S38 



NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



from the hands of the eastern farmer, a loss which can only be 

 regained by the development to the fullest extent of the manufac- 

 turing industries of New York, thus making a home market for 

 farm products that can not be transported a long distance, such 

 as garden truck and small fruits. The people of the State of New 

 York can purchase the western breadstuffs as cheaply as they 

 can be produced at home, and this condition is likely to continue 

 indefinitely. 



The long supremacy of the navigation interests has led to the 

 incorporation in the law, jurisprudence, and public policy of this 

 State of certain rules of action as to the right to use the water 

 of inland streams, which have tended to discourage the full devel- 

 opment of manufacturing interests which now appears desirable, 

 although the writer views with satisfaction the rapid change of 

 public sentiment now taking place on these questions. That 

 manufacturing industries by waterpower are rapidly increasing 

 in the State is made sufficiently clear by the following statistics : 



According to the United States censuses of 1870 and 1880 the 

 total developed waterpower of the State of New York was, in 

 1870, 208,256 horsepower; in 1880, 219,348. horsepower ; increase 

 in the ten years, 11,092 horsepower. The increase in ten years of 

 11,092 horsepower is equivalent to an increase of 5.4 per cent. 

 The United States census of 1890 did not include any statistics of 

 waterpower, and it is impossible therefore to state definitely the 

 horsepower in that year ; according to the returns of the Twelfth 

 Census (1900) there was over 368,000 horsepower in the State 

 of New York. 1 The manufacture of mechanical wood pulp alone 

 consumes nearly 125,000 gross horsepower. These figures, while 

 very suggestive as to the future, are nevertheless rendered more 

 pertinent by considering that with full development of the water- 

 storage possibilities of the State, as well as the possibilities of 

 power development on the Niagara and St Lawrence rivers, we 

 may hope ultimately to reach a waterpower development in 

 New York something like the following: 



Gross horse- 

 power 



Streams tributary to Lake Erie. . . 

 Niagara river (in New York State) 

 Oenesee river and tributaries 



3,000 



350,000 



65,000 



l See statements on p. 570. 



