STATE OF THE MECHANIC ARTS. 301 



amounts to nearly two millions of dollars. A part of this 

 fund is employed by the state, and another part of it is loan- 

 ed to individuals. The interest of this fund, in both cases, is 

 guaranteed by the state to be punctually paid. By care and 

 good management, this fund may be increased to five millions 

 of dollars within a few years. In many instances, the schools 

 throughout the state are very well conducted, but in other 

 cases they are not managed as they should be. On the Avhole, 

 though, better school houses every where appear, and the 

 teachers are better ones than we had a {ew years since. This 

 is encouraging. 



STATE OF THE MECHANIC ARTS. 



These are improving rapidly. The construction of our ca- 

 nals taught our people the art of cutting stone and laying 

 them; the art of bridge building, and of erecting dams on our 

 streams. Had our canals done us no other benefit, this would 

 have been of great advantage to us. So of the construction 

 of the Cumberland road across this state. The able engineers 

 which the government has sent here, have taught our people 

 how to construct roads. 



In the construction of houses of all sorts, our house build- 

 ers have greatly improved of late years. 



In Cincinnati these builders of houses, vie with their eas- 

 tern instructors, in all that is useful or ornamental in their 

 art. Our cabinet furniture, too, now equals that made in the 

 eastern cities, from whence our mechanics came. The brick- 

 maker, brick layer, house carpenter and joiner, sometimes 

 unite, buy some lots in a new town, and all join and build 

 row after row, of elegant houses and stores. The merchant 

 and mechanic follow them, and fill the houses with goods, 

 families and mechanic tools. The farmers settle around them, 

 and town and country flourish as if by enchantment, where 

 the forest stood a very few years before. 



