60 ' A»RICULTURAL MUSEUM 



While we are on this subject it may be well to state 

 some of the peculiar advantages of this undertaking, both 

 as it respects the public benefit, and the interest of the 

 Stockholders individually. 



As has been before observed, it is on the grand diago- 

 nal shortest possible route from Philadelj)hia to Lake 

 Erie, intersecting the Susquehanna below the conflu- 

 ence of the east and west branches, and is believed to af- 

 ford the easiest practicable route to Pittsburg. It there- 

 fore w^ill accommodate, more eft'ectually than any other 

 can do, the whole of our State Territory, drawing to it- 

 self, by branches, northeastw^ai d, and by the eastern 

 branch of the Susquehanna, most of the produce which 

 our brethren of New York and Jersey have, by antici- 

 pation, already appropriated to their own use, from the 

 counties of Wayne and Luzerne, and the neighboui wg 

 parts of New York State ; in its direct route, progres- 

 sively to the Lakes, and by the west branch, accommo- 

 dating Northumberland, Lycoming, Tyoga, Butler, 

 M'Kean, Warren, Erie, Crawford, Jefferson, Clearfield 

 and Centre counties, and by a branch southwestwardly 

 to Pittsburg, which is contemplated through Aarons- 

 burg, drawing the trade from the southwest corner of 

 the state, from the sphere of Baltimorean influence, and 

 fixing it with its ancient and best friends on the banks of 

 the Delaware. 



Thus much respecting the general effect of complet- 

 ing this grand chain of communication, this Bond of State 

 harmony and prosperity : As rc-pects the interest of the 

 Stockholders^ in the small connecting link now proposed 

 from Perkiomen to Reading, an actual experiment has 

 been made b}' a Toll Biidge over the Manatawny, 

 which, on an average of three years, n rated a sum a- 

 mounting to more than six per cent on the average cost 

 of any five miles of the road, taking at one third n^ore 

 than the actual cost of the Downingston and Euphrata 

 Turnpike. — Judges who have a knowledge of both routes 

 think it will not cost so much. 



