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 "
          
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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.  All or nearly all this transit is by water; and there can, I think, be no doubt but that a few years will see it reduced by fifty per cent.  In October last the Mississippi was closed, the railways had not rolling stock sufficient for their work, the crops of the two last years had been excessive, and there existed the necessity of sending out the corn before the internal navigation had been closed by frost.  The parties who had the transit in their hands put their heads together, and were able to demand any prices that they pleased.  It will be seen that the cost of carrying a bushel of corn from Chicago to Buffalo, by the lakes, was within one cent of the cost of bringing it from New York to Liverpool.  These temporary causes for high prices of transit will cease; a more perfect system of competition between the railways and the water transit will be organized; and the result must necessarily be both an increase of price to the producer and a decrease of price to the consumer.  It certainly seems that the produce of cereal crops in the valleys of the Mississippi and its tributaries increases at a faster rate than population increases.  Wheat and corn are sown by the thousand acres in a piece.  I heard of one farmer who had 10,000 acres of corn.  Thirty years ago grain and flour were sent Westward out of the State of New York to supply the wants of those who had immigrated into the prairies; and now we find that it will be the destiny of those prairies to feed the universe.  Chicago is the main point of exportation Northwestward from Illinois, and at the present time sends out from its granaries more cereal produce than any other town in the world.  The bulk of this passes, in the shape of grain or flour, from Chicago to Buffalo, which latter place is, as it were, a gateway leading from the lakes, or big waters, to the canals, or small waters.  I give below the amount of grain and flour in bushels received into Buffalo for transit in the month of October during four consecutive years:—­