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Agricultural interest — Means of transportation — Railways and vessels — Lumber — Vessels cleared — Lake cities and Atlantic ports — Home-market — Breadstuffs — Michigan flour — Monetary panics — Wheat — Importations — Provisions — Fruit — Live stock — Wool — Shipping business — Railroads — Lake Superior trade — Pine lumber trade — Copper interest — Iron interest — Fisheries — Coal mines — Salt — Plaster beds.
We copy from the Detroit Tribune of 1860, a somewhat elaborate and lengthy article containing recent and highly important information in regard to the industrial interests of Michigan. Though there are portions of this article which we have to some extent anticipated in some of our previous chapters, we consider it highly important to extract largely from it, because of its more recent date. To all interested in the development and future growth of the Northwest, it will prove most valuable. The writer, Mr. Kay Haddock, commercial editor of the Tribune, says:—
"We know of no similar extent of country on the globe so highly favored by nature as our own State, which but twenty-three years since emerged from the chrysalis condition of a territory, but which to day, by the quickening influence brought to bear upon her natural advantages by an enterprising and enlightened people, possesses elements of wealth and greatness that might well be coveted by empires. The characteristics for which she is pre-eminent are neither few in number nor ordinary in character. She occupies the very front rank in respect to important minerals, as well as in the extent and quality of her forest products, while her fisheries are altogether unrivaled, and, like her mines and forests, are the source of exhaustless wealth. With regard to the extent and diversity of her natural resources, it would indeed seem difficult to over-estimate them. Predictions that seem visionary to-day, are to-morrow exceeded by the reality, as some new treasure is revealed. A glance at the map is of itself the most eloquent commentary that could be presented with reference to her geographical position. As nature does nothing in vain, the shipping facilities afforded by the noble inland seas that clasp our shores, are a sign and promise of the commercial greatness that awaits us in the future. We may well be proud of thecondition of our agricultural interest—that great interest which underlies every other; which alike gives to the wealthy his opulence and the beggar his crust. Our farmers have unmistakably indicated their determination to accept of no secondary position in the quality of their wheat, and their wool is not only rapidly gaining the first rank as respect the amount produced, but is sought for with avidity for its superior quality by all the principal manufacturers of the country. Pomona, too, has thrown her influence in the scale. The region that has thus far been devoted to the culture of fruit, in proportion to its extent, cannot be surpassed in the Union, if indeed it can be equaled. Such is a faint picture of the 'Peninsular State.'
"The snail-like progress hitherto made in the settlement of a large share of the State, is an enigma to those not versed in our early history. While occupying the position of a dependent of the central power at Washington, we were so unfortunate in some instances as to have men placed over us with whom personal interests were paramount to the great interests of the territory, which, at the critical period when the seeds of prosperity should have been planted, was fatal to our advancement. Next came the era of Utopian projects of internal improvement, by whichour people were saddled with an onerous load of debt. In the mean time immigrants were misled by false reports concerning the character of the soil in the interior of the State, and there were no roads by means of which they could satisfy themselves of the true character of the country. They therefore passed on to find homes upon what then seemed the most attractive prairies of the far West. But there is at last a great change in the tide of affairs. The value of our timber is justly regarded as greatly overbalancing the doubtful advantage of settling upon prairie land, and the active demand that has recently sprung up for it must constantly make a still greater difference in our favor. Lands long held in the iron grasp of speculators are rapidly coming into the possession of actual settlers. Our State is being intersected by a system of roads, which will ere long demonstrate the necessity of an extension of the system. Our course is indeed onward and upward.
"Having seen a statement, given upon the authority of some gazeteer, to the effect that about six million dollars were invested in this State in manufacturing, which we felt assured was a libel upon the State, we have taken steps to procure statistics of the more important industrial establishments throughout the entire State. We find that in the manufactureof pine lumber alone, there are about seven million dollars invested, exclusive of the standing timber of proprietors, which perhaps might properly be included as part of the capital."
Such indications of thrift, enterprise, and prosperity in a region that twenty-four years ago was a howling wilderness, it may be safely said, is without a parallel. The other counties, we are tolerably safe in estimating, will swell the amount to $10,000,000, making, with the lumber manufactories, and the $2,148,500, invested in the iron manufacture, more than twenty million dollars!
The apathy of the citizens of Detroit in availing themselves of the magnificent advantages possessed by the city for prosecuting manufacturing upon an extensive scale, is wholly inexplicable. There is a mine of unproductive wealth in our midst that might at once be placed at compound interest. It now lies dormant in the sinewy arms of men and the nimble fingers of women and children. There is thus a moral aspect in this question that addresses itself with peculiar earnestness to the philanthropic. But it were a philanthropy that would lay up treasures on earth. Daily, almost hourly, raw material takes its departure from our city destined to be received at eastern manufactories, there to be worked up andreturned to us for our consumption, by which we are taxed with the freight both ways, in addition to losing the profit of the manufacture. Every property holder has a direct interest at stake. If a liberal sum were to be subscribed to-morrow for investment in this important branch of enterprise, the direct benefit that would accrue to the real estate of the city would be at least double the amount invested.
The Western States look with deep interest to the Grand Trunk Railway, and are hopeful that it may prove a great benefit to them in enabling producers to reach the markets of European consumers at a cheap rate for carriage. Unquestionably great benefits will grow out of the opening up of the great thoroughfare. At the same time there are questions of grave importance to shippers which will soon have to be met, and nothing can be lost, while something may be gained, by meeting them at the outset.
We set out, then, with the proposition that the bulky products of the West must be carried by water and not by rail, and will state a few facts that in our humble opinion will place this proposition beyond all cavil. So for as figures can be obtained, and correct calculations made, it has been demonstratedthat freight cannot be moved on American railroads for less than one cent per ton per mile. This is actually thefirst cost, even in the coal regions of Pennsylvania. It is therefore fair to presume that the Grand Trunk, with conceded advantages of superior and economical management, cannot move freight at a less cost, and that the figure named will yield nothing to the stockholders in the shape of dividend. It is true that freight has been carried at an actual loss, and, as we are about to show, the same thing will to some extent be done again, but if persevered in this can only result in ruin, and no one will assert that it ought to be taken as a legitimate basis for future calculations. It follows, then, that $8,80 is the lowest sum for which a ton can be moved from Detroit to Portland, the distance between the two cities being eight hundred and eighty miles. This showing may not be relished by those most immediately interested in the Grand Trunk Railway, nor may it be palatable to the producers of the West, who have built high hopes on this road as an outlet to the Atlantic, but it is useless to attempt to shut our eyes to obvious facts. The West has for years possessed shorter and consequently cheaper routes to the seaboard, and in winter the cost of reaching-the Atlantic cities has always been and now is from 100 to200 per cent, greater by rail than during the navigation season by the cheaper mode. This is easily proved. Let us look at the distance by the old route by the way of Suspension Bridge:
Detroit to Suspension Bridge, is 232 miles; the Bridge to Albany, 300; Albany to Boston 200; total 732.
Thus we see that the whole distance from Detroit to Boston is seven hundred and thirty-two miles, or one hundred and forty-eightlessthan from Detroit to Portland. As regards shipments from Detroit to Boston, via the Grand Trunk, the matter is worse, for we have to add one hundred and three miles from Portland to Boston, making the old route two hundred and fifty-three miles shorter to that point than by the newly opened road. It is evident therefore, that the West is not likely to gain anything permanently by the new route, except in so far as it may open up some local trade, which, inconsiderable at first, may eventually assume considerable importance. Of course, what is true regarding Detroit, is also true with respect to every point west of us.
Every one conversant with trade must admit that goods can be carried as cheap from any port in Europe to New York as to Portland. The distance from New York to Detroit,viaAlbany and SuspensionBridge, is six hundred and eighty-two miles, or one hundred and ninety-eight miles less than from Portland to Detroit. Goods ought certainly to be carried cheaper from New York to Detroit than by a route near two hundred miles further.
We learn that the New York Central Railroad Company are now perfecting a plan for ticketing passengers and goods from any point in the Western, Southern, and Southwestern States, andvice versa. Thus at least one important advantage to the West is already apparent, growing out of the comprehensive action of the Grand Trunk managers, while the action of the New York Central is the sure precursor of a momentous era in railroad annals. The present year is likely to witness the first battle in a war for the European and domestic trade of the West, that may in the end turn the entire current into other channels. It will be a strife of giants, and the prize the most magnificent ever battled for, either in the tented field or in the nobler contests of nations for commercial supremacy. That prize is the carrying trade of an empire fast rising into manly vigor, and destined to attain to a point during the present generation that will dazzle the world with its vastness and grandeur. On one side will be arrayed the Grand Trunk Railway, with its sixtymillion dollars of capital, backed by the government of Canada, and sustained by every merchant of the British North American colonies, aided by powerful friends in Europe—men of character, standing and capital, who will strain every nerve to supply their darling road with business, in which they will have the sympathy of the whole English people—for in both England and Canada the Grand Trunk is looked upon as a great triumph of national engineering skill, while at the same time it gratifies the national pride, as it gives the world one more convincing proof of that indomitable pluck that is the chief secret of the great celebrity attained by the merchants of the "fast anchored isle" for commercial enterprise.
On the other side will be marshaled the forces of the "Grand Trunk" lines of railroad leading to the Western States from the Atlantic seaboard. The most prominent on the list is the New York Central Railroad, with her natural allies, the Great Western of Canada, the Hudson River Railroad, and the Western Railroad of Massachusetts. Next in order, as parties in the struggle, are the New York and Erie, the Pennsylvania Central, and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, not to speak of the localroads in Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan, that will be affected more or less in the contest for supremacy.
The Grand Trunk will fight under one banner, and that banner will carry on its broad folds the commercial prestige of the British Empire, and will have the sympathy of the British people. This, which will probably carry with it, as a coincident, plenty of the "sinews of war," will be decidedly a vantage ground to stand upon.
The American interests will come into the field under different leaders, having no unity of action, and hating and fearing each other; who have never had confidence in each others' words or actions; who have never displayed any generosity toward each other; whose dealings with each other have been marked by cheating and bad faith, as the breaking of all convention treaties has proved. Under such a load of demoralization, all of them combined are perhaps not more than a match for the Grand Trunk. One of the American roads will have to stand in the van and sustain the first onset, and the elected one will be theNew York Central. In every point of view it is the one best able to do so. It is managed and controlled by men of large experience and iron will—men who do not knowwhat defeat is, and who, come what may, will show that their metal has the true ring.
The result of such a contest none can foresee; albeit after the smoke of the battle is cleared away, the wreck will only show that it has been a costly and useless fight for the stockholders, and the conviction that God's highways are superior to man's will gain strength, insomuch as to assume far more practical importance than it has hitherto attained. The only method of carrying on a successful trade between the Western States and the seaports of Europe, is by water, and to this conclusion all must come, in the end, on both sides of the Atlantic.
In order to make the trade productive of substantial benefit to all interested in it, the West must have free course down theSt.Lawrence, and an enlargement of the Canadian canals, so that vessels of say eighteen hundred tons can pass down to the ports of Montreal and Quebec without unloading, and continue on their way to Europe without breaking bulk. A depth of fourteen feet water, with locks of corresponding capacity on the canals would accomplish this important end. The multifarious and rapidly increasing products of the Great West, her timber, flour, wheat, corn, oats, rye, barley, pork, beef, butter, lard, cheese, meal, and everydescription of agricultural produce could then be laid down in the ports of England so cheaply that it would greatly reduce the cost of the necessaries of life, and give a new impetus to the manufacturing interest of Great Britain. At the same time it would directly tend to cheapen every article that the West requires to import, thus proving of double advantage to our producers. In both cases the producer and consumer would be brought face to face, to the obvious advantage of all concerned. The manufacturing prosperity of England depends upon an unlimited supply of cheap labor, and that supply cannot be had unless she can supply such laborers with an unlimited supply of cheap food. The West has the capacity not only to furnish an inexhaustible quantity of cheap food, but it can purchase and consume a larger amount of the productions of English skill and labor than any other section of the world. Why, then, cannot both parties hit on some scheme that will bring them more closely into the fellowship of trade? It can be done, if both will unite to obtain an unimpeded outlet via theSt.Lawrence for vessels and steamers of heavy burden. So far as Quebec and Montreal are concerned, it is very difficult to say whether the consummation of the proposed enlargement would redound mostto their benefit, or to that of our Western lake cities. In both cases the gain would be beyond computation. The two important Canadian cities named would become at once important seaports. They would become two of the depots for the vast commerce of two continents, and would derive great benefits from the opening up of a local traffic with the West, which at present amounts to but very little, so far as they are concerned. Our lake cities would all become large commercial centres, and would supply the population of the region tributary to them, respectively, with dry goods, crockery, hardware, paints, oils, and all kinds of imported merchandise, at a cheaper rate by a considerable per centage, than they could be purchased at New York, or any city on the Atlantic. Detroit would be much nearer Liverpool than Buffalo now is by the usual route, and Chicago and Milwaukee would be almost as near, practically.
A few figures will show the decided advantage of water over rail as a medium of transporting the bulky products of the West to market.
It has already been shown that a ton of any kind of freight cannot be laid down at Portland from Detroit, by rail, under $8.80, without a loss to the stockholders, nor to Boston under $9.65, exceptwith the same result; nor at New Yorkviathe Great Western, New York Central, and Hudson River roads under $6.82, without actual loss to those roads, so that the case would stand thus:—Detroit to Portland, per ton,viaG. T. R., $8.80; Detroit to Boston,do.do., $9.85; Detroit to New York, $6.82. Add $4.00 per ton for ocean freights, and we have in each case respectively, $12.80, $13.85, and $10.82 per ton to Liverpool.
Now we maintain that a screw steamer of 1800 tons burden, costing, when completed, $150,000, can carry much cheaper than a road like the Grand Trunk, costing $60,000,000, or the New York Central and its connections. A steamer of that capacity would carry 1,500 tons of freight; 600 tons of coal would run her across the Atlantic, and she could coal from Chicago or Detroit to Newfoundland, and from the latter point to Liverpool. By doing this, she could carry 300 tons more freight than if she coaled for the entire voyage from Chicago to Liverpool. All the principal exports and imports of Michigan, Indiana, Western Ohio, Kentucky, &c., would find their way to Detroit, and this point would of necessity become the great centre of the direct trade between Europe and the States above mentioned.
Two steamers per week could be run with profit on the route during the season of navigation; each steamer would make two round trips and a half per season of seven months' navigation, allowing two months for each round trip. At this rate sixteen ocean steamers would be required to make up a semi-weekly line, and were the Canadian canals enlarged and ready for use by the middle of next April, there would be at once sufficient trade to sustain them, at much cheaper rates for freight and passage than is now charged by any route or combination of routes in existence, as the following will show conclusively:
Each round trip would give the following sums for freight and passage:—1500 tons of freight at $6 per ton, $9,000; 40 cabin passengers at $50 each, $2,000; 50 steeragedo.do.$25 each, $1,250. Total for the trip out, $12,250. Inward bound:—600 tons freight at $6, $3,600; 75 cabin passengers at $60, $4,500; 300 steeragedo.do., $30, $9,000—$17,100. Add outward receipts, $12,250. Total, $29,350. The total cost of the trip, including insurance, would not exceed $14,000. Total net profits, $15,250.
It will be seen by the above figures that our staple products can be carried to England in theright kind of vessels, at one half the cost that railroads and connecting steamers can perform the same service, even when the latter carry at a rate that brings no profit to the shareholders, while the former would pay large dividends. At the rates named for passage (but little more than one-half the present cost of going from Detroit to England) crowds of the European settlers in this country would flock to the mother country to see dear friends and relatives, and tens of thousands of the American people would embrace the opportunity to behold the tombs and temples and wonders of the land from whence their ancestors came. A feeling of friendship of the true stamp would spring up spontaneously between the Anglo-Saxon races on each side of the Atlantic that never could be severed, and which would alternately shed the blessings of Christianity and civilization to every corner of the world. Such free intercourse would show that to be appreciated by each other they only need to be better acquainted. And it is our firm belief, that the day that beholds the commencement of direct trade between the old world and in the inland seas of the Great West, by vessels of the class named, will see a day of glory and promise brighter and greater than has ever yet dawned on any efforts putforth to subdue the world by human means, to peace and universal brotherhood.
Our readers are aware that a trade of great importance has sprung up within two or three years between Detroit and other lake ports, and the leading seaports of Europe. The particulars of its inauguration are already familiar to the public. Of the vessels which cleared hence in this trade in 1858, one was owned and sent out by a merchant of this city; another was loaded by a Cleveland house; the others were all owned or chartered byCapt.D. C. Pierce, the enterprising pioneer of the trade. His first venture on theKershaw, notwithstanding some few incidental circumstances that worked to his disadvantage, was productive of some direct profit, but a much greater profit inured to himself, and those who followed him in this important commerce, by his becoming well versed in the European trade, insomuch as to be enabled to avail himself of the peculiar advantages offered by each market, as well as in determining the character of freight most profitable to carry. The cheapest, best and safest means of transporting the diversified products of the West, and particularly the region of which Detroit is the centre, to the European markets, returning with foreign fabrics in exchange, had long challenged the attention of capitalists,who saw in it the germ of a mighty commerce, but seemed to lack the practical knowledge and tact to put the ball in motion. Last year twenty-one vessels cleared from the different lake ports, mostly from Detroit.
Another important point which is now in a fair way to be gained, is the making of European consumers acquainted with the fact that their wants can be supplied to any desired extent. When this information becomes general the consumption must be vastly stimulated, affording one of the most inviting fields for enterprise known in the commercial annals of the world. The resources of the State are amply sufficient to afford employment for half a century to a tenfold larger number of vessels than have yet engaged in it. By a carefully compiled estimate, it has been ascertained that in prosperous times the annual product of ourpineriesis hard uponTEN MILLION DOLLARS. Large as this sum is, it is the opinion of those who are well qualified to form an estimate, that it may easily be surpassed by the product of our hard timber. Take for example the region around Saginaw Bay, which is perhaps the most remarkable locality in the world as respects the quality and variety of hard wood timber. Here, for near a hundred miles in extent,upon streams debouching into the bay, are dense forests of the choicest oak, with a profusion of hickory, black walnut, white ash, whitewood, and other desirable varieties. The manufacture of agricultural implements, as well as many other articles that afford employment to the toiling millions of the old world, must receive a new impetus when it is found that wood admirably adapted to their construction can be had direct from our forests at the moderate rate at which it will bear transportation. So of birds-eye maple for cabinet ware, red elm for carriage hubs, and other varieties applicable to specific uses. We have designated only such as abound in great plenty. The profusion of the growth is in fact equaled only by its accessibility, the whole country being so permeated by streams that it can be floated off with very little trouble.
The Saginaw District, important and extensive as it is, comprises but a small portion of our hard-wood lumber region. In addition to numerous almost interminable forests in the north, equally accessible and almost equally valuable, there are extensive regions in the interior where timber abounds of such choice quality as to abundantly warrant railroad transportation hither. Although some of the shipments last season were of the far-famed Canada oak,shippers all concur in assuring us that the Michigan timber was held in as high estimation, if not higher, than any other offered in the foreign market. A most significant fact, coming right to the point, came under our observation a few months since. In the summer of 1858, five passenger cars for the Michigan Southern Road were built at Adrian, which unprejudiced judges pronounced the finest ever built in the United States. Every foot of timber in them—as well as every pound of iron—was of Michigan production. Last spring, after being in use some twenty months, these cars were for the first time overhauled for repairs, along with a number of eastern cars which had been in use for a like period of time, when it was found that the latter, owing to the inferior quality of timber, cost for repairs nearly as many dollars as the Michigan cars did cents! We have the authority of gentlemen of the highest respectability for stating this as a literal fact.
The following is a complete list of the vessels which cleared for European ports the past year, together with the character of their cargoes, respectively, and the port to which they sailed:—
Of the above, Messenger cleared from Buffalo; the Pierson and Republican hailed from Milan, Ohio; the Massillon and Valeria from Cleveland; the Scott loaded atSt.Joseph, and was sent out by a Milwaukee house; all the others either loaded at this port, or were owned or chartered here. Eight of the number were chartered by Messrs. Aspinwall & Son, and two of the others were owned here.
The following is the aggregate amount of lumber and staves shipped to Europe the past year, exclusive of the cargoes from Cleveland, Milan, and Buffalo:—
[A Quebec standard pipe is equal to four West India staves.]
The Lily of Kingston, was the first vessel that ever passed down from the lakes to the ocean, bound to an European port. Her destination was Liverpool. This was about the year 1847. She afterward sailed in the Quebec and Liverpool trade, but was lost, we believe, on her third ocean voyage.
As collateral to this trade, an important commerce has sprung up between the lake cities and the Atlantic ports which promise to increase rapidly. Prior to 1857, the passage of vessels from the Welland Canal to the ocean was of very rare occurrence. As a matter of curiosity, we present a complete statement of the vessels which have passed through the canal bound for Atlantic or European ports, with the year of sailing, avoiding a repetition of the list above given. The Dean Richmond, and those clearing in 1857 and 1858, all sailed for Europe. Those designated in this list as having sailed in 1859, all cleared for Atlantic ports:
Presuming that those who may hereafter become interested in this commerce, would like the benefit of the experience of those who have already embarked it, we have procured some valuable information for their benefit. First, as to the kind of timber most profitable to ship: Although black walnut appears to be growing in favor, and where once it has been used is again inquired for, yet a decided preference is given to oak, with the qualities of which all are entirely familiar. Choice, selected oak commands more money for cabinet purposes in all the foreign markets than the same quality of black walnut. Contrary to previous expectation, it is not likely that the latter can ever be brought into general use in Great Britain. It is the greatest mahogany market in the world, and that wood is in universal use, particularly the common or cheap kind. If ever so common, it is not liable to warp, which cannot be said of black walnut, although, as we have before intimated, those who have worked it, praise it very highly. Beech, elm and ash, are used for a great many purposes, and are in good demand, but oak commands more money than either of them, and is therefore the most profitable to ship at present.
The fact is not generally known, but the information has been purchased at a dear rate, that the purchaseof lumber for the foreign market by board-measure, instead of cubic, involves a heavy loss. In European markets all lumber is sold by the cubic foot, so that the cost of sawing is completely thrown away. Black walnut, for example, cannot be laid down in Detroit, or any lake port, under $18 to $20 per M., while the lumber can be obtained for $125 to $150 per M. cubic feet, 1,000 feet cubic measure being equal to 12,000 feet board measure. Thus in purchasing by cubic measure, the buyer pays only $125 to $150 for an amount that by board measure would cost $216 to $240, making a clear difference ofninety dollarsupon only one thousand cubic feet, equal to $900 upon a cargo of some of the vessels engaged in the trade last year. The same rule would apply substantially to other kinds of lumber. Independent of this, a decided preference is given to lumber in the log, owing to the good condition in which it can be delivered. There is one more point which manufacturers as well as shippers should bear in mind. The value of much of the lumber sent out was greatly impaired by being attached to the heart, which is the most porous part of the tree, and therefore most liable to crack. To obviate this objection the saw should pass upon each side of the heart, thus leaving the whole of it attached to asingle piece of timber, instead of one or more pieces, and thereby making only one cull. By observing this rule a difference will be made in the market of thirty or forty per cent.
Are staves or lumber the more profitable to ship? This depends upon circumstances. Last year it was very dull for both. For staves especially the season could not, for various reasons, have been more unfavorable. In the first place, the grape crop was a very short one, not only in France, but in all the vine countries, including the Canaries. This, of course, greatly lessened the demand for staves, and there were consequently very few taken from England to France, although French vessels are in the habit of taking them for ballast at a merely nominal rate, owing to the difficulty they experience in procuring return freights from England. The short crops in Canada and the great scarcity of money, forced an unusual number of laborers in that country into the stave and lumber business. Under advices that heavy shipments were in prospect, coupled with the general check upon business on account of the war, prices became depressed. Notwithstanding all this, the shipments hence, being early in the market, sold to advantage, and may therefore be considered as a signal success, under the circumstances. Thesmallest vessel going out from here netted a freight of $3,500.
The most striking feature with regard to Detroit, in a commercial point of view, is her admirable location, which constitutes her the metropolis of a vast region, than which no city off the seaboard can boast one equally grand or important. The region embraces a circuit of some three thousand miles, composed of land and water, which both seem to vie with each other in contributing to the material prosperity of our city, while every interest involved is benefited in some degree by her. In the far north, where the rugged coast of the upper peninsula is lashed by the waters of the monarch of lakes, Detroit enterprise assists in redeeming the hidden treasures of the earth from their state of profitless inertion. There is not a hardy delver in the mines who is not familiar with the skill of Detroit machinists, nor an echo in all the majestic wilds skirting that noble expanse of waters, that has not been awakened by Detroit steamers. Further down upon the limpid waters of Lake Huron, where the army or rather the navy of fishermen set their nets for the capture of the finny tribes, here, too, our city possesses an interest almost as direct as if the canvas of their tiny crafts were spread within sight of herspires, the product comprising one of the most important staples in her multiform commerce. Last, but not least, is the great lumber region with which the prosperity of Michigan is so largely identified. The population of this region, as well as of the others we have referred to, raise almost literally nothing for their own consumption, their respective pursuits being inconsistent with that of tillers of the soil, so that in addition to the usual stores required by farmers, they have to purchase their breadstuffs and similar supplies. The bulk of these are bought of our dealers, this being not only the most convenient, but the cheapest and best market, as is amply proven by experience.
Under the appropriate head will be found a complete and authentic statement of the commerce of the SautSt.Mary Canal, by which it will be seen that the aggregate value of the upward-bound freight is estimated at $5,298,640. The up-freight nearly all carried by steamers, of which the number running the entire season was seven, three from Detroit, one from Chicago, and three from Cleveland. The Detroit boats have generally been loaded to their utmost capacity, while we have the word of the Cleveland captains to the effect that two-thirds of their cargoes are usually taken on at this port. Wemust therefore be clearly within bounds in claiming that three-fourths of the above amount is part and parcel of the commerce of our city which would show our Lake Superior exports to be $3,960,000. In seasons in which the crops of our Canadian neighbors partially fail—a common occurrence within the past few years, but which we hope may never occur again—they naturally become our customers; and since the partial destruction of the wheat crop in Ohio last summer by frost, there have been considerable shipments of breadstuffs to Cleveland, Toledo, Sandusky, etc., which may very properly be included in the home traffic.
The shipments of flour and grain for the supply of our home trade by lake craft, from the opening of navigation for the year 1859, as appears by the books of our Custom House, are as follows:
There were also 7,446 bushels oats to Port Huron, and 588 bushelsdo.to other ports, beside 3,400 bushels corn, and 11,962 bushels oats which were included in the heavy shipments to Lake Superior. We give the places for which vessels cleared; many of the shipments were for intermediate ports. Besides the flour and grain there were large shipments of pork, butter, lard, meal, etc., etc.
The above were all by water. There were in addition large local shipments to various points on the Great Western, the Detroit and Milwaukee, and other roads, that may with equal propriety be regarded as pertaining to the home trade.
The article of corn is one to secure customers, for in Canada it is not essential there should be short crops there. Large amounts are taken for the supply of the numerous distilleries on that side. A single house in our city has sold the past year 100,000 bushels for that purpose.
During the year commodities have been interchanged by lake craft between Detroit and no fewer than sixty-three lake and river ports, to say nothing of the hundreds of towns and cities on the various railroads that are daily trading with us. We have not included those ports to which the bulk of our surplus produce is forwarded, but only such as come strictly within the scope of our subject. There are few places where trade develops statistics of similar character, or anything approximating thereto, while there are plenty of cities of no inconsiderable pretensions, and even great advantages, that would think themselves made if they possessed one-fourth the commercial facilities we enjoy.
Within the past year, by the opening up of new and most important channels of railway communication, our position with respect to the great railway system of the continent, is rendered all that could be desired. In that regard it is indeed difficult to point out how any improvement could be made. With respect to our local advantages, however, admirable as they are, there is yet much in store for us. The signs are far more favorable than at any former period for the rapid settlement of the State, as well as for the more adequate development of her resources. We are constantly receiving intelligencethat some new source of wealth has been revealed within our borders, or that one previously discovered is likely to surpass the expectations at first entertained. These events must not only tend directly to hasten the settlement of the State, but also add in a still greater ratio to her commercial importance and her wealth.
If we were to fail to refer, in this connection, to the law passed by our legislature last winter, providing for the reclamation of the "swamp lands," technically so called, and inaugurating an admirable system of State roads throughout all the upper portions of the State, we should be ignoring decidedly the most pregnant of the signs of promise. In adopting so well-timed and beneficent a measure, our law-givers have proved themselves worthy guardians of a commonwealth whose interests so plainly bespeak a much greater degree of wise legislation than has heretofore been wielded for her benefit. Next in importance to these wholesome measures, is the law providing for the appointment of Commissioners of Emigration—one resident here, and the other stationed in New York. Those seeking homes in the West have only to be made aware of the unequaled inducements presented byour State, to secure immense accessions to our population.
Detroit does not alone reap the benefit of her advantageous position. It is shared by all interests, but perhaps by none others to so great an extent as the tillers of the soil. It is a most significant fact that breadstuffs and provisions not unfrequently bring as high prices here as in New York, giving producers all the advantages at home of a seaboard market, and virtually putting the cost of shipment into their pockets. Thus a farmer whose land possesses a nominal value of ten or twenty dollars per acre, can enjoy all the pecuniary advantages of a location near one of the largest eastern cities, where farms are valued at one to two hundred dollars per acre. This fact alone should go very far toward transforming our northern wilderness into cultivated fields.
As a matter of interest, and to some extent of curiosity, we present a comparative statement exhibiting the ruling prices of extra Michigan flour twice a month throughout the year, in Detroit, New York and Liverpool, and also the prices in the latter market, for the corresponding dates in the year 1858: