Buffalo

the principal lake port of western New York. It is situated on Lake Erie, at the western terminus of the Erie Canal, and is the point of departure from the Great Lakes for the Mohawk Valley. There are 250 passenger trains a day, and nobody knows how many freights. Western produce on its way to New York City leaves Lake Erie at this point. Immense elevators and docks are prepared to receive grain, coal, iron ore, and lumber from train or boat. One hundred and fifty million bushels of grain and 14,000,000 barrels of flour are an ordinary year's business in these two staples. The greatest coal dock and the largest grain elevator in the world are here. In fact, the grain elevator is a Buffalo invention to save men from carrying grain in sacks or hoisting it with tackle. The traffic of Lake Superior is largely with Buffalo. Heavy freight, such as coal and salt, nails and sugar, destined for Minnesota, Manitoba, the Dakotas, or the region westward, takes boat at Buffalo. The mouth of a small creek has been enlarged by breakwaters and canals at an expense of millions of dollars to accommodate the traffic.

Niagara Falls are only twenty miles away, and furnish electric power for manufacturing purposes. Natural gas reaches the city through mains from the gas fields. There are numerous manufactures. Statistics of meatpacking, hardware, linseed oil, beer, sash and doors, ready-made clothing, flour, furniture, soap, candy, and leather run into millions. There are $45,000,000 on deposit in savings banks.

The first white child was born here in 1797. The town was laid out in 1804. The village was destroyed by the British in the War of 1812. The census of 1900 gave a population of 352,387, ranking eighth in the Union. In 1909 the population had passed the 400,000 mark.