As coal is not available for smelting the ore in the localities in which it is mined, it is shipped from Duluth, Superior, Two Har bours, Ashland, and Marquette on Lake Superior, and from Escanaba on Lake Michigan, to various ports on Lakes Michigan and Erie. At Milwaukee and Chicago on the first of these, and at Cleveland, Erie, and Buffalo on the second, the manufacture of pig-iron has become an important industry ; while from Ashtabula, Conneaut and Erie, all on Lake Erie, very large quantities of raw ore are sent to the Pittsburg district, Youngstown, and other places, either on, or in the vicinity of, the coalfields of the Middle Appala chian States. In the North Central Region itself, the production of iron and steel amounts to between one-fourth and one-fifth that of the United States, the chief towns engaged being situated on the lakes to which ore and coal can both be transported at low rates.
In the Lake Superior region of the upper peninsula of Michigan, there is a strip of land about seventy miles long and one mile wide which is at present the most important native copper district of the world. The copper, which occurs in masses varying from small particles to lumps of several hundred tons in weight, is obtained from mines sometimes a mile below the surface of the ground. The output is about one-fifth that of the whole country. Coal for smelting and other purposes is easily obtained by water from. Pennsylvania, and a considerable amount of ore goes eastward, by the same route, on its way to the states of New York and New Jersey, where it is smelted at Buffalo, New York, and Jersey City.
Among other industries the manufacture of agricultural imple ments is perhaps the most characteristic of the North Central Region. The great demand for every kind of field machinery from the prairie states, the proximity of iron and coal, the facilities for obtaining hard timber, and the bulky nature of the finished goods, all account for the fact that here is produced 70 per cent. of the total output of the United States. Chicago and Moline in Illinois, Racine in Wisconsin, and Springfield in Ohio are among the leading towns engaged in the industry.
The lumber industry of the region is located chiefly in the states of Wisconsin, Michigan, and Minnesota, which fall within the northern pine province. The manufacture of wood pulp and paper is also carried on to some extent, especially in Michigan and Wisconsin.
At the census of 1900 it was shown that rather more than one third of the glass made in the United States came from this region, chiefly from Indiana, but the decreased output of the gas wells in that state has led to a relative decline within recent years.
The economic development of the North Central States is therefore the result of a remarkable combination of geographical factors. The prosperity of the region is based upon the great agricultural resources due to its flat or undulating surface, its fertile soils, and its favourable but diverse climate. The large supplies of fuel within its borders, and the still larger supplies which can be easily obtained from the Appalachian fields beyond, enable it to export these agricultural products, not as raw materials, but as manu factured goods. The presence of iron ore and timber has facilitated the growth of these and other industries, and the momentum thus obtained has aided the further industrial development of the region. The Great Lakes provide a means of cheap transportation which has been of immense value, while few physical obstacles hinder the construction of railways, nor is communication with the Atlantic and the Gulf a matter of great difficulty. The position of the more important cities indicates the nature of the forces that have been at work. They are primarily collecting and distributing centres, and, because of their position as such, have become manu facturing as well. Chicago is in a sense typical of the whole region. It is situated where the great railroads from the east to the north west must all converge in order to turn the southern end of Lake Michigan, and it is therefore a great meeting place of land and water routes. To it can easily be brought the wheat of the Dakotas and Minnesota, the live stock of the maize belt and the Great Plateaus, the iron ore of Michigan, the wood of Wisconsin, the coal of Pennsyl vania. Thus, being the collecting centre for the varied products of a large and rich area, it has become a great manufacturing town, with special facilities for the export of its manufactures, and with similar facilities for the import of other commodities and for their distribution over the region from which it obtains its raw materials. Chicago, it is well said, " is the epitome and climax of the prairie and lake region."