Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1905-09-07
TAKES MILLION CARS
THE ENORMOUS CROP OF 1905
WILL REQUIRE MILES
OF ROLLING STOCK.
String Sufficient to Carry Crop Would
Span the Globe-An Immense Array
of Fieures-ereat Preparations by
the Railroads.

Measuring the prosperity of the
American farmer this year in units of
freight cars, railroad statisticians
have figured out that the grain traffic
for this years crop will aggregate l.
100000 car loads. If all this grain
could be marketed simultaneously and
hauled in a single solid train of freight
car, the train would be 1881 miles
long, exclusive of the locomotives that
would be necessary to remove it. Di-
viding this huge train into smaller
ones of forty cars each, there would be
required $1,000 locomotives or 355
miles Of draft machinery Adding this
355 miles to the ,931 miles of cars,
there is total of 42,2S6 miles. To
hold the engines and cars it would re-
quire nearly every foot of four tracks
extending from New York to San
Francisco. The necessary single
track would measure half the circum-
ference of the globe.
they do not begin to tell the vastness
of the wealth which the American
farmer has taken from his soil in corn,
oats, wheat, barley and rye in the
year 1905. The railroad mems esti-
mates are confined to the grain which
will be moved to market on steam
roads. Probably not over one-third Of
the grain produced will ever see a
freight car. The other two-thirds will
be consumed by live stock on the
farms. To hold the entire corn crop
alone would call for train and
engines 21,000 miles in length, the
equivalent of six golden zones reach
ing from He'll Gate to the Golden Gate.
In this story of agricultural treasure
lies the reason for the unparalleled
preparations of the western railroads
for traffic this season. If the farmer
were not already well supplied with
ready money and were forced to rush
his grain to market, as he has done in
past years, it is reasonable to suppose
the railroads would be utterly
swamped with grain traffic.
Railroad statisticians estimate the
wheat and oats crop of Minnesota and
the Dakotas at 326,0O0,O0O bushels, of
which 190,000,000 bushels will be mar
keted on the steam railroads. They
place the total yield Of corn at 1885,
100000 bushels, and expect that 1885,
100000 bushels will be hauled on
Il
Granting that these figures are correct
there will be $4,000 car loads of wheat
and oats from the three states men
toned, or 1925 trains Of forty cars
each. The estimate for corn is 796, 900
car loads or $4,000 train loads of
forty cars each. On the top of this
then probably will be 1900 car loads
of flaxseed to be hauled from the
northwest.
To haul the 100000 cars estimated
for all kinds of grain, there would be
movement of hundred trains of
forty cars each for every day of the
year.
Railroad Notes.
j. o. Brinkeroff, of Kansas City,
Mo-, superintendent of the Kansas
division Of the Union Pacific, passed
through the city last night in his
private car No. 05, which was attached
to Milwaukee passenger train No. 8.
4 The National Railway Commissions
special train passed through this city
for the east last night over the Bur
lington. The special followed Burling-
! ton No 2.
i To provide Accommodations from east
ern tourists who are now in the west
Burlington passenger train No. 2 will
be run in two sections tonight. The
second section will follow the regular
I train.
| DR.. S. L. Hauck, medical examiner
of the Burlington, is in Des Moines on
business today.