58 AX AMERICAN FARMER IX EXGLAXD. 



passengers by a narrow gang-plank ; and yet she makes her trip 

 once in ten minutes. There would not be room enough on her 

 decks for one of our Rockaways to stand, and she seemed to have 

 no idea of ferrying any thing but foot-passengers. What would 

 the good people of Birkenhead think of a Fulton ferry-boat, with 

 its long, light, and airy rooms, their floors level with the street, 

 and broad carriage-roads from stem to stern, crossing and re- 

 crossing without turning round, or ever a word of command, or a 

 rope lifted from morning till evening and from evening till morn- 

 ing ? The length of the ferry is about the same as the South 

 Ferry of Brooklyn, and the fare one penny. 



Birkenhead is the most important suburb of Liverpool, having 

 the same relation to it that Charlestown has to Boston, or Brook- 

 lyn to New York. When the first line of Liverpool packets was 

 established, there were not half a dozen houses here ; it now has 

 a population of many thousands, and is increasing with a rapidity 

 hardly paralleled in the New World. This is greatly owing to 

 the very liberal and enterprising policy of the land-owners, which 

 affords an example that might be profitably followed in the vicin- 

 ity of many of our own large towns. There are several public 

 squares, and the streets and places are broad, and well paved and 

 lighted. A considerable part of the town has been built with 

 reference to general effect, from the plans and under the direction 

 of a talented architect, GILESPIE GRAHAM. 



We received this information while crossing in the ferry-boat, 

 from a fellow-passenger, who, though a stranger, entered into 

 conversation, and answered our inquiries with a frankness and 

 courtesy that we have thus far received from every one in Eng- 

 land. By his direction, we found near the landing a square of 

 eight or ten acres, about half of it enclosed by an iron fence, and 

 laid out with tasteful masses of shrubbery (not trees) and gravel 

 walks. The houses about it stood detached, and though of the 



