752 



FARMERS' R E G I S T E f?. 



[No. 12 



mode ol" puliiug down Amos! Kendall's express 

 mail; and iiu mure iiorses would be luu out oi then- 

 lives in currying' the President's message at an ex- 

 tra s^ession. 



There .-^eeui.? lo be no reasonable doubt that in a 

 ehori period, itiere wili be a nne ol' couiuiunicaiion 

 ii-om north to south by railways, j'iie best and 

 most pnicticable rouies ought to be selected.* 

 liail roads are consirucied al great expense, and 

 wherever there shail be two or Inore le.ulingio liie 

 same place, the one of prelereuce will titggar ihe 

 oiiiers. A rail road is now in progress honi Poris- 

 n)on(h, by the Roanoke, to Caariesion, A iari»e 

 seclion ot a rail road iiom Richmond to Poto- 

 mac creek, has i)een couipicied; and I think there 

 can be but liitiedoubi, ihal ma short lime, it will 

 be exiended directly to vVashington, where it vviii 

 :neel the rail roads now compleied to New York. 

 The mosi eligible connecting line irom the souiii, 

 seems to be irom the Roanoke to Richmond; i»y 

 this, the traveller to Philadelphia or I^ew Yoik 

 would touch uL Richmond, VVashmgion and Lal- 

 limore; and ii' Col. Kearney be rigut, titat land 

 travel will always be preierred to water, it settles 

 Ihe question, liat suj;posing Ihe Eastern Shore 

 rail road to be coin,jleted, ihaLtae travellers should 

 all Irom thesouin arrive at Porlsni,,uth, andtiielvvo 

 routes presen.ed, il' ihey elected the one by ihe 

 bay and peninsula, the first eigh;y-five miles would 

 be by water; when iliey arrived at the Tan-rier 

 sound, they would be greeted by a cloud of mos- 

 cheloes which would bear them company to die 

 Delaware line. They would tneretai^e on afresh 

 supply, iroiij the Delaware marslies, whose att.ich- 

 meat would remam unsnakeii till th':y atiained 

 tae high lands oi' Kent. They would let their 

 blood ueely, and the uiiibrtunaie travellers would 

 there part wiih them with as much saiislaclion as 

 the pious Eneas did with tiie harpies, m Ins jour- 

 ney to the promised land. In addition tootherdis- 

 comlbrls, the road jiasses through a dark gloomy 

 Siberian Ibrest, which no art can imjirove. 



I do not agree vviih Col. Kearney, that land tra- 

 vel will always be preierred to water. [ have not 

 much coniidence in the scheme of crossing the 

 Atlantic ocean m steamboats; but twenty years 

 has given lull confidence to steam navigation on 

 the bay. The terrible disasters from sieam cars 

 are firesh in our recollection.! I have travelled by 



both conveyances, and have always Ibund more 

 comfort and confidence in sieambuats than in 

 steam cms. A swili steamboat, will now make 

 her trip from Porismuuih to Baltin.ore in sixteen 

 hours, and if she start directly np the bay, lo 

 Frenchtown, would accomplish it in nineteen, 

 Ttie traveller, by 'his route, would perhaps lose 

 three hours from Portsmouth to Philadelphia, but 

 h.e would find full compensation in the superior 

 cnmlbris of the srearnboat, which are little hhort 

 oi a well-regnlaJed hotel. 



I do not a[)preheii(l that the Eastern Shore rail 

 road will ever proort^ss beyond the survey and lo- 

 cation; but if it should be constructed, the rust in a 

 lew vears will eat out ttie rails, ffie brambles and 

 black-jai-ks will resume pos.^ession of the site, and 

 no memorial will remain, but the statute book and 

 tax lists, which will furnish posterity with the evi- 

 dence of a million of dollars improvidently granted, 

 and uselessly expended. 



JEastern Shore nf Md., Feb. 4th, 183S, 



* To adopt the route which will command the most 

 transportation, and yield the most profitable dividends, is 

 a consideration of stih more importance than choosiiio- 

 the "best and most practicable route" for a railway. — 



Ed. Far. Reg. 



t The disasters which have occurred on several rail- 

 roads have been terrible indeed. But in every case, 

 so far as we have been informed, the killing- or maim- 

 ino; of passengers has been caused by gross neglect, 

 or inexcusable arrangements for the conducting of the 

 train, and might, by proper care, have been entirely 

 avoided. Let then the blame be hiid where it is due, 

 and not charged, as it has improperly been, to acci- 

 dents necessarily and unavoidably attendant on rail- 

 way travelling. The meeting and awful collision of 

 two trains might even had occurred, as on the Ports- 

 mouth and Roanoke railway — or the engine and five or 

 six of the nearest cars might have been precipitated 



ON H1LI--SIDE niTCHKS. 



Tntlie Editor of the Farme's' Register. 



Ij roxonsvilh, February Is/, 1838. 



The proce.=;s of draining hiil-sides of the water 

 which falls upon ihem. so as to prevent washin<r, 

 is one of deep interest to every cnltivafor. The 

 wretched appearance of our exhausted lands, pre- 

 senting an alternation ofL^ullies and broom-sedire, 

 and the damaore done to the adjacent low landg 



from a hi<jh bank; (although both these acijidents might 

 have been easily guarded against,) and yet no passen- 

 gers would have been hurt, if they had been placed in 

 the rear instead of in front of the heavy burden cars — 

 which, instead of themselves receiving and sustaining 

 the shock, served, by their momentum, to rush upon 

 and crush the frail coaches, which were so improperly 

 placed ahead, when the trains were suddenly stop- 

 ped. This improper arrangement has since been cor- 

 rected on the Portsmouth and Roanoke rail- road, as it 

 ought to have been long before. 



It is impossible that any kind of travelHng can be 

 secured from every possible accident. But if expe- 

 rience can be relied on to furnish evidence, it may be 

 safely assumed that a well-managed railway is the 

 safest mode of travelling, next to well-managed river 

 {not Atlantic or Chesapeake.) steam vessels. 



On the railway from Petersburg to the Roanoke, 

 (sixty miles in length) there have been conveyed 

 largely above 100,000 passengers, since 1834, when its 

 use was commenced; and of the wbole number, not 

 one has been killed or maimed, or even seriously hurt, 

 loho was in his proper place, in a coach for passengers. 

 The few cases of maiming and death, or serious hurts, 

 which have occurred, were either of the conductors or 

 other agents of the train, who were on the locomotive 

 engine, or of others in exposed situations — and never of 

 passengers, when in their proper places. If these 

 facts do not prove that the rail-road furnishes a very 

 safe mode of travelling, we are at a loss to know what 

 kind and amount of evidence would suffice lor that 

 purpose. — Ed. Far. Reg. 



