One of the notable features of the internal commerce following 1830 was the rise of the trade on the Great Lakes. After the opening of the Erie Canal there was a large migration to the lands around the lakes; in a few years thousands of acres of land were cleared and put under cultivation; the center of cereal production shifted westward; and hundreds of shiploads of grain were borne over the lakes toward eastern markets. Ohio was the first state west of New York to ship grain over the lakes. By 1835, Indiana and Michigan were sending grain eastward over Lake Erie; in 1836 the first shipment from Lake Michigan was recorded; in 1838 a shipment of 78 bushels of wheat from Chicago marked the beginning of the cereal trade of that city, and in 1841 the first exportation of Wisconsin wheat left the harbor of Milwaukee. The growth of the lake grain trade was exceedingly rapid. As soon as the Ohio Canal was completed (1832) there was a diversion of traffic from the Mississippi River to Lake Erie, and as early as 1838, the receipts of western wheat and flour at Buffalo were larger than the receipts at New Orleans. The repeal of the English Corn Laws in 1846 gave a great stimulus to cereal production in the United States. As the population of the Central States increased and as canals and railroads were built to connect all parts of the cereal belt with the lake cities, the lake grain trade constantly swelled in volume. In 1860 the receipts of grain by lake at Buffalo, Oswego, Dunkirk, Ogdensburg and Cape Vincent amounted to 62,000,000 bushels. The shipment from Lake Michigan ports that year were 43,000,000 bushels, half of which came from Chicago alone. Though grain and flour constituted the most important part of the eastbound lake traffic, there was at the same time a considerable trade in other commodities. Large quantities of pork, bacon, beef, lard, and other provisions were sent to Buffalo for distribution eastward; hides, wool, whiskey and live stock formed an important part of the traffic. Millions of feet of lumber were transported annually from Michigan and Wisconsin to all the other lake states; the shipment of copper from Lake Superior began in 1845, and the iron ore traffic began ten years later. The westbound shipments over the lakes were also large and valuable. In 1836, $9,000,000 worth of merchandise was sent to western states over the Erie Canal and the lakes, and by 1854 the amount reached $94,000,000. After the latter year there was a rapid decline in the merchandise traffic over the canal and lake route because of railway competition. The shipments to the West consisted mainly of dry goods, clothing, machinery, railroad iron, drugs, imported foodstuffs, household furniture, salt and coal.