d as another; it was based
upon "good fellowship," sympathy and understanding. They were of a
stock, moreover, which sought new trails and were ready to follow where
the trail led, innovators in society as well as finders of new lands.

By 1830 the Southern inundation ebbed and a different tide flowed in
from the northeast by way of the Erie Canal and steam navigation on the
Great Lakes to occupy the zone unreached by Southern settlement. This
new tide spread along the margins of the Great Lakes, found the oak
openings and small prairie islands of Southern Michigan and Wisconsin;
followed the fertile forested ribbons along the river courses far into
the prairie lands; and by the end of the forties began to venture into
the margin of the open prairie.

In 1830 the Middle West contained a little over a million and a half
people; in 1840, over three and a third millions; in 1850, nearly five
and a half millions. Although in 1830 the North Atlantic States numbered
between three and four times as many people as the Middle West, yet in
those two decades the Middle West made an actual gain of several hundred
thousand more than did the old section. Counties in the newer states
rose from a few hundred to ten or fifteen thousand people in the space
of less than five years. Suddenly, with astonishing rapidity and volume,
a new people was forming with varied elements, ideals and institutions
drawn from all over this nation and from Europe. They were confronted
with the problem of adjusting different stocks, varied customs and
habits, to their new home.

In comparison with the Ohio Valley, the peculiarity of the occupation of
the northern zone of the Middle West, lay in the fact that the native
element was predominantly from the older settlements of the Middle West
itself and from New York and New England. But it was from the central
and western counties of New York and from the western and northern parts
of New England, the rural regions of declining agricultural prosperity,
that the bulk of this element came.

Thus the influence of the Middle West stretched into the Northeast, and
attracted a farming population already suffering from western
competition. The advantage of abundant, fertile, and cheap land, the
richer agricultural returns, and especially the opportunities for youth
to rise in all the trades and professions, gave strength to this
competition. By it New England was profoundly and permanently modified.

This Yanke