Had the
gentleman told me that England did not suit him because we had
nothing but vegetables, I should have been less surprised.
From Dubuque, on the western shore of the river, we passed over to
Dunleath, in Illinois, and went on from thence by railway to Dixon.
I was induced to visit this not very flourishing town by a desire
to see the rolling prairie of Illinois, and to learn by eyesight
something of the crops of corn or Indian maize which are produced
upon the land. Had that gentleman told me that we knew nothing of
producing corn in England, he would have been nearer the mark; for
of corn, in the profusion in which it is grown here, we do not know
much. Better land than the prairies of Illinois for cereal crops
the world's surface probably cannot show. And here there has been
no necessity for the long previous labor of banishing the forest.
Enormous prairies stretch across the State, into which the plow can
be put at once. The earth is rich with the vegetation of thousands
of years, and the farmer's return is given to him without delay.
The land bursts with its own produce, and the plenty is such that
it creates wasteful carelessness in the gathering of the crop. It
is not worth a man's while to handle less than large quantities.
Up in Minnesota I had been grieved by the loose manner in which
wheat was treated. I have seen bags of it upset and left upon the
ground. The labor of collecting it was more than it was worth.
There wheat is the chief crop, and as the lands become cleared and
cultivation spreads itself, the amount coming down the Mississippi
will be increased almost to infinity. The price of wheat in Europe
will soon depend, not upon the value of the wheat in the country
which grows it, but on the power and cheapness of the modes which
may exist for transporting it. I have not been able to obtain the
exact prices with reference to the carriage of wheat from St. Paul
(the capital of Minnesota) to Liverpool, but I have done so as
regards Indian-corn from the State of Illinois. The following
statement will show what proportion the value of the article at the
place of its growth bears to the cost of the carriage; and it shows
also how enormous an effect on the price of corn in England would
follow any serious decrease in the cost of carriage: -
A bushel of Indian-corn at Bloomington, in Illinois,
cost, in October, 1861 10 cents.
Freight to Chicago 10 "
Storage 2 "
Freight from Chicago to Buffalo 22 "
Elevating, and canal freight to New York 19 "
Transfer in New York and insurance 3 "
Ocean freight 23 "
- - - - -
Cost of a bushel of Indian-corn at Liverpool 89 cents.
Thus corn which in Liverpool costs 3s. 10d. has been sold by the
farmer who produced it for 5d.! It is probable that no great
reduction can be expected in the cost of ocean transit; but it will
be seen by the above figures that out of the Liverpool price of 3s.
10d., or 89 cents, considerably more than half is paid for carriage
across the United States.
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