FARMERS' REGISTER. 



421 



iomac, the James River, the Roanoke, ihe Santee, 

 the Savannah, the AUamaha. The Alle^'any 

 niouniains, wliich are called ihe back bone of ihe 

 Uniied Srates, on account ofiheir (brni lengihened 

 oui regularly wiih the continent, consiiiule a na- 

 tural separalion between the two great interior 

 hasins, ami the system oT lesser bafins on the At- 

 lantic coasi. 



"This in;mensc country may likewise he divid- 

 ed into north and south. It has two conmicrcial 

 capitals, New York and New Orleans, which are 

 as the two lungs of this great body, the two gal- 

 vanic poles of the system. Between these two 

 divisions, the north and south, there exitt radical 

 diH'erences in their political condition and habits ol 

 hie. The social edifice of the south is jiiunded oii 

 slavery, that of the north on universal sutlrage. 

 The south is an immense cotton plantation, with 

 Bomc other products, such as tobacco, sugar, and 

 rice. The north acts as the commission merchant 

 of the south, in selling its products, and procuring 

 those of Europe ibr it; as its mariner, in carrying 

 its cotton across the ocean ; its manufacturer, ibr 

 nil household and agricultural utensils, cotton 

 gins, steam engines Ibr making sugar, furniture, 

 and stuH's, and all objects of every day use. It 

 supplies the south also with flour and salted 

 meats. 



" It follows from the above, that in the United 

 States great public works must have Ibr their 

 objects, 



"First. To bind the shore of the Atlantic 

 with the country west ol the Alleirany ; that is to 

 say, to connect rivers, such as the Hudson, the 

 Susquehannah, the Potomac, the James river, or 

 bays, such as the Delaware or the Chesapeake, 

 either with the JVlississippi, or its tributary the 

 Ohio, or with the St. Lawrence, or the great lakes 

 Erie and Ontario, whose waters are conveyed by 

 the St, Lawrence into the sea. 



"Second. To establish communications be- 

 tween the valley of the Mississppi and that of the 

 St. Lawrence, that is to say, between one of the 

 great tributaries of the Mississippi, such as the 

 Ohio, the Illinois, or the Wabash, and Lake Erie, 

 or Lake Michigan, which lakes of all those which 

 have an outlet by the St. Lawrence, extend far- 

 thest south. 



" Third. To connect the north and south poles 

 of the Union, New York and New Orleans. 



"Independently of these great systems of public 

 works, which are in progress of construction, and 

 even in part executed, there exist secondary groups 

 of lines of transportation, having Ibr objects either 

 to facilitate the access to centres of consumption, 

 or to open outlets to certain centres of production. 

 The first of this class of cases embraces different 

 works, canals or rail-roads, which leave the great 

 cities as centres, and radiate in different direction;: 

 around them. The second comprises such works 

 as have been executed to bring into market dil- 

 ferent coal fields." 



Mr. Chevalier proceeds to inform ue how far 

 these objects have been carried out, and gives us 

 in minute detail, an account of the ilifferent lines 

 of communication executed and in progress at the 

 time of the publication, of his pamphlet. Few 

 Americans are, we believe, fully aware of all that 

 has been done in our country, and all may read 

 the clear and comprehensive digest of Mr. Che- 

 valier v.'ith profit. He shovvs that lines of im- 



provement have been executed, or are in progrese, 

 to connect most of the lesser basins of the rivers 

 flowing into the Atlantic vvith the two great inte- 

 rior basins west of the mountains. All ol' these 

 hues of communication, with the exceplioti of the 

 ginat canal of New York, are entirely or in part 

 by rail-road; the Pennsylvania and Virginia lines 

 of improvement, embracing that mode in part, 

 whilst the New York and Erie rail-road, the Bal- 

 timore and Ohio rail-road, and the proposed com- 

 munications in South Carolina and Georgia, look 

 to the rail-road system of improvement through- 

 out. The elevation and character olihe Allegany 

 range, beinif generally without any table larid Irom 

 which reservoirs can be supplied, makes this the 

 only mode of traversing ii at any reasonable ex- 

 pense. 



Tliere is, however, no doubt, that for the bulky 

 transportation between the west and east, rail-roads 

 of any profile which can be had across the Al- 

 leghany, promise results by no means commen- 

 surate with what may be expected fiom them 

 under advantageous circumstances. Moderate 

 elevations on a rail-road, to be overcome by short 

 ascending and descending grades of gentle inclina- 

 tion, present no serious impediment, when the bu- 

 siness of the road (as in the case of travellers and 

 the mail) requires high velocities. At high rates 

 of speed, the whole adhesion of the engine cannot 

 be made use olj of course there can be no deficiency 

 in this respect, and but little power being required 

 in descending grades, steam is accumulated for 

 encountering the ascending, so that almost as 

 great an amount of useful etliect is thus attained 

 Irom a given power on an undulating road of 

 gentle graduation, as on a level. The case is a 

 very diHerent one, when on a long line of'rail-road 

 the ascent is a continuous one to a culminating, 

 point, whence the rail-road descends. If the as- 

 cent to be overcome is very considerable, it may 

 be surmounted either by inclined planes and sta- 

 tionary power, or by graduation, or partly on each 

 plane, but it is in any case a serious deduction 

 from the value of the rail-road, in ihe one case, by 

 the cost of keeping up stationary power, in the 

 other, by the large deduction from the usetui 

 eflect of the locomotive engine. 



The Pennsylvania line of improvement, and the 

 Baltimore and Ohio rail-road, present us illustra- 

 tions of these two modes of overcoming elevation. 

 On the fbrmer, the Allegany mountain is passed 

 by arail-ruad having ten inclined planes, kept up 

 at an annual expenditure of not less than eight 

 thousand dollars. The elevation overcome at these 

 planes is of course to that extent a necessary tax 

 on the trade between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. 

 On the Baltimore and Ohio rail-road, should the 

 trade be a large one, a much heavier tax must be 

 paid in a different form. On that line of improve- 

 ment, inclined planes will be avoided, and in place 

 of them, continuous ascending and descending 

 srrades will be adopted, both at Parr's Spring 

 Ridge and the Allegany. Tliese, it is understood, 

 are, for considerable distances, at the rate of filty 

 and sixty, and in some cases, as much as seventy 

 or eighty leet per mile. On such grades, the load 

 drawn by a locomotive will not exceed the Iburth 

 of what it would be on a level, and the cost ol' 

 transportation to the company must of course in 

 nearly the same ratio be increased. 

 The above suggestions go to show, that the cost 



