TRADE OF THE ORE REGION.

361

machinery in mining and the construction of special terminals for loading and unloading the ore. But an equally important factor is the low rates of freight from the mines to the manufacturing points in Ohio, western Pennsylvania, and Illinois by the water route through the canal. In 1895 the rate from the mines to Erie ports was 80 cents per ton, equal to nine-tenths of a mill per ton-mile. The lowest railroad rate per ton-mile would equal a charge of $2.59 a ton from Duluth to Cleveland; and as the price of red hematite ore of Bessemer quality at Cleveland in 1895 was $2.80 a ton, the dependence of Lake Superior ore on the water route may be easily seen.

An interesting case of interacting causes is to be seen in the relation between the Lake Superior iron mines and the shipping on the Great Lakes. It was the developemnt of the iron mines which furnished the trade of the large steel steamships, and also the material for constructing them, while the use of the larger and better ships has lowered freight rates and still further developed the iron industry.

The development of the Lake Superior iron mines has been an important factor in causing the great reduction in the price of Bessemer steel during the last sixteen years, and it is this reduction that has made possible the largely increased use of steel in shipbuilding, in bridges; in heavier rails, and in the tall buildings of our large cities. Indirectly, then, all these improvements have depended to a large degree

on the existence of the St. Marys Falls Canal. The extent of this relation may be indicated in some degree by the statistics of the iron-ore movement through the canal. From 1860 to 1881 the amount of iron ore passing through the canal increased from 100,000 tons to 750,000 tons per year, but since the construction of the larger lock the increase has been at a much greater rate. In 1887, 2,500,000 tons went through the canal; and for each of the years 1895, 1896, 8,000,000 tons; and in 1901, 18,000,000 tons. Throughout the period since 1881 the traffic in iron ore has formed about one-half the total tonnage passing through the canal. The figures for 1895 and 1896 are equal to four-fifths of the total production of the Lake Superior mines, which in turn constitutes two-thirds of the total iron-ore output of the United States.

ENORMOUS WHEAT TRAFFIC OF THE LAKES.

The most important part of the traffic through the "Soo" Canal, however, is not iron ore, but wheat and flour and other grains. The value of these items in the canal traffic is one and a half times that of the iron ore, and equal to $84,000,000, or nearly a third of the valuation of the total commerce through the canal. In volume the traffic has grown from 8,500,000 bushels of wheat and 600,000 barrels of flour in 1881 to 63,250,000 bushels of wheat

EFFECT OF CANALS ON WHEAT TRADE. 363

and nearly 9,000,000 barrels of flour in 1896. The last figures account for a large fraction of the 467,000,000 bushels of wheat raised in the United States in 1896, being in fact almost equal to that portion of the crop exported. The movement of wheat through the canal just about equals the total receipts at Buffalo and Erie.

It is not, however, possible to give the canal alone the credit for having developed this wheat trade. The production of the wheat was only made possible by the construction of railroads through Minnesota and the Dakotas, and these same railroads provide a means of getting the wheat to market via Chicago. But if all-rail rates had to be paid, Minnesota and Dakota wheat and flour could not compete so well with that from the country near the eastern markets as it does by having water rates from Duluth to Buffalo. It should also be borne in mind that railroad building in Dakota and Minnesota began on a large scale only after the enlargement of the canal, when it was seen that they could connect with a through direct water route to Buffalo. The canal has therefore been an important factor in developing wheat production in the country west of Lake Superior.

Besides wheat there has been a considerable traffic in other grain, but this first assumed large dimensions in the year 1896, when 27,000,000 bushels of grain other than wheat went through the canal, as against

8,000,000 bushels in the previous year. As yet this is a less important item than that of wheat, but the relations between the canal and the development of the traffic are the same in both cases.

DEVELOPMENT OF LUMBER TRADE.

The same relations can also be traced in the development of the lumber traffic. This grew from 82,000,000 feet in 1881 to 685,000,000 feet in 1896. As in the case of wheat, a considerable increase would have resulted from the construction of railroads, but the construction of railroads has been hastened and increased by the existence of the water route to the East through the canal, and it is only by cheap water rates that such a huge traffic has been developed. If, however, the cutting down of forests is the true explanation of the destructive spring floods in the Mississippi Valley, the encouragement given to the lumber traffic by the canal may not, after all, have been of economic advantage to the country as a whole.

The other important item in the south-bound traffic through the canal does not seem to have been dependent on the canal. The amount of copper going by this route increased from 29,000 tons in 1881 to 116,000 tons in 1896; but the cheaper freights made possible by the canal can have had little effect in promoting the production of an article valued at $200

a ton.

INCREASES OF POPULATION.

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Of the north-bound traffic the only item of large dimensions is that of coal. In 1881, 295,000 tons of coal passed through the canal; in 1896, over 3,000,000 tons. The whole of this traffic may be said to have been created by the canal. The lowest railroad rates would be too high to allow any coal to be carried to the country around Lake Superior, but the lake steamers, going back empty for their cargoes of iron ore and wheat, can afford to carry coal at rates which seem incredible. In 1890 the average freight rate on coal from Buffalo to Duluth was 45 cents a ton. It is through such rates that the northward movement of coal and the consequent development of a large iron manufacturing industry near the ore mines are made possible.

INCREASES OF POPULATION DUE TO THE CANAL.

The geographical changes in production that have resulted from the operation of the St. Marys Falls Canal have been accompanied by important movements of population. A definite connection can be shown between the canal and certain particular population movements, but with other changes the canal has been only one of several factors. The increase of population around the shores of Lake Superior may fairly be ascribed to the development which has been given to that country by the canal. Taking the counties bordering on Lake Superior, we find that from