REPORT OF EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. 
63 
Milwaukee is the metropolis of Wisconsin, and at the same 
time occupies a proud position among the commercial cities of 
the Great West. Her numerous railroads, radiating into all 
parts of the country, constitute her a natural focus for the 
immense trade of that portion of the North-west lying North 
of latitude 42° 40 r ; and her harbor — one of the best on the 
lakes — opens for her shipping a direct communication with the 
great markets of the New and Old World. In some depart¬ 
ments of trade her commerce is already worthy of an Atlantic 
city. The grain trade of Milwaukee is especially deserving of 
notice. Her local position is such as to make her the natural 
shipping port for Wisconsin, Minnesota and Northern Iowa, 
and the superiority of the wheat grown in this portion of the 
North-west, as compared with that produced on the ill-adapted 
soils of the Prairie State, has also secured to her much of the 
grain grown in Northern Illinois, despite the proximity of 
Chicago. 
Her warehouses have a capacity for the storage of over 
1,800,000 bushels and are furnished with facilities adequate 
to the shipment of 320,000 bushels per diem. But even this 
capacity, great as it is for a young city in a new country, is 
unequal to the demands of the grain trade in a productive sea¬ 
son, and other storehouses are being erected. 
The year 1860, on the trade of which our statistics are based, 
may, at first thought, appear exceptional rather than represen¬ 
tative, but when it is remembered that the moderate demand in 
the eastern markets and the low price paid for wheat during 
that year had the effect to keep back one-half or two-thirds of 
the whole amount intended for sale, the aggregate of bushels 
received and shipped within the year will doubtless be regarded 
as nothing more than a fair average. 
Of Wheat, the total amount received during said year was 
9,108,458 bushels; of which 8,144,094 bushels were received 
by the several railroads, 71,458 bushels by lake, and 892,906 
bushels by teams. 
The aggregate would undoubtedly have been much larger 
had the carrying capacity of the grain vessels of the port been 
