FUTURE PROSPECTS. 453 



prairie land is the same, the greater productiveness of the 

 latter, and small capital required to bring it into a state of 

 cultivation, will keep down the price of the necessaries of life 

 by furnishing a greater supply* Thus the prairies of the west, 

 by attracting population from the eastern States, will have a 

 tendency to keep up the wages of labour there, and prevent a 

 rise in the price of farm produce in the thickly peopled parts 

 of the country. 



The inexhaustible supply of coal in Illinois is a strong fea 

 ture in the future greatness of the country, both as enabling- 

 the whole surface to be devoted to the production of human 

 food, and furnishing fuel for culinary and manufacturing par- 

 poses. From the natural advantages of the country, and con 

 sequent great reward of industry, population will be attracted 

 to it, and manufactures of all kinds will either spring up with 

 in the State, or the communication with the cities on the 

 Atlantic will become more accessible than it is at present. 

 The towns of Pittsburg and Buffalo seem likely to become 

 the great depots of produce passing between the eastern and 

 western States. Pittsburg is situated at the head of the 

 steam-boat navigation of the river Ohio it is the chief scat 

 of hardware manufactures in the United States, and has been 

 termed the Birmingham of America. Pittsburg already com 

 municates with the city of Philadelphia by a railway and 

 canal, and a railway is forming to connect it with Baltimore. 

 There is also, I believe, a canal in progress to open a com 

 munication between Pittsburg and the Erie canal, unconnect 

 ed with lake Erie. Buffalo is situated at the junction of the 

 Erie canal with lake Erie, and is one of the best commercial 

 situations in the United States, being connected with the 

 country to the westward by the great lakes and canals, 

 with New York by the Hudson and Erie canal, and it will 

 also soon communicate with Boston by a railway. These 

 two towns are likely to become the centres of diverging lines 

 of railroads and other modes of communication between the 

 eastern and western States, which form the only means of 

 preventing the depopulation of the countries on the Atlantic, 

 as the abundance and cheapness of food in the west would 



