TRANSPORTATION AND MARKETING 245 



$2 a hundredweight. In 1854 the cost of carrying 

 freight by wagon was estimated to be fifteen cents 

 a ton-mile.^ It was the steam railway that wrought 

 a fundamental change in the situation of Michigan 

 agriculture as related to transportation and markets. 



Clearly an inhabitant of Jackson County, for ex- 

 ample, could not have prospered unless he could dis- 

 pose of his surplus wheat and live-stock beyond the 

 bounds of his own neighborhood. Detroit was his 

 best market, as it had at least water transportation 

 to the seaboard. However, to get to Detroit with a 

 load of grain or live-stock was costly, until, in the 

 forties, steam wrought a fundamental change. Eing- 

 walt, quoting Williams' "Traveller's and Tourist's 

 Guide," gives the passenger fare from Boston to 

 Chicago in 1851 as $23. The fare from Boston 

 to Detroit was $1G. From New York to Chicago, 

 according to Carey, the fare was $17. A railway 

 convention held in Cleveland agreed on passenger 

 fares between Xew York and certain western cities 

 for the year 1855. In this agreement were included 

 the New York Central, the Xew York and Erie, the 

 Pennsylvania, and the Baltimore and Ohio railroads. 

 By this agreement, fares like the following were 

 established : Between Xew York and Sandusky, 

 $14.65 ; Xew York and Cleveland, $13 ; Xew York 

 and Detroit, $15; Xew York and Chicago, $22; 

 Xew York and Toledo, $10.^ 



^"Mich. Pioneer & Hist. Soc. Collections," XXXVIII, 

 603. 



^ Ibid., 604; quoting "The Michigan Commercial Register 

 and Citizen's Almanac for 1855," 41. 



