a single cargo, during which time the vessel would, on an average, lose one or two fair winds; whereas the largest cargoes are now readily discharged by steam, in fewer hours, than in days at that time. Again; steamers now require but twelve hours to make trips for which three days were then, at the least, necessary. Up to the year 1835 the trade consisted principally of exports of merchandise to the West. During that year, however, Ohio commenced exporting breadstuffs, ashes, and wool, to some extent. The following table exhibits the quantities of several leading articles of western produce, during the various periods from 1835 to 1851: Articles shipped eastward from Buffalo by canal. The figures above are taken from the canal returns for the several years, and of course do not embrace the whole imports of the lakes, but are given as the best attainable standards of the increase of lake commerce, up to the date when the statistics of that commerce began to be kept in a manner on which reliance might be reposed. The table next ensuing will give a fuller and more satisfactory idea of the actual increase of the trade, as well as of the various kinds of articles received at Buffalo, during a series of consecutive years. In this table all packages of the same article are reduced to a uniform size; and for this reason, probably, some articles will be found to vary in quantity, for the year 1851, from the figures contained in the report made up at the collector's office, and furnished by Mr. Wm. Ketchum, the collector, showing the receipts at Buffalo, Dunkirk, and Tonawanda, by lake, together with their tonnage, their value at each point, and their aggregate for all the points combined. The following table was made up from day to day, during the several seasons, and will be found substantially correct. By reference to the official tables, following this report, some details will be found very curious, and interesting at this juncture, for reasons which will be adduced hereafter: At the present moment the official documents, alluded to above as following this report, merit something more than ordinary attention, as they display the character, quantity, and estimated value of each article passing over the lakes eastward, in pursuit of a market, and the places of shipment on the lake indicating, with sufficient accuracy, the regions where produced. Thus it will be observed that the small amount of cotton, received, came viâ Toledo, which may be held to signify that it reached that point by canal from Cincinnati, to which place it had been brought from the southward by the Ohio river. The same remarks will apply to tobacco, and in some sort to flax and hemp. The latter, however, arrive in nearly equal quantities by this route, and by the Illinois river, the Illinois and Michigan canal, and by lake from Missouri. Nothing can be more interesting or instructive, as connected with the lake trade, than statistics like these, showing whence come these vast supplies, and what superficies of country is made tributary to this immense commerce. The recapitulation of the tables, referred to, shows the commerce of Buffalo to have been In 1851, of imports, 731,462 tons, valued at. 66 exports, 204,536 Making an aggregate of. In 1850 it was. Increase on 1851........... $31,889,951 44,201,720 76,091,671 67,027,518 9,064,153 Of the trade there were, in 1851, imports from Canada.. $507,517 exports to Canada..... Total Canadian trade of 1851..... Of the trade there were, in 1850, imports from Canada... exports to Canada... Total Canadian trade of 1850.... Increase of Canadian trade on 1851.... 613,948 1,121,465 $307,074 220,196 527,270 $594,195 It is, perhaps, proper here to observe that much of the property purchased in Buffalo for the Canadian market passes over the Niagara Falls railway to the suspension bridge, where it is reported as passing into Canada from the Niagara district, and is as such reported as the trade of that district. The tonnage of this port exhibits an increase no less gratifying than that of the commerce. This array of tonnage would suffer little by comparison with that of any of our Atlantic ports. It is composed of 107 steamers and steampropellers, and 607 sailing vessels, varying in size from steamers of 310 feet length and 1,600 tons burden, to the smallest class of both steam and sailing vessels. It is a significant fact, that out of nearly 7,000 tons of vessels building at Buffalo on the 1st of January, 1852, there was but one sailing vessel-of 230 tons-the remainder consisting of steamers and propellers; showing conclusively that steam is daily growing more rapidly into favor in a trade so admirably adapted to its successful application as that of the western lakes. The present population of Buffalo, as stated above, is estimated at 50,000 persons; the principal part of the inhabitants being employed in occupations more or less closely connected with the commerce of the lakes and canals. There is, moreover, much manufacturing successfully carried on in this place, more especially in leather, iron, and wood. In the above calculation of the commerce of Buffalo, no estimate has been made of the enormous passenger trade, or of the value of the many tons of valuable goods and specie transported by express over the railways and on board the steamers. But were it possible to arrive at the value of such commerce, it cannot be doubted that it would swell the aggregate amount of the trade, by many millions of dollars. The enrolled and licensed tonnage of this district is 22,438 tons, of steam measurement; and 23,619 tons of sail, enrolled. |