Show t j DEEPENING LAKE ii f CHANNElS REDUCES y r f CHARGES T t p pi t i W WASHINGTON Nov No 1 A A review c of oi the principal events o in the thc pro progress ess I of cheap cheRp transportation during durins the last 4 forty years just published by the department de do- t of oI agriculture shows the tho effect ef el- 4 l. l feet of the system of inland waterways f- f formed by the great lakes Jakes has held Ini in r i marketing a large portion of the grain r crop of the United States c i The report enumerates the various f t improvements which have been made in in r lake channels the tho ordinary depth of r water at the shallowest point in 1871 r being fourteen feet while in 1909 this i depth was increased to one twenty feet The lake Jake boats built now are more than six times as lar large e as those built when i the channel was seven seyen feet shallower r Freight rates for carrying grain Crain on C the lakes are much lower Jower than in the tho days lays of shallow channels anI and small boats The avera average e rate rato for wheat from Chicago to Buffalo has decreased to less than one fourth the average for 1871 1811 Railroad frei freight ht rates have declined too durin during the last forty years the Average j rate rato from Chicago to New York by rail all-rail routes bein being for several everal years less than one one half half the charge chargo of thirty five and forty years a ago o. o The departments department's bulletin adds that during the last ten years only 7 percent per percent percent cent of the total grain r in shipped from Duluth and points on Lake Superior and Lake Michi Michigan an was carried through I the Welland WeIland canal to Lake Lako Ontario |