OSHKOSH COURIER

March 15, 1861

Fox River Improvement – There is every prospect, says the Green Bay Advocate, that there will be a much larger business done on the F.R. Improvement this season than ever before. The large quantities of grain which have accumulated this winter, of last year’s crop, in the River and Lake Winnebago towns, and the still greater amounts not yet disposed of by the farmers, will come forward as soon as navigation opens, and thus keep the business brisk until a new harvest. In addition to the new boats we have previous noticed, to be put on the river for freighting purposes, there will be other new boats and barges. The experiment which was tried last season of shipping wheat from Columbia and adjoining counties, and which proved measurably a failure on account of the unsuitableness of the boats and the scarcity of barges, did not discourage our enterprising friends in that region. We earn from the Portage City Record, of the 27^th ult., that the Directors of the Portage & Green Bay Transportation Company (a company formed last season of energetic business men) "have contracted with Messrs. McArthur, Rounds & Co., of Eureka, for the building and launching of two grain barges, to be completed and launched early in May". The Record learns that the total cost of transportation per bushel at the outset will not exceed eight cents, and that when the company get fairly into business it will not be more than six cents. This, of course, is but a mere commencement, but it augurs well; and we shall expect to see many cargoes of wheat from that city before navigation closes again.