204 



INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT 



The Petersburg (Va.) Rail-road Company, we ob- ' 

 serve, are making preparations for an active and vig- 

 orous prosecution of their work in the ensuing spring. 

 They have invited proposals lor furnishing the vequi- 

 site limber for six sections of the Road, often miles 

 each. 



South CaroZin«.— About six miles of the Rail road 

 leading from Charleston are completed and the work 

 is in rapid progress. The papers announce the arri- 

 val of a locomotive engine, made in New York. As 

 soon as a section of the Road is finished it is brought 

 into operation for the passage of coaches. 



Iieniucky. — The engineers of the Lexington and 

 Ohio ll^tl Road are engaged in the surveys of the 

 rout of the road. The result, so far as they have ad- 

 vanced, shows that the country is peculiarly favora- 

 ble for the construction of the work. 



Delaware. — The New Castle and Frenchtown Rail 

 Road Company have the whole of their line under 

 contract for graduation. The Camden & Amboy Rail 

 road Company have invited proposals for furnishing 

 30,000 stone blocks for the construction of that road. 

 The road has been commenced at Camden. 



Munjland. — The First Division of thirteen miles 

 of the Baltimore and Ohio Railway continues to be 

 kept in active and profitable operation by the numer- 

 ous visiters, citizens, and strangers from all parts of 

 the country, who are daily making excursions on it. 

 The various parts of the unfinished lines are advan- 

 cing with a steady progress, and will soon contribute 

 their share of interest and productiveness to the gen- 

 eral undertaking.— BaWimoT-c Chronicle. 



The Schuylkill Valley Rail Road which has been 

 in full operation the greater part of the present sea- 

 son commences at Port Carbon, and terminates at 

 Tuscarora, a distance often mites. There are also 

 ISlateral Rail Roads intersecting it, the distances of 

 which combined, will amount to about ten miles. 

 The main branch cost .$53,000, and the laterals, we 

 presume, about $20,000. 



The Mill Creek Rail Read (which has also been 

 in operation the present season) commences at Port 

 Carbon, and extends up Mill Creek four miles. This 

 road cost about $14,000. There are about three miles 

 of lateral road intersecting the main branch, which 

 cost about $2000 per mile. 



The West Branch Rail Road (one track of which 

 is now in operation) commences at Schuylkill Haven 

 and terminates at the foot of the Broad Mountain.— 

 The length of said road, including thd West Branch 

 ■will be 15 miles, and will cost upwards of $150,000. 

 There are also aboutfive miles of lateral roads inter- 

 secting it, the average cost of which will be about 

 ^QOOO'per mile. 



The Mount Carbon Rail Road commences at Mount 

 Carbon, and extends up the two branches of the Nor- 

 wcfian, a distance of nine miles, which will cost 

 about .«UOO,000. A number of lateral roads on this 

 have also been commenced. 



RECAPITULATION. 



, Jdiles. Cost. 



Schuylkill Valley Road 

 Laterals intersecting do 

 Mill Creek Road 

 Laterals intersecting do 

 West Branch Road 

 Laterals intersecting do 

 Mount Carbon Pi,oad 



Total 50 $355,000 



Mass. Journal. 



The following Rail Roads have been commenced 

 in this county : 



The Pinegrove Rail Road, which extends from the 

 Mines to the Swatara feeder, a distance of five miles. 

 This road will cost about $30,000, and be completed 

 early next season. 



The little Schuylkill Rail Road commences at 

 Port Clinton, and extends up said stream to the 



NE VJ- ENGLAND FARMER, 



ri'.nes, a distance of about 23 miles. This road, it is 

 expected, will be completed next season, if laid with 

 wooden rails. If iron rails should be concluded on. 

 the time for completion, of course, must be extended. 

 This road, if constructed with vA'Ooden rails, will 

 probably cost $250,000 — if constructed with iron 

 rails, about .f 400,000. Making 84 miles of Rail road, 

 at an expense of j;i635,000. 



All the above Rail Roads have been commenced 

 within the last two years, and when completed will 

 yield a fair per cuntage on the capital invested. — 

 Miner''s Journal. 



' The state of Ohio is already deriving great ad- 

 vantages from her canal. It has been opened for 

 navigation since July last. A Rochester, N. Y. 

 paper, says that !JOO,000 bushels of wheat had 

 been received from Ohio — they pay from ninety 

 to niueiysix cents per busliel — their mills make 

 2,000, and can make 3,000 barrels of flour per 

 day. In twenty days, $50,000 in cash was sent 

 into Ohio for produce.' 



The foregoing paragraph is taken from an east- 

 ern paper, and shows practically the influence of 

 the canal, on the prosperity of our state. Tije 

 price of wheat we are informed is, in the interior 

 counties near the canal, nearly double what could 

 be given for it without the advantage of canal 

 transportation. It will therefore readily be per- 

 ceived, that, from the immense quantities of pro- 

 duce which our state affords, the additional price 

 which it noW commands will, in a very short 

 period of time, increase the wealth of the state, — 

 of the farmers — to an extent far beyond the cost 

 of the canals. Practical demonstration is thus 

 given, of the wisdom of the j)olicy which dictated 

 the construction of these works; and when they 

 are completed, and the tolls become as productive 

 as they must necessarily become, the revenue they 

 will yield must remove all jiretext for complaint 

 respecting the canal policy. 



We have been informed of an advantage that 

 the adoption of this system of policy has produced 

 to the state, which never entered into the calcula- 

 tions of its friends. It is said that a number of 

 farmers have been induced to sell their farms and 

 leave the state in order to avoid the payment of 

 canal taxes. It is a decided advantage to any com- 

 munity, to be relieved of such stupid, wrong headed 

 men, as will not consent to bear a portion of the ex- 

 pense necessary forthe general improvement of the 

 country, when, like that of the improvement of 

 their farms, it brings tenfold advantages to them. 

 The places of such men, will always be supplied by 

 more valuable, useful and intelligent citizens. 



Western Tiller. 



Jan. 14, 1831. 



pregnated with the usual animal and ve 

 matters, displayed their deleterious effect both o 

 fruit trees and culinary vegetables, not less than i 

 the chrysanthemum pots. The gardener finding h: 

 fruit trees not to thrive so well as he expected, bu 

 attributing it to a different cause, took up a num 

 ber of them, and formed a substratum of ashes i 

 order to lay them, as he said, dry and comfortable 

 The trees got worse, and were again taken up an^ 

 tlie ashes removed ; but such were the deleteriou ifli 

 effects of the ashes already worked into the soi 

 that this garden which previously was, and now ii 

 one of the most productive in Scotland, was tw 

 or three years before even moderate crops could b 

 aised. ijl 



iBt 



COAL ASHES. 



The Gardener's Magazine says, it does not seem 

 to be generally known among gardeners, that cin- 

 ders, whether large or small, are injurious to the 

 roots of many if not of most vegetables. A few 

 days agoin shifting a few roots of chrysanthemums, 

 we observed souje of the plants looking much less 

 healthy than others. On turning the unhealthy 

 plants out of the pot, we found that instead of 

 potsherds a large handful of pitcoal cinders had 

 been used for draining them. On turning out the 

 healthy plants, potsherds had been employed as 

 usual and the roots were matted about them, while 

 no roots had penetrated among the cinders. On 

 directing the attention of a horticultural friend to the 

 circum.stance, he related the case of a large gar- 

 den in Scotland which had been manured or coaled 

 over with coal ashes from a neighboring town for 

 two years in succession ; which ashes though im- 



^; 



Warming Hooses. — There is much popula: 

 ignorance prevailing on the subject of warmini 

 and ventilating houses both among the Englis. 

 and Anglo-Americans. One would have though 

 that the advice and experiments of such men ai 

 Franklin and Rumford would have dispelled th^ 

 illusions about people being more liable to catc, 

 c:old when a regular and uniform heat is kept m 

 in their apartments, than when these are traversed 

 liy currents from doors, windows, and every crevica 

 all rushing towards an open fire. But prejudica m, 

 are hard to be overcome — the more so indeeqf 

 the more beneficial their abandonment. If 

 were really made hardier, and acquired exemptio: 

 from the complaints so common in our variabll 

 climate, during the autumn, winter and sprin(| 

 months, by the common practices of using opeii 

 fires, — single windows and doors, we might givrl 

 up the comfort of the opposition ))!an : but n» 

 such good follows our exposure: no frame, hoW 

 ever vigorous, is exempt from the assaults 



streams of cold air in our houses This is ndl 



however, a matter df theory, or to be argued froi 

 individual experience. — National usage, 

 coldest climates in Europe, is decisive on tl 

 point. The Russians, Finlanders, and Swedes, 

 all classes, are not ashamed to keep up nearljij 

 summer heat in their houses during the wini 

 month.« — they have no fears of being call 

 eftiiunnate. On the contrary, allege, that in sail; 

 ing out from their houses into the external frost; 

 air^ they are able to bear and even enjoy this kiiK 

 of exposure, or air-b<ath, the better from thei 

 previous warmth — precisely for the same reasoi 

 that a person with a vigorous circulation of tht 

 blood, and hot skin, is better enabled to bear thi 

 shock of a cold bath. In the opposite circum 

 stances, of immersion in cold air or cold water 

 when a person is chilly and with pale sl;iu, a' 

 when coming out from a cold room and imjici iect 

 ly clad, he will suffer greatly, and be less able h 

 resist the secondary and morbid effects of cold 

 Rumford declares that, notwithstanding his firs 

 prejudice against stove heat, he found, from as 

 experience of twelve years' residence in GermaBjl 

 not only that warm rooms were inore comfortabW 

 in winter, but also certainly tended to the preser»»( 

 tiou of health. — Journal of Health. 



THE DARK DAY'. 



Hon. Wheeler Martin has favored the editor of Ai 

 Providence Subaltern with the following recollectionili 

 the Dark Day in 1780. ■>< 



The dark day was on the 19th of May, 1780; 

 where I resided at that time ; the darkness at 11 

 o'clock was so great, that a candle was lighted and 

 placed upon the table; — the fowls went to roost; 

 — the sheep all huddled around in a circle, with 



