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HISTORICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ILLINOIS.
corporate limits. Dredging has made the Chicago River, with its branches, navigable for vessels of deep draft. The harbor has also been widened and deepened. Well constructed breakwaters protect the vessels lying inside, and the port is as safe as any on the great lakes. The city is a port of entry, and the tonnage of vessels arriving there exceeds that of any other port in the United States. During 1897, 9,156 vessels arrived, with an aggregate tonnage of 7,309,442, while 9,201 cleared, representing a tonnage of 7,185,324. It is the largest grain market in the world, its elevators (in 1897) having a capacity of 32,550,000 bushels.
According to the reports of the Board of Trade, the total receipts and shipments of grain for the year 1898-counting flour as its grain equivalent in bushels-amounted to 323,097,453 bushels of the former, to 289,920,028 bushels of the latter. The receipts and shipments of various products for the year (1898) were as follows:
Receipts. Shipments.
5,316,195 5,032,236
35,741,555 38,094,900
127,426,374 130,397,681
110,293,647 85.057,636
4,935,308 4,453,384
18,116,594 6,755,247
229,005,246 923,627,722
110,286,652 1,060,859,808
9,360,968 1,334,768
2,480,632 864,408
3,502,378 545,001
Flour (bbls.) . Wheat (bu.) . . Corn " . . . Oats ".., Rye ".., Barley ".., Cured Meats (Ibs.) Dressed Beef " . Live-stock- Hogs
Cattle
Sheep
Chicago is also an important lumber market, the receipts in 1895, including shingles, being 1,562,527 M. feet. As a center for beef and pork-packing, the city is without a rival in the amount of its products, there having been 92,459 cattle and 760,514 hogs packed in 1894-95. In bank clearings and general mercantile business it ranks second only to New York, while it is also one of the chief manufacturing centers of the country. The census of 1890 shows 9,959 manufacturing establishments, with a capital of $29,,-477,038; employing 203,108 hands, and turning out products valued at $632,184,140. Of the output by far the largest was that of the slaughtering and meat-packing establishments, amounting to $203,825,092; men's clothing came next ($33,517,236); iron and steel, $31,419,854; foundry and machine shop products, $29,928,616; planed lumber, $17,604,494. Chicago is also the most important live-stock market in the United States. The Union Stock Yards (in the southwest part of the city) are connected with all railroad lines entering the city, an
