APPENDIX No. 15. ANSWERS TO INQUIRIES IN RELATION TO THE COMMERCE OF MINNE SOTA, AND THE COMMERCIAL MOVEMENTS TO AND FROM THAT STATE BY RIVER, BY LAKE, AND BY RAIL, BY MR. C. F. SOLBERG, OF SAINT PAUL, MINN. 1876. Question 1. A statement as to the quantity and value of each of the principal products of Minnesota during the year 1874; also, so far as can be stated, the percentage of each general class of commodities exported from the State. (See-blank A.) In the preparation of this table, please to take the average value of the various commodities in Minnesota. Answer. Accompanying Table A gives the information that it has been possible to gather on the subjects named. The only public documents containing statistics relating to the same are the reports of the State commissioner of statistics, showing the quantity of each product raised in the State, acreage in each county, and population; the reports of the auditor of the State showing the number of live animals of each class and their assessed value; the reports of the surveyors-general of logs and lumber, showing logs cut, and partly logs exported, and lumber manufactured, and the reports of the railroad commissioner showing rail-shipments by stations. Many of the tables in the railroad commissioners' reports were, upon examination, found to be so inaccurate and seemingly edited with such a lack of care that no reliance could be placed on any of them; hence no use has been made of them in the compilation of this table. Special statements of shipments by rail have been obtained by the compiler for the purpose, regarding flour and wheat from all the roads, regarding other products and lumber from some of the roads, and estimates based on other information made for the remaining roads. The Chamber of Commerce of Saint Paul have for some years collected no statistics of importance. The same may be said of the Minneapolis Board of Trade; and in Winona, where the "Republican" newspaper published a report annually while the Winona and Saint Paul Railway was managed from that city, nothing has been published since the beginning of 1874, when the management of the Winona road was transferred to the general offices of the Chicago and Northwestern Railway, in Chi cago. Thus the only public reports relating to manufactures and commerce at my disposal were the partial statements of the surveyors-general of logs and lumber, and the labor involved in obtaining figures for an export statement for this table, as well as for grain and flour exports in 1875, has been very great. The agricultural product-quantities in this table are from the Commissioner of Statistics' report, and may be accepted as quite correct, the agricultural statistics having been gathered and compiled with great care. Market reports from various points have been consulted in estimating the value in Minnesota. The number of each class of live animals is from the State auditor's report, and that officer has been consulted as to the difference between the real and assessed value. The log statement is from the surveyors-general's reports, adding for logs cut on the line of the Lake Superior and Mississippi Railroad, not included in their statements. The quantity of manufactured lumber has been obtained from lumbermen, and is comparatively accurate. In the Mississippi lumber-district, the largest of the two, 1,000 feet, log-measure, yield 10 per cent. more of manufactured lumber; 1,000 feet logs make 8,000 shingles. These facts and a knowledge of the log-stock, logs exported, and logs left at end of season, are sufficient to test the accuracy of a statement of lumber manufactured. For the Mississippi district the totals of lumber-statements exceed by about 10,000,000 feet the quantity of lumber obtainable (at the rate of 1,000 feet lumber per 1,000 feet logs) from the logs shown to have been saved; for the Saint Croix district the log and lumber statements correspond, the discrepancy thus being only 10,000,000 feet for the two districts. Estimates had to be made for logs sawed at Red Wing and Winona, which, if slightly. over or under the actual quantity, will not materially affect the total for the State The logs exported were all from the Saint Croix district, and, of course, by river. No accurate statements of manufactured-lumber shipments could be obtained from lumbermen, and as they alone could tell how much was shipped by river, an estimate was made, as follows: M feet. Carried by railroads into the State, (for most of the roads a known quantity). 132, 471 Of this, carried into Iowa... Consumed in Saint Paul, Minneapolis, and in river towns below Total consumed in the State. Balance assumed to have been exported Total manufactured . 30,000 102, 471 70,000 5,000 177,471 162, 335 339, 806 The amount consumed in the cities above named is an estimate based on information from lumbermen. No account is here taken of the products of the numerous smaller mills on the streams below the pine regions of the State, whose manufacture of cottonwood, oak, butternut, walnut, and other lumber is almost wholly for farmers and not for the lumber market. A.—Quantity and value of each of the principal products of Minnesota during the year 1874. Question 2. Number and tonnage of steamboats and barges which arrived at Saint Paul each year from 1860 to 1875 inclusive. (See blank B.) Answer: B.-Table showing number of arrivals, &c., at Saint Paul, Minn. Question 3. Is grain purchased in Minnesota to any extent for direct shipment to foreign countries on through bills, and by what routes is it chiefly exported? Answer. Not to any extent. The shipments of that class ascertained amount to only 8,500 barrels of flour by the Grand Trunk and the Erie and North Shore fast-freight lines. Question 4. Please to designate on a plain township map, by means of blue lines, limit of surplus wheat produced, and with red lines the limit of surplus corn produced, so far as that may be possible. Answer. The limit of surplus wheat culture has been marked with blue lines on accompanying township map. In all of the northern counties the surplus is small, but the last product returns showed a surplus in each, and it will increase from year to year. As to corn culture, there is no surplus. Some of the older counties raise more than consumed at home, but most of it, even in those counties, finds a ready market in neighboring towns, and probably more is imported from Iowa than the quantity leaving the sections of the State where produced. Question 5. Please to mention any prorating arrangements between rail and water lines on through consignments which have come to your notice, mentioning how many miles of water are assumed as the equivalent of one mile of railroad. Answer. No prorating on the principle mentioned. Via Du Luth the rates east are supposed to be governed by and to be the same, or about the same, as the rates via Milwaukee and Chicago, lake lines deeming it worth about 10 cents more per barrel of flour or an equal weight in grain to carry this class of freight from Du Luth than from Milwaukee or Chicago and the Du Luth Railroad consequently having to carry the same to Du Luth for about 10 cents less than the rail rate at the same time from here to Milwaukee or Chicago. On the Mississippi the steamer lines run in connection with the railroads, and the Saint Paul agent of the Keokuk Northern Packet Company states the through rates, river and rail, from Saint Paul to Chicago, of that company to be divided as follows: From Saint Paul to La Crosse, by river, distance. Miles. 200 200 Railroad receives of through rate; river receives of through rate. From Saint Paul to Dunleith, by river, distance... From Dunleith to Chicago, by rail, distance... Railroad receives of through rate; river receives of through rate. Miles. 321 135 The Milwaukee and Saint Paul and the Chicago and Northwestern Railroads both state that they have no prorating arrangements with lines east for goods from Minnesota to points east of Milwaukee and Chicago. Three miles of water are supposed to be equivalent to one mile of rail, but as stated no such rule is applied here. Question 6. Please to mention the principal grain markets of Minnesota in the order of magnitude, and, if possible, the receipts and shipments of grain at each point, by rail and by river during the year 1875. Answer. Accompanying table gives all points shipping each not less than 100,000 bushels of wheat, including flour calculated as wheat at five bushels per barrel; other grains being unimportant, are not given. "Receipts," in railroad language, mean receipts by rail, and some of our roads keep no classified account of such by stations. A receipt-statement would be valuable if a statement of wheat on hand from the preceding year was added to it, but no such statement being obtainable and no receipt-statement from a large number of the most important points, the receipts have been omitted for all. For the sake of convenience, the shipping points have been arranged in the order of location as well as in the order of magnitude. The shipments are all for the calendar year 1875, except as to points on the Winona and Saint Peter Railway, these being for the railway year from April 1, 1875, to April Question 7. A statement showing, as accurately as possible, the quantity of grain shipped from Minnesota during the year 1874 or 1875; first, by lake and rail via DuLuth; second, by lake and rail via ports on Lake Michigan; third, by all rail to the East; fourth, by river to South; and, fifth, by all rail South. |