INTRODUCTION. clxv 



Number of horses employed in agriculture and for other purposes in the five great Stales of the wst : 



In these five States there have been constructed since 1850 nearly nine thousand miles of railroad; 

 and yet there we find this extraordinary increase in the number of horses. We do not present this as 

 evidence that the construction of railroads necessarily augments the demand therefor, and therefore 

 increases the number of horses, although we have no doubt that such is the case ; but simply to show 

 that railroads have not diminished one of the great elements in competing means of transportation. It 

 must be recollected that only forty years ago the only means of transporting goods and products between 

 the eastern and western .States was by wagons, and that the business of transportation in this way was 

 as much a business, on relatively as large a scale, as that of transportation by canal and railway is now. 

 The first great change in this mode of transportation was by the New York and Pennsylvania canal ; 

 but the whole business of the canals in the first years of their introduction was small in comparison \vii h 

 that of the railroads now. Hence it seemed that railroads must diminish the number and importance 

 of horses, but such was not the fact ; and we shall see in this, as in the ease of all animals, that rail 

 roads tend to increase their number and value. This is now an established principle, which we sh;ill 

 illustrate in regard to other domestic animals. 



Although but slightly connected with the interests of agriculture, we may here state another fact, 

 that since the introduction of railroads, the building and employment of stcunboats on our interior 

 rivers have also increased largely, so that, even where railroads have competed directly with them, the 

 steamboat interest has continued to increase in value and importance. This has not been always, we 

 admit, in direct proportion to the growth of the country, but enough to show that, even where competi 

 tion was greatest, this interest has not been injuriously affected. More than double the number of 

 steamers were built on the waters of the interior west in 1861 than were in 1850. 



We advance these facts, not so much to show the direct and positive influence of railroads on agri 

 culture, as to show that there is no interest of agriculture and commerce that railroads have injured, 

 even, when upon the most plausible theories, such results were anticipated. 



We now proceed to show the positive advantages which all departments of agriculture have 

 derived from the construction of railroads. So great are their benefits that, if the entire cost of 

 railroads between the Atlantic and western States had been levied on the farmers of the central 

 west^ their proprietors could have paid it and been immensely the gainers. This proposition will be 

 come evident if we look at the modes in which railroads have been beneficial, especially in the grain- 

 growing States. These modes are, first, in doing what could not have been effected without them ; 

 second, in securing to the producer very nearly the prices of the Atlantic markets, which is greatly in 

 advance of what could have been had on his farm; and, third, by thus enabling the producer to dispose 

 of his products at the best prices at all times, and to increase rapidly both the settlement and the 

 annual production of the interior States. A moment s reference to the statistics of internal commerce 

 will illustrate these effects so that we can see the vast results which railroads have produced on the 

 wealth and production of the country. 



1. If we examine the routes and tonnage of the trade between the Atlantic cities and the central 

 western States, we shall find some general results which will prove the utter incapacity of all other 

 modes of conveyance to carry on that trade without the aid of railroads. Between Lake Erie on one 



