stored here from one crop
to another to supply the mills, to
say nothing of the amount held from
time to time for more favorable
prices, has made the question of
storage one Of the first Importance
But few years ago the total eleva-
tor capacity of Minneapolis was
only l, 900. 900 bushels. and that of
Duluth 350,0c0 bushels. Today
Minneapolis can store in her forty
two elevators about $1,000, 900,
while Duluth is able to store 81, 000,-
900 This great gain in storage
capacity represents an enormous
expenditure of money, and many
new ideas in elevator construction.
The large terminal elevators are
now tank houses, the operation of
which we're fully described in a
communication to THEGAZETTE about
a year ago.
The first complete tank elevator
constructed in Minneapolis was the
Pioneer Steel, built in 1889. The
working house (the structure
containing the elevating machinery
is of steel, and there are ten steel