copy of the Essex Gazette for April, 1771, in which it ap- 

 pears that from and after the spring months of that year, 

 three ferry-boats are to pass and repass constantl}' between 

 Beverly and Salem in place of the two that had done all 

 the carrying there before, so that, as we are assured, " by 

 this means and by the good attendance to be given, trav- 

 ellers may pass with great ease and dispatch." How 

 much of the market which Salem and Marblehead and 

 Lynn have afforded for years to the hay and root-crops 

 and garden-truck from north of Essex Bridge, from Ham- 

 ilton and Ipswich and Rowley and even beyond the Mer- 

 rimac, could have existed under these conditions, before 

 the Revolution, when the passage of Bass River was ef- 

 fected " with ease and despatch " in two or three mud- 

 scows ! Products which could only bear transportation a 

 few miles in those days because it was so costly or slow or 

 injurious, can now be sold thousands of miles from where 

 they grow — California fruits, — West Indian, — Bermuda, — 

 South American products throughout America, — New 

 York and New Jersey and Ohio apples throughout Europe, 

 — Wenham ice in India and the Orient, — Gloucester fish 

 in the Ohio Valley. 



So the farmer enjoys a wider market at the same time 

 that he endures a keener competition. He must not only 

 produce cheaply. He must reach his buyer cheaply. If 

 the distant producer, farming where land is cheap and 

 rich, can outdo him in the cost of production, he must be 

 able to reach his market with fresher products or at lower 

 freights or with more attractive varieties, or he is undone^ 

 The matter of the cheap and rapid distribution of pro- 

 ducts is quite too little studied. Coal is a good illustra- 

 tion. The value of coal as it comes out of the pit is Br 

 small fraction of what it costs us in our coal-bins, — coal 

 at the pit, if it would not bear transportation all over the 

 continent, would be almost worthless. The little village 



