3 od THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



The result to the farmers was a harder blow to bear. Eeal estate 

 value shrank to less than was paid for land forty years before. Central 

 New York was the great wheat-growing region of the state, but by the 

 rapidly moving freight of the railways they were unable to compete 

 with the western wheat. This lost crop was so nearly total that they 

 ceased to grow enough for their own mills. It appears as though they 

 ought to have had business foresight to realize the value of the lateral 

 canals as coal carriers. It was for this purpose that these canals were 

 built. 



They awoke from their dream of small economy to find themselves 

 in the grasp of the great octopus of the coal roads, which for thirty- 

 five years has been growing more exacting and oppressive. Through- 

 out this region these roads are not only drawing the coal, but by their 

 own agents they are delivering it at the door of the consumer. 



"We have been laying this upon the farmer and the people directly 

 interested in maintaining these canals, and justly. There never was a 

 moment when the mass of voters in this republican stronghold could 

 not have dominated the situation. It was the old time-worn adage 

 of a fool and his folly. He has not the negative merit of holding his 

 tongue after he has committed the error. Utica, which could have 

 saved the Shenango Canal, petitioned the state engineer's office and the 

 canal board for the rebuilding of the canal as a coal carrier only a 

 year ago. It was a childish effort and they awoke from the calm 

 repose to find that their fair city was simply reduced to a state of mind 

 and the real Utica was the Lackawanna road. 



Before the Erie Canal was a practical waterway the people were 

 keenly alive to the value of the lakes as commercial waterways. The 

 earliest steamboat navigation as a well-developed enterprise upon in- 

 land waters was opened in the New York lake region. Upon three 

 of the lakes — Cayuga, Seneca and Keuka — steam navigation appeared 

 in 1820. The people were roused to enthusiasm. The first boats 

 made their landings amid the shouts of the multitude, volleys of 

 musketry and salvos of cannon. Gradually the steamboat service was 

 extended until in 1827 steamboats were a general thing upon the 

 lakes. Many years previous to this sloop navigation was resorted to 

 for both freight and passengers. The first began regular trading trips 

 in 1795 and gradually this form of navigation was extended over all 

 the lakes. 



The Erie Canal found abundant supplies of freight and passengers 

 waiting when it passed through this region of the lateral canals. As 

 a method of commercial interchange they never paid; whatever we 

 may think about the ethics of the state making money off the people's 

 enterprise, there was no question about its rights as late as 1873. 

 Neither was aDy money lost until the people followed like a flock 



