No. 13.
Mr. Bridgland to Mr. Seward.
Havre , September 4, 1877. (Received September 19.)
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your circular dated August 15, 1877, referring to the importance of consular officers exerting themselves to promote the best interests of trade between their consular districts and the United States. In reply thereto, I have the honor to state that since my induction into office here I have felt the importance of such an effort, and have therefore been constantly at work to induce shipments of our surplus products into my consular district, such as hides, hog-products, cotton, corn, &c. This latter article has shown the most marked increase.
From the best information I get there were received in 1875, for the first time, at this port a few samples of American Indian corn, giving rise to importations direct from the United States in 1876 of 2,591,600 pounds. During the past seven months of the present year, importations from our country to Havre have increased to 28,936,088 pounds, showing, as you will see, an increase in direct shipments of eleven-fold.
Knowing that we have a large surplus at home, and that with a proper I foreign demand we could produce an almost unlimited quantity of this grain, I more than two years ago visited the superintendent of the street railroad company and several of the largest livery and truck stables, whom I induced to try our Indian corn as a feed in place of oats, wheat, and barley, as has been their custom, by showing them it would be greatly to their advantage, as it would cost them only two-thirds of the value of the grain they were then feeding.
For two years these people have been feeding almost exclusively Indian corn, by grinding it and mixing it with cut feed, as well as by boiling, and feeding of it in hominy state. The farmers in this consular district have also adopted this feed to a considerable extent, and are gelling their small grain which hitherto they have been in the habit of feeding to their own stock, thereby saving fully 33 per cent. French distillers are now beginning to make use of this great American staple.
There has been a gradual increase in the receipts at this port from the United States of nearly all of the aforenamed articles, as you will see by referring to my annual reports, notwithstanding the prostration of trade nearly all over the world during the past three years. The increase in the receipts of Indian corn, however, is by far the most marked. We have had several ships from New Orleans this summer with corn, which arrived here in good condition, having been well handled by elevators [Page 37] in New Orleans before shipment, which proves how easy it is to ship it from our Northern ports without the risk of damage by souring. This new feature in exports from New Orleans is of great importance to that city and the Mississippi Valley, as it is cheaper to float property downstream than to move it by railroad to New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore.
I have, &c.,
Consul.