f ancient Rome, even in the zenith of its power, to
provision the capital and the adjacent provinces from the outlying
portions of the empire. The yearly crop contributed by Egypt was fifteen
million bushels. Under the prudent administration of the Emperor
Severus, a large store of corn was accumulated and kept on hand,
sufficient to guard the empire from famine for seven years. The total
amount thus provided was but one hundred and ninety million bushels. The
product of 1860 in the five Lake States of Ohio, Michigan, Indiana,
Illinois, and Wisconsin, was three hundred and fifty-four million
bushels."

Another branch of the Lake trade, which is yet in its infancy, but which
promises to reach vast proportions in a few years, is the iron and
copper trade of Lake Superior. In 1864 about two hundred and forty-eight
thousand tons of iron ore and seventeen thousand tons of copper ore and
metal were shipped from that lake,--enough to load thirteen hundred and
twenty-five vessels of two hundred tons burden. This trade has wholly
grown up within the last ten years.

Let the Erie and Oswego Canals be again enlarged, as advocated so ably
by Mr. Ruggles, let the railroad lines be equipped with double tracks,
and this trade of the Lake country will still follow them up and
outstrip their efforts. The man is now living in Chicago, hardly past
middle age, who, less than thirty years ago, shipped the first invoice
of grain from that city which now ships fifty millions; and should he
live to the common age of mankind, he will probably see the shipment of
a hundred millions from that port alone.

The population of Illinois has doubled in each of the last two decades,
and there is no reason why it should not continue to do so in the next.
That would give it in 1870 about three and a half millions of people,
most of them farmers and producers, and farmers who, by help of their
fertile soil, the ease of its cultivation, and the general use of
agricultural machinery, are able to produce a very large amount of grain
or meat to the working hand.

These fleets of sail-vessels and steamers, and these railroad-trains
which go Eastward thus loaded with grain and provisions, return West
with freight more various, though as valuable. The teas, silks, and
spices of India, the coffee of Brazil, the sugar and cigars of Cuba, the
wines and rich fabrics of France, the varied manufactures of England,
and the products of the New England workshops and f