As the steamboat was perfected, and increased in numbers and importance, many of these strange craft were destined to disappear, and prior even to the year 1830, many of them began to be superseded by the larger and more swiftly moved steamboats.
CHAPTER III.
ARTICLES OF TRAFFIC, AND PLACES WITH WHICH TRADE WAS CARRIED ON.
As the population of the country rapidly increased, and the means of communication by water were improved, the resources of the country were developed, manufactures sprang up, and the commerce of the Ohio Valley experienced a remarkable growth. Many of the small river villages became large and thriving cities, and many parts of the country which had worn the face of a wilderness now became the center of a vast and increasing trade.
During the year 1811, merchants of New Orleans advertised for sale the following articles: Kentucky, flour,[371] horses,[372] pork, whiskey,[373] lard,[374] oats,[375], Monongahela and Kentucky flour,[376] tobacco,[377] hemp,[378] hempen yarn,[379] and packing cloth.[380] From October 5, 1810 to May 5, 1811 there passed the Falls of the Ohio the following number of boats and articles:
| Boats---Number | 743 | . |
| Flour - bbls. | 129,483 | |
| Bacon - lbs. | 604,810 | |
| Whiskey - bbls. | 9,477 | |
| Cider - bbls. | 2,513 | |
| Pork - bbls. | 13,562 | |
| Apples - bbls. | 2,513 | |
| Oats - bu. | 4,020 | |
| Corn - bu. | 47,795 | |
| Merdhandise | $355,624 | |
| Cheese - bbls. | 5,141 | |
| Beans - bbls. | 606 | |
| Plank - feet | 1,483,130 | |
| Butter - lbs. | 24,691 | |
| Live hogs | 708 | |
| Cider, Royal - bbls. | 1,350 | |
| Lard - lbs. | 465,412 | |
| Onions - bbls. | 218 | |
| Potatoes - bu. | 1,811 | |
| Hemp - cwt. | 630,562 | |
| Dry fruit - bbls. | 263 | |
| Yarn Cordage} } - lbs. | 113,015 | |
| Yarn Cordage | } } | - lbs. |
| Fowls - number | 1,207,338 | |
| Shoe thread - lbs | 2,592 | |
| Country linen - yds | 8,140 | |
| Horses - number | 292 | |
| Beer - bbls. | 227 | |
| Tobacco - hhds. | 2,311 | . |