GENERAL REPORT. 
59 
enterprise of its people, from whose immense granaries will be sent forth 
over your railway a golden stream of wheat and other grain representing the 
wealth of that richest of all agricultural districts in this country.” 
By a consolidation of all the Wisconsin railways reaching 
westward and northwestward under the management of a strong 
company, wdiose interests are one wdth those of our own com¬ 
mercial metropolis and of the whole State, a point has been 
gained which wise and efficient direction can hardly fail to 
make effective in promoting the still more rapid growth of 
our advancing Commerce. 
Development has been further facilitated by the completion 
of several connecting links and branches of railway within 
the limits of this State, and measures have likewise been 
adopted, though, as yet, only partially carried into effect, for 
the improvement of some of our harbors and navigable streams. 
This last is a duty of the General Government, which cannot 
be too strongly urged upon Congress. 
In the absence of statistics exhibiting the commerce of the 
entire State, we must content ourselves with showing the gross 
earnings of railroads, those great channels of our commerce 
through the State, and the business done by our commercial 
metropolis—which it may be assumed is a fair indicator of our 
progress in this department—the annual statements of whose 
Chamber of Commerce afford reliable data. 
The gross receipts of our several railways in Wisconsin for 
the years 1861, 1865 and 1866, respectively, were as follows: 
Receipts in 1861. $4,001,223 
Receipts in 1865 . 7,126,690 
Receipts in 1866. 12,670,277 
Due allowance being made for the fact that the great cereal 
crops of 1860 and 1861, together with the transportation of 
troops and munitions of war must have carried the receipts for 
1861 considerably above the average for that period, these 
figures indicate a very rapid increase in the business of the 
State from year to year. • 
TRADE OF MILWAUKEE. 
Seconded by anything like a fair amount of enterprise on 
the part of her merchants and business men, Milwaukee mus t 
