cial centers, and the railroads and other improvements now in progress, and the facilities that shall hereafter be afforded to the enterprising business men of the State, point to no particular city with any assurance of its precedence. All parts and sections are progressing. It has truthfully been said that "the public convenience and the general good, not State pride, is building our cities.”

The principal articles of export from the State, at the present time are pork and flour. The former is mostly produced in the southern, and the latter in the northern part of the State. To these great staples may be added horses, mules, fat cattle, corn, poultry, butter, most of the agricultural products of the West, and a wide range of articles of manufacture. The numerous canals and railroads which intersect each other at many points in the State, afford great facilities for transportation, so that our producers can reach any market desired at a nominal expense.

The disposition to monopolize in the trade of the State does not exist to a greater degree than is desirable or necessary in a healthy commercial State. During the civil war many attempts of this kind were made, which resulted either in making very large profits or in the utter failure of the speculator who engaged in them. The prospect of securing a large profit in a vast amount of produce which was made reasonably certain by the increasing demand for this merchandise became very exciting, and the flour and pork trader found it quite impossible to practice moderation in their calculations. The result was always damaging on the general trade. When the trader failed the farmer generally suffered in pocket, and when he made heavy profits their feelings were outraged. This state of things led to a better regulated commerce. Farmers united in maintaining prices and protecting each other, and so great has been their strength and influence in the making and administration of the laws touching matters of trade that they have been enabled to regulate the cost of transportation, and to prevent, in a great measure, damaging fluctuations in the markets.

Commerce in the productions of the soil, for many years,

absorbed the attention of traders and speculators; but no sooner had the prosperity of trade created a demand for a general development of the agricultural resources of the State, than a special interest was directed to manufacturing. This was manifested as early as 1840, and, from that year down to the present, a general prosperity has attended almost every manufacturing establishment in the State. It is said that the largest carriage factory in the whole world, to-day, is located in the State of Indiana, at the flourishing city of South Bend. This is the greater evidence of the enterprise of Indiana manufactures, when taken in consideration with the celebrated carriage factories of Connecticut, many of which have supplied, to a great extent, the markets of the old world. Following are some statistical observations.

The above statistics of manufacturing in Indiana, for the years 1850, 1860, and 1870, were compiled from the reports of the Bureau of Statistics; those for the year 1875 have been gathered by the compilers of this work, while traveling through the State, and are, in nearly all cases, as correct as those taken from the reports. The column representing 1875 will show the unparalleled increase in manufactures in Indiana during the last five years. As a manufacturing State, Indiana is now considerably in advance of Illinois and Michigan, in proportion to her population, and she is rapidly leaving them in the rear in this great branch of industry,

which must, in some future day, become the great source of wealth in the States, instead of agriculture.

From careful estimates by the compilers of this work, it is shown that there is over $100,000,000 now invested in manufacturing in this State. Five years ago Illinois had less than

$90,000,000 invested in this branch of business, while at the same time Michigan had but $70,000,000. Indiana, in the same year had but little over $50,000,000 invested in her factories. How has this comparison been affected by a growth

of five years! It was estimated, in 1874, by one of the leading journals of Illinois, that the manufacturing capital of that State had increased thirty per cent. in five years. This would give Illinois $117,000 000 in manufacturing, in 1875, against $100,000,000 in Indiana. From this basis it will be safe to predict that in 1880 Indiana, in proportion to her population, will greatly exceed the State of Illinois in manufacturing enterprise. The comparison with Michigan, during the same period, is still more flattering to Indiana, than that with Illinois.

The same increase of prosperity is noticeable in the products of Indiana factories. In 1870 they were estimated at $103,617,278. From careful estimates by the compilers of this work, it appears that the products of the various factories in the State, for the year ending September thirtieth, 1874, will exceed $300,000,000, showing an increase in five years of nearly $200,000,000. These estimates have been made with the greatest of care, and although they seem to overstate the prosperity of the State during the last five years, yet they may be regarded as reliable.

It is true that the inquiries as to the amount of capital invested, and the amount of products, were not always suc cessful, but means have been employed to correct errors, into which the answers of over-ambitious persons were calculated to lead us.

But the manufacturing industry of Indiana has not prospered in the last five years more than it will in the next. There is a brilliant prospect for a great future advancement in this branch of business. Indeed, this department of enterprise cannot be regarded as more than fully begun; and from the present indications, its future growth is guaranteed.

CHAPTER XXXVIII.

SE

THE MINERAL WEALTH OF INDIANA.

ECOND in importance among the material resources of Indiana are her minerals, as yet only partly discovered, and almost entirely undeveloped. In agricultural wealth the State has no equal, acre for acre, in North America; in mineral wealth she is scarcely behind the richest States in the Union. In short, she possesses within her borders every element required to produce wealth, and stimulate progress. Physically, the surface of the country is, for the most part, gently rolling. In the southern portion, along the Ohio river, there are a few hills ranging from fifty to four hundred feet in height, but the average height is probably not more than one hundred feet. About one-eighth part of the State is prairie land, and the remaining seven-eighths, when in a state of nature, was set with a dense forest.*

About one-third of the State is still well timbered. The surface of the territory is well supplied with water courses. The Ohio river, one of the largest tributaries of the Mississippi river, flows along its southern border, and is navigable by the largest class of steamboats during the greater part of the year. The Wabash river rises in the State of Ohio, crosses Indiana in a southwesterly direction, and thence to its junction with the Ohio river forms the boundary line between Indiana and Illinois. For a part of the season this fine stream is navigable for steamboats as far up as Lafayette, about three hundred miles above its mouth. When the improvements now going on under authority of the General Government,

*We have been kindly permitted to use, in this chapter, the materials embraced in a pamphlet edited by Prof. E. T. Cox, State Geologist.