368 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. G 



we doubt not. But in what manner is Richmond 

 to put down Baliimore rivalry by adopting this 

 scheme? She may, it is true, check the growing 

 disposition ot' the people of the south-western 

 counties to connect with the Baltimore interest at 

 Staunton — but can she wrest ti'om Baltimore the 

 trade of the rich Valley of Virginia of which 

 Staunton is the centre? No. She can only se- 

 cure the trade holh of the south-west and of the 

 Valley, by a rail road on the James River route, 

 connecting with the Valley by a railway from 

 Scottsville to Staunton. 



We repeat the suggestion that it may not be 

 unimportant that Lynchburg should be represent- 

 ed at the Charlotte Convention; and we hope, 

 if our older and wiser heads think with us on this 

 subject, that measures will bs adopted to appoint 

 delegates to that body. 



From tlie Richmond Compiler. 

 WATER POWER OF UICHMOXD. 



We have been favored with the following ex- 

 tract of a letter, written by a gentleman well ac- 

 quainted with manufiicturing operations, having 

 been engaged in that capacity in Pennsylvania 

 for some time past. His opinion is entitled to 

 weight; and we submit it at this moment, in or- 

 der that it may receive the consideration it merits 

 by the James River Board, now in session. Eve- 

 ry one who has noticed our immense water power, 

 will readily admit that high as it is rated by the 

 writer, he has not made loo great an estimate. 

 Every visiter is similarly impressed, and every one 

 wonders that such splendid advantages are per- 

 mitted to lie idle. We doubt not the subject will 

 receive early and proper attention from those who 

 are now entrusted with the management of inte- 

 rests so important. 



"I took as good a view of the water power as 

 my limited time would allow ; it is a stupendous 

 power, and only requires adequate capital and 

 proper engineering to make Richmond what na- 

 ture intended she should be, one of the most ex- 

 tensive and important manufacturing points in the 

 United States. I should think that the available 

 water power at Richmond cannot be less than six 

 times that of the water power at Lowell, which at 

 present impels machinery that has cost, including 

 active capital to carry on the works, more than six 

 millions ot" dollar."^. But it is of the greatest im- 

 portance that so valuable a privilege should not be 

 cut up into petty sites. In this, the State of Vir- 

 ginia, and especially the city of Richmond, has a 

 deep interest. Measures should be taken to have 

 a large canal cut on one or both banks of the river, 

 that would command the whole fall, and distribute 

 the water in the most advantageous and desirable 

 manner, to at least fifty large manufacturing es- 

 tablishments of various kinds. The canal should 

 have a cross section at the water line of not less 

 than one hundred ^e^t, seventy feet at bottom, and 

 ten feet depth of water. If this important work 

 should not be completed at an early date, it is pro- 

 bable, indeed, certain, that in a kw years such will 

 be the number of small and conflicting establish- 

 ments, that no general and comprehensive plan 

 can be executed, by which the immense water 

 power you possess can be made available. If you 

 had such a canal as I have already indicated, and 



water power and sites were open to any one that 

 saw proper to purchase and improve them, you 

 may be assured that it would not be long before 

 Richmond would have a manufactiu'ing popula- 

 tion not far short of her present number of iniiabi- 

 tants." 



[It is indeed both surprising and lamentable that the 

 prodigious water power of Richmond has ^not been 

 more used for manufactures, and that the applications 

 (except for flour mills,) which have been made of it, 

 have not been more successful. If the scheme of the 

 writer of the above remarks, was properly carried into 

 effect, by a large canal through Manchester, tfiat now 

 decayed and dilapidated village might yet overtake 

 her flourishing neighbor, Richmond, while giving to her 

 new sources of vigor and growth. But a master mind 

 is necessary to give impulse, direction, and success, to 

 such a magnificent design. The remarkable success 

 of Petersburg in cotton manufactures, with her very in- 

 ferior advantages, compared to Richmond, is owing 

 principally to the genius and energy of one individual, 

 seconded by the confidence which he has inspired, 

 the spirit, and the enterprise of his townsmen. Dr. 

 John Y. Stockdell, as the projector and director of the 

 most valuable of these establishments, has been a ben- 

 efactor not only to Petersburg, but to Virginia and all 

 the South : and if his or similar abilities were called into 

 action to plan and direct a general system for employing 

 the far greater manufacturing power of Richmond, 

 the results might be expected to be increased in value 

 in proportion to the far greater means that could be 

 brought into oparatioa.] — Eo. Farm. Reg. 



From the Cincinnati Gazette. 



INCREASE OF TRAVEL AND TRADE ON RAIL- 

 WAYS. 



Before the Charleston and Hamburg Rail Road 

 was made, the travel between those places was 

 by stages, three times a week, and averaging about 

 four passengers each trip. Now, by rail road, an 

 average of liliy per day, making a difference of 

 more than twenty-three hundred per cent 1 



The travel between Baltimore and Washington 

 has increased, since the rail road, from less tlian 

 fifty, to two hundred and fifty per da}', or upwards 

 of four hundred per cent. The estimate is, when 

 this road is completed to the Ohio, it will average 

 at least one liundred and filty passengers per day, 

 each way ; this will be itjund to be a very low es- 

 timate. On the main stem of the Baltimore and 

 Ohio Road, so lar as made, the travel this year is 

 double what it was the last, and the freight has in- 

 creased filly per cent, in the same period. 



On the Pennsylvania Rail Road and Canal, 

 the amount of tonnage that passed oyer Iha moun- 

 tains, westward, between April 30, 1835, and 

 May 11, 1836, a period of twelve months and 

 nineteen days, was over twenty f(>ur millions of 

 pounds; during the same period,the Iransportalion 

 cast Vv'as ten millions of pounds, making an aggre- 

 gate of seventeen thousand tons ; in addition to 

 this, more than one hundred and filiy thousand 

 passengers crossed the mountains, exceeding three 

 hundred per day, and three times the number that 

 passed the preceding j'ear. 



