AMERICAN INSTITUTE, 589 



"between canal and railroads, the obvious tendencies are strongly in favor 

 of the latter. Since the railroads came into use, no canal has been built ; 

 and with our present experience, no canal would be enlarged. 



Conveyance by railroad has steadily encroached on the business of the 

 canals. Meanwhile, the State Engineer has spent his best energies in try- 

 ing to convince the Legislature that the railroads were conveying property 

 at ruinous prices ; but, the insincerity and futility of these attempts is 

 proved by the prosperity of the railroads, and the readiness of the Legisla- 

 ture to impose discriminating and perplexing taxes on the railroads, under 

 the name of canal tolls. But the comparative economy, of the two modes 

 of conveyance, is unimportant to the prosperity of New York, so long aa 

 she has both, and so long as the friends of each are left free to render each 

 perfect. The capacity and economy of the canal will be shown when all 

 the resources of steam power, upon the boats, have been proved. And, 

 the possible extent and cheapness of railroad conveyance will not be ascer- 

 tained, until every possible economy and improvement of the most 

 complex and incomplete machine can be made. But, we can now see 

 enough of the future to know that both will be cheaper, and that either 

 can be made to perform more work than has yet been done by both. 



But the true value of railroad conveyance to New York will be found in 

 the opening of a good market for farm products, through every valley and 

 over every fertile plain in the United States. Every breadth of twenty 

 miles of fertile land can afford a single track railroad. The best lands of 

 Illinois (and almost all the lands of Illinois), are now, at an average dis- 

 tance of not more than twelve miles from a rail track, and a rail track is a 

 market anywhere, on this continent. For, while the value of farm pro- 

 ducts is exhausted by cartage of a short distance, it maybe safely assumed, 

 that the matured products of the cornfield, the stall and the dairy, can be 

 brought one thousand miles by rail for about ten per cent, of the value. 



The waters of our rivers, canals and lakes, brought a market, during 

 half of the year within twelve miles of less than a twentieth part of the 

 fertile lands of this continent ; but the railroads will bring a market dur- 

 ing the whole year within an average of five miles of every fertile farm on 

 the continent ; and the farmer will be at one end of that market, and New 

 York at the other end. The result is not uncertain. It may be delayed 

 by wars or by unwise legislation, but the checks will be temporary, and 

 the end sure. 



No such field of prosperous farm labor was ever before opened on this 

 earth, and therefore, New York will rapidly become the first commercial 

 city of the earth. 



The tropical products of this continent are more various, more rich and 

 more accessible to cool climates, than those of Asia or Africa. Our trop- 

 ics will all be cultivated under a neighboring civilization, and to a large 

 extent by machinery. Twenty millions of English capital are this year 

 passing into one of our tropical States, and all for machinery. 



The effete races of Asia and Africa will reappear in our tropics, mended 



