clxvi INTRODUCTION. 



side and the Potomac on the other, the commerce between the east and west is altogether carried on 

 by way of several great arteries, which are these, viz: the Erie canal, the Oswego canal, theChamplain 

 canal, the Central railroad, the Erie railroad, the Pennsylvania railroad, and the Baltimore and Ohio 

 railroad. There are no other great channels of conveyance between the east and the west, and in fact 

 no other routes appear practicable. However large an amount of product or merchandise may be carried 

 by the lakes, it must be shipped to or from Buffalo, Oswego, or Ogdensburg. However multiplied 

 may be the routes by rail or canal, by which products may arrive at Buffalo, Pittsburg, Wheeling, or 

 Parkcrsburg, all the freights carried over them going east must pass over these great routes. We 

 have, therefore, the means of determining accurately the relative transportation by different routes and 

 modes. The different modes are all reduced to two canals and railroads. The proportion of tonnage 

 on these several lines of conveyance, as reported in 1862, was as follows: 



CANALS. 



Tons. 



Erie canal 2, 500, 762 



Oswego canal 852, 920 



Champlain canal 650, 000 



Aggregate 4, 003, 682 



But, we must observe that the Oswego canal joins to the Erie canal, and its tonnage, arriving at 

 or leaving Albany, is included in that of the Erie canal. In fact, the tonnage of the canals, which is 

 counted at Albany, is only that of the Erie and the Champlain, and of the latter but a small portion 

 goes to or from the west. We have at the utmost, then, the carriage on canals between the Atlantic 

 cities and the west of 3,150,000 tons. 



RAILROADS. 



Tons in 18fi2. 



Pennsylvania railroad 1, 792, 064 



Erie railroad 1, 632, 955 



New York Cer ral railroad 1, 387, 433 



Baltimore and Ohio (estimated) 1, 200, 000 



Aggregate tonnage of these lines 6,018, 452 



We observe that in 1862 the tonnage of the six great arterial lines of transportation between the 

 east and west amounted to over nine millions of tons, of which only one-third were carried by water. 

 We must recollect that this was the case when the Erie canal of New York had been enlarged and 

 refitted with the express purpose of transporting the products of the west, and was supplied with 

 five thousand canal-boats. It is evident, therefore, that railroads not only carry two-thirds of the 

 freights to and from the west at the present time, but that such is the rapid increase of western pro 

 ducts, and the surplus carried to Atlantic or foreign markets, that the time is near when all that can be 

 carried by water will be but a small proportion of the whole. The transportation by wagons is no 

 longer possible to carry the surplus products of the interior States to either foreign or domestic markets. 

 In fine, in the absence of railways the cultivation of grain beyond the immediate wants of the people 

 must cease, or the surplus perish in the fields. Such was exactly the state of things rn the west 

 before the general introduction of railroads. The great grain-fields of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and 

 beyond the Mississippi, have been mainly cultivated because railroads made their products marketable 

 and profitable. In one word, railroads did what could not have been done without them. 



2. Railroads secured to the producer very nearly the prices of the Atlantic markets, which was 

 greatly in advance of any price which could possibly be obtained in western markets. It might be 

 s-upposed that if the carriage of a bushel of grain from Sandusky to New York was reduced from forty 

 cents a bushel to twenty cents, the gain of twenty cents would inure, in part at least, to the consumer; 

 but experience shows this is not the fact. This gain of twenty cents inures to the producer. In proof 



