TRAX^rORTATION AXU MARKETIXG 247 



tained in "Sketches of the City of Detroit," make 

 the shipments from that city by way of the Great 

 Lakes and the Canada Great Western Railway (now 

 the Grand Trunk), to include 337,000 barrels of 

 flour, 897,000 bushels of wheat, 587.000 bushels of 

 corn, 228,000 bushels of oats, 2,000,000 pounds of 

 wool and a very large quantity of other commodities.^ 

 In 1854, the Michigan Central Railroad is reported 

 to have carried through Detroit 451,689 passengers. 

 The influence of this railroad on the development of 

 the interior of southern Michigan is legitimately in- 

 ferred. The author of the "Sketches" tells us that 

 the population of that section of the State tributary 

 to the Michigan Central was, in 1855, 216,852; that 

 the number of acres of improved land was 844,309 ; 

 and the products of this district in 1854 included 

 3,137,875 bushels of wheat, 3,450,946 bushels of 

 corn; 943,330 bushels of other grains; 1,078,244 

 bushels of potatoes ; 86,760,889 feet of lumber. There 

 are said then to have been 298 sawmills and 93 flour- 

 mills in this section. 



The State and the railroads grew together. Be- 

 tween 1840 and 1845 Michigan increased by 90,000 

 in population; 95,000 were added in the next five 

 years, 110,000 in the next five years, and nearly a 

 quarter of a million between 1855 and 1860. 



The present railway system of Michigan had its 

 inception in these two great trunk lines begun under 

 public auspices and completed by private enterprise. 

 The decade following their completion in 1852 saw 



^Ihid., 606. 



