PHTf?ICAL AND CLIMATIC SETTING 35 



1828; the Chenango Canal, connecting the Mohawk 

 Eiver at Utica with the Susquehanna Eiver at Bing- 

 hamton, completed in 1837; and several shorter 

 canals acting as feeders between the Erie Canal sys- 

 tem and the river systems on the south boundary of 

 the State. 



In the days before the advent of railroads, when 

 the country was still new, the completion of these 

 cheap means of travel and freighting were a strong 

 impetus to agricultural production and development. 

 The course of nearly all the canals is now paralleled 

 by railroads, some of which follow the old tow-path of 

 the canal. By their mobility, speed and the possi- 

 bility of reaching outlying sections not practicable to 

 be reached by water routes, the railroads have largely 

 supplanted the canal systems and give better and 

 more complete service for any but the most heavy and 

 slow-moving freight, such as lumber, grain, ore and 

 fuel. 



A glance at any modern map of the State will 

 show the extent and the general position of the rail- 

 roads. In 1915 there were 8550 miles of steam road 

 and 5000 miles of electric road. The great part of 

 this mileage is coordinated into a half dozen great 

 systems of regional or transcontinental spread. 

 Thereby, through travel is greatly facilitated. The 

 real course and position of these roads is not so ap- 

 parent from the ordinary map. The topography of 

 the State has exerted a large effect on them and has 

 given to one place and taken from another where 

 their natural advantages were otherwise equal. 



