Ten Days in Ohio. 241 



are produced, and iu early days, before the rich prairies were redu- 

 ced by successive crops, one hundred bushels of corn per acre, were 

 not uncommon. By the rich farmers, cultivation is carried on in 

 a style and grandeur proportionate to the exuberance of the crops. 

 Fields of one hundred acres of wheat, or of corn, are often seen, and 

 frequently they are extended to three or four hundred. A few years 

 since when wheat commanded a dollar per bushel, a rich farmer on 

 the Pickaway plains, cultivated one thousand acres in a single field, 

 which when undulating under a gentle breeze, might not unaptly be 

 called an ocean of verdure. In all the counties bordering on the 

 canal, there has since it was opened, been an increase in the value of 

 wheat of from ten to fifteen cents per bushel, and so of many other 

 articles ; the canal giving them the advantage of the New York 

 markets, whereas before, they had only that of the Mississippi. 



Canals. 



For so young a state, Ohio may be considered one of the most 

 enterprising of the united family. Her canals cover an extent of 

 four hundred miles, and have been constructed at an expense of more 

 than five millions of dollars. The main canal stretching from Lake 

 Erie to the Ohio river, passes through some of the most fertile portions 

 of the State, and completes the line of water communication between 

 the Hudson and the Mississippi. It is three hundred and eight miles 

 in length, forming a strong link in that chain of turnpikes and canals, 

 which, like so many ligaments serve to bind together this fair republic, 

 composed of such repulsive materials. The Miami Canal, between 

 Dayton and Cincinnati, is sixty-six miles in length. The remainder 

 is made up of side cuts and feeders. 



The following extracts, taken from the very able and interesting 

 report of the canal commissioners, made in the winter of 1833, will 

 give a view of its route, and the region through which it passes. 



" The Ohio Canal, at its northern extremity, terminates in the 

 Cuyahoga River, on the east side, about half a mile from the junc- 

 tion of that river with Lake Erie, and at the south westerly corner 

 of the village of Cleveland. That section of the river which extends 

 from its mouth to the bridge, about three hundred yards above the 

 termination of the canal, forms the harbor, into which schooners, 

 sloops and steam-boats enter from the lake, to discharge and receive 

 their cargoes from warehouses, or meet with canal boats for the mu- 

 tual exchange of their lading. The average breadth of the river is 



Vol. XXV.—No. 2. 31 



