The flour mills grind immense quantities of wheat. Minneapolis produces more flour than any other city in the world Milwaukee and St Louis are also famous for their flouring mills.
Other important manufactures are those of farming tools, machinery, and furniture.
The river front at St. Louis. Compare the river boats with the lake boats at the wharf in Chicago. Notice the wharf boat, where the steamers land instead of at a wharf.
2. Commerce.—The commerce of the Central states consists chiefly in sending away their own great products, especially wheat, corn, and meat, and in bringing in articles that they need.
The Mississippi and Ohio rivers can be used to float produce to market. Railways connect all the cities and towns with other parts of the country.
3. The Great Lakes have thousands of steamboats and other vessels plying upon them, and carrying cargoes from place to place. These lakes are all connected by rivers and canals; and vessels loaded at Duluth, Chicago, or any lake port, and sailing into the St. Lawrence, may enter the Atlantic and go directly from the heart of the United States over to Europe.
You may wonder how these vessels manage to avoid the Falls of Niagara and the falls of St. Mary's river. Ship-canals have been constructed around these falls.
The harbor at Chicago near the mouth of the Chicago river. This river has been widened and deepened and connected with the Illinois river by a canal so that boats may go from the Great Lakes to the Mississippi.
4. Chicago is the second city in population in the country. About eighty years ago it was only a small village. It now contains more than two-million people. It has an immense trade in grain, pork, lard, beef, lumber, and cattle.
Night and day railway trains and steamboats are carrying goods to Chicago, or taking them away from this city to other places. It is, therefore, what we call a great center of trade.
5. St. Louis is the largest city on the Mississippi. It is connected with all the Central states either by navigable rivers or by numerous railroads. Like Chicago, it also is a great center of trade. It manufactures more tobacco than any other city in the world.
6. Cincinnati is the largest city on the Ohio. It is noted for its large trade and manufactures. Louisville is a busy and beautiful city on the Ohio. It is our greatest tobacco market and has an extensive trade.
A grain elevator commonly seen along the Great Lakes. The grain is lifted from boats and cars by an endless belt with buckets attached, and stored until ready for shipment.
7. On the Great Lakes there are large cities besides Chicago, all extensively engaged in lake commerce. Cleveland is noted for its great iron works and its beautiful avenues. Detroit was once a French trading
