Old Mackinaw Part 12

"It is accordingly well known that in England, on the east side of the Atlantic 7 or 8 farther north than Traverse Bay, the climate, as it regards cold in winter, is about equal to that of Washington City, and so it is on the east side of the Pacific ocean, in Oregon. Hence it is evident that the seasons on the east side of Lake Michigan must be uniform.

"Around Traverse Bay the frost seldom kills vegetables till in November, and seldom occurs in spring later than the 1st of May. In November it gets cold enough to freeze. The vapors arising from the lake and bay fall in snow and cover the ground before the frost has penetrated it at all; it acc.u.mulates several months till it is two feet deep, sometimes deeper, and remains till April; and when it goes off; cattle find enough to eat in the woods. This region is much more sunny between the middle of March and December than southern Michigan, and every vegetable physiologist will at once state that the influence of this on vegetation must be very great, and accordingly spring crops grow with such rapidity that corn is fit to be cut by the 1st of September. From December to March, as above, the atmosphere is hazy, cloudy, and frosty, though the thermometer never sinks so low as in the south of Michigan by ten or twelve degrees (8 or 10 degrees below zero, being the lowest yet known), and a winter thaw is unknown here.

Hence we never have mud in winter, and but little at any season.

"With the very defective cultivation hitherto used here, yield of crops are as follows:--Potatoes, free of rot, 150 to 300 bushels to the acre; oats 25 to 60; corn 25 to 50; wheat (spring) the largest yet raised 27 bushels. Wheat raised here is much more plump than in southern Michigan, and there is no instance of its being smothered or injured by snow, because the snow never thaws and alternately freezes into a hard crust, or ice, so as to exclude the air from the wheat, as in other places.

"We confidently predict that this will become the most prolific wheat region in the west; rust and insects are unknown. All experience goes to prove that this will be a great fruit country. The Indian apple and peach trees, although few in number bear well every year; and as to wild blackberries and raspberries, both as to size and flavor, there is absolutely no end. They serve all the inhabitants and millions of pigeons for several months."

United States census, 1850, shows products of States.

Average per acre of Wheat. Oats Corn. Potatoes.

Michigan 10 Bushels 26 32 140 Illinois 11 " 29 33 105 Indiana 12 " 20 33 100 Iowa 14 " 36 32 100

Average per acre of Wheat. Oats Corn. Potatoes.

Ohio 12 " 21 36 Wisconsin 14 " 35 30 Pennsylvania 15 " 20 New York 12 " 25 27

CLIMATE.--Council Bluffs is in lat.i.tude 41-1/2, Dubuque 42-3/4, Green Bay 43-1/2, and Mackinaw City about 46. By reference to the following tables of temperature, it will be seen that these points are about on the same isothermal line, practically removing, by these tables, the prejudices generally existing against the climate of northern Michigan--see Blodgett's Climatology and Army Meteorological Reports of United States.

Quebec, Canada. average in January above zero, 13 Montreal, " " " " 16 Hampden, Maine " " " 17 Portland, " " " " 21 Cannel, " " " " 15 Burlington, Vt. " " " 19 Deerfield, Ma.s.s. " " " 21 Granville, N. Y. " " " 22 Potsdam, " " " " 18 Plattsburgh, " " " " 20 Gouverneur, " " " " 20 Lowville, " " " " 22 Oneida, " " " " 22 Buffalo, " " " " 23 Silver Lake, Pa. " " " 22 Concord, N. H. " " " 22 Boston, Ma.s.s. " " " 28 Albany, N. Y. " " " 24 Chicago, Illinois " " " 24 Ottawa, " " " " 23 Muscatine, Iowa " " " 20 Detroit, Michigan " " " 27 Pittsburgh, Pa. " " " 29 Philadelphia, " " " " 32 Cincinnati, Ohio " " " 30 Green Bay, Wis. " " " 19 Dubuque, Iowa " " " 20 Council Bluffs " " " 19 Mackinaw City " " " 19

These extremes of lat.i.tude of Philadelphia and Mackinaw include the princ.i.p.al agricultural, mining, manufacturing, and commercial interests of America, elements naturally pertaining to Michigan, and second in their variety and extent to no State of the Union.

Archangel, Russia, in January, averages above zero 6.60 St. Petersburg, " " " " 15.70 Christiana, Norway, " " " " 21.30 St. Bernard, Switzerland, " " " " 14.40 Moscow, Russia, " " " " 13.60 Erzeroum, Turkey, " " " " 18.

Taganwa, Sea of Azof, " " " " 20.70 Astracan, Caspian Sea, " " " " 21.30 Kasow (Volga) Russia, " " " " 3.50 Stockholm, Sweden, " " " " 24.30 Cracow, Poland, " " " " 23.40 Pekin, China, " " " " 26.00 Odessa, S. Russia, " " " " 25.20 Berlin, Prussia, " " " " 27.70

Extremes below zero, 1835.

Bangor, Maine January 4, below 40 Bath " " " 40 Portland, " " " 21 Boston, Ma.s.s. " " 15 Salem, " " " 17 Chicago, Ill. February 8, " 22 St. Louis, Mo. " " 22 Cincinnati, O. " " 18 Lexington, Ky. " " 20 Nashville, Tenn. " " 10 Huntsville, Ala. " " 9 Philadelphia, Pa. " " 6 Lancaster, Pa. " " 22 Washington City " " 16 Clarksville, Geo. " " 15

Army Meteorological Reports for 1854.

January. Range. above below Mean. Max'm. min'm. mean. mean.

Fort Hamilton, N. Y. 31.49 50. 12. 18.5 19.5 Fort Niagara, " 25.04 48. 6. 23. 19.

Alleghany, Pa. 29.08 64. 5. 34.9 24.1 Fort Delaware, Md. 32.38 54. 10. 21.6 17.4 Cincinnati, Ohio 31.78 54. 1. 22.2 32.8 Fort Snelling, Min. 1.30 45. 36. 43.7 37.3 " Leavenworth, Kan. 24.68 67. 8. 32.3 32.7 " Mackinaw, Mich. 13.09 34. 15. 10.9 28.1

Blodgett's and Army Rain Charts, showing rain and snow in inches for a series of years.

Jan. Feb. M'ch. Dec. Total in year.

Mack'w Island, Mich. 1.25 .82 1.14 1.24 23.87 Fort Kent, Maine. 3.73 2.60 1.77 3.36 36.46 Portland, " 3.37 3.39 2.92 4.17 45.25

Jan. Feb. M'ch. Dec. Total in year.

Charleston, Ma.s.s. 2.66 2.22 4.08 2.27 35.83 Montreal, Canada 2.84 1.84 2.69 2.58 47.28 Fayetteville, Vt. 3.93 3.91 4.07 3.55 53.99 Cincinnati, Ohio. 3.35 3.51 3.93 4.29 46.89 Green Bay, Wis. 1.19 0.87 1.70 1.30 34.65 Detroit, Mich. 2.18 1.38 2.86 1.30 30.07 St. Louis, Mo. 1.93 3.37 3.82 1.99 41.95 Fort Hamilton, N. Y. 2.98 3.67 3.65 3.84 43.65 Pittsburgh, Pa. 2.18 2.17 2.70 3.13 34.96 Philadelphia, Pa. 3.09 2.94 3.43 4.03 43.56

CHAPTER XIII.

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 antic.i.p.ated 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 n.o.ble inland seas that clasp our sh.o.r.es, are a sign and promise of the commercial greatness that awaits us in the future. We may well be proud of the condition 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 princ.i.p.al 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 surpa.s.sed in the Union, if indeed it can be equaled. Such is a faint picture of the 'Peninsular State.'

"The snail-like progress. .h.i.therto 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 which our 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 pa.s.sed 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 a.s.sured 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 manufacture of 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 and returned 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 demonstrated that freight cannot be moved on American railroads for less than one cent per ton per mile. This is actually the _first 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 a.s.sert 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 to 200 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-eight _less_ than 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 a.s.sume 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, _via_ Albany and Suspension Bridge, 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 pa.s.sengers and goods from any point in the Western, Southern, and Southwestern States, and _vice 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 n.o.bler 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 sixty million 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 anch.o.r.ed 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 Ma.s.sachusetts. 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 local roads 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 the NEW 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 know what 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 G.o.d's highways are superior to man's will gain strength, insomuch as to a.s.sume far more practical importance than it has. .h.i.therto 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 the St.

Lawrence, and an enlargement of the Canadian ca.n.a.ls, so that vessels of say eighteen hundred tons can pa.s.s 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 ca.n.a.ls 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, b.u.t.ter, lard, cheese, meal, and every description 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 quant.i.ty 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. .h.i.t 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 the St. 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 most to 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, except with the same result; nor at New York _via_ the 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, _via_ G. 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 princ.i.p.al 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 ca.n.a.ls 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 pa.s.sage than is now charged by any route or combination of routes in existence, as the following will show conclusively: