Rensselaer Republican, Volume 12, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 January 1880 — FACTS AND FIGURES. [ARTICLE]

FACTS AND FIGURES.

A correspondent of a leading London weekly points out that there were in Ireland, in 1870, 526,628 tenants at will—that is, without any certainty or security of possession. Taking the average of each household at four, this gives 2,106,512 persons who are dependent upon sufferance for a home. The receipts at seaboard ports, from January 1 to December 6,1879, consisted of 10,444,156 barrels of flour and 293,593,409 bushels of grain. The corresponding receipts were in 1878, 9,128,756 barrels of flour and 238.614,760 bushels of grain; in 1877, 7,890,165 barrels of flour and 157,474,743 bushels of grain, and in 1876, 9,480,849 barrels of flour and 157,724,429 bushels of grain. Exchange. The change that has been effected in the foreign commerce of the United States of late years is more marked in the volume of commodities imported and exported than in the value. During the last fiscal year our exports aggregated in weight 11,100,000 tons of 2,240 pounds each, against 2,500,000 tons in the fiscal year ending June 30, 1869; while the imports in the same period increased only from 3,500,000 tons to 3,800,000 tons.

The receipts of grain and flour at the Western lake and river ports, from January 1 to December 6, 1879, consisted of 6,458,798 barrels of flour and 240,560,113 bushels of grain. These figures represent a large increase on the receipts of previous years, which consisted, in 1878, of 5,422,283 barrels of flour and 218,834,834 bushels of grain; in 1877, of 4,728,677 barrels of flour and 161,875,799 bushels of grain; and in 1876, of 5,260,057 barrels or flour and 165,670,587 bushels of grain. The main portion of this increase, however, was m the movement of the old crop rather than in the movement of the crop of this year, as the receipts at the Western lake and river points, during the period from August 1 to December 6, consisted, in 1879, of 2,840,933 barrels of flour and bushels of grain, while the corresponding receipts in 1878 were 2,425,624 barrels of flour and 111,659,412 bushels of grain.—Ezchange. A CORRESPONDENT of the American Machinist writes: Thirty years ago it required 1,800 day’s labor to construct a locomotive; now it will not exceed 1,500, and a far superior machine in every respect. There are 16,000 locomotives in the United States, and there are over 2,800 different pieces in each, all of which will have to be renewed every ten or twelve years. Locomotives that retain their identity twenty years or more, as claimed by some roads, are something like the boy’s jack-knife which he had tenyears,but it had nine new handles and thirteen new blades. The present capacity of all the shops is not far from 1,700 locomotives per year, and the different roads build in their own repair shops about 100 more, making 1,800 a year in all. Now, allowing fifteen years as the average life of an engine, you will see that the shops can build 27,000 in the meantime, showing that the present capacity of our locomotive shops need not be extended for a long time to come. Thirty-four railways reporting to the New York Stock Exchange show an increase in gross earnings during the month of November of 91,664,143, the gross earnings in November being 912,559,034, against 910,894,881 in Novem-

ber, 1878. Twenty-nine companies report an increase during the period, from January Ist to November 30th, of $7,028,542, the gross earnings in 1879 being $103,539,388, and, during the first eleven months of 1878, $96,510,846. The largest increase reported by any company in November was that of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul, amounting to $291,788, and the largest increase reported during the first eleven months of the present year was that of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe, amounting to $2,112,588. The improvement in traffic has been nearly universal, as twenty-eight out of thirtyfour companies reported increased receipts in November, and twenty out of twenty-nine companies report an increase in gross earnings during the first eleven months of the present year.— Railway World. s